Black Heritage in Horror Month: An Interview with Marc L. Abbott
What inspired you to start writing?
This is always a difficult question to answer because I have always loved writing. My imagination was always running wild and growing up, rather than paying attention to lessons in class, I was writing stories in the middle of my notebooks. I used to look forward to doing creative writing with spelling words in elementary school. But my inspiration for starting to take writing seriously was in high school. I had a teacher, Mr. Dolan, who was always encouraging me to tell my stories. One open school night he told my parents “Your son is a writer and is really good at it. You should help him nurture that talent because he can go far with it.” He was one of those teachers who always believed in what I could do. I had told my parents I wanted to be a writer, and they weren’t a hundred percent behind it as a profession with my father saying that I had to be good at the craft to make it. That was before Mr. Dolan told him this news. And until I heard Mr. Dolan say this, I thought about finding something else to pursue. But he confirmed that small belief I had in myself, and it inspired me to go forward with it.
What drew you to the horror genre?
That would be my father. He introduced me to the Universal Monster movies when I was little. We would sit up on Saturday nights and watch them on PBS then have these talks about them. As I got older, he introduced me to The Twilight Zone then the edited horror movies that came on those Sunday night movies. Once I was hooked, I was off watching the slasher movies and modern 80’s creature films which he completely checked out on. But horror just fascinated me. I loved being scared. My mother, being a teacher, introduced me to Edgar Allen Poe and Bram Stoker. I really enjoyed reading those works.
How would you describe your work in 25 words or less?
I write subtle and creepy horror that stays with you long after you’ve finished it.
Do you make a conscious effort to include Black characters and/or themes in your writing and if so, what do you want to portray?
I feel that I am more conscious of it now than I was when I first started out. As I have grown as a writer, I have incorporated certain themes into my work that shine a light on multiple experiences that I would have shied away from in the past, mostly because I wanted the stories to be organic. Not preachy or throwing a bright light on a topic and screaming “This needs to be addressed”. When it comes to my characters, I have always seen them as black unless I specifically had them be of a different race. My focus on themes has often come from commissioned work. For example, I was asked to write a zombie story for an anthology called Blackened Roots. I was told they wanted something not like the Walking Dead or Living Dead lore and that caused me to look to the African voodoo religion and combine that with the middle passage slave trade. I intended that story not just to be frightening but for the reader to ask the question “Are these themes true? I should look these up” and that in turn causes a deeper delving into both my work and the history of our people.
What is one piece of craft advice you’ve gotten that has really worked for you?
Write for yourself and not what’s popular. This has stuck with me throughout my career. Even when I am commissioned to write something, I’m a little selfish because write it for my own enjoyment then I edit it for what the person wants. By writing that way, I pour more of myself into the story rather than worrying about it being scrutinized after the first draft. I can nurture the story better than when requested or needed, I can make a cleaner edit of the story.
Marc L Abbott is a Brooklyn native horror author. He is the co-author of Hell at Brooklyn Tea and the two-time African American Literary Award-winning horror anthology, Hell at the Way Station. His horror short stories are featured in the anthologies Blackened Roots, A Woman Unbecoming, Soul Scream, Even in the Grave, and the Bram Stoker-nominated horror anthologies New York State of Fright & Under Twin Suns: Alternate Histories of the Yellow Sign. His new horror novel, Sinister Ascension from Mocha Memoirs Press, is out now. He is a 2015 Moth Story Slam and Grand Slam Storyteller winner and an award-winning actor. When he is not curating workshops for the Center for Fiction, he teaches writing to students at Dr. Izquierdo Health and Science Charter School. Find out more about him at www.whoismarclabbott.com
