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 Suzanne Craig-Whytock!
Award-winning writer Suzanne Craig-Whytock is the author of four previous novels, Smile, The Dome, The Seventh Devil, and The Devil You Know (Bookland Press), two short story collections, Feasting Upon The Bones and At The End Of It All, as well as the humour collection What Any Normal Person Would Do. Her short fiction and poetry have appeared in numerous literary journals, and she regularly publishes essays focused on life’s absurdities under the pen name ‘mydangblog’. She is also the Editor of DarkWinter Literary Magazine, an online journal which publishes short stories and poetry from both emerging and established writers, as well as the founder of DarkWinter Press and Baxter House Editions. Charybdis (JC Studio Press) is her fifth novel.
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’ve been writing most of my life—my first published piece was a poem in a local newspaper when I was eight years old. I think the book that first made me want to be a writer was The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle—I reread it more than once and there was something about it that made me say, “I want to do that too!” Thanks to an early start reading Stephen King beginning when I was 9, I also discovered the joys of horror. I wrote a lot during high school and university and even had a few pieces published but I put writing on the backburner for many years while I was teaching. My first novel was actually inspired by a writing exercise that I did with some of my students, and then I fleshed it out into a full Young Adult piece, Smile, which was published in 2017, followed by another YA post-apocalyptic novel The Dome. But my first love has always been dark psychological stories with a twist, and that’s what I’ve been focusing more on since I retired from teaching, leading to the Seventh Devil series, my two short story collections, Feasting Upon The Bones and At The End Of It All, and my latest novel Charybdis.
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 biggest strength is my weird imagination. I can look at a normal everyday scene and think, “But what if…?” and that’s where some of my best ideas come from. I’m also very technical—you can’t be an English teacher for over 25 years without having a solid grasp of language and usage. For me, the best way to improve my writing is to have a couple of great beta readers who’ll say, “You use this phrase too much” or “Don’t be so explicit.” Having a solid “critical friend” is key for me.
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?
Personally, I feel that in some ways it’s much easier to become an author now than it used to be. There are so many platforms that people can use to publish their own work and so many small presses like my own, DarkWinter Press and Baxter House Editions, that utilize online platforms offering print-on-demand. As a publisher, I’m willing to take on emerging writers without an extensive publishing resume or agent, and give them the opportunity to see their work in print. When I was first starting out as a writer, there were very few places to submit to and even fewer publishing slots available. Now, anyone with a great story stands an excellent chance at either being published by someone else, or doing it themselves. If the story is engaging, people will read it!
Tell us about your work. What story are you most proud of?
As someone who came relatively late to the book publishing game, I’m proud of all my work, but my latest novel, Charybdis, published by JC Studio Press in the United Kingdom, is a real departure from my earlier writing and I think that it’s one of my best pieces. Charybdis is the story of a Literature student, Greta Randall, who stumbles across a rare volume of Victorian poetry in a local antique market which may shed light on the book’s mysterious young author, Louisa Duberger, but at what peril? I had to do a lot of research into a variety of aspects of the Victorian period, and my own wonderful Aunt Margaret provided most of the poetry to help flesh out the book, so it’s kind of a family affair.
What are your upcoming works and plans for the future?
Right now, I’m working on a couple of projects. The publisher of my two short story collections recently dissolved and unpublished their titles, so at some point, I’ll be re-releasing those under Baxter House Editions, the reprint division of DarkWinter Press. I’m working on a new short story collection called Horror Market, which consists of stories that were inspired by the antique market I used to work in. And finally, there’s a project called Nomads of the Modern Wasteland, which began with three stories and which I’m planning on expanding into a full-length novel. Aside from that, my own press, DarkWinter, is extremely busy—our slots are full until summer 2025! And while I love being published myself, I absolutely thrive on publishing other fantastic writers!
KANDISHA PRESS 
Thank you so much for interviewing me!
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Horror Market sounds fantastic! I can’t wait to see what you do with all the crazy encounters you’ve had at the antiques booth!
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