Welcome everyone to the third Q&A session for the #redeyereadalong that myself and Michelle from Tales of Yesterday are hosting over on Twitter! Feel free to join along with us. We’re currently reading Bad Bones by Graham Marks this week. If you check out our Goodreads group you’ll find all the information on upcoming events.
Q&A Time!
Today’s Q&A is with the wonderful Graham Marks, who I’m sure is revelling in all the Twitter/Goodreads comments about how terrified we all are right now, just a few days into the reading week!
1. Let’s start with something easy. What was you biggest fear growing up?
Without a screaming shadow of a doubt it was the ‘bloofer lady’ from Bram Stoker’s Dracula. I slept through a whole, very hot, summer with my bedroom windows sealed tight after reading that. She was NOT going to get in!
2. What inspired you to write Bad Bones?
I got the makings of the idea after going for a walk in a canyon off Ventura Blvd in Los Angeles – as described in the book, it’s a chunk of wilderness right in the middle of endless urban sprawl – and while there I wondered what this place must have looked like when the Spanish arrived, with their horses and armour, their swords and their gun…and their religion. And it all kind of unfolded from there.
3. What is the best thing about writing in the horror genre?
For me, with this book, it was that I’d never written a horror novel before – I’d done some (unpublished) shorts and really relished the challenge of weaving together a thriller with a horror story and creating a new set of rules for me to work with. Plus I got to kill way more people than I usually do in much more interesting ways.
4. What is (in your opinion) the scariest book available (not including your own!)?
Well, there is Dracula, or you can take your pick from ‘classic era’ Stephen King – I’d probably choose Carrie – and I’ve just read Jonathan Stroud’s The Hollow Boy, and that has some really chilling bits in it. Which of course I read at night, by the light of a single lamp, and wished I hadn’t.
5. What is your favourite urban legend?
Crop circles. It used to be UFOs, but since the ubiquity of phone’s with cameras there have been no decent saucer scares, abductions or anything. Chris Carter was lucky he did X-Files before the time everyone had a camera phone, and it does make you wonder what the new mini-series is going to be like!
6. What is the creepiest/scariest line from your Red Eye book?
Hard to say, just lifting a line out and placing it here on its own…but this did get to me when I wrote it:
“Life is a circle,’ Rafael came round the car and took hold of Gabe’s should, pushing him to move towards the chapel. ‘It starts and ends at the same place, with the beat of a heart. Fools believe there is only One True Way, one power who can control the chaos of this never-ending spiral – but they are wrong! I am back to finish what I started!’
Rafael is mad, but he truly believes, and, scarily, in the real world that kind of belief can make terrible things happen…
About the Author
(image from Goodreads)
I’m reading this one for the first time this week – haven’t started just yet (I’m a little behind schedule!) – and I’m really looking forward to it.
Are you joining us for the #redeyereadalong? If so, what do you think of Bad Bones so far?
Heather Reviews 