Dragon Soul Press had a chance to interview Andrew Buckner, an author featured in The Fear Doctor anthology.

Hello!
Thank you for taking the time to talk with me today!
My name is Andrew Buckner.
I am a multi award-winning poet, filmmaker, and screenwriter from Ohio.
I recently won the award for Best Original Screenwriter at the fourth edition of the Hitchcock Awards for my dark comedy/ horror script Dead Air!
I also have plenty of experience as a film, literature, and music critic. I’ve penned reviews in these previously stated fields for Withoutyourhead.com and Swurvradio.com.
I also run and write for my own review site, AWordofDreams.com, since its inception in 2015.

1. What prompted you to begin writing?
   • I’ve always had an inborn admiration for writers, writing, and the timeless worlds they
     create with their words.
     Even when I began to learn to put sentences together I could sense the incomparable joy
     of creation that putting pen to paper gave me. It was at that time that I knew that this was
     what I wanted to do with my life.
     This same delight still follows me after several decades of literary invention.
2. Do you have a favorite story or poem you’ve written? What’s it about?
   • “The Hues of Man” and “America’s Nightmare”, which were the two poems that opened
     my debut collection of poetry, The Human Condition (2008), are probably my favorite
     poems out of my own input in this field.
     They are both socially conscious works that I consider, like many of the poems in The
     Human Condition, to be what I call “poetic essays”. In short, these poems are longer
     works which go into great depth towards my point of view towards a number of subjects
     that I believe to be of dire importance. Both “The Hues of Man” and “America’s
     Nightmare” talk about our need as a populace to unite as one. They also address the
     harsh societal truths that are well known but rarely acknowledged in our society.
     Outside of the subject matter, what I admire the most about these pieces are that they all
     have the distinct rhythm, incredible and unpredictable rhyme schemes, and overall tone
     of a timeless rap song. This is especially noteworthy to me because this is a genre of
     music that I was especially awe-stricken by at the time that I wrote these works.
     I also have a great admiration for “Love Like the Rain”, which was included in my
     sophomore poetry collection, Song of Survival (2010). It describes a relationship that is
     as brief and fleeting as a rain shower.
     What I appreciate about “Love Like the Rain” is its ability to balance story and
     symbolism in a sparse, straightforward yet musical manner.
     As far as the stories I have written go, I would be inclined to say the tale included in my
     debut novel, The Extraterrestrial Presence (2012), ranks among my favorite of my tales.
     It concerns a young woman, Maya Williams, who grows to find out her secret destiny
     while attempting to understand her ongoing, nighttime alien abductions.
     I would also include my young adult science-fiction novella Locker 222: A Terror Boys
     Mystery (2016) in this conversation. It is about two socially awkward kids, Alan and
     Rainier, who find a mysterious slime on Alan’s jacket during school one day. Their
     research and study of this substance leads to a narrative highly derived from 1950’s
     drive-in style creature features.
     Outside of my unapologetic love for these aforementioned B-monster movies, this story
     is one of my personal favorite tales within the realm of my own creations because Alan
     and Rainier, with their film-loving attitudes and general outlook on life, greatly mirror
     who I was when I was, as Alan and Rainier are in the narrative, in middle school.
3. How many projects do you have planned over the next few years? Tell us about one.
   • I have three books that are in the process of publication with Requiem Press right now.
     They are The God in Me Will Emerge: Poems, To Make of Thee a Name: Stories, which
     is a collection of forty taletelling works in both verse and prose form that range in genre
     from horror to science-fiction to creative non-fiction, and A Burial in the Midwest
     Pyramids: A Chapbook. Most of the content within these books hasn’t been published
     before.
     It’s hard to tell how many more projects I will be working on in the next few years
     outside of the three books that are forthcoming from Requiem Press. I don’t have any
     other projects I am working on at the moment, but I am sure that will quickly change. I
     am always writing and putting together manuscripts. So, unless a great bout of writer’s
     block overtakes me, as it is apt to do on occasion, there should be plenty more projects
     to come.
4. What is your writing process like?
   • My writing process varies. Sometimes a piece comes as an idea. Sometimes it arrives in
     fragments, like a puzzle, where I have to take these random lines or ideas and connect
     them in a concrete way. Sometimes it arrives fully formed with proper wording and
     structure in tow and all I have to do is sit down and get it on the page. I love when that
     happens.
     I don’t have an established per-day word count per day, as some writers like Stephen
     King do, but I do try to do at least one thing, even if it is something small and seemingly
     insignificant, towards my writing career every day. For example, if the words aren’t
     coming that day, I usually submit a finished article to at least one publisher or work on
     editing something that is finished but not quite done. To me, it’s a realistic goal that I can
     knock out in an hour or so in the morning that still gives me time to take care of all the
     other activities that need attention from day to day.
5. Where do you draw inspiration from?
   • Generally speaking, my inspiration comes from other forms of art.
     I’m an avid consumer of books, music, and movies. I love storytelling and self expression in all its various forms, but these areas of artistry have always spoken to me the most. This inspiration certainly leaks into my own writing, especially when certain thoughts, scenes, or ideas from a book or movie or a line from a song summon an image or revelation or even an entire story that demands to be fleshed-out on the page.
6. Who is your favorite author / what is your favorite book?
   • It would be almost impossible for me to pinpoint a single favorite author or book
     because, as mentioned above, I’ve always had a deep respect and admiration for a wide
     variety of authors and the books they bring to the world.
     Nonetheless, off the top of my head, some of my favorite authors are: Cormac McCarthy,
     Stephen King, Ryu Murakami, Dante Alighieri, Jules Verne, H.G. Wells, Arthur C.
     Clarke, William Shakespeare, Michael Chrichton, Marquis de Sade, Charles Bukowski,
     Whitley Strieber, Jerzy Kosinski, Saul Williams, Pablo Neuroda, Pier Paolo Pasolini,
     Franz Kafka, Alan Ginsberg, Roger Ebert, John Grisham, and Bret Easton Ellis.
     Out of these authors, King, Chrichton, Verne, Wells, Clarke, and Shakespeare provided
     my earliest inspirations to write.
     Some of my favorite books are: The Trial (1925) by Franz Kafka, The Divine Comedy
     (1321) by Dante Alighieri, The Painted Bird (1965) by Jerzy Kosinski, Journey to the
     End of Night (1932) by Louis-Ferdinand Celine, A Violent Life (1959) by Pier Paolo
     Pasolini, I Know This Much is True (1998) by Wally Lamb, It (1986), The Green Mile
     (1996), and The Stand (1978) by Stephen King, Communion: A True Story (1987) by
     Whitley Strieber, Leaves of Grass (1855) by Walt Whitman, House of Leaves (2000) by
     Mark Z. Danielewski, Jurassic Park (1990) by Michael Chrichton, The Dead Emcee
     Scrolls: The Lost Teachings of Hip Hop (2006) by Saul Williams, The Color Purple
     (1982) by Alice Walker, To Kill a Mockingbird (1960) by Harper Lee, The Rose That
     Grew From Concrete (1999) by Tupac Shakur, Blood Meridian (1985) by Cormac
     McCarthy, Life Itself: A Memoir (2011) by Roger Ebert, American Psycho (1991) by
     Bret Easton Ellis, In Cold Blood (1966) by Truman Capote, Justine, or The Misfortunes
     of Virtue (1791) by Marquis de Sade, and The Amityville Horror (1977) by Jay Anson.
     If it came down to sheer re-readability and my reliance on a particular volume over the
     years as both a reference guide and as a reliable source of information, Leonard Marlin’s
     Movie and Video Guide (1986-2014) would certainly be in the top-tier of my favorite
     books.
7. What is one goal you have for your writing future?
   • I would like to enter my work into more award competitions and submit my books out
     to reviewers more often.
     With as much experience as I have as a critic myself, I am still extremely nervous about
     having someone put one or more of my works under the critical blade. Hopefully that
     changes with time.
8. What do you hope readers enjoy most from your work?
   • With my poetry, I hope my readers understand my point of view, which provides a
     better understanding of who I am as a person, and relate to it and to me. I have always
     told myself that my poetry, especially my introspective work, has to be 100% honest for
     the sake of posterity. By doing this, readers decades down the road can walk away from
     my material feeling like they know me personally. Hopefully, they may even find a
     piece of their own soul shining through my verse.
     With my introspective stories, I wish that audiences would get the same out of it as my
     poetry.
     With my more fun, entertaining, and imaginative fare, such as my horror and science-
     fiction tales, I hope that audiences find my imagination is wild and in full force, that they
     lock into my often dark sense of humor, find characters that they see themselves through
     and that they are engaged enough with to turn to more of my related material.
9. Where can readers learn more about you?
   • You can learn more about me by visiting my review site, AWordofDreams.com, and my
     Twitter. I’m also on Facebook. I will also have five horror drabbles (short stories of exactly one-hundred words) included in Dragon Soul Press’ upcoming anthology, The Fear Doctor (2024), which releases on September 30th!
     Once again, thank you for your time and your interest in my work! I appreciate it!