Hello readers,
I hope you enjoyed my review of “Every Shallow Cut” and that it has compelled you to buy a copy — it’s an absorbing, quick read that will give you a lot to think about, and I hope you’ll pick it up either as a printed book or as an e-book. For your chance to win a copy, comment on this post (see more details below) I recently had the chance to interview the horror icon himself, Tom Piccirilli about his most recent book and several other topics, including his shift to crime-oriented books. Read on For a full list of Tom’s books and descriptions of them, click here.

Question: One of the things weighing heavily on the minds of the horror community, both readers and writers now, is the recent controversy with Dorchester not paying author royalties, among other things. Has this affected you significantly?

PIC: It hasn’t affected me at all. I haven’t been with Dorchester for seven or eight years now. But there’s nothing new to authors getting ripped off by publishers. I’m just glad to see that there’s been enough of a spotlight thrown onto this situation that hopefully writers will be more wary before signing contracts and, if things bottom out for their publishers, the authors will stand up for themselves when they get a hint that these kind of shenanigans are going on.

Question: One of the worst things that can happen to any author is seeing their own books remaindered in bookshops. With midlist authors, this becomes something of an inevitability, but the books still have trouble selling and there’s no guarantee that they will. Why do you think that so many books are becoming remaindered? And do you think it will continue?

PIC: Remaindered books are simply a fact of the business. It happens to major bestsellers as well as mid-listers. When you go into the cheap stacks right at the front of the bookstore, those are all remaindered books. Most of them are from recognizable names. Hardcovers are usually remaindered when the paperback edition comes out. There’s nothing new about it at all. In the case of Leisure dumping thousands of paperbacks, allegedly so they can cheat the author out of their cut of sales, that’s a different story.

Question: Your books have been published by such diverse publishers as Leisure, Random House, Night Shade, etc, so why the move to ChiZine this time? Did they approach you or vice versa?

PIC: I approached them. They were publishing a wide assortment of novellas in a number of styles and genres by some very talented folks, and I had just finished EVERY SHALLOW CUT and figured I’d drop them a line. I like dealing with new publishers for different projects that might interest them. The small press has always been tremendously supportive of me and Brett Savory at Chizine immediately jumped at the chance to publish the work, so it was all good.

Question: Many writers get asked what their take is on e-books and e-book publishing in general, and there are varied opinions among different people depending on where they are in their careers and many other factors. Have you personally seen an increase in e-book sales of your books? Do you think that as time goes on, more readers will discover your works through e-book sales?

PIC: There has been an increase in my e-sales and I’m sure that the capacity to read the books in e-format will continue to draw more Kindle/Nook fans as time goes by. I have nothing against digital publication except that it seems to be causing all kinds of havoc where bookstores are concerned. I don’t want one form to drive the other out of business. I’m a bibliophile, a book collector, and I love holding them in my hands. The weight of them, the look of them, the feel of them. I love perusing my shelves. I want them in my bookcases even if they take up a lot of room and get dusty. I don’t want to think of a world without bookstores. Yet I appreciate the chance to get my backlist into publication again in digital format, and I’m glad that new readers are taking a chance on the work and being generous with their comments. More work will be made available through Crossroad Press.

Question: When fellow horror scribe Scott Nicholson stopped by my blog on his 90 Days of Horror tour late last year, he remarked that writing blogs used to be about technique, characterization, and “how to” article-type posts. But he argues that most writing blogs now, although they have retained those elements, focus largely on marketing and how to market oneself, especially for self-published authors. Do you agree? And if so, what do you think are the implications of such a shift? Do you think that writers are becoming less concerned about actual writing and more concerned about getting followers on Twitter?

PIC: I really don’t read that many blogs, and the ones that I do seem to cover a wide spectrum of topics, not just writing, and not just one area of writing. However, I do think that many self-published Kindle writers are less concerned about the actual craft of writing. It’s not entirely their own fault. I know that when I was twenty and getting my stories rejected by every magazine under the sun, I probably would’ve published my early shit stories any way I possibly could. Sales have always been the biggest indicator of supposed quality. So if newbies can put the energy into racking up sales they’ve got to figure the work is strong, and they couldn’t be more wrong.

Question: What made you use such an intimate narrative in EVERY SHALLOW CUT and why all the imagined stream of consciousness scenarios?

PIC: Well, it’s an intimate story, so there really was no other way to tell it. I wanted to write the most noir kind of fiction I was capable of, but do it outside the confines of genre. It’s more a mainstream tale than anything else, it just taps into noir sensibilities along the way. And when you’re dealing with anxiety and confusion and frustration, the real stresses of daily life, the worries we all face int his kind of an economy, when practically nobody is sure if they’ll hang onto their jobs or houses or lifestyles, I thought using stream of consciousness was the best way to show that kind of terror. People who are really stressed out tend to have vivid bad dreams. Their thoughts slither around and jump wildly from one topic to the next. When you’re frazlled your head is all over the place.

Question: At one point in the novel, the agent character mentions that tween girls and middle aged women are the only market that “counts” or matters in today’s book market. Did you insert this as a general observation or as something to help the author character come across as more embittered?

PIC: Both I suppose. Recent mega-sellers like the Harry Potter books or the Twilight series or Suzanne Collins‘ novels appeal as “kidult” reads. Mothers and daughters share their love of this kind of fiction. I don’t blame anybody for that or badmouth anybody for writing it or reading. I just wish that these kinds of readers would broaden their horizons a little bit and try other types of fiction and styles as well. It’s like the people who only read books that have gotten Oprah’s stamp of approval. There’s a whole world of wonderful literature out there. Read more. Read more widely. Don’t just jump on the bestsellers bandwagon. Try smaller books too. Take a chance, you might find all kinds of new great loves.

Question: You’ve published mystery/suspense novels, horror, and westerns before, but why have you increasingly gone with the crime genre as of late? There are certainly elements of horror within this novel, including the violence, the shifty protagonist, and the style of writing, but ultimately it’s a crime story — do you see yourself returning to horror or gravitating more permanently towards crime?

PIC: I’m not even sure if it is a crime story, since very little that’s criminal actually happens in it. But the story is noir-ish, ie it’s dark and bleak and there’s a sense of impending violence. I’ve said before that horror is fantasy, and fantasy is a young man’s game. It’s about the fear that’s up ahead, around the next corner. It’s notably unrealistic, dealing with ghosts, monsters, and other horrors that really aren’t present in our every day lives. But noir is an older guy’s arena, often dealing with the horrors coming up behind you. About missed opportunities and disappointments. About the need for quick cash. About making stupid mistakes. It deals, at its heart, with realistic catalysts.

Question: Writers using writers as characters certainly isn’t a new phenomenon, but it’s one that horror writers in particular seem to employ. Your writer character certainly embodies many typical writerly traits: bitterness, depression, suicidal tendencies, paranoia and general psychosis Certainly there are immense frustrations to being a writer — the rejections, the insecurity, the desperation to prove oneself within the genre as someone to pay attention to, the recent shift toward the importance of self-promotion through social media, not to mention all the hard work of actual writing itself. What parts of your own experiences as a writer did you bring in to the protagonist of EVERY SHALLOW CUT?

PIC: All of them.

Question: For horror readers in particular who haven’t read your work, what book is a good starting point?

PIC: I’d say THE MIDNIGHT ROAD. It’s what I call the bridging novel between my horror fiction and my crime fiction. It’s essentially a crime novel with (possibly) fantastical elements to it. Ghosts and talking dogs and other oddities turn up, but at its core the story is about a guy trying to track an elusive killer. I think folks who enjoy either or both genres will dig TMR.

Question: Who are some of the writers that have inspired you to write crime? Growing up, were you always a fan of hard-boiled noir detective fiction?

PIC: I actually came to crime fiction fairly late. When I was a kid I was a big reader of science fiction, fantasy, and horror. It wasn’t until my 20s that I tackled Raymond Chandler’s THE LITTLE SISTER, and that set me off into the crime field. I’m a big fan of the Gold Medal crew, guys like Jim Thompson, David Goodis, Charles Williams, Peter Rabe, John D. MacDonald, and their contemporaries like James M. Cain, Fredric Brown, Chester Himes, and Ross Macdonald.

Question: As someone who writes daily, what’s the part of writing that you most look forward to? What inspires you to pick up the pen or type at the computer again, day after day?

PIC: I look forward to finishing. In the moment, writing is a painful, gut-wrenching process. As for what inspires me, I suppose I’m just insanely driven to say whatever it is that I feel the need to say at any given moment. I want to impress myself in some fashion upon the world. I don’t know where the need comes from but it’s all-consuming. Plus, I need to pay my mortgage.

Question: What other projects do you currently have in the works?

PIC: My next novel for Bantam THE LAST KIND WORDS has had its publication date pushed around a bit. It’s the story of a young thief named Terrier Rand who returns to his criminal family on the eve of his brother Collie’s execution. Collie went mad dog for apparently no reason and went on a killing spree murdering eight people. Now, five years later, Collie swears he only killed seven people, and the eighth was the work of someone else. Terry not only has to deal with an ex-best friend, a former flame, some mob guys, and other assorted badasses, but he’s also forced to investigate that night his brother went crazy and find out if Collie is telling the truth. But more than anything, he really wants to know the reason for why his brother went on a spree, in the hopes that Terry himself is never pushed to that kind of edge. The novel is apparently due out now in early ‘12. I’m currently writing the sequel entitled THE LAST WHISPER IN THE DARK. Along the way, there’ll be more of my work turning up in various anthologies and on Kindle. You can always check at my Facebook page or my blog for more information.

Thanks so much to Tom for stopping by, and thank you to ChiZine Publications for inviting me to participate in this blog tour You heard Tom, folks. Support the horror community as much as you can, and buy more books!