Nikki Noir's Blog

The Meltdown Messiah Nikolas Robinson joins me for this week's Quickie w/Nikki

Nikki: What real world environment scares you most?

Robinson: Honestly, anywhere there are large groups of people. Unless I have camera equipment between myself and the crowd, I don't have the capacity to dissociate. Any environment can be suitably scary, though, if I allow my imagination to do its thing.Nikki: Tell us about your new collect and the Inspiration for it.

Robinson: My most recent release is a collection of ten short stories titled May Cause Unexplained Ocular Bleeding. Almost exclusively, the stories I put together are the ones I felt the proudest of in my attempts to write unfiltered and uncensored in the way I admired so much from men like Jack Ketchum, J. F. Gonzalez, and Richard Laymon. Prior to that, my most recent release was the novella You Will Be Consumed, published by Madness Heart Press in May of this year. That one was inspired by my love of cosmic horror and splatterpunk merging, and it was my first publication with a small press. Before that, I'd released two novels and a collection of short stories between 2011 and 2020, so it's been a much busier year for me than I'm accustomed to.

Nikki: Of all the characters you've created, do you have a favorite and why?

Robinson: My personal favorite is probably Layla Torres from my short story Daemonica, and the larger title Daemonica In Claritate, from which the short was extracted. She's the opposite of me in so many ways, being both tiny and outgoing, but she also shares some of the issues from my own personal history, as far as alcoholism and other self-destructive behavior including drug use. I've been sober for a while now, but I see a lot of myself in her when I read back through what I've written.Nikki: What does Splatterpunk or bizarro fiction mean to you? And is it a big part of you as an author?

Robinson: Splatterpunk and Bizarro, at least to me, mean fiction without boundaries and without concessions made for what's trending or what's hot. I've experienced some of the most imaginative writing from authors who write in those two genres, and there's something beautiful about knowing that risks can be taken and experiments are not only acceptable, but encouraged. I doubt I'll ever write anything that would be picked up by a large, traditional press, and knowing that, I also know that there's still a place for the things I write as long as the indie horror community exists and Splatterpunk and Bizarro are still healthy subgenres within that world.

Nikki: What's something you want readers to know about you? I honestly can't think of anything.

Robinson: I'm just some dude who happens to write things that some people enjoy and who reviews things that he enjoys. I'm a photographer and videographer as well, in my free time and when gigs are available. I direct morning and Noon newscasts for the local ABC affiliate Mondays through Fridays. I love dogs and don't particularly care for cats. Dr. Pepper is my favorite beverage aside from Yoo-Hoo and White Russians. I enjoy long walks on the beach and wandering aimlessly through forests (and the outdoors in general) and I think a sense of humor is the most important quality in a romantic partner. Obviously, I'm having a hard time thinking of anything, so I've just started babbling. I'll stop that now. Nikki: What's your next project and Where can we stalk you?

Robinson: I have a novel manuscript in the hands of Madness Heart Press right now, Beneath the Unspoiled Wilderness, with a release date sometime in 2022...I hope. That one is my love letter to the camp slasher genre with a healthy dose of cosmic horror thrown in for flavor. It happens to take place in the same version of our world as the one I introduced readers to in You Will Be Consumed. I also have additional short fiction exclusives coming to Godless over the coming months. Beyond that, I've got a number of works in progress and it's difficult to determine which will be completed first.

I'm on social media platforms of all kinds with the handle MeltdownMessiah if my real name doesn't bring up any results. I also have my blog at www.meltdownmessiah.com where I occasionally share updates on my projects, but mostly post reviews of things I'm enjoying.

I want to make people think... And thinking can be scary sometimes, which makes me a good fit for horror.

Nikki: What real world environment scares you most?

Lucy: When I saw that question, an incident from about five years ago when I was a copywriter at an ad agency came to mind. My co-workers and I were wrapping up an hours-long meeting in a client’s conference room. Too many people were invited and most of them would not stop talking. It was getting close to the end of the workday. We’d long since ceased discussion of the project when someone started talking about Game of Thrones. And they all kept talking. And my heart started beating way faster than the situation called for, but I had this horrible, irrational combination of anxiety and dread that the meeting was never going to end. I would be stuck in this conference room making small talk with the corporate middlemen in the for-profit higher education space until the end of time. I got up and walked out of the room. My co-workers finally got the hint and we escaped. So, that. And being around a lot of rednecks in “Hold my beer and watch this” mode kind of freaks me out. I’m also not comfortable around extremely religious people or political protests. I think any environment where I’m in the vicinity of zealots makes me uncomfortable. So, Twitter.

Nikki: Tell us about your novel ,Outrage 10 and the inspiration for it?

Lucy: Way back in 2011 (right after I’d submitted Working Stiffs to Necro), I became interested in online outrage culture. Public shaming as it was called at the time. It seemed like many people were taking advantage of a transgression to hurt someone they didn’t like. This reminded me of the French Revolution and how people would report their neighbors for counter-revolutionary activities to settle an old, unrelated score. The quickness to the guillotine is similar to the eagerness to join a virtual lynch mob. And it doesn’t seem like heads will roll because it’s just online, right? How bad can it be? Well, what happens when virtual and real-life merge? At that time the anti-police protests were taking off. So, what if there were no police and the outraged people handled justice kind of like the tribunals in French Revolution? What if the people took over and we got rid of all the bureaucratic nonsense that was impeding progress? I built a near-future world around that, and several other hot issues of today. Head injuries in contact sports were a big one that formed my protagonist, a retired hockey goon who is the detective of this crime story. Several real-life scandals influenced the plot and I read all the dystopian classics prior to writing. Plot-wise, it’s a detective book. But it’s got elements of sci-fi and pretty intense horror.

Nikki: Of all the characters you've created, do you have a favorite and why?

Lucy: I tend to like my funnier, zanier characters because they’re just so much fun to write. Rick O’Brien from Working Stiffs is a sleazy visiting pharmaceutical salesman who gets trapped in the office with the employees when all Hell breaks loose. I kept picturing Dean Winters playing him, which made him a lot of fun to write. I’ve also been having a great time writing Jane Lushbutcher, my “superhero” in the Godless League collaborative series with Drew Stepak and John Baltisburger. Jane is pretty much just a mass murderer who thinks she’s on a mission from God — who appears in various pieces of litter and commands her in a Pittsburgh accent — to eradicate her city of drunks. She’s like Carrie Nation in a splatterpunk novel.

Nikki: What spawned the collaboration between Drew Stepek and Godless? What are you building?

Lucy: I reached out to Drew after seeing his promos in the splatter club. He explained his vision of the Godless platform. I’m in digital marketing; I got it. He was doing what a good entrepreneur does: fixing a problem and filling a gap. Indie horror is supposed to be about pushing boundaries and being independent of “the man.” Dependence on a corporate monopoly like Amazon should be anathema. So, I put Outrage: Level 10 and Working Stiffs on Godless. When Drew put up the open call for submissions to his “Fucking Scumbags Burn in Hell” series, I was first to inquire. I read his three installments and was the first to pitch my idea. After a suggestion from Drew that made the story pop, I blew through “Karen” in a matter of weeks, record time. For me, having years of experience as a copywriter, writing within constraints in someone else’s world was easy and the ideas just kept coming. I wrote Karen in my world—an ad agency, gyms, Pittsburgh—in my style with the story I wanted to tell. And Drew loved it. That’s what he wanted, for authors to bring their own voices to the narrative. I pitched him a season two idea that inspired a spin-off series that we plan to launch in 2023. That pitch started both of us thinking of all this backstory and the Scumbags world expanded, taking the story in a direction no one would have predicted. After that, he told me his basic idea for the series that would quickly become Mad Motherfuckers. Over Facebook Messenger, we came up with the storyline that ties all the mad scientists together. We started recruiting writers who fit the story and who we thought could bring a new and unique perspective to the mad scientist genre. Then one day I asked him WTH is a certain as-of-yet unpublished title of his. He sent me the manuscript. I told him about an idea I had way back in 2013 and Bodies was born. We collaborate so well, both having similar professional backgrounds, tastes in horror, and senses of humor. We’re both more about being subversive in our writing than shocking. And neither one of us takes ourselves too seriously. If you look at one out of messenger conversations, you’ll find more pontificating about whether we should release a book on Godless with the original Smell the Glove art as the cover than what does and doesn’t constitute the various horror sub-genres.

Nikki: Can you tease us something about bodies?

Lucy: Bodies will change the way you watch horror movies. That’s all I can say at this moment.

Nikki: If there’s one thing you want readers to know about you or the mission of your work, what would it be?

Lucy: I want to make people think. With Outrage: Level 10, I want them to evaluate how they behave online, ask themselves whether being part of a mob is any good, and whether sometimes it may be better to keep an opinion to one’s self. I want to make people think about contemporary challenges. Technology, social media, health and wellness, advertising, abuse of trust, abuse of power, how history repeats itself, mass movements are all recurring themes. I’m interested in why people think the way they do and would like them to think about it as well. And thinking can be scary sometimes, which makes me a good fit for horror.

Nikki: Best advice for aspiring authors?

Lucy: Join a gym, either CrossFit or personal/group training in some capacity. Just make sure you are learning new movements and getting feedback. This is my Mr. Miyagi way of teaching the two essential skills for aspiring writers: patience and taking constructive criticism. When you first join a gym and see all these super-fit people doing cool tricks and lifting a ton of weight, it’s tough to take a good, hard self-assessment and realize that you’ve got a long way to go. I coach CrossFit and see this all the time with new athletes. You have to understand that they learned the fundamentals first. And they were patient with the process. There are no overnight sensations. Successful authors put in a lot of work before they start receiving recognition. They also took criticism and understood that there are people out there who may know more than they do. I think a lot of authors start writing and self-publishing without the experience of being criticized, particularly in a public forum,. I got that in art and writing classes in college. If you didn’t, you can get that at a gym. That’s why I recommend CrossFit as you will be in a group with people who are way fitter than you are. And you’ll be learning complex movements that you will fail over and over when you start. And you will be humbled. And that is the exact experience you will have when you’re writing and getting your work out there.

Nikki: Where can we stalk you?

Lucy: Instagram @Lucy.Leitner and my website LucyLeitner.com. I have a mailing list. I’ve sent one email so far, so you don’t have to worry about me jamming up your inbox

I'm Back! And I've got amazing news: Godless is launching my new line of horror Petite Mort on July 8th!

No more waiting for the next anthology to drop or struggling to find a market for my 12K word novelettes. Readers will have access to every story I've written, a few featuring previously unpublished scenes added after being cut for anthology-length requirements or graphic content.

In addition to a spot on Godless's original series, Drew Stepek has given me a facelift. Check out all the amazing artwork for Petite Mort - my unique brand of sex, death, and bizarre occult horror!

CHEW ON THIS! has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award and I have the exclusive skinny with the authors.

Nikki Noir: You’re featured in a food anthology, so let’s get this out of the way first: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve put in your mouth—I mean weirdest thing eaten ;)

Triana: Tobacco ice cream. I shit you not. I took a girl to a fancy tapas dinner, and the dessert was tobacco ice cream. It tasted like vanilla ice cream served in an full ashtray. Totally inedible. I swear the master chef was just fucking with people.

Noir: Tell us about your story in ,Chew on This!, and what inspired it.

Triana: It's about an old man in a retirement village who becomes obsessed with a take-out delivery girl. But she had deadly intentions. I don't know what inspired it, really. Maybe I want a regular delivery girl in my life.

Noir: If you were a spice/seasoning, what would it be, elaborate if you want.

Triana: Taco seasoning because it's so awesome.

Noir: What’s the scariest real-life, food-related situation you’ve been in?

Triana: I once went to a Texas Roadhouse where a car in the parking lot exploded. Good times.

Noir: What does literary success look like to you?

Triana: Sleeping on a pile of money surrounded by many naked ladies.

Noir: If there’s one thing you want readers to know about you or the mission of your work, what would it be?

Triana: I'm just trying to get my demons out and feed them to you.

Noir: What’s your next project and where can we stalk you?

Triana: Next project is actually food related! I have a collaborative novel coming out with Ryan Harding called The Night Stockers. It is about a satanic grocery store laying siege on its rival. It's a splatterpunk black comedy. Follow me on social media! Twitter handle: koyotekris. And check out my podcast Vital Social Issues 'N Stuff with Kris and John Wayne.

You can learn more about CHEW ON THIS! here

CHEW ON THIS! has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award and I have the exclusive skinny with the authors.

Nikki Noir: You’re featured in a food anthology, so let’s get this out of the way first: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve put in your mouth—I mean weirdest thing eaten ;)

Stroup: I don't know how "weird" this is, but as someone who has followed a vegan diet for nearly three decades, I was braving a lot of terrible attempts at substitutions back in the 90s. Vegan Rella was one of the only non-dairy cheese alternatives available at the time, and it was equivalent to chewing on a chunk of old rubber. New vegans these days that didn't have to spend time in the trenches don't know how good they've got it.

Noir: Tell us about your story in ,Chew on This!, and what inspired it.

Stroup: My story is called "The Insomniac Gods of Blackberry Court," and it's about tweakers who become addicted to the transformative effects of the pineal glands of rats. I wanted to try my hand at an unorthodox Lovecraft-inspired tale, and since I so rarely seem to see the influence of "From Beyond" these days, that seemed like a good jumping off point.

Noir: If you were a spice/seasoning, what would it be?

Stroup: Ginger. I'm hopelessly obsessed with ginger beer and ginger chews. There are certainly far less healthy vices in this world, so I'm totally okay with this

Noir: What’s the scariest real-life, food-related situation you’ve been in?

Stroup: I used to deliver pizzas in my early 20s. One night, on a delivery in a very poorly lit neighborhood, I was held up with a gun to my head. The robbers took the pizza and all of my tips. This was during a timeframe when there had been one or two recent local deaths of pizza delivery guys in similar situations. My life could have ended that night, and for what?

Noir: What does literary success look like to you?

Stroup: When someone I've never met before reads something I've written and completely "gets" it. It's a very specific kind of high that has no equal.

Noir: If there’s one thing you want readers to know about you or the mission of your work, what would it be?

Stroup: I don't play by the literary rule book (or the genre rule book, for that matter). My fiction is often very left of center and does not fit neatly into any convenient boxes. This makes it very challenging to market my work, but the rewards come when the reader sees through all of the labels and simply connects with what I've written (see above).

Noir: What’s your next project and where can we stalk you?

Stroup: I'm currently working on selling my third novel, starting to keep my eyes peeled for a publisher to perhaps do a short story collection, and putting together a couple of comic book pitches. You can find me on Instagram and Twitter at @chadxstroup. Check out my novels, ,Sexy Leper and ,Secrets of the Weird, and my ,author page for more short stories.You can learn more about CHEW ON THIS! here

HEW ON THIS! has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award and I have the exclusive skinny with the authors.

Nikki Noir: You’re featured in a food anthology, so let’s get this out of the way first: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve put in your mouth—I mean weirdest thing eaten ;)

Jones: As the Executive Chef of the Headcheese Restaurant in Orlando, FL, I have put a lot of weird things in my mouth, but if you don’t mind I would like to talk about my recent win on the Food Network’s Chopped: Cannibal Edition. I had some stiff competition and was up against Ed Gein and Jeffrey Dahmer, but I knew I had a chance to win when I opened that basket and saw the ingredients. I made a wonderful human tongue tartar and drizzled it with a whipped semen purée, all served on fried scabbed croutons. The appetizer dish blew the others away.

For the entrée round, Ed came out strong with a brain stew which he served in the skull. The aroma was outstanding, but my shoulder flank steak had perfect grill marks. Served with a side marrow mashed potatoes and puss buttered gravy, I knew I could knock out Ed and it would just be me against Dahmer.

For the dessert round, the judges threw us for a loop with the toe fungus jam, but I was determined to prevail. I made a deconstructed toe jam ice cream and put it in the blast chiller while I used the foreskin to create a homemade waffle cone. Using the dry freezer maggots, I rehydrated them in grenadine to bring out their repugnant color and sprinkled them on top.

Winning Chopped: Cannibal Edition has been a game changer for me.

Noir: Tell us about your story in ,Chew on This!, and what inspired it.

Jones: After opening the Headcheese Restaurant, my younger cousin mentored under me for a bit. He was a bigger fella and wanted to learn the ways of a five star Michelin chef, so I taught him a few shortcuts, especially with sauces. He really mastered a homemade blue cheese dressing that was both tart and syrupy. The morsels of the blue cheese mixed with his own unique blend of cream was excellent. He later went back home and started working at a local bar where I hear he is doing wonderful.

Noir: If you were a spice/seasoning, what would it be?

Jones: Oh my, I do love spices. I would have to say Nutmeg, only because I used to date someone named Meg and she really liked my homemade nuts. She really couldn’t get enough of my nuts. She would put one or two of them in her mouth at a time and just roll them around. She liked to lick the salt off of the nuts and kept the, in her mouth until they became almost prune-like in texture. Sometimes she would hold my nuts up above her head, then drop them down into her awaiting mouth. Sometimes she missed and my nuts would bounce off her forehead, but she would always gather them up.

Noir: What’s the scariest real-life, food-related situation you’ve been in?

Jones: Late one night at the restaurant, I was experimenting with a new chili recipe. I hacked up all of the ingredients and had a nice bottom roast. I always liked to leave the bone in for extra flavor. Anyways, as the meat was braising in the pot, the guy woke up. I mean, I thought he was dead, especially with how much that man in artery drained, but sure as shit, he sat up. Not sure how, because he had no legs, just a torso really, but there he was sitting up next to the pot of his stewing legs. I thought, what the hell, so I gave him a taste and he did seem to like it before passing back out.

Noir: What’s your next project and where can we stalk you?Jones: I’m working on a few new cookbooks. One is a splatter western cookie that will be coming out from Death’s Head Press. I also have a wonderful little recipe that will be in the next issue of SplatterpunkZine. Oh, and of course there’s a few anthologies in the oven over at The Evil Cookie Publishing.You can find more K. Trap stories here, and get CHEW ON THIS! here

CHEW ON THIS! has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award and I have the exclusive skinny with the authors.

Nikki Noir: You’re featured in a food anthology, so let’s get this out of the way first: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve put in your mouth—I mean weirdest thing eaten ;)

Brown: Thanks to insomnia, I take Ambien to sleep. I am not sure exactly what Ambien Tonia has eaten, but I have found empty containers of sour cream, ranch dressing, mustard, and sardines all at the same time. And had terrible indigestion the next day. I think most of those containers were nearly full when I took the meds, so, there’s that.

Noir: Tell us about your story in ,Chew on This!, and what inspired it.

Brown: A woman that believes her husband has brought home a dead baby for dinner. At the heart it is about postpartum depression. I have no idea where it came from, it was just one of those stories that appeared.

Noir: If you were a spice/seasoning, what would it be, elaborate if you want.

Brown: Salt. I am necessary for your survival, but if you get to much of me I will raise your blood pressure and make your ankles swell.

Noir: What’s the scariest real-life, food-related situation you’ve been in?

Brown: Ambien Tonia nearly cut my finger off once. I don’t let her near knives now. Or the stove, but that’s another story.

Noir: What does literary success look like to you?

Brown: Huge piles of money. Like Scrooge McDuck swimmable vault levels of money. Well, that and reaching the one reader that connects with your story on an emotional level. Maybe even enough that it changes their life, and yours. But also the money. Who doesn’t want to live off of their art?

Noir: If there’s one thing you want readers to know about you or the mission of your work, what would it be?

Brown: I used to seek attention through my work. Then I wrote just to get paid. These days I write what I want, when I can. I guess my mission is to entertain. Are you not entertained?

Noir: What’s your next project and where can we stalk you?

Brown: Nothing in the pipeline right now, but you can find me online at most book sellers and at www.toniabrownauthor.comAside from writing, I create art with my twin sister. You can find our stuff at www.spookytwins.com

Find more of her work, including other Blood Bound Books anthologies here

You can learn more about CHEW ON THIS! here

CHEW ON THIS! has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award and I have the exclusive skinny with the authors.

Nikki Noir: You’re featured in a food anthology, so let’s get this out of the way first: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve put in your mouth—I mean weirdest thing eaten ;)

Sarah: Probably Pop Rocks. No one ever talks about how weird it is to eat that stuff. I mean, you’re putting something in your mouth, knowing it will literally explode. Pop Rocks. We’re talking about Pop Rocks.

Rob: I grew up on a farm full of Mennonites, and we ate a lot of weird farm things, but as a kid the one I remember is most certainly head cheese. I’m not sure who came up with the concept of meat jelly with suspended pig head bits, but just because you can, doesn’t mean you should. This is not cheese!

Noir: Tell us about your story in ,Chew on This!, and what inspired it.

Rob: My(Rob) father-in-law is a hoarder. Stuff goes into his house and never leaves, just piling up day after day, year after year. Which is pretty typical of old widowers in their mid-seventies, as far I can tell. Except, in his case, it was food, and in particular meat. He just couldn’t resist a sale, buying more and more and more, and when his freezers filled up, he’d buy more freezers. Eventually his garage and basement were full of freezers of meat. Meat which sat, rarely eaten (how much meat can one man eat?) and compressed into solid blocks of meat ice.

Of course, one day he went away on vacation and during that time his power failed, and the meat began to thaw... You can probably imagine what happened, there’s nothing quite like it. Anyways, I mentioned this all to Sarah on a run one day and we conjectured about what might happen to meat compressed for years. Could it reach some kind of density threshold and become sentient? We decided it would make a terrible, yet entertaining, story.

Noir: If you were a spice/seasoning, what would it be, elaborate if you want.

Sarah: Citrus, definitely. I’m an acid fiend, but also sweet. At first.

Rob: Nando’s XXPeri-Peri Sauce. On cheesy omelets. So many regrets.

Noir: What’s the scariest real-life, food-related situation you’ve been in?

Sarah: I’m an apex predator, so I wouldn’t know.

Rob: Back, many many many years ago, when I was in High School I dated an amazing young lady from Japan. The first time I went to her house for dinner they handed me a bowl of rice and chop sticks. I’d never been that terrified at a dinner table in my life.

Noir: What does literary success look like to you?

Rob: Being able to write cool stories that people enjoy.

Sarah: The approval of people I hate.

Noir: If there’s one thing you want readers to know about you or the mission of your work, what would it be?

Sarah & Rob: To be able to write whatever the fuck (pardon our language) we want. Joe Landsdale put it best when he said “Write as if everyone you know is dead.”

Noir: What’s your next project and where can we stalk you?

Sarah & Rob: We have a co-written and co-curated (with some fellow authors) mini-anthology called Terrace VI: Forbidden Fruit coming out in June.

We can be stalked at The Seventh Terrace:

Website: www.the-seventh-terrace.com

Facebook: www.facebook.com/TheSeventhTerrace

Twitter: @The7thTerrace

Instagram: the7thterrace

You can learn more about CHEW ON THIS! here

HEW ON THIS! has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award and I have the exclusive skinny with the authors.

Nikki Noir: You’re featured in a food anthology, so let’s get this out of the way first: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve put in your mouth—I mean weirdest thing eaten ;)

McNee: When I visited Iceland, I ate fermented shark. I personally think that's pretty weird, but it's not even the weirdest food in Iceland, where you can also get puffin burgers, whale steaks and little licorice balls dusted with ammonia. Anyway, culinary tradition dictates you eat the shark with a shot of Icelandic liquor called Brennivin (roughly translated as 'burnt wine'). The flavour packs a punch, but was not to my liking, so I passed the plate to a local who insisted that she loved it.

Noir: Tell us about your story in ,Chew on This!, and what inspired it.

McNee: This was a story inspired by its original title, four words that cropped up in conversation with a friend. I said I thought it sounded like a good title for a story and he laid down a challenge in which we would both write a story in a week using that title and then have them independently judged to find a winner. To the best of my knowledge, he never wrote his story but I wrote the first draft of what would become 'With a Little Salt and Vinegar'. Scotland's relationship with fried food is renowned the world over and this story leans into that stereotype, taking it to an extreme with my own fantasy-horror vision of dockland life, the kind of chip shops you can find there and the kind of characters who will source, cook or eat anything for a dare. Sadly, I had to change the title as the one that inspired the story gave a little too much away.

Noir: If you were a spice/seasoning, what would it be, elaborate if you want.

McNee: Caster sugar, because I'm sweet and refined.

Noir: What’s the scariest real-life, food-related situation you’ve been in?

McNee: Around 12 years ago, while I was travelling across the USA, I visited an Arby's. Sometimes I still get nightmare

Noir: What does literary success look like to you?

McNee: A lot of readers. Reaching and building an audience is, for me, the toughest part of trying to 'make it' as a writer. When readers begin finding their way to my work of their own accord - without me having to tempt, cajole or bribe seemingly every last one like the bally talker outside a circus sideshow - then I'll feel like I'm getting somewhere.

Noir: What’s your next project and where can we stalk you?

McNee: My most recent publishing credit is the story 'In Exchange for an Honest Review', which opens ONE OF US: A TRIBUTE TO FRANK MICHAELS ERRINGTON, a mammoth horror anthology edited by Kenneth W Cain. Frank Michaels Errington was an extremely positive force in the horror writing community and an extremely prolific reviewer, who sadly died while awaiting a kidney transplant. My story, which finds a book blogger doing battle with a vindictive, egomaniacal (and possibly homicidal) horror author was written to pay tribute not only to Frank but to everyone who makes a habit, hobby or profession out of reviewing horror books. I wanted to demonstrate my appreciation by writing a story with a critic as the protagonist and in which he got to be the hero, simply by doing what he was best at - writing honest reviews. I liked Frank, I'm proud of the story and I hope more people will check out the book, especially since all the proceeds go to the American Transplant Foundation.

You can check out more of John's work at his website www.johnmcnee.com , his author page , and of course, his fantastic cooking channel on YOUTUBE!

You can learn more about CHEW ON THIS! here

CHEW ON THIS! has been nominated for a Splatterpunk Award and I have the exclusive skinny with the authors.

Nikki Noir: You’re featured in a food anthology, so let’s get this out of the way first: What’s the weirdest thing you’ve put in your mouth—I mean weirdest thing eaten ;)

Kelly: Well, my uncles used to hunt a lot when I was younger, so I’ve eaten possum, squirrel, and raccoon. The possum and coon were mighty greasy… the squirrel more like eating chicken wings… very little meat. I’ve eaten rattlesnake and gator tail too, but there was so much Cajun seasoning and cayenne pepper on them, you really couldn’t tell how they really tasted. Scorched my tongue and tonsils is about all.

Noir: Tell us about your story in ,Chew on This!, and what inspired it.

Kelly: “Grandma’s Favorite Recipe” is sort of a companion story to my coming-of-age novel, Hell Hollow. In the novel, the villain, Doctor Augustus Leech, peddles his patented elixir to poison his customers and harvest their souls. In this story, Grandma – who is one of the surviving children from Leech’s original poisoning of the town of Harmony – uses the last of the elixir in the most despicable of ways.

Noir: If you were a spice/seasoning, what would it be, elaborate if you want.

Kelly: I’d say cinnamon. Cinnamon goes good with almost everything… except chili. I grabbed a bottle of cinnamon instead of chili powder once and, needless to say, the results were unappetizing

Noir: What’s the scariest real-life, food-related situation you’ve been in?

Kelly: There was a cockroach in my hot chocolate once. It must have been swimming around in there because it was still alive when I took a big sip. I could feel it wiggling and squirming in my mouth before I spit it out. Turned me off on hot chocolate for a long time afterward.

Noir: What does literary success look like to you?

Kelly: Just having the ability and opportunity to create and write, and be able to make my work available to readers. I’ve been writing horror for 35 years and fame and fortune has pretty much eluded me… but I’m just happy to be able to continue to write and publish in a genre that I love so much.

Noir: If there’s one thing you want readers to know about you or the mission of your work, what would it be?

Kelly: For me, writing novels and short stories is all about entertaining my readers and having fun. I strive to write fiction that will take the reader beyond their troubles and let them escape for a while… away from the problems of today’s world… and provide a little enjoyment and fun to help get them through their day.

Noir: What’s your next project and where can we stalk you?

Kelly: I’m currently working on Book One of a five volume horror/western serial that will be published by Thunderstorm Books over the next three years. I also have several new story collections in the works for 2021 and 2022.

You can find me on Facebook, Twitter (RonaldKelly4), Instagram (@dixiedarkun), and you can always check out my website, Ronaldkelly.com, my blog, Southern-Fried & Horrified, and Amazon profile.

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