Hey, everybody! I'm very pleased to bring you today's guest, a fellow Pennsylvanian and massively talented horror author. Let's meet her briefly and then jump right in to the interview.
About Zoje Stage:
Zoje Stage is a former filmmaker with a penchant for the dark and suspenseful. Her debut novel BABY TEETH was a "USA Today" bestseller, a "People" "Book of the Week," and voted by Barnes & Noble, Bloody Disgusting, goodreads, and "Forbes Magazine" as one of the best horror books of 2018. It was nominated for a Bram Stoker Award, and the film rights have been optioned by Village Roadshow/Valparaiso Pictures. Her next novel, WONDERLAND, will be published by Mulholland Books June 16, 2020. She lives in Pittsburgh, PA.
You can find her on her website, Twitter, and Instagram.
Interview:
SK: Who or what terrifies you?
ZS: Nothing in fiction or film can compete with the real-life terrors of our world, of which there are many. At present I am terrified that a handful of mega-wealthy individuals care more about their money than about their eight billion neighbors or the planet we call home. I spend a bit too much time pondering if the human species has a fatal flaw, as the lust for power seems to regularly be our undoing.
SK: How are you involved in the world of horror?
ZS: My writing—which began decades ago with screenplays—typically has a dark undertone and/or incorporates various speculative elements. My main interest as a storyteller has always been to create realistic, complex characters and then throw them in the middle of something odd and difficult. And regardless of whether those situations are based in reality or not, my goal is to explore how real people might behave. I'm sure on a subconscious level what I write is my process for trying to come to terms with the strange, often scary world we live in, and one of my avenues for doing that is to attempt to take common tropes and dig into them a little deeper.
SK: Are there unique challenges to being a woman in horror or do you feel like gender is irrelevant?
ZS: Of course, on a creative-intellectual level, gender is irrelevant, but on a social-political level everyone who isn't a white man is still struggling to achieve the "givens"—of respect, worth, safety—that many white men may take for granted. And this applies to human endeavors far beyond writing and publishing. With that said, I feel like this is a great time for women in horror. Maybe all people experience some amount of horror in their lives, but women endure and witness things differently than our male counterparts and I feel like our perspectives are being more valued right now. Unfortunately—fortunately?—some of this is stemming from a growing frustration with a larger system that has not fully seen, heard, or respected women, but every step we take toward course-correcting is a victory. And hopefully this interest and acceptance will continue to expand outward to include everyone who hasn't always been seen and valued.
SK: Who are your favorite female horror icons?
ZS: I don't think anyone has ever written a scarier post-apocalyptic world than Octavia Butler, or a more compelling vampire story. In general, I have a terrible memory, but Octavia Butler has burned images into my brain and that’s about the highest compliment I can give. Also, my literary inspiration in many ways has been Ursula Le Guin, and while she may not be considered a “horror” icon she was fearless in tackling social issues via speculative writing.
SK: What are you working on/promoting currently? Why should folks check it out?
ZS: My next book, WONDERLAND, comes out on June 16, 2020. It's been described as "If Shirley Jackson wrote THE SHINING…" Like BABY TEETH, this book involves a creative family with young children and I hope readers find it to be just as suspenseful, but the external similarities end there. With WONDERLAND I wanted to create a female protagonist who, unlike Suzette in BABY TEETH, couldn’t care less what the world thinks of her and isn’t insecure about herself as a woman or mother. Unfortunately for Orla, every part of her mental and physical strength is tested when their new homestead in the Adirondacks proves to be more than it first seems, throwing the family into increasing peril.
About WONDERLAND:
If Shirley Jackson wrote THE SHINING, it might look like this "deliciously unsettling"* horror novel from the acclaimed author of BABY TEETH: A mother must protect her family from the unnatural forces threatening their new and improved life in a rural farmhouse.
The Bennett family -- artist parents and two precocious children -- are leaving their familiar urban surroundings for a new home in far upstate New York. They're an hour from the nearest city, a mile from the nearest house, and everyone has their own room for the very first time. Shaw, the father, even gets his own painting studio, now that he and his wife Orla, a retired dancer, have agreed that it's his turn to pursue his passion.
But none of the Bennetts expect what lies waiting in the lovely woods, where secrets run dark and deep. Orla must finally find a way to communicate with -- not just resist -- this unknown entity that is coming to her family, calling to them from the land, in the earth, beneath the trees ... and in their minds.
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