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.