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 Candace Nola!
Candace Nola is a multiple award-winning author, editor, and publisher. She writes poetry, horror, dark fantasy, and extreme horror content. Books include Breach, Beyond the Breach, Hank Flynn, Bishop, Earth vs The Lava Spiders, The Unicorn Killer, Unmasked, The Vet, and Desperate Wishes.
Her short stories can be found in The Baker’s Dozen anthology, Secondhand Creeps, American Cannibal, Just A Girl, The Horror Collection: Lost Edition, and Exactly the Wrong Things, and many others.
Beyond the Breach, won the “Novel of the Year” in the 2021 Horror Authors Guild awards. She is the publisher and editor of the 2022 Splatterpunk Award Winning Anthology “Uncomfortably Dark Presents: The Baker’s Dozen.” She won the 2023 Splatterpunk Award for anthology of the year for “Camp Slasher Lake, Vol. 1”, with co-editor D.W. Hitz, published by Fedowar Press. She is currently nominated for Best novella for Sirens and Seaweed as well as Editor for Best Anthology for “Uncomfortably Dark Presents Dark Disasters” for the 2024 Splatterpunk awards.
Candace is the creator of Uncomfortably Dark, which focuses primarily on promoting indie horror authors and small presses with weekly book reviews, interviews, and special features. Uncomfortably Dark Horror stands behind its mission to “bring you the best in horror, one uncomfortably dark page at a time.”
Find her on Twitter, Instagram, TikTok and Facebook and the website, UncomfortablyDark.com. Sign up for the Uncomfortably Dark Patreon for exclusive content, free stories, and more.
Website: www.uncomfortablydark.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?
Being an author is the only dream I ever really had as a child. I loved to read, I loved stories that took me away from my reality, that could allow me to escape and experience things and places that I never would be able to in real life. Where The Red Fern Grows was an important book for me, as well as Anne of Green Gables, and stories by Poe, I would say those books were the beginning of it all for me.
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?
Currently, my strengths are being open to expanding my range, trying new styles, new ideas, new tropes that push me beyond my comfort zone. I’m always reading more about the craft, seeking to learn and improve and when I struggle with something, I seek out books or advice specifically for that weakness.
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 feel like the community has its good and bad points just like any community. It’s been very welcoming to me for the most part and I do the best I can to elevate everyone around me and be as supportive as possible as many others have done with me. I still feel like I’m new at this so hard or easy is all relative. It takes work, determination, motivation, a willingness to work and to learn and to do for yourself. You cannot expect everyone around you to do it for you, if you are not willing to do it for yourself.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
I am proud of all my stories, but my most personal ones are Desperate Wishes and Unmasked, because both pushed me outside my comfort zone in a lot of ways. Desperate Wishes showcases my true voice as an author and Unmasked is my personal poetry, verses I’ve been writing for years as a personal outlet. Sharing something so deeply personal, so raw, was a scary but humbling experience as so many readers responded so kindly to the collection and thanked me for sharing it.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
For 2024, I just opened an indie publishing house under my Uncomfortably Dark brand. My self-publishing imprint will be ‘Kindness in the Dark’ and we just announced a poetry imprint as well to be named “Blood Moon” in keeping with the Uncomfortably Dark logo. The publishing house has 7 releases planned with a few others not yet announced or scheduled but will be coming later this year and early next year.
Personally, I have the second installment of Hank Flynn coming out over the summer, the third installment of Bishop: Darkness Descends, coming this spring, several collections including one from Death’s Head Press called Demon’s in my Bloodstream, and a few novellas including The Dark House and Moloch.
KANDISHA PRESS 
I love this interview with Candace Nola! 🩷🌷🌺
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Thank you! She is an amazing woman!
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