GREETINGS, BOOKWORMS! I’m Aisha Kandisha, Head Librarian at Kandisha Press. Join me in the dusty stacks of the library I will never leave again as I chat with some of my favorite Women in Horror. Today we feature author Haley Newlin!
HALEY NEWLIN grew up watching Vincent Price movies and hanging on every grim tale Lemony Snicket spun. It was no surprise when Newlin began writing her own dark fiction. Her gothic short story “The Tactics of a Cryptic Arbitrator,” was a finalist in the Penmen Review fall fiction contest. She has published two novels, Not Another Sarah Halls, and Take Your Turn, Teddy, and is working on her third, The Nowhere Man. Her short story “The Butcher on Blue Jay Way,” is featured in Kandisha Press’ SLASH-HER anthology. She also produces audiobooks, including Dark Lit Press’s Reader Beware! Newlin is also a writer for Cemetery Dance Magazine. When she’s not writing, she’s either curled up with a good book and her three doggos, or watching the latest horror film release with her boyfriend.
What made you want to become an author? Did you have an “Aha!” moment when you knew you were born to write? Or perhaps a beloved book inspired you?
I started writing as a kid. My mother, a notary, kept a file briefcase and let me keep my stories in there, too.
My twin sister, Hanna, would have panic attacks as a kid whenever it stormed, or worse, we were hit with a tornado. I began prepping comic strips about a superhero named Baby Egg to take to the basement the next time the tornado sirens sounded. Baby Egg would save his friends in the kitchen from being cooked/eaten. When we started to outgrow these stories, Baby Egg met a tragic end and fell off the counter. I never imagined I would write books and pursue an MFA until failing miserably at becoming a surgical technician like my sister.
Oddly enough, as a horror writer, I didn’t have the stomach for the medical field. Lemony Snicket’s A Series Of Unfortunate Events was the first book to inspire my writing passion and adoration of the macabre – “a word which here means disturbing or horrifying and typically involving death or injury-*cuts to a man chained to the front of a speeding train*
Ifykyk.
Then, I stumbled upon Stephen King’s It.
What do you believe are your strengths in writing? And when you feel you need to improve on a particular writing skill, how do you go about it?
Writers improve every time they read. Reading teaches us how to show vs. tell, set the stage, create dynamic characters, evoke emotion, and much more. Isabel Canas’s Vampire of El Norte taught me how to conjure a duality in monsters, always ensuring the supernatural element speaks to the horror of the world. Katrina Monroe has been an excellent source for writing alternating points of view. Caitlin Marceau’s concise, enthralling writing style in This Is Where We Talk Things Out made me revisit story
beats.
When I’m stuck or struggling with a writing project, I turn to these women who inspire
me the most.
What are your thoughts on the book industry today, or more importantly, about the book community? Do you feel it is getting harder or easier to make it as an independent author these days?
The connections I’ve found, including the women I mentioned, are incredibly special. Of course, we’ve discovered some rotten eggs, but I see more men rallying behind women each time, which is integral to the book industry. I love seeing publishers amplify women’s voices like Kandisha Press did with the
Slash-Her anthology.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
My debut novel, Not Another Sarah Halls, is a Young Adult Horror story. I am incredibly proud of the comparative titles readers have given to the book, including The Book of Cold Cases by Simone St. James.
Take Your Turn, Teddy was such a complex story to tell. I was in my early twenties and just coming to terms with some childhood trauma. It wasn’t until I wrote a few chapters, wondering where the hell that came from, and my editor said, “This feels so bleak. So real. If you experienced this, I’m sorry,” that I realized some of Teddy’s experiences came from a dark corner of my brain. One that I closed off brick by brick. I buried childhood alive as Montresor did to Fortunato.
Admittedly, I thought Take Your Turn, Teddy broke my brain. It wasn’t until a year after its release that I finally felt I could celebrate the work I put into it.
Coming out on the other side of something so painful like Take Your Turn, Teddy makes it the story I’m most proud of.
However, I am also proud of my short story, “The Butcher on Blue Jay Way,” in the Slash-Her anthology, which pays homage to one of my favorite horror stories, Sweeney Todd. And I built so much of the story from a Beatles song, “Blue Jay Way.”
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
I am writing my third novel with the working title, The Nowhere Man, a psychedelic and supernatural horror story similar to Nat Cassidy’s Mary and Carrie (which also served as a lead inspiration in Take Your Turn, Teddy). The central idea of it is “BELIEVE WOMEN.”
I’m submitting a few short stories to various anthologies and producing an audiobook for Dark Lit Press, Reader Beware!, an ode to R.L. Stine
KANDISHA PRESS 