Five Minutes with Stacey Larner #bloodyparchment

It's headed to that time of the year where we begin to get ready for the release of the next Bloody Parchment anthology. So, if you're looking for something dark and sometimes twisted to add to your reading pile, do give our existing anthologies a shot. Volume #1 is available as a free download off Goodreads, while Bloody Parchment: Hidden Things, Lost Things is available from such vendors as Amazon and Kobo. Limited edition print copies are available from the Book Lounge. 

In the meanwhile, I've been holding some of the author interviews on ice and have one of the 2011 finalists featuring here today. A big welcome to Stacey Larner, who wrote a rather disconcerting tale called Duck Creek Road. Welcome, Stacey! Tell us a little about yourself.

I have 3 children, the youngest is 6 months. I started writing after becoming a single parent in 2010, because I needed some way to purge my anger and grief. I had two short stories published last year (2011) and, apart from Duck Creek Road, one so far this year (2012) with three more due out later in the year. I live in Australia, in a place that's mostly warm and sunny, and spend the rest of my (sparse) free time knitting, sewing, reading and talking on social media.



Tell us a little about the background of your story. 

Well this kind of ties into the next question! There is an anecdote that goes with the setting and the predicament Holly and Rohan find themselves in. But the story is more about Holly's personal demons. It's about how abuse warps a person, makes it hard for them to break out of old patterns of thinking. It's not autobiographical, by the way! Originally I wanted her to have a chance at a happy ending, to defeat her demons, but it didn't quite work. I took on board some feedback and the rest is history.


Are there any interesting anecdotes relating to its creation? 

Duck Creek Road is a real road, and my partner and I got caught in the same way. I remember at the time we joked that I should write a story about it. We didn't have GPS though, just an old school refidex (Holly is like me in that respect). I have photos if you want proof!

What do you like about horror as a genre? I'm fairly new to horror. When I was about 11 my parents' friends put Cujo and Nightmare on Elm Street 3 on for me and they terrified me so thoroughly I avoided most horror as a rule. My partner is a big horror fan so we've been slowly watching a few classics. I love to write horror because it helps me explore darknes
s. The darkness in me and what I see in the world. Writing horror has made me braver when it comes to reading it too. I love that it makes me think, makes me uncomfortable, helps me to understand the monster. I'm not scared of ghosts but I'm terrified by the atrocities humans inflict on each other.

What scares you?


Acts of cruelty, normalised atrocities. I find serial killers more scary than demons. I'm also scared by the idea of losing the people I love. The two stories that have horrified me the most (so far) are Wives by the late Paul Haines and The Lottery by Shirley Jackson. It's no coincidence that they are both set in a dystopian future where people are desensitised to the horror of their cultural norms.

Where can people find you online?

I'm on twitter @StaceySarasvati and I have a blog at http://foregoreality.wordpress.com. I do have a demanding baby so I can be sporadic in my posting, but I do post!