Author | Critic
What inspired Shelter for the Damned?
Like most creative projects, Shelter for the Damned took inspiration from numerous places. I wanted to write something in the suburban horror tradition, and I wanted to write something with adolescent characters. I drew a lot on the novels of Hubert Selby Jr. and Jim Thompson, specifically their pessimism and their unblinking commitment to disturbed protagonists devoured by their own demons …
“‘Mini McDonagh Manor’ by Mike Thorn was pristine and showed why I love Mike’s writing so much. Following a woman who needs to confront things from the past, Mike does a really great job of encasing an entire ‘haunted house’ book in a dozen or so pages. Well done.”
Big news!
I am now represented by literary agent Stacey Kondla at The Rights Factory. This is a very exciting development; I am thrilled to have such a skilled and enthusiastic pro championing my work.
“Was there a pivotal moment when you decided to be a writer?
I can’t remember a time before I started writing. For better or worse, it has been a lifelong impulse. I was always drawn to reading, which is probably where my interest in writing originated. As a kid, I was excited by fantasy and horror (J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and R. L. Stine when I was quite young, and then Stephen King when I got a little older).”
![arctic-smoke-design-michel-vrana[1].jpg](https://freefallmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/arctic-smoke-design-michel-vrana1.jpg?w=244&h=366)
Randy Nikkel Schroeder’s Arctic Smoke does not simply inhabit its multiple genres, but instead interrogates the intersections and tensions between those genres’ methodologies.
“Deeply disturbing, in all the best ways.”
– Laurel Hightower, author of Whispers in the Dark
“Mike Thorn captures the essence of his characters so well in such a short space that his stories often yield the same satisfaction as reading an entire novel.”
– Erin Emily Ann Vance, author of Advice for Taxidermists and Amateur Beekeepers
Order now.
Niall Howell’s Only Pretty Damned is a seriously impressive debut, showcasing a sophisticated sense of craft and a deep understanding of its genre’s genealogy. Centered on a traveling circus making its way through the unforgiving environs of post-WWII America and Canada, Damned is steeped in richly detailed sociohistorical texture.
