pandemic

Author Interview with David Allen Voyles

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

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

Starting Out Writing Sci-Fi

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Given recent world events that we are living through, we may start to feel a little bit like we’re living through an episode of “Black Mirror” or something akin to science fiction. Some of us writers may even be finding ourselves tempted to foray into the genre of sci-fi just based off the fact that we have so much inspiration around us with the current pandemic that is going on. So, if you’re feeling the call of inspiration and want to try your hand at writing either a sci-fi short story, novella, or novel, below are the five elements that make up the genre of science fiction:

1. World Building

Ok, first things first. World-building is a big portion of sci-fi. Very similar to fantasy, people who read sci-fi are ready and willing to accept the impossible as possible – provided there is a plausible explanation for everything. In order to do this, you need to really build your world and make it authentic and believable. Don’t worry about using elements that have already been done – such as flying cars – just be sure to put your own spin on something that is already familiar in order to keep it fresh.

2. Unfamiliarity

Sci-fi tends to take us into a territory of unfamiliarity. It takes parts of our own world that are familiar to us – we’ll use the flying cars example again – and twists it around to make it unfamiliar and new to readers. Of course, this is where world-building really plays a major role in bringing everything to life because in sci-fi, the setting is very much integrated into the plot of the story. Furthermore, the setting also affects the action of the story as well as the characters’ lives.

3. Plausible Foundation

Believability is key when creating your world. It’s sci-fi, it’s based in science, therefore your world has to make sense. You can’t introduce futuristic technology without plausible scientific explanations for how it works. For example, you can’t write a story where humans colonize Jupiter and walk around the planet without spacesuits because it wouldn’t be believable – your audience would know that’s not possible. Of course, if you have explained that over thousands of years of terraforming, humans managed to change the atmosphere of Jupiter enough that they could get away with walking around sans spacesuits, then you have a much better story forming. Of course, in order to plausibly explain everything in your sci-fi story, you’ll probably have to conduct a bit of research. Additionally, you’ll probably also want to create a timeline of events in order to keep track of everything that happened in order to be able to avoid plot hole popping up in your story because let’s be real…setting a story 1,000 years in the future is going to have a lot of history happen in between that explain why and how things are the way they are in the present point of your story. Therefore, creating a timeline for yourself will very much help keep things linear. Of course, you don’t have to add in all 1,000 years worth of history to your story (you’re not writing a pretend history book) just the bits that make sense to add because they explain certain technologies or elements in your story.

4. Scientific Principles

Sci-fi isn’t really a genre that leaves much wiggle room for breaking laws and rules, more like gently bending them. If you do bend them, you need to be able to back it up with a plausible scientific explanation to explain it. For example, you can’t break the rule of gravity on Earth. However, you can bend the rule that Mars in uninhabitable to humans. What you need to remember when writing your story is to adhere to the scientific laws of physics and chemistry in order to ensure that the world you create can be plausibly explained in theory.

5. Character’s Reactions

Just like when you write any story, you want to do more showing, rather than telling. Of course, when you have a story that is set in another world, it’s hard to stay away from the tendency to want to explain everything. But a great way to show what is going on in your world rather than tell your audience about it, is to use your characters. Your characters using a teleportation device as easily as they would an elevator is a great way to show that teleporting has been around for a while, rather than telling your readers that it’s been a thing for years. Using a character’s reaction is good for gauging what’s old technology in your world and what’s new without explaining things to your audience. It’s a story you’re writing, not a history book.

Creating a Soothing Writing Space

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With the current trending news climate, many of us may be experiencing a little more time at home than normal. For writers, this is a golden opportunity to get through all the projects that we’ve started and been meaning to finish. Personally, I’m plotting out my Camp NaNoWriMo while also planning to finish two short stories and make some changes to an old manuscript that was submitted as my master’s thesis.

However, our quest for solitude might not be as easy as we think. A global pandemic might mean that we’re not alone in our own space. Children might be sent home from school, spouses may be working from home, a whole 20-pack stack of toilet paper may have moved into our office space, Netflix’s delightful programming might seem even more delightful – there’s plenty of possible distractions.

So, what can we do about these distractions in order to get the most out of Armageddon? Well, through trial and error I’ve come up with a couple ideas to create a calming writing area to get stuff done.

1) Turn Off or Limit Social Media

Social media is a great platform to market yourself as an author and promote your books, but it’s also a black hole of panic – especially when it comes to world affairs. While yes, the memes coming out of the thing are hilarious, there is also a lot of misplaced panic and misinformation being spread as well. Therefore, for your own mental health and focus, it’s a good idea to take a step back. Not worrying about the latest trending hashtag helps you get into a writing frame of mind: calm. In addition, it also helps you avoid that late night social media spiral that keeps you up and leaves you unrested and irritable the next day.

2) Take a Walk

Before you sit down to write, it doesn’t hurt to get out of the house for a few minutes and take a walk around the block – especially if you’re feeling a little cabin feverish. As a very cliché coffee shop writer, I’ve been finding myself having a difficult time not going to my favorite coffee shop with my laptop or a notebook to write. So, I’ve been doing my best to recreate the coffee shop setting at home. However, I’m not going to lie, the cabin fever has gotten to me a bit. That is why I’ve found that going on a short jaunt around the park across the street kind of helps to get those jitters out. Fresh air definitely helps. If you have a garden you don’t even need to go out for a walk you can just enjoy the outdoors from the comfort of your backyard. It will help get you into a relaxed frame of mind where you can think about writing.

3) Recreate a Chill Space

Like I said in my previous point, I’m a writing cliché, I love to write in coffee shops come the weekend. However, since recent global events have left my part of the world on lockdown, I need to find alternative ways. So, in my quest to carve out a place of my own to write, I decided that since I couldn’t go to my coffee shop, I’d bring the coffee shop to me. That meant that I cleared a little nook at the dining room table where I lit a rose-scented candle, played a little café jazz music on a playlist, and brewed myself a cup of coffee. In these uncertain times, it’s basically all about the little joys in life. So, carving out a portion of paradise for yourself is just what you need in order to keep writing during this time. Whether it’s your living room couch, bedroom, kitchen counter, or elsewhere, pick a place in your home where you can set up a nice little nook for yourself. It doesn’t necessarily have to be exactly like mine, but it should make you feel good and safe. So, that could entail putting yourself a vase of fresh flowers, setting out some yummy writing snacks, playing your favorite music, wrapping up in your coziest blanket – whatever relaxes you and inspires you to write.

Hope you’re all keeping well and staying safe! Happy writing!