Know a Nominee, Part Seven: Christopher Rice
Welcome back to “Know a Nominee,” the interview series wherein this year’s Bram Stoker Award nominees share their insights on writing and reveal the inspirations behind their nominated works. Today’s update features Christopher Rice, who is nominated in the Superior Achievement in a Novel category, for The Heavens Rise (Gallery Books).
DM: Can you please describe the genesis for the idea that eventually became the work for which you’ve been nominated?
CR: Louisiana. That’s my short answer. The shock of moving from San Francisco to New Orleans as a ten-year-old boy, the sudden encounter with a land that was more water than earth. The sudden uncertainty of where solid ground ended and dangerous pools of snake-infested black water began. Also, shortly after we’ve moved there, we visited someone’s property on the North Shore of Lake Ponchartrain and I vividly remember their artesian well fed swimming pool, sitting atop a pregnant looking mound in the earth. The owners took great pride in it being directly connected to its water source, but I found the idea terrifying, and for the rest of my life, the idea of one of those pools being a portal for something otherworldly and menacing stuck with me.
DM: What was the most challenging part of bringing your idea to fruition? The most rewarding aspect of the process?
CR: I had a burning desire to write the kind of multi-point of view, sprawling tapestry of a horror novel that were very popular in the 1980’s and early 90’s when I first became a voracious reader. But the trends in publishing are set against that right now. The pressure is to write something tightly coiled and claustrophobic and while I love reading books like that, my inclinations with THE HEAVENS RISE didn’t bend in that direction. So staying true to my sprawling vision without degenerating into meandering self-indulgences was a great challenge. I wrote multiple drafts of the book before it ever went to New York, and there’s a wealth of material that didn’t make it to print, material I may well use someday in prequels, sequels or connected novellas and stories. Also, the idea of returning to New Orleans post-Katrina was very challenging. My first novel was set there, and for years afterwards, I said I’d put New Orleans through far too much hell in the pages of that book for me to go back for a second slug-fest. Then Katrina happened, and because I’d moved away years before and experienced the disaster from a distance, I thought I didn’t have the right to explore it’s ramifications through fiction. But enough friends from back home told me I was full of crap and just coming up with excuses not to write an emotionally challenging book.
DM: What do you think good horror/dark fiction should achieve? How do you feel the work for which you’ve been nominated work fits into that ideal?
CR: Well, I’m hesitant to assess whether or not a particular work of mine fits with any ideal. But for me, a good work of horror or dark fiction includes a reckoning. In a good work of horror, the authors builds a world in which the old rules don’t apply and subsequently their characters are stripped of everything from which they take comfort and are forced to find out what they’re really made of. This is as true of creepy monster fiction as it is of ghost stories as it is of splatter punk. Who are you when you face the dark and nothing but the dark? What do you hear – God’s voice or God’s absence?
DM: I’m curious about your writing and/or editing process. Is there a certain setting or set of circumstances that help to move things along? Where do you often find yourself getting stuck, and why?
CR: When I’m working on a novel, which is not every day, I aim for a manageable, realistic word count. Stephen King’s 2,000 words a day is my gold standard, but on most days, I end up taking home the silver. Revising as I go along can become a sticky trap. I love doing it, initially. It starts out with cleaning up yesterday’s pages, which gives me a sense of accomplishment and control. But then come the thousand-yard-stares out the window as I ponder the perfect adjective. And then the head trips of about what that nasty Goodreads reviewer is going to think about this exact comma. Or this comma. Or this semi-colon. And then it’s my job to pull the reins and get back on the horse.
DM: As you probably know, many of our readers are writers themselves. What is the most valuable piece of advice you can share with someone who may be struggling to make their way in this life?
CR: Write the book you want to read.
DM: What are you most looking forward to at this year’s Bram Stoker Awards/WHC? What do you think is the significance of recognitions like the Bram Stoker Awards?
CR: Writing is a lonely business, and I love the fellowship conferences provide. And honestly, at the risk of sounding cliché, I’m thrilled to be nominated. Truly. It’s an amazing list of nominees and I’m deeply, deeply honored to be on it, especially given THE HEAVENS RISE is my first scary supernatural book and I agonized long and hard over whether or not I’d met some of the criteria for good horror. Were the rules of the supernatural universe I used coherent and elegant? Did the powers accorded people by the Elysium parasite have a deep, psychological resonance for readers? I can’t ultimately answer questions like these, but I was both wildly passionate and deeply anxious about this novel and the nomination feels like a true blessing.
About Christopher Rice
The author of four New York Times best-selling thrillers before the age of 30, CHRISTOPHER RICE received a Lambda Literary Award for his second novel, THE SNOW GARDEN, and his editorials and criticism have appeared in The Washington Post, Salon and The Daily Beast. He is the co-host and executive producer of the THE DINNER PARTY SHOW WITH CHRISTOPHER RICE & ERIC SHAW QUINN, the Internet’s first live comedy/variety show, which debuts a new episode every Sunday evening at8 PM Eastern, 5 PM Pacific at www.TheDinnerPartyShow.com. THE HEAVENS RISE, his first horror novel, received a starred review in Publisher’s Weekly. He is the son of novelist Anne Rice and the late poet and painter, Stan Rice.
