NUTS & BOLTS: Interview with JG Faherty, Author and HWA Mentorship Program Manager

By Tom Joyce Horror authors are fond of setting their stories amid dark, twisty hallways full of potential perils lurking around every corner. Maybe it’s a matter of “write what you know,” because that’s how the business can feel when you’re starting out. HWA Mentorship Program manager JG Faherty understands how daunting it can be. As a prolific novelist, short-story writer, and poet, he also knows the importance of a good beta read. That’s why he volunteers to help pair beginners with more experienced authors. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, JG gives advice on topics including self-editing,…

NUTS & BOLTS: Interview with Nebula-Winner J.H. Williams III

In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, J.H. Williams III shares insights for HWA members on topics including how to successfully collaborate with other creators, and creating works for an existing franchise. J.H. Williams III’s beautifully detailed art has won him multiple awards, including a Nebula, and graced the stories of antiheroes (Jonah Hex), mainstream heroes (Batwoman), and decidedly non-mainstream heroes (Alan Moore’s Promethea.) Over a long career, he’s created significant works for DC Comics, Image Comics, Amazon, and Marvel. He’s also illustrated album covers for The Sword and Blondie. His current project, the mind-bending, multi-genre adventure Echolands, is drawing critical acclaim.

NUTS & BOLTS: Interview With Bitter Karella, Creator of The Midnight Pals

In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Bitter Karella discusses topics including personal branding, dialogue as a story-telling technique, and using humor to address serious issues. The Midnight Pals microfiction series started as a simple but inspired running gag on Twitter. Storytellers gather around a campfire a la Nickelodeon’s Are You Afraid of the Dark?, except they’re real-life horror authors past and present — Stephen King, Clive Barker, Mary Shelley, etc. Its author, Bitter Karella, has managed to find surprising depths in that premise, delivered almost entirely in dialogue. Midnight Pals features complex, interweaving storylines, recurring characters, and trenchant social commentary, all while remaining consistently hilarious. Since 2019, Midnight Pals has picked up nearly 50,000 followers on various social media platforms, attracting fans including Brian Keene, Nick Mamatas, and Neil Gaiman. Bitter Karella has picked up two Hugo Award nominations, and successfully crowd-funded three collections of the series, which is being adapted as an audio podcast.

NUTS & BOLTS: INTERVIEW WITH JOEL HODGSON, CREATOR OF MYSTERY SCIENCE THEATER 3000

By Tom Joyce Like his friend Jerry Seinfeld, Joel Hodgson was a rising comedy star in the 1980s, with appearances on Saturday Night Live and Late Night with David Letterman. Then he realized he wasn’t having any fun, and walked away from Hollywood to start a low-budget puppet show in Minneapolis. Mystery Science Theater 3000 began as a local TV oddity, distributed fan-to-fan via mailed VHS tapes. Its fan base has grown steadily over the decades, as the show picked up a Peabody Award, two Emmy nominations, and a place on Time Magazine’s list of “100 Best TV Shows of…

NUTS & BOLTS: INTERVIEW WITH NOVELIST AND HAUNTED TOUR OWNER JAN-ANDREW HENDERSON

By Tom Joyce While working as a ghost tour guide in Edinburgh, Jan-Andrew Henderson found a spot with all the makings of a real-life horror story – an eerie graveyard, a long-buried (literally) human tragedy on a grand scale, and a vicious supernatural entity called “the Mackenzie Poltergeist.” That served as the inspiration for City of the Dead Tours, which he now owns and has turned into one of the UK’s most popular haunted tours, renowned among tourists and travel writers for its mix of entertainment and historical fact. Jan-Andrew, a multiple-award-winning author and HWA member, did the research and…

Nuts & Bolts: Interview With Indie Horror Director Chris LaMartina

By Tom Joyce True to the throwback aesthetic of his 2013 indie film, WNUF Halloween Special, writer, director, and producer Chris LaMartina took a low-tech approach to promoting it. He used atypical tactics, such as leaving VHS copies lying around at conventions, in the hopes that curious attendees would take them home and pop them into their VCRs. And the approach seemingly worked for his horror-comedy–a pitch-perfect reproduction of a bootlegged VHS recording from the ’80s, complete with commercials, which depicts a local news station’s disastrous Halloween broadcast from a haunted house. WNUF gained rave reviews and a cult following…

NUTS & BOLTS: INTERVIEW WITH LINDA GOULD, CREATOR OF KAIDANKAI PODCAST

By Tom Joyce Linda Gould’s Kaidankai podcast, which she started as a project during the pandemic, is still going strong with 60,000 downloads. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Linda talks about how she found an audience and the kinds of narratives that lend themselves to a storytelling format.  Q: Can you tell us a little bit about Kaidankai and how it got started? A: What a long story this could be! I'll give you a short answer. When I started the Kaidankai podcast, I lived in Japan where it has become a tradition to tell ghost stories…

NUTS & BOLTS: INTERVIEW WITH “THE HORROR ZINE” JEANI RECTOR

By Tom Joyce If you ever get despondent over the state of the publishing industry, think of Jeani Rector. Alarmed about all the publications closing after the economic collapse of 2008, she decided to start The Horror Zine—now in its 14th successful year. In this month’s edition of Nuts & Bolts, Jeani talks about how she got started, what makes for a good author/editor relationship, and what she looks for in a submission.   Q: How did The Horror Zine get started? A: Back “in the day”, I used to write fiction and submit it to various magazines and ezines.…

Nuts & Bolts: Interview With Screenplay Writer John Penney

By Tom Joyce Even literary legends can make a bad call sometimes. John Penney discovered that when he disregarded some early career advice from famous author Ray Bradbury, to the effect that he should give screenwriting a pass if he wanted to be a serious author.  Fortunately, John proved Mr. Bradbury wrong, and has spent the past 30 years producing horror in one form or another as an award-winning screenwriter, director, novelist, and short-story writer. In this edition of “Nuts & Bolts,” John shares some of his insights on novel and screenplay writing.    Q: What are the main differences between…
Nuts & Bolts: Running a Small Press, with Publisher Robert Ottone

Nuts & Bolts: Running a Small Press, with Publisher Robert Ottone

Nuts & Bolts: Running a Small Press, with Publisher Robert Ottone By Tom Joyce In addition to being a publisher, Robert Ottone is a novelist, short-story writer, and Bram Stoker Award nominee. But when it comes to running Spooky House Press, he thinks of himself primarily as a fan—a designation that motivated him to start his small press in the first place and guides all of his business decisions.    In this month’s edition of “Nuts & Bolts”, Robert gives some perspective into where small presses like his fit into the publishing landscape, and what that can mean for aspiring authors.…
Nuts and Bolts: Writing Tips From Master of Horror Joe R. Lansdale

Nuts and Bolts: Writing Tips From Master of Horror Joe R. Lansdale

Nuts and Bolts: Writing Tips From Master of Horror Joe R. Lansdale By Tom Joyce Joe R. Lansdale is the author of nearly four dozen novels, including Rusty Puppy, the Edgar Award-winning The Bottoms, Sunset and Sawdust, and Leather Maiden. He has received nine Bram Stoker Awards, the American Mystery Award, the British Fantasy Award, and the Grinzane Cavour Prize for Literature. He lives with his family in Nacogdoches, Texas. Whether it’s horror, a western, or a crime thriller, you’ll never get bored reading a Joe R. Lansdale story. In this month’s edition of “Nuts & Bolts,” the splatterpunk pioneer and multi-genre legend…

Nuts & Bolts: Advice From Jonathan Maberry on Social Media for Writers

An interview series by Tom Joyce Nuts & Bolts is mainly about people in the horror community helping each other by sharing their expertise and insights. So it was enormously gratifying, if not particularly surprising when one of the first people to respond to the social media team’s call for interviews back in December was Jonathan Maberry — a literary Renaissance man as well known for his willingness to help other writers as he is for his gripping thrillers. And fascinating nonfiction. And comics and anthologies and plays and … just read his bio. It’s quite lengthy and impressive.  Jonathan…

About Nuts & Bolts: Practical Advice for Horror Writers

About Nuts & Bolts: Practical Advice for Horror Writers By Tom Joyce First of all: thank you to everyone who responded to the social media team’s call for Nuts & Bolts interviews! If it’s been a while since you’ve heard from me, I’m sorry; I promise I haven’t forgotten you. I wasn’t anticipating such a wonderful response, but I shouldn’t have been surprised. Speaking as a newbie, I’m continuously blown away by just how welcoming and supportive the horror community can be. Watch for upcoming interviews with some of horror’s most prominent professionals from a wide range of fields—everything from…

Say hi to Tom Joyce, the force behind “Nuts and Bolts”

Hey, everyone! My name is Tom Joyce, and I’m really excited to be part of the social media team! I’m doing a monthly feature for the HWA blog called “Nuts and Bolts.” It’s still very much in the beginning stages, but I’m hoping to keep the focus on features and interviews that will be of practical use to horror writers. Don’t get me wrong -- I’m no expert. Far from it. I’m an affiliate member, and new to all this. But I’m eager to learn all I can about the craft and business of writing, and what makes for good…

Nuts and Bolts Interview with John Gray

Brooklyn-born John Gray is an award-winning writer-director-producer of films and television, and the creator of the long-running TV series, GHOST WHISPERER. He has written and directed many feature films and movies for television, including WHITE IRISH DRINKERS, starring Stephen Lang and Karen Allen; MARTIN AND LEWIS, starring Sean Hayes and Jeremy Northam; the Emmy® nominated A PLACE FOR ANNIE, with Sissy Spacek; the Emmy® nominated mini-series Haven with Natasha Richardson and Anne Bancroft; HELTER SKELTER, and many others. Gray has directed numerous episodes of broadcast and cable series, including multiple episodes of the NBC series GRIMM and was also the…

ACTING WITH MALICE: Scare Techniques From Scare Actors

By Tom Joyce The setting sun cast a blood-red glow on the assembly of horrors. Maniacal clowns. Cleaver-toting cannibals. Wrathful ghosts. All gathered in a field, waiting for their victims. Stakes high, as always. It wouldn’t be enough to send shivers down spines. They’d need to make people shriek and recoil. Fill the night air with screams of terrified children. Failure to get those results could bring hellish consequences beyond the most twisted Cenobite’s imaginings. I’m talking, of course, about getting laughed at by a bunch of 14-year-olds. Fortunately, the “scare actors” at Bloodshed Farms in Columbus, New Jersey, proved…

Nuts and Bolts: Interview with Aurora Gorealis

In the tradition of such sinister seductresses as Vampira and Elvira, Aurora Gorealis is a Baltimore-based horror host who weaves dark magic from a combination of campy movies, sassy attitude, and the occasional pun of dubious quality. Since 2017, Aurora (aka: Melissa LaMartina) has been playing the character during “Shocktail Hour” at the Golden West Café in Baltimore, combining live comedy and screenings of off-the-wall classics such as “Phantom of the Paradise” and “House on Haunted Hill” (complete with William Castle-style gimmicks). In the October issue of the Horror Writers Association newsletter, available to members only, she shares some personal…