Dragon Soul Press took a moment to interview All Dark Places 2 Author David Allen Voyles.

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1. What books or authors have most influenced your own writing?

I taught literature for nearly thirty years so it’s hard to say which writers I enjoyed the most—there are so many. But I can identify these three as having a tremendous impact on me: Edgar Allen Poe for defining what horror is, Ray Bradbury for teaching me the sheer pleasure and poetry that a story can offer, and Stephen King for providing me with superb models of terrifying plots and believable characters.

2. Where do you draw inspiration from?

I’ve always loved Halloween. My family and I have hosted a Halloween party for the past forty years, most of which had their own creepy theme. Early on we incorporated the idea of storytelling into the fun. We always encouraged our guests to share a scary story, but I made sure I had at least one ready to tell myself. One year our theme was “Dark Tours” and I escorted small groups of guests around the property, through the house, and even on a walk in the neighboring woods and told stories about the haunted scenes we had prepared for them in all those places. The success of that party led to the idea of creating our own ghost tour business, and within a year, we had purchased and renovated a 1972 Cadillac hearse in which we transported our customers to various haunted sites in our area. I had to create stories for the tours, of course, which was great fun, but that experience encouraged me to write stories much darker than those I could tell on a family-friendly ghost tour and to eventually publish two collections of original short stories.

3. Have you always wanted to be a writer?

I think so, yes. In elementary school I enjoyed writing stories even when they weren’t assigned. Later I decided that I wanted to be an English teacher and have my own class where I could get students excited about the wealth of literature that awaited them. Writing is a large part of the English class curriculum, too, of course, and I enjoyed writing creatively with my students.

4. What do you like to do when you are not writing?

As I said, Halloween is a big part of my life. This year, due to Covid-19, the celebration will have to be a virtual one, so I haven’t devoted as much time to making props for the party as I normally do, but making skulls, corpses, haunted trees, and tombstones for our annual haunted scenes is a hobby I very much enjoy. I’ve also recently become interested in puppetry and hope to find time to create the characters for several scary puppet shows that I’ve written the scripts for. Yes, that’s right. I said scary puppet shows. As if puppets aren’t scary enough as they are! Am I right?

5. If you were a tour guide, what would you like a visitor to see and what impression would you want them to take away with them when they leave?

For three years I had the pleasure of being the ghost tour guide for my own small business, Dark Ride Tours. As the fictitious undertaker/host Virgil Nightshade (“Virgil” from Dante’s guide throughout Hell in The Inferno, and “Nightshade” from one of Ray Bradbury’s young protagonists in Something Wicked This Way Comes), I wanted guests to experience the spine-tingling thrill that comes from a good, scary story. And to wonder if–just maybe–ghosts might be real.

6. Do you write listening to music?

Not always, but often I listen to dark, ambient music. I do not listen to songs with vocals, however, as lyrics seem to conflict with my ability to write. I’m currently in the process of writing episodes for the ongoing story of Witch-Works for my horror podcast Dark Corners which is based on an existing dark ambient music album of the same name by the wonderful musician/composer Mombi Yuleman. Each chapter in the story is based on a track of the album, so I most definitely listen to those dark sounds while I’m writing. My collaboration with Mombi has led me to search out more dark ambient music, which I find perfect for creating a mood conducive to writing good horror.

7. Is there lots to do before you dive in and start writing the story?

It really depends on the story. Sometimes all it takes is to think of a creepy idea and jump in. Other storylines take more work. For example, I’ve been asked to contribute to a horror anthology that will accompany a collection of Lovecraft-inspired music, so I re-read a few Lovecraft stories and researched a bit about Lovecraft’s Elder Gods and his cosmos in order to figure out how to incorporate some of his elements into my unique tale. I am outlining the plot now and looking forward to fleshing out the story. So I guess you’d definitely call me a “planner” rather than a “pantser.”

8. What is the most difficult part about writing for you?

I love all aspects of the actual writing process—the planning, the first draft (probably my favorite part), even the editing. What I really don’t like is having to promote my writing. Social media is a necessary evil these days, but it siphons off so much time away from actually writing that I find it a frustrating distraction.

9. When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I don’t think I thought of myself as being a real writer until I connected with Gestalt Media, a small publishing company dedicated to promoting indie writers. I had self-published my first collection, The Thirteenth Day of Christmas and Other Tales of Yuletide Horror, but I was still hesitant to say, “I’m a writer.” I think it took finding someone else who didn’t know me aside from my writing and who seemed to think that other people might like to buy my stories for me to feel myself really a writer.

10. What is the significance of the title for your All Dark Places 2 story?

I’d like to think that there is a sense of prevailing justice to life, or perhaps more specifically, some kind of karma. It galls me to think of some of the despicable people we see today being rewarded for their selfish, thoughtless, and destructive behaviors. The idea of “Just Retribution,” where someone who has lived a life devoted to harmful self-interest ultimately gets what they deserve is, I know, simplistic to say the least. But aside from providing me with an opportunity to include a scene that once terrified me in a dream (the ultimate haunted house), the story satisfies my need, for at least once in my universe, for things to work out as they should in the end. Very few of my stories do that.

11. Where can readers learn more about you?

Website: davidallenvoyles.com

Horror Podcast: Dark Corners with David Allen Voyles (Available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, and here: gestalt-media.com/darkcorners)

Facebook: David Allen Voyles @DavidAVoyles13

Twitter: @davidavoyles

Instagram: davidallenvoyles

Interested readers are also welcome to sign up for my bi-weekly newsletter by downloading the free story “Captain Buchanan’s Return” at http://dl.bookfunnel.com/y83ic544jh