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 Holly Rae Garcia!
Holly Rae Garcia works full-time as the Gulf Coast Regional Photographer for a global chemical company. Growing up, she read her mother’s extensive Stephen King and True Crime collection, and a love for dark fiction with sad endings has stayed with her ever since. Holly especially loves the works of Edgar Allen Poe, Daniel Keyes, Richard Matheson, Stephen King, and Alfred Hitchcock. Her own books include Flesh Communion and Other Stories, Parachute, Come Join the Murder , and The Easton Falls Massacre: Bigfoot’s Revenge (co-written with her husband and fellow author, Ryan Prentice Garcia). Her shorter fiction has been published online and in print for various magazines and anthologies. Holly is a member of the Horror Writers Association and the Alliance of Independent Authors. She lives on the Texas Coast with her family. You can often find her reading, watching horror movies, or playing poker. More information can be found at www.HollyRaeGarcia.com
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?
Unlike most authors, I have not been writing since I was a fetus. But I have been a reader for as long as I can remember. I’ve devoured books, collected them, hauled them from house-to-house to the chagrin of my three brothers who finally screamed in exasperation, “Will someone please buy her a kindle?!” (side note: I do have a kindle and I love ebooks almost as much as paperbacks). As for writing, I would find myself criticizing a book then saying, “But they wrote a book and I didn’t, so what do I know?”. So in 2019, I wrote a book to see if I could. Readers don’t always comprehend how hard it is to actually write a book. And it is hard. I can almost hear the life-long authors laughing at me for not realizing this. But it’s also immensely gratifying and addicting. I was hooked. During that book-writing process, I participated in several short story prompt-led competitions, read interviews with authors, listened to writerly podcasts, and read everything about writing that I could get my hands on. Every new nugget of knowledge made me realize just how little I knew but also how much I loved it. Since then, it’s been a process of constant learning and working on finding my own voice. I still don’t know when I’ll feel I’ve earned the title of “author”, especially as I see hundreds around me who have been doing it decades longer (and better) than I have.
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?
I think my strength is dialogue. It’s the easiest thing for me to write, and I’m always tempted to have only-dialogue stories. But I know I have to have the other stuff. I tend to “white-room” and “under-write” my first drafts and go back afterward to add the sensory details. I keep a post-it by my computer that lists things like “Touch, Sight, Taste, Sound, Place in Room, Weather, etc” to help me remember to put at least a few of those things in each scene. Lately I’ve been looking into more plot techniques, as I still don’t know if I’m a “plotter” or a “pantser”. Every story is written differently. And maybe that’s what works for me, switching it up. Or maybe there’s a more productive way to go about it. I’ll have to let you know on that one, lol. My biggest struggle is sticking to a writing routine while working full time, reading, and still spending time with family and friends. While drafting the longer stuff, I tend to completely go off the radar and everyone in my life is very supportive and understanding of that time.
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?
I think the big publishers are sticking even closer to their known sellers and taking fewer chances on new voices. Mainstream still tends to shy away from the darker stuff. Which is what we like, I think. Horror authors like sitting on that ledge. Hell, most of them like plunging to the bottom of the crevice. They aren’t typically known for following the rules or playing the games. I think this is exactly where the genre belongs. We don’t want to water anything down to be more palatable to the masses. As for harder or easier, the battle against AI is going to keep getting rougher. Standing out, hoping readers care that we’re humans, and plugging away even if they don’t, is going to be the challenge. There are so many tools currently available to indies that weren’t twenty or thirty years ago. We can write and publish our own books and we have so many distribution and format options. I’d say it’s easier than ever for indies to publish, but maybe harder to stand out and be seen.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
I write mostly horror, with my first book (Come Join the Murder) being a psychological thriller and I’m most proud of that one. I laid it all out on the table, learning the love of writing and community with that book. It might always be my favorite. I’ve also written short stories ranging from horror westerns to cosmic horror and everything in-between (Flesh Communion and Other Stories). I have two novellas, one co-written with my husband, Ryan (The Easton Falls Massacre: Bigfoot’s Revenge,) and the other about a sort of “cursed object” with parallel universes and time traps (Parachute). Parachute, to date, has been the most fun to write.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
Come hell or high water, Ryan and I are getting Book 2 of The Easton Falls series out into the world this year. I have a few short stories coming out in anthologies and book boxes as well. I’ve started a local horror author group (Houston area) and I’m looking forward to getting to know them better and learning from them via dinners, drinks, write-ins, and anything else we can think of. It’s true that everything is bigger in Texas, and the talent here is massive.
KANDISHA PRESS 