The Zephyr of Vampires

Please introduce yourself to our readers (when and how did you start writing, your works,...)

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Hello, I’m Robert Holt. I’m a horror writer and novelist. I have three books currently on the market. The first is my novel Death’s Disciples, a gruesome action-horror. The second book is The Vegetarian Werewolf, a collection of children’s horror stories, and the most recent is There are No Zombies in America, a political comedy about the zombie apocalypse. So I began the first book twenty years ago while in college. It was a story that compelled me to write it and held my mind hostage until I got it finished. It took nearly twelve years to escape the book and the end result was something that I’m quite proud of.

The second book, the kid’s one, was something I never intended on publishing. I had a collection of stories that I was regularly telling my daughter at bedtime and a publisher I was working for asked me to submit something. I sent them those, and they accepted them.

The third, and most recent book was written in two months over November and December of last year. It was my reaction to Trump’s victory in the elections and where I saw America going. The story isn’t really about Trump, but it is about America in its current state. About everything wrong and everything right in this nation I call home.

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Please tell us something about your creative process and your sources of inspiration

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I play with dolls. That’s not a metaphor, but action figures may be more accurate. I pull out my toys and act out story lines. When one sits well in my mind, I return to it the following day and act it out again and flesh it out, develop the characters and build the setting. I have heard it said that there are two types of writers: Pantsers and Plotters. But I’m neither. I do not plot out my books, I just figure out the basics and watch where it goes. But I’m not a pantser either because I follow the story along with my toys and stay a step ahead, far from the seat -of-your-pants style of writing the term implies.

For inspiration, I would say long, lonely walks at night and melodic heavy metal music. My favorite to write to is Tiamat.

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What do you think about the current publishing market?

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I really don’t know. I self-published my last book and it has done better than the previous two, but I do feel that the ease of self-publishing has made it an oversaturated market where everyone thinks they can be a writer and are def to all criticism.

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 In your opinion why are many people fascinated by vampires?

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I think vampires are the embodiment of death. We long for the mystery and the wonder of death, but we fear it too. Vampires, even before Stroker, were the walking dead. Staking the dead to the ground to prevent them from getting up dates back to biblical times. Vampires also hold that other lure out to humanity, while they are the undead, they are also the undying. Those that fear death long for the vampire’s blessing but fear the vampire’s curse. It is a mixed bag, and part of what makes vampires unique in the world of monsters. Desire and fear makes for strange bedfellows.

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Do you have a favorite horror or thriller movie? which of your novels can you imagine made into
a movie?

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Two difficult questions. First, my favorite horror film… I don’t think I can name just one, so I’m going to go with my top five and a quick explanation of what I love about each of them. First is the original Dracula with Bela Lugosi. It is a movie that after nearly 100 years can still give you the willies. The scene when the boat first comes into the harbor and they find Renfield in the hold and he’s looking up laughing…fuck! Second, and I should point out that I’m listing them chronologically not in order of favorite, is Curse of the Demon (also known as the Night of the Demon) was a truly amazing film. Tourneur’s directing style was Hitchcockian prior to Hitchcock. A truly amazing film that was bastardized by the remake Drag Me to Hell. Third is the Shining. I know it is unhip to like the Shining now, but I truly believe the film was better than the book. Stanley Kubrick is far from my favorite director, but what he did with that story is something that still gives me nightmares. Fourth is my favorite vampire film, Night Breed. Clive Barker’s take on the vampire took the old monster to places it had never been. It was so out of the norm that many don’t see it as a vampire movie. They were shape-shifters that drank blood and were killed by sunlight…they were vampires, and the breed has stayed with me as a fear and a fantasy. The Last movie that makes my short list is In the Mouth of Madness. Carpenter had very few misses in his long career, but IMM is a grand-slam in my eyes. Based in part on Lovecraftian mythos, the movie is bizarre and terrifying. However, as an author, I found it to be possibly the funniest film I’ve ever seen.

I think both of my published novels would make great movies, but they may actually be better as shows. My short story The Murderer in the Cabin is perhaps the story I’ve written that would make the best film. It was originally published in an anthology titled All Hollows Evil by Mystery and Horror LLC. But it found new life as one of a few stories I stuck behind There Are No Zombies In America.

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Is it hard to evoke a dark mood through words? what’s your method?

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No, I don’t think it is hard. I think it is harder to keep it than to evoke it. Fear is an easy thing to accomplish. People are naturally fearful of things they don’t understand. The hard part is keeping them from in the mystery. As soon as you give away a touch of what is going on, people’s bullshit detectors will start going off and you have lost them. It has become a part of my method to give away nothing.

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What tips would you give to aspiring thriller writers?

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Get a day job that pays well enough to support you and keep you in good rye whiskey until you have made it. And if you never make it, at least you will have enough rye whiskey to keep you from thinking about it too much. And keep writing. Publishing a single book is like dropping a dart off the Gateway Arch and hoping to hit a bulls-eye down below that will lead to wealth and fame. If you throw a hundred darts, you will likely still miss, but the odds become better with each one.