Merry meet all,
Today we meet to chat with Ashley. Let’s settle in with our rich dark coffees and clear a few cobwebs here. Read on if you dare!
Why horror? Do you have a favorite subgenre in horror?
I love the feeling it gives me. The heart pounding in your chest feeling when you don’t know what is going to happen or what is going to jump out and scare you. Anything could happen and you never know which way things are going to go. I love horror of all kinds. Slashers are my favorite and have been since I was a kid. I love the extreme horror side. The gorier the better!
Which other horror authors influenced you the most and why?
When I started out in the horror community it was as an editor. A few people had trusted me with their projects and I thought it was so cool that they got to do this and put their work out there for everyone to read. Stuart Bray was the one who gave me the shove to publish my first book. He helped me through the process, plus he writes one hell of a book! He is always an automatic buy for me. He inspires me to dig deeper and work harder on the things I love. Chuck Nasty is another inspiration to me. He encourages me to write, has shown me new ways to look at what I am writing, and has made me a better writer.
Tell me about your writing/editing process.
I hand write a lot of things before I get them on my computer. I have a full notebook from when I wrote Little Glass Jars. Some pages are writing, others have lists of potential names for characters, and some have drawings of things like floor plans of the homes I am using as settings so that I can get it all just right. The hand writing process helps me to be able to re read what I have as I type it out, and to be able to flip through the pages and see what I have without scrolling up and down my document. I then print everything and edit with pen on paper. With self publishing I order an author copy so that I can go over it again and put tabs in pages for any fixes I need to make before telling everyone it is available to order. It sounds like a lot of work but I feel like it’s worth it to me to make what I am putting out there as close to perfect as I can be. There will always still be mistakes but this process helps me cut down on a lot of them.
What inspires you to write horror?
I have always been a horror fan. I am also the person who guesses the endings to shows and movies way before the twist happens. I started writing because I wanted to put something out there that not many people would see coming. Not all books have that big twist and I have since started going back to the things that drew me to horror in the first place, the old slashers, the gore, and all things campy.
What do you love about indie publishing?
The support in the indie publishing circle is phenomenal. Everyone encourages one another and shares the work of other people. We have all been through the same process and know that it is something worth cheering for.
What is your favorite horror movie or book? Which movie or book impressed and inspired you the most?
Scream is my all time favorite horror movie. It combines so many of my favorite elements into one film. There are creative kills, blood and gore, and the twist at the end. I have seen it a million times, but the look on Billy’s face as he turns for the big reveal is just the perfect scene. I am a sucker for old horror. I love everything by Edgar Allan Poe, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James, that kind of thing. I also love zombie books, Stephen King, and mysteries like the ones Kathy Reichs writes. I feel like I mash them all together for inspiration. It’s not just one thing, it’s a combination of so many.
Is there any music that helps you to write?
I can’t listen to music when I write. I love music too much and I would be distracted by the songs and not get anything written. I will often put on a show that I have seen multiple times so that I don’t feel like I have to pay attention, it’s just on in the background. Something like Supernatural, The Walking Dead, Dexter, or Nip/Tuck.
Do you have any special projects you want readers to know about?
I have a few things going right now. I bounce around from one to the other so it could be a while before any are ready to go. I have been working on a slasher book, a revenge type extreme horror story, and I will be in an anthology in the fall so keep your eyes open for that one. I have also started work on a follow up to my debut Little Glass Jars.
Where can readers find you on social media?
I post everything about upcoming projects on Instagram under Ashley Fox Author. I don’t have a website yet, but maybe one day! For now you can pick up my books on Amazon, and my short story collection Heebie Jeebies is also on Godless.
Blessings, Spiderwitch )O(
