Seven Questions with Felix Blackwell

Question 1: What was the initial catalyst—whether that be a short story, a novel, a film, a video game, an event—that made you want to be a writer?

My mother has been a writer her entire life. I used to read her poetry as a kid, and then I started writing my own (they were mostly poems about Resident Evil and Crash Bandicoot and some game called Wave Race). We were flat broke back then, and we'd sometimes spend Christmas writing. She'd be at the table and I'd be on the couch. Enya would be playing and the cats would be chasing each other all over the apartment. She is definitely the reason I started, but I think it was Resident Evil and Silent Hill that got me interested in telling horror stories. I also loved The Nightmare Before Christmas and Casper and other horror-themed children's movies.

Question 2: An aspiring author has written a 70,000- to 100,000-word debut horror novel and doesn’t know what to do next; what advice would you give them? Should querying literary agents be the first choice of action, or is self-publishing becoming a viable option?

I wouldn't advise new authors to query literary agents in almost any situation. I think the path up the mountain is self-publishing, getting your bibliography built up, and then querying only after you've got a significant following. Even then, the only reason I'd try to get representation would be so the agent and publisher can handle the business side of writing. I'm at a point now where I should be doing that because I spend more time on the business than on the actual writing, but finding an agent is so much work and so much rejection to slog through. 

Question 3: With massively successful video game franchises like Resident Evil and The Last of Us, horror films consistently performing well at the box office (not to mention carving out their places in mainstream culture), and the sheer cultural popularity of iconic horror figures such as Frankenstein’s monster, Dracula, and the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King—why do you think that horror literature, from local bookstores to big 5 publishers, isn’t taken as seriously as other genres? Horror, as mentioned above, thrives in other mediums, so why not in literature? And is there anything writers and readers can do to change this? If so, then what?

I do not understand why horror is taken seriously as a film and game genre but not so much as a literary genre. But I do know that the horror readership for authors whose names aren't "King" or "Koontz" is a lot smaller than the readership for an equivalent author in Romance or Fantasy. I think the artwork on a lot of horror novel covers can be off-putting for wide audiences because they sometimes have extreme imagery (or sometimes just look cheap / bad). People really do judge books by their covers, myself included. I think people also might conflate extreme horror with the rest of the genre and avoid it for that reason.

Question 4: What are your general (or extensive) thoughts on AI in literature?

I should get my friend and fellow author Colin J. Northwood to answer this question because he has a huge amount of knowledge and opinions on the subject. I don't know how much I care about it personally, but I suppose AI taking other authors' work and integrating it into a book it writes is a concern.

Question 5: What are some novels or collections that deserve more exposure?

I've been very into Jennifer Osborn's Intrusive Thoughts lately, and my next read is Erica Damon's Turn on the Light. I've also been enjoying M. L. Rayner's Amongst the Mists. I think all three of those authors deserve more attention.

Question 6: What is one book that every aspiring horror writer should read?

Summer of Night by Dan Simmons, no doubt. This novel ends the discussion over whether horror is a form of high art in literature.

Question 7: What’s next for you?

Music! Just lots of music. Years and years of music.