AUTHOR: SHERRY DECKER

Sherry is the award winning writer of Hook House and Other Horrors. She placed first in the North Texas Professional Writers Association Contest, and was also Year-end Finalist and Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future. Sherry’s short fiction has appeared in the likes of Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine, Cemetery Dance, and Dark Wisdom. Her novel Hypershot will soon be released in 5-6 months. Sherry lives, works, and play in Washington State, near Seattle.

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Q. Tell the Crypt fans a little about yourself.

A. Horror has intrigued me since early childhood. At about the age of five I watched Frankenstein for the first time, was immediately hooked . . . and so scared I couldn’t sleep without the light on. I grew up in a small town. Rarely did anything exciting happen there. We often slept outside in the summer, tossing our sleeping bags down under the weeping willow at the farthest corner of our property, where we shared scary stories until midnight.

Q. Tell us about the projects you have going right now.

A. My novel, ‘Hypershot’ was recently bought by Eldritch Press. It’s a futuristic earth tale with a female protagonist. I compare it to Atwood’s ‘The Handmaid’s Tale” meets Jules Verne’s ‘Journey To the Center of the Earth.’ The story evolved from a nightmare I had twenty or so years ago that seemed so real it wouldn’t let me forget it. I still think about it. Now I’m stretching it out to include a prequel and a sequel. Maybe.

My current work-in-progress, ‘A Summer With the Dead’ is plaguing me with yet another revision. This novel is in the horror genre and takes place on the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State. If you enjoy haunted house tales, monsters in the basement, revenge or unreliable narrator stories, this one might be for you.

Q. Is your writing based on people you know, or events in your own life? What inspired you to get into the horror genre?

A. My life has been relatively quiet, due to my own cautionary personality. Maybe that’s because soon after watching Frankenstein I watched Dracula; both were the introduction into horror, which remains my favorite genre. In movies where characters were foolish enough to climb a flight of stairs to an creaking attic, or open a door to a dank basement reminded me to be cautious. Most of the excitement in my life has been the result of my own imagination and from movies and books.

Have you always been interested in horror?

The first book that terrified and fascinated me was a collection of very dark fairytales that I read in third grade. Unfortunately I cannot remember the title nor the author. That book, however, inspired me.

Q. What do you love most about writing horror?

A. My own writing is based on exaggerations. I take myself, or a friend or a relative . . . or strangers I’ve eavesdropped on . . . and twist them into extreme characters. Dialogue is the best way to reveal a character’s desires. Action is the best way to show a character’s resolve. It’s fun to torment my own characters by having their plans crumble down around them. A happy ending is not always necessary for me. Sometimes I don’t know how a story is going to end until the characters take over and dictate how it will end. Pesky characters.

Is there anything you find particularly challenging when writing for horror fans?

Writing in general is always a challenge. That’s why rewrites were invented. My teacher, Jack Remick always told me, “The art is in the rewrite.” Jack is always right.

Q. Where do you stand of the gore factor?

A. My short fiction has been called ‘Quiet Horror’ by a couple of reviewers. I don’t balk from a bit of blood or gore, and my characters often die in ways no one would ever choose to die, but I draw the line at torture. I am not attracted to things like chainsaws or blowtorches as weapons. As a child, Edgar Allan Poe’s, ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ made me squirm with discomfort, yet his ‘Telltale Heart’ fascinated me. Both had tortured characters. Perhaps, since the protagonist in ‘The Pit and the Pendulum’ was physically tortured and victimized, it felt more terrifying to me. In film, I had a difficult time watching ‘Scarface’ with Al Pacino. The chainsaw scene in the bathroom of the apartment was simply too much. So . . . I refuse to read or write extreme torture. A sudden, unexpected, stiletto through one eye is fine J

Q. Who is your favorite author and what is it that really strikes you about their work?

A: My favorite authors are too long to list.

Q: What books and movies have influenced your life most?

A. It’s impossible to choose just one author. So many have influenced me. Joyce Carol Oates writes short fiction that gives me chills. So does Stephen King, although I prefer his earlier works. Thomas Harris’s ‘Silence of the Lambs’ and ‘Red Dragon’ kept me up at night, reading and shuddering. I love Margaret Atwood’s style. Normally, I avoid adverbs (except in dialogue) yet Atwood can string three or four adverbs in a row and because they are so creative and unique, I approve. Hemingway. Bradbury.

Q: What book are you reading now?

A: Currently, I’m reading, ‘The Book Thief’ by Markus Zusakm because not everything I read is horror.

Q: What movie do you most want to watch from your Netflix queue?

A. Right now I am awaiting the release of, ‘Game of Thrones’ season 4 from Netflix, and can’t fathom why it takes so long!

Q. Can you share your experience as a female writer in a male dominated genre?

A. My experience as a female writer in a male dominated genre . . . I don’t worry about it. Women writers are sometimes accused as being too nice. Not tough enough. Not mean enough. Not bloody enough. I disagree. Besides, men writers have their limitations. In my opinion, men can rarely (very rarely) write a decent romantic scene, and can almost never write a decent sex scene. Women beat the snot out of men. Women may be overlooked when it comes to anthologies. I don’t know. Like I said, I don’t worry about it. Rejections are simply opportunities to submit elsewhere.

Q. Can you share a little of your current work with us; give the readers a taste for blood?

A. Excerpt from, ‘A Summer With the Dead’:

Maya steps into the room and the plastic curtain rustles closed behind her. It’s even colder in the dining room than on the stairs. She blinks. It’s difficult to focus on things in this room. Everything looks dim and blurry. The light is weak and the room’s corners are thick with shadows. Something shiny gleams on the table. Maya squints, focuses. The gleam comes from polished metal. She steps closer and sees knives, a saw and a cleaver. Their black handles glisten, slick and red with blood. She blinks again. On the table lays a man’s body, face down, the bottoms of his bare feet face her. His flesh is stark white.

Another man rises up from between the buffet and the other end of the table. He is short and thin and wares a gray plaid shirt, the sleeves rolled up to his elbows. His arms are lean and sinewy. His shirttail is jammed into baggy jeans. He grabs the cleaver in one hand and seems to study the tool, turning it back and forth in the dim light, as if admiring the flashing blade.

Maya blinks again. The scene is like an aged newsreel, quick and jerky. When the man pauses, it looks like an old photograph, the reds having faded to sepia. He lifts the cleaver to eye level and brings it down. Whack. One foot falls into two pieces, sliced through the arch. No blood oozes from the wound. He picks up both pieces and tosses them into a black trash bag. Whack. An ankle and heel follow.

Maya steps back, slips on something and looks down. Her legs are transparent, her feet gone. She has no body. She lifts her hands but sees nothing there. She is invisible.

I’m dreaming. Wake up. Wake up!

Whack. The cleaver flashes in the dim light again and another ankle and heel are thrown into the trash bag. The sepia man bends down again, below the table. A cupboard door squeals open and then clossd. He holds a serving platter—Elly’s rose pattern china. He sets it down on the corner of the buffet. Whack. A man’s head settles with a plop in the center of the platter, a man’s head with silvery blond hair and thick dark smears across his forehead, cheeks and ears. A thin trickle of dark blood pools around the man’s head. The man’s face wears no expression. His eyes are closed. He frowns in his bottomless sleep.

Maya shivers. How can I be cold if I’m not here? I’m dreaming…just dreaming. Wake up! Wake up!

Blood drips from the edge of the tarp to the plastic sheet on the floor. Tap. Tap. Tap. It trickles, glistening and red toward Maya’s feet and she steps aside before it reaches her invisible toes. She leans forward. She wants to see the sepia man’s face, but he turns his back, his shoulders hunched. He drops the slick, red cleaver on the table and tosses two knees into the trash bag. His hand searches behind him for the saw. Finds it. Lifts it. The gleaming steel teeth sparkle in candlelight.

Maya leans closer, determined. The butcher turns his back again and drags the bulging trash bag into the middle of the kitchen. He wears black boots. They make a sticky sound on the linoleum and leave a trail of smeared, red footprints.

On the dining room table are parts of the man’s body, naked, so bloodless the flesh is blue-white. Like a side dish, both blue-white hands rest alongside the head on the platter. The legs have been separated from the torso at the hips.

 

Q. Do you have any advice for other horror writers?

A. You should read, read, read, and write, write, write. Persevere. Do NOT give up. After receiving a rejection, take a few deep breaths. If the editor was kind enough to mention why he rejected you, give that reason full consideration. Is it possible the editor was right? Revise or rewrite if his/her comments prompt an idea for you. Then, submit it to another market. Keep going. Don’t stop.

Q. Where can fans reach you and buy your books?

A. My collection of short fiction ‘Hook House and Other Horrors’ can be found at Damnation Books, amazon.com or through Barnes & Noble. The title story, ‘Hook House’ originally appeared in Cemetery Dance. It was the first story of such length (novelette) to ever be published there at that time. ‘Hicklebickle Rock’ won First Place in the NTPWA fiction contest. Later, it appeared in Alfred Hitchcock’s Mystery Magazine. Several other of the stories have appeared in Hitchcock’s too. Another tale won the year’s-end Finalist and Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future. I don’t read strictly horror, nor do I write only horror. My children’s middle-grade science fiction book, ‘Rusty the Robot’s Holiday Adventures’ (co-written with Michael McCarty) is available from Pie Plate Publishing, amazon.com, and Barnes and Noble. My upcoming science fiction novel, ‘Hypershot’ will be available through Eldritch Press and all regular sources in about five or six months, and I’m so enthused about that.

One last thing — if you’ve read something and enjoyed it, you really should take the time to review it on Goodreads or amazon.com. Give it four or five stars. Say what it was you liked about it. It helps the author get published again and it helps sell a few more copies. Please take the time to do that. If you already do, thank you.

You can also find Sherry in these places:

http://www.damnationbooks.com/people.php?author=179

http://www.pieplatepublishing.com/our-authors/sherry-decker