Cold Flesh: Ask Robert Morrish, Dec. 26-31

[hugonian]

Session: Robert Morrish, Dec. 26-31

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: Robert Morrish “Do the Trains Still Run on Time?” is the editor of Cemetery Dance and former editor of The Scream Factory, and has edited or co-edited anthologies such as October Dreams and Quick Chills II. His short fiction has appeared in periodicals such as All Hallows and Fangoria Online, and anthologies such as Horrors!, The UFO Files, Subterranean Gallery, Shivers, Shivers 2, Shivers 3, and The Texas Rangers. Morrish’s “The Outsider,” which appeared in The Texas Rangers and was his first Western short story, was selected as one of three finalists for the Western Writers of America Spur Award for best short story.

Morrish has had non-fiction work appear in books such as Fantasy and Horror: A Critical and Historical Guide and The Encyclopedia of Fantasy, and periodicals such as Publishers Weekly, The San Francisco Chronicle, Weird Tales, and Rod Serling’s Twilight Zone Magazine. Born and raised in Michigan, Morrish now lives deep in the Santa Cruz Mountains of California, with his lovely wife Kayalucia (who he wed, most appropriately, on Halloween), five dogs, two horses, and a black cat.

In late-breaking news, Morrish will be making a guest appearance, reading his short story “Junkyard of the Damned,” at the October 28th, 2005 Capitola, CA stop of the Rolling Darkness Revue. The RDR features authors Peter Atkins, Dennis Etchison, and Glen Hirshberg presenting dramatic readings of their work, accompanied by music, effects, and local guests.

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.

[hugonian]

Tell us how you came up with your story, “Do the Trains Still Run on Time?”

Thanks for the question, D.L., and for setting up this series of Q&As.

So, how I came up with the story... like most of my story ideas, it was a synthesis of several different elements: my searching for a slightly different perspective from which to tell a zombie story; my musings about suicide bombers, who were particularly newsworthy at the time; the rants of a friend who had recently been discarded by a large corporation; and likely a couple other things that I have since forgotten.

As with most of my attempts at fiction, I came up with an outline (in my head, primarily) of the major "scenes" and then basically played "connect the dots" when writing the story.

It was a lot of fun... and that's not necessarily always the case when I'm trying to write. It was my first zombie story, but definitely not my last!

cheers,
Robert

[HOO-HAA]

What would you consider to be *true* horror? What elements are required within a story to achieve such?

How far would be *too* far for you to go in order to horrify your audience?

I have several questions, will post them separately ...

1 -- This is the first Zombie story you have published -- but you seem to be very comfortable with the vision of what "dead" walking on a day to day basis would entail ...

When YOU think of great and fav' zombie authors/stories, who wrote them, and why are they pivotal to you as a writer?

The tone of the openning of this work reminded me of China Meivilles' "The Tain" ... EXCELLENT in enabling the reader to understand the narrator/main character. However, The Tain has been published as a novella.

Short horror stories that zip readers along the 3,000 +/- word req's are incredible difficult to write ...

How do you do minimize your story length while optimizing the story 'gravy' ?

>What would you consider to be *true* horror? What elements are required
>within a story to achieve such?

Hmm... I think one example of true horror is experiencing great pain or distress inflicted upon your loved ones, or yourself, and being powerless to do anything about it.

I don't know if one can truly achieve such a feeling in a story, because to me it has to be something that one experiences *personally* in order to elicit such a feeling...

And, to be frank, I'm not even sure if I'd *want* to achieve that in a story. I mean, it's great if something I wrote scares someone; sends a chill down their spine. But I think horror fiction tends to be a vicarious thrill... if it becomes too personal, too painful, then is that an enjoyable reading experience? Is being *truly* horrified something that a reader wants to experience?

Opinions differ, to be sure (your mileage may vary). An interesting question, regardless.

>How far would be *too* far for you to go in order to horrify your audience?

I'm reminded of Stephen King's old quote about (paraphrasing) "if I can't terrify, I'll horrify, and if I can't horrify, I'll go for the gross-out." I can appreciate that sentiment.

Having said that, though, I can't say that I'm really interested in depicting prolonged acts of great cruelty or torture. Creating a text version of "Henry, Portrait of a Serial Killer" is not something I"m shooting for.
Thanks for your questions!

>This is the first Zombie story you have published -- but you seem to be very
>comfortable with the vision of what "dead" walking on a day to day basis would >entail ...

Well, I've read a lot of great zombie fiction, which is a fine segue to your next question...

>When YOU think of great and fav' zombie authors/stories, who wrote them, and
>why are they pivotal to you as a writer?

The list would be long, but I'm particularly fond of several stories from Skipp & Spector's two Book of the Dead anthologies -- stories by David Schow, Joe Lansdale, Ed Bryant, Steven Boyett, Glen Vasey, Dan Simmons, and many more... the stories are pivotal to me because they all lend a new perspective to the zombie sub-genre... and they all made me *feel* something, and they all gave me something to think about with the fresh angles...

>The tone of the opening of this work reminded me of China Meivilles' "The Tain"
>... EXCELLENT in enabling the reader to understand the narrator/main >character.

Thank you kindly. Definitely the first time I've ever been compared to China Mieville.

>However, The Tain has been published as a novella.
>Short horror stories that zip readers along the 3,000 +/- word req's are
>incredible difficult to write ...
>How do you do minimize your story length while optimizing the story 'gravy' ?

Trying to tell a story as succinctly as I could was definitely on my mind while I was writing this story, because I had recently gone back and looked at some stories I'd written in years past, and was sort of appalled to see how unnecessary crap there was in them. I finished the story far enough ahead of the submission deadline that I was able to put it aside for a bit and then come back to it with a somewhat fresh eye, and cut out anything that seemed unnecessary. There's still one scene in there -- when they talk to the train engineer in the bar -- that in retrospect I think I could have shortened quite a bit or cut altogether. But hindsight is always 20-20.

Thanks for your questions!