Can you
tell readers a little bit about yourself and what inspired to write in this
particular genre?
Be happy to! I am an Los
Angeles-based filmmaker and writer as well as a musician. I've been a horror
fan all my life. I grew up reading Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Harlan Ellison,
Ray Bradbury, just to name a few. Horror is in my wheelhouse, so to speak!
I've made a few short horror films, and, in 2015, I wrote
produced and directed a full length movie. It's a horror-suspense thriller
called 'Abandoned Dead.' It won a few small film festival awards and since then
it's run on quite a few cable systems and was just released in Europe on DVD.
I shot it very low budget using my credit cards in locations
donated by family and friends. I like to say it was my film school trial by
fire! I never went to film school – making films is how I've learned to do it.
Films have greatly influenced my fiction writing.
What inspired you to write this book?
Back in the mid-eighties I lived in
Wildwood New Jersey in Cape May County. It's a very historic place, lots of
Victorian buildings and a rich history of ghost sightings and hauntings.
Since then, I've been conceptualizing stories that take place in
this most unique time period and place. Wildwood was a party town with a rich
past and a carnival like atmosphere, but due to economic conditions and
changing times, it became a kind of ghost town.
I thought it would be a perfect setting for contemporary horror stories
that take place in the mid-eighties, so I finally wrote 10 of them and put them
in this collection for publication.
Please
tell us about your latest release.
It's a
collection of ten short stories and a novella. The novella is the cornerstone
of the collection and the title of the book. It's called The Witches of
Wildwood,' about a witch-hunting preacher hell-bent on killing four teenage
sisters determined to destroy the world from their Wildwood boarding
house.
Do you have a formula for developing characters?
Like do you create a character sketch or list of attributes before you start
writing or do you just let the character develop as you write?
I try to create a background for each of my characters,
although a lot of the time I keep it in my head. Every character should be just
like a real person, with a history and psychological and sociological reasons
for doing what they do.
The hardest thing is to keep them
on track. Characters tend to take on a life of their own and the fact they are
in the story to begin with means they are uncommonly motivated to act. That
makes them rather stubborn. They will try to take over the story if you let
them.
The main objective for me is to
give each of my characters a driving goal and then put obstacles in their way. The
problem is the characters want to do the things they want to do, not
necessarily what I want them to do.
Do you
ever suffer from writer’s block? How do you deal with it?
I don't really get blocked as much as I get lazy.
Writing is not a fun ritual for me, but I try to write every morning for at
least 20-30 mins, when I first get up, before I log on to the internet.
I find mostly I have to do it in short bursts or I lose my
concentration. I really don't know how writers like Stephen King or Dean Koontz
can sit for hours and write, I don't have that kind of discipline. I suppose if I were doing it for a living I
would have to force myself to write at least a few hours a day but for now I am
just doing it in short increments. It's a lot more enjoyable that way, for
me.
Do you
have any weird writing quirks or rituals?
I sometimes
pace between pages, I still do it sometimes when I'm writing for longer
periods, it's hard to sit still. Walking seems to help the creative process for
me.
Do you
write in different genres?
Yes, I can write in
different genres but the one I feel I'm best at is horror-suspense.
Do you find it difficult to write in multiple genres?
It's difficult to write well in
any genre. It takes a lot of time and practice to get good at it. A lot of
patience and a lot of rejection.
I don't feel I am there yet, I don't consider myself an
accomplished writer by any means. But each time I finish writing something, I
know I am learning, getting better, using the tools, working the craft. It
doesn't often feel that way emotionally, but improvement is happening.
What
was the last amazing book you read?
The last
amazing book of fiction I read was
'STATION ELEVEN' by Emily St. John Mandel. Fabulous book. I'm also
really into Herman Hesse and Steve Erickson. I'm always reading books, fiction,
non-fiction, coffee table books, books on photography, I think I am Amazon's biggest customer!
What
can readers expect next from you?
Right now I am
working on two separate screenplays. Both screenplays are dramas set during the
Civil War, one is a horror story, the other is a straight drama. As for fiction
projects, I'm always outlining ideas.
Would
you like to leave readers with a little teaser or excerpt from the book?
Here's a short excerpt from 'The Girl In The Attic,' it's the
story of a boardwalk carnival worker who believes the young girl living in his
boarding room attic is a vampire.
She hunted at night and
I followed her.
She'd walk the streets of Wildwood once the sun went
down. She was the perfect hunter because she used herself as bait. Being alone
and attractive, in a town like Wildwood, a young girl, properly attired, could
rack up incredible kills, if she put her mind to it.
From the looks of the photos she took, she was good at it. Everywhere she went she
carried that camera. I watched her stand in the middle of crowds, freeze, and
snap shots of people passing by and they'd never even notice.
“Careful,” warned Vinnie, my stoner buddy. “You get
hooked on a girl like that you may end up regretting it. Some tail ain't worth
the price.”
His words would come back to haunt me. For now I was on a
mission.
I walked the boards after dark, sometimes late at night.
The crowds were thinning. It seemed each season brought fewer tourists. The
town was starting to look aged and worn, like an old hooker used up and left to
die.
I didn't know what the future held for Wildwood, but one
thing I was certain of.
Victoria Martin was a vampire.
I was the only one who could stop her.
Witches of Wildwood: Cape May Horror Stories and Other Scary Tales from the Jersey Shore
A Collection of Contemporary Horror Fiction
Mark W. Curran
Genre: Horror/Speculative Fiction
Publisher: NMD Books
Date of Publication: Sept 15, 2017
ISBN: 978-1-936828-51-7
Number of pages: 300
Word Count: 83,365
Cover Artist: Robert Gonzales
Book Description:
Werewolves... vampires... swamp beasts... zombies... even a Jersey Devil... all of these chilling creatures and more await you in this haunting collection of 11 contemporary horror fiction stories by Mark Wesley Curran.
Uniquely set 'down the shore' in South Jersey's Cape May County, these scary tales are sure to terrify and entertain both adult readers as well as young adults.
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/-fHOAUbK0xc
Excerpt:
There was no
doubt among the sisters that the murders were increasing their power. Each felt
the surge of energy that coursed through them with each kill.
“I feel so
alive!” Zoey exclaimed on the morning after they’d tied Harlan Clemmons to a chair
and stabbed him multiple times through the heart, “like I’m
plugged into some
bitchin’ electrical source!” she marveled.
The other girls
felt it too. Both Jaz and Ali would lay awake at night and feel it running
through them - bringing them even more vitality and strength than even their
young ages provided.
Mark Wesley Curran is a writer of contemporary fiction, specializing in the horror and suspense genre. Born and raised in Suburban Philadelphia, he spent many summers living and working in Wildwood, New Jersey during its heyday. He now resides in Los Angeles where he enjoys creative pursuits as a writer, filmmaker and musician.
Website: http://www.witchesofwildwood.com
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