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 Rowan Hill!
Rowan Hill is an Australian/American author who enjoys writing flawed women who occasionally murder and putting too many plot twists in her stories. A child of the 80s, she is never far away from making her own dark wave album, and tries to put something of all these facets into her stories. She can be found online or by visiting your local dive bar, offering a tribute of spit and blood into the ashtray and summoning her by playing ‘Love Like Blood’ on the jukebox.
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 never really experienced a moment where ‘I wanna be an author’, never a moment where I thought about writing, the profession’ and chose that. Did I want to write a story? Oh yeah, it was a hot night in June, central Ohio, staying at my granma’s spare bed while between jobs and listening to cicadas, where I thought of the whole story of a surreptitious alien invasion novel. Like a big sucker. So I guess it was a mix of ennui and desire to do something that started this whole thing off.
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?
My strengths? Oh god? Hubris here I come. Maybe the way I can crescendo an entire book to the ending? I have noticed many of my books and even a few short stories hinge on reverse engineering a plot. I can absolutely not pants an entire novel, and if I did, I’m sure I would still go back and forth after it was written to make sure the plot points align. And when I want to better myself at a particular skill, I just make sure to keep reading others who have mastered it.
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
You know, I am most proud of the several short stories that don’t go far, but win a contest or are most notable and mentioned often within an anthology. Really landing a short is very admirable. I had a flash that one the FlameTree monthly once, and is being produced by the NoSleep team right now. That was a good one. Or my entry in the Slice of Paradise anthology by Darklit Press. I went into that with the vision of JCO in Australia and think I nailed it.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
There are the trickle of shorts throughout the year but this summer I will have my first collection, No Fair Maidens From Earth to Mars, releasing with JournalStone Press. I am a little nervous as it is not a usual collection as we know it, but several stories set in the same universe where an alien invasion slowly happens over centuries.
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