Cold Flesh: Ask Ron Shiflet, Nov 28–Dec 3

[hugonian]

Session: Ron Shiflet, Nov 28–Dec 3

Instructions: Post a question for the author and wait for a reply. From Monday to Saturday, the author will peek in periodically to answer questions. If the author cannot answer your question before time expires, feel free to PM the author with your question.

This week’s author: Ron Shiflet “Incident at Hell Creek” is a native Texan who prays every night to Robert E. Howard. He doesn’t know if it helps but figures it can’t hurt. When not writing or reading, he enjoys watching horror movies, listening to music and going a little mad sometimes. His fiction has been accepted by publications such as The Book of Dark Wisdom, Strange Tales, Dark Legacy, Horror Carousel, Nocturne, Mount Zion Speculative Review and Seasons in the Night. His stories have or will be appearing in anthologies such as Cold Flesh, Horrors Beyond, Eldritch Blue, Arkham Tales, Goremet Cuisine, Vintage Moon, Maelstrom Vol. 1, and Travel a Time Historic.

Q&A Schedule: See when other authors will be available--schedule of authors

Cold Flesh info: For more info regarding Cold Flesh, such as reviews and updates, please visit the official thread or the official website.

[big john h]

Ron,
I have noticed quite a bit of humor in your horror stories. Most horror writers, and readers, that I have met are very funny people. I always find this point interesting as you would think people who enjoy horror would be weird or creepy.

1) Do you TRY and be funny, or do you do it tongue and cheek, or is it just something that evolves as you are writing? I'm not saying you don't write good horror, you do, but I usually get a few laughs along the way...which is a nice bonus.

2) In regards to your status as a Texan, do you wear a cowboy hat, own a horse, or chew tobacco?

3) If you had to pick your FAVORITE story in Cold Flesh, what would it be?

Originally Posted by big john h

Ron,
I have noticed quite a bit of humor in your horror stories. Most horror writers, and readers, that I have met are very funny people. I always find this point interesting as you would think people who enjoy horror would be weird or creepy.

1) Do you TRY and be funny, or do you do it tongue and cheek, or is it just something that evolves as you are writing? I'm not saying you don't write good horror, you do, but I usually get a few laughs along the way...which is a nice bonus.

2) In regards to your status as a Texan, do you wear a cowboy hat, own a horse, or chew tobacco?

3) If you had to pick your FAVORITE story in Cold Flesh, what would it be?

1) Well, in "Incident at Hell Creek" the humor was intentional. With my other fiction, I find that some of the humor just develops during the course of the story. Wylie and Buster were sort of patterned after two characters in The Wild Bunch, one of my favorite movies. I loved the interplay between the Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones characters and was trying for something along those lines With Buster and Wylie.

2) LOL I don't wear a cowboy hat or own a horse but I used to chew tobacco on occasion.

3)That's hard, there were so many good ones. I loved "Mortuary", "Zombie Love", "Colder Still", "Limbless Bodies Swaying" and "Cover". Thought the entire book was damn good.

[hugonian]

Tell us how you came up with the idea behind “Incident at Hell Creek.” In general, how do you generate story ideas?

[HOO-HAA]

How far would be *too* far for you as a horror writer?

Originally Posted by hugonian

Tell us how you came up with the idea behind “Incident at Hell Creek.” In general, how do you generate story ideas?

I was in the mood to write a weird western and the idea just sort of came to me. Then I decided to use the Wylie and Buster characters and it became more of a darkly humorous piece. It wasn't written specifically for the anthology but had been recently finished when I saw the call for submissions

In general story ideas occasionally pop into my head pretty much fully formed. Other times I play sort of a What If? Game. I'll look at an ordinary situation and think "what if this happened?" Then I sometimes come up with something interesting and begin writing. With me, there's no set method.

Originally Posted by Spiral

How far would be *too* far for you as a horror writer?

I doubt that I would go as far as some of the writers like Lee and Laymon. I just don't feel comfortable writing about certain situations. I don't have a problem with writing gore but I feel pretty uncomfortable at the prospect of writing scenes of sexual violence and degradation. By the way, not knocking Lee and Laymon, just don't think I could write some of the scenes they write.

[hugonian]

Originally Posted by RonShiflet

I just don't feel comfortable writing about certain situations.

I know what you mean. My family reads everything I put out, and I’m kind of nervous about my recent work because of the sexuality. My family is close. We throw parties, we play cards. I don’t want them to be ashamed of me and lose a decent part of my readership. I don’t want to see my grandma frown.

That aside, what books can you suggest to aspiring writers? I’m talking fiction, but feel free to include books on craft.

[quote=RonShiflet]1) Well, in "Incident at Hell Creek" the humor was intentional. With my other fiction, I find that some of the humor just develops during the course of the story. Wylie and Buster were sort of patterned after two characters in The Wild Bunch, one of my favorite movies. I loved the interplay between the Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones characters and was trying for something along those lines With Buster and Wylie.

Loved the story.

But now that you mention The Wild Bunch, I don't recall either Wylie or Buster using the phrase 'Two-bit, redneck peckerwod'. I may have misquoted but that's the one line that has stuck in my mind for years whenever I think of that flick.

I'd check CF for the quote but I lent my copy out and don't have it for reference.

Anyhow, it was a damn good read.

[HOO-HAA]

Originally Posted by hugonian

I don’t want to see my grandma frown.

LOL! Fantastic....

Originally Posted by hugonian

I know what you mean. My family reads everything I put out, and I’m kind of nervous about my recent work because of the sexuality. My family is close. We throw parties, we play cards. I don’t want them to be ashamed of me and lose a decent part of my readership. I don’t want to see my grandma frown.

That aside, what books can you suggest to aspiring writers? I’m talking fiction, but feel free to include books on craft.

I highly recommend reading Robert E. Howard. He's an excellent storyteller and can keep a story moving better than anyone I know. He wrote in many genres so those, who for example hate heroic fantasy can still find something by him to check out. I personally love nearly all his writing.

Stephen King is another good one to read if you want to know how to make a character believable or fully realized. He's also got a great common man's voice to his work that I find attractive.

Shoot, there's many good ones to learn from in almost any particular genre.

[quote=jmeg]

Originally Posted by RonShiflet

1) Well, in "Incident at Hell Creek" the humor was intentional. With my other fiction, I find that some of the humor just develops during the course of the story. Wylie and Buster were sort of patterned after two characters in The Wild Bunch, one of my favorite movies. I loved the interplay between the Strother Martin and L.Q. Jones characters and was trying for something along those lines With Buster and Wylie.

Loved the story.

But now that you mention The Wild Bunch, I don't recall either Wylie or Buster using the phrase 'Two-bit, redneck peckerwod'. I may have misquoted but that's the one line that has stuck in my mind for years whenever I think of that flick.

I'd check CF for the quote but I lent my copy out and don't have it for reference.

Anyhow, it was a damn good read.

Glad you liked the story. No, neither Buster or Wylie used that phrase in the story. I probably should have thrown it in there.

[big john h]

Manly Wade Wellman is another good writer who didn't use disgusting/vile sex acts to scare the beejesus out of people!

In one of my recent stories, a delusional woman masterbates and then smears bloody discharge on a wall. My MOTHER IN LAW read this!!!!!! It was embarassing for me. Real embarassing

Okay I've hijacked the thread long enough. Ask Ron some more questions!

Was there anything about "Incident at Hell Creek" that you wish you could have changed or done differently?

How was it working with John on "Wandering Flesh"? Any interesting stories? Which do you enjoy more: working on collaborative stories, or working solo?

What has been your worst writing experience? Any advice for fledgling writers?

Also, my intention is to have the six (arrgh) reviews that I've fallen behind on written by tonight, or at the latest tomorrow night. Kids and girlfriend willing.

Originally Posted by Collin

Was there anything about "Incident at Hell Creek" that you wish you could have changed or done differently?

How was it working with John on "Wandering Flesh"? Any interesting stories? Which do you enjoy more: working on collaborative stories, or working solo?

What has been your worst writing experience? Any advice for fledgling writers?

Also, my intention is to have the six (arrgh) reviews that I've fallen behind on written by tonight, or at the latest tomorrow night. Kids and girlfriend willing.

I don't guess I would have done anything differently with "Incident". If I looked at it closely now I could probably find a few things I might change. That's usually the case with most of my stories when I read them months after finishing them.

John's a real cool guy and easy to work with. He's very gung ho about his writing and is only going to get better and better as he continues to write. I think he's already damn good so watch out! We didn't collaborate on the stories in Wandering Flesh. We each wrote two stories and a poem for the chapbook. For the record, both of my stories have a few humorous touches but are much more serious in tone than "Incident at Hell Creek." Both of John's stories are excellent and I hope people who buy it are happy with what we've done. I've only written one collaboration, back when I first started writing. Since then, I've started a couple but the parties involved weren't serious about it and dropped out. I'd only be willing to collaborate with a few writers I know closely. John Hubbard is one of them but we haven't done so yet. Maybe in the future perhaps. John Sunseri and JW Schnarr are two others I'd be willing to work with.

I haven't had too many bad writing experiences other than waiting forever a couple of occasions for submission replies. It's really crappy when you never hear back from an editor but fortunately most of them have more class than that.

My advice for fledgling writers is to write! I know it's a cliche but the advice is solid. It's the only way to improve your writing skills.

Thanks for the questions and for the reviews you've been posting.