KAREN’S KILLER BOOK BENCH: Welcome to Karen’s Killer Book Bench, where readers can discover talented new authors and take a peek inside their wonderful books. This is not an age-filtered site, so all book peeks are PG-13 or better. Come back and visit often. Happy reading!

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SOUND OF THE DARK
A Horror Novel
By DANIEL CHURCH

BLURB

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SOUND OF THE DARK
A Horror Novel
By DANIEL CHURCH

Author Interview

INTRODUCING…DANIEL CHURCH.

Before we get started talking about your writing, tell us a little about yourself, where you’re from, what you do for a living (if you’re not a full-time writer) what hobbies you have, etc. Whatever you’d like to share to introduce yourself.

My name’s Daniel Church, and I’m a full-time writer from the North-West of England. I’m married to another author, Cate Gardner. I love books, films and music. I also love nature, and am trying to get out in it a lot more. This is my third novel as Daniel Church; I also write as Simon Bestwick.

1.  What genre(s) do you write in and why?

Horror, first and foremost. Why? Because it’s the widest-ranging genre for me. You can take any situation or setting, or even genre, and give it that quarter-turn that turns it nightmarish or supernatural. You can play it any number of ways, have as much or as little of the real or the fantastic, the futuristic or the historical, the pulpy or the highbrow, as you want. And also because ghosts and monsters are cool.

2.  What’s your favorite beverage?

Cold: Pepsi Max (Regular flavour: I miss Raspberry Pepsi Max, but any form of cherry cola is the devil’s own brew as far as I’m concerned!) Hot: a mug of good strong Yorkshire Tea.

3.  If you had to listen to one song over and over again for a whole day, what would it be?

That will vary depending on what I’m into at any given time, but right now? Probably Cernunnos by Dark Sanctuary – they’re a French neo-classical band, and that’s the title track from their latest album. They went on hiatus back in 2009 and it looked as though they were defunct, and then they came back a couple of years ago with a brand-new album that was as brilliant as anything they’ve ever done. Ask me again tomorrow and my answer will be completely different!

4.  What is your least favorite part of writing?

Usually the seconds right before I have to start! The worst thing in the world for a writer is to start second-guessing themselves, which is really easy to do. Even if you don’t write horror, you’re trying to basically make something out of thin air – people, situations, whatever – and if you let yourself overthink, then every idea can look equally rubbish or equally good, or what you’re doing can seem silly or not good enough. You’ve got to give yourself permission to write the worst crap in the world, because you can always fix it later. I’m often up first thing in the morning, making a pot of tea and powering up the laptop, so I get to work before I start thinking too much (I usually cut and paste the last paragraph or two from the day before into another file, to retype first thing – that way I know what to write when I sit down! But even so, there are days when I get stuck or lose my thread. Best thing you can do then is go for a walk and try to figure out what you did wrong.

5.  If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Barmouth in North Wales, where my dad grew up. We used to go and stay with my gran for weekends and during school holidays when I was a kid. I was incredibly luckily to do so, because it really is one of the most beautiful places in the world. To the west, there’s the sea. Above the town, there are mountains from which you can see for miles. It’s at the mouth of the Mawddach estuary, which is a gorgeous sight in itself. For me, it’s somewhere peaceful and lovely and healing. And we all need that, especially right now.

6.  Are you an avid reader? When you do read someone else’s writing, what is your favorite genre?

I read constantly – I’ve been keeping track of my reading for this year and as of today I’m up to 102, and I’ve nearly finished the 103^rd. It’ll be more by the time this interview’s published! I also do my best to read as widely as I can, although horror is of course my first love. Lately I’ve been reading loads of pulp horror from the ‘70s and ‘80s – Shaun Hutson and some Guy N. Smith. There’s something about the sheer blunt energy and confidence of those books that I like. Sometimes that’s a good mentality to have – sod polished prose and clever subtext, just take the idea of flesh-eating slugs or murderous resurrected foetuses and bloody run with it and take it as far as it’ll go. Other times you want something more refined or ‘elevated,’ and that’s fine. Every genre and type of writing has something to offer you, as long as it’s not boring.

7.  Where do you get the ideas for your stories?

It can come from almost anywhere. An image, a newspaper article, something you glimpse from the window of a bus. Another book or film, when you find yourself imagine it going in a different direction from the one it does. Sometimes a line just pops into your head, so you write it down and another suggests itself, and you see what follows. A couple of times I’ve just picked a random word and used that as a prompt. Again, it can depend on what mood I’m in. Your moods and the mindset you’re in can change from day to day – mine can, anyway! – so you need to be willing to try different approaches.

8.  Tell me about your ideal reader.

Someone once told me that when you’re writing, you should imagine you’re telling the story to your best friend, which isn’t a bad approach, but I don’t really have any picture in my head of who I’m writing for when I work. It’s for anyone who enjoys reading it, really!

9.  If you were to choose one superpower, what would it be?

The power to increase the amount of money in my pocket or in my bank account whenever I wanted. Wouldn’t have to be by much. Ten or twenty quid at a time, and repeat as often as needed. I suppose being able to extend that to other folks’ pockets and bank accounts would be quite nice, too. (And if it was done by subtracting it from the bank accounts of certain very rich and horrible people, so much the better!)

10. Tell us about your next book & when is it being published?

The Sound of the Dark is a horror novel about Cally Darker, a true crime podcaster who starts investigating a murder-suicide from forty years ago. An artist called Tony Mathias killed his wife and children, then himself, setting their home on fire and leaving behind a message scrawled on a wall: WORLD’S END. Before he died, Tony was working on a piece based around an abandoned airfield in Lancashire, Warden Fell. He kept a tape-recorded diary about the project. When Cally plays the tapes, she discovers that the past is reaching out for her too. She’s going to find out why Tony Mathias became a murderer… but it might be too late to save her.

About Author Daniel Church…

Links to Daniel’s websites, blogs, books, #ad, etc.:

Amazon Kindle: https://amzn.to/47uaEa8

Amazon Paperback: https://amzn.to/3LrTB0Q

The Sound of the Dark:
https://angryrobotbooks.com/books/the-sound-of-the-dark/

Daniel Church: https://churchman72.wixsite.com/danielchurch

Simon Bestwick: https://simon-bestwick.blogspot.com