Interview with Scott Nicholson, award-winning author of The Red Church, The Harvest, The Manor and The Home

Horror author Scott Nicholson is the South's answer to Stephen King. I'm not the first (nor will I be the last...) to make that (perhaps hackneyed) comparison. It's not that Nicholson is in any way, shape, or form imititative of King, only that - like King - Nicholson understands the darker side of human nature; and it is that nature at the core of his sterling work in the genre. When Nicholson is compared to King, I think that what is really being stated is that both writers are masters of the form, not that they actually resemble one another in terms of style.

Thus far, Nicholson has written four novels that deserve to be on every horror fan's book shelf, the award-winning The Red Church, The Harvest, The Manor, and this summer's new release, The Home. Writing in Reviewer's Bookwatch, critic Rick Mohr observed the following:

"The Manor by Scott Nicholson should be required reading by not only every fan of horror out there, but by any who fancy themselves a writer of the genre to see how it should be done. I've said it before, and it bears repeating, buy anything you can by Scott Nicholson...."

And that kind of critical rave is the rule, not the exception for writer Scott Nicholson. I've been an e-mail acquaintance of Scott's for almost two years now, I've listened to Howard Margolin's interview with him on Destinies: The Voice of Science Fiction, and I've read three of his four novels, so it's really my great honor to include on this blog an interview with the acclaimed writer. Speaking critically, every Scott Nicholson novel I've read thus far has entranced me, discomforted me, and made me keep the lights on well past midnight. So with that introduction, let's begin the interview.

MUIR: Scott, tell us a little bit about how you got started writing horror novels. How and when did you become a fan of the genre, and how did you turn that love into a first sale (and then a very successful career?)

NICHOLSON: I wrote a knock-off of a Vonnegut novel in high school and wrote a little in college, but didn’t get serious about it until 1996. I wrote three novels in a year, two of which are now published. It wasn’t until I started revising that I felt like I was getting a grip on things. I’d read some horror as I went along and went through a spell in the 1980s reading cheesy books like man-eating slugs and evil dolls, but I never really thought of myself as a horror writer. I still don’t, really, but it seems to fit what I do better than any other label. I always loved a good scary movie, though.

MUIR: With your debut novel, The Red Church what was it like going through the publishing process for the first time, for instance working with Pinnacle? What was your reaction when the book was announced as a Stoker Award finalist?

NICHOLSON: I was always practical about the process because my goal from the beginning was to have a professional career. So I quickly educated myself and knew what to expect by the time I finally sold a novel five years on. I was impressed by the professionalism of Pinnacle Books and the copyediting. The cover for that first book was based almost directly on a photo I’d sent of the actual church that inspired the novel. As far as the Stoker award, I wasn’t overly surprised, since so few novels qualify for the “First Novel” category each year, but I was glad people had noticed the book. After The Lovely Bones won the award, I was riding up the elevator at the Horror Writers Association conference and a guy was telling me The Red Church had the best ending of any horror novel in the last few years and it was a great book. That was better than winning an award.

MUIR: I've read three of your four published novels, and in all of them, fundamentalist Christianity plays an important role. Is this one of your obsessions? Why is religion core to your concept of horror as a genre?

NICHOLSON: I feel I’m dealing more with faith than religion in my work. Of course, to a lot of people those are the same thing, but not to me. Since I’m more familiar with Christianity, having been loosely raised a Baptist, it’s the vehicle of choice. I think religion is important in the same way the Appalachian setting of my work is important. It matters to most of the people who live here, and it would be a lie to leave it out. It’s still important here. I like to describe my little rural community this way: five Rebel flags, three churches, an old general store, and a post office. That’s the “town.”

MUIR: Are your books set in the South simply because you know the region so well, or is there another underlying reason?

NICHOLSON: There really is no single “South” in literature, and often those writing about it have different settings. Grisham knows backwoods Mississippi, James Lee Burke knows Louisiana bayou country, Erskine Caldwell knew the tobacco mill towns. I don’t know many writers who have consistently used the Southern Appalachians as a horror setting, though Manly Wade Wellman had the “Silver John” series set here. So there’s a difference between the mountain myths that I use and, say, the haunted cotton plantations of the Old South or the sweaty Gulf swamps. By the way, Florida is not the South. It’s New York with a worse wardrobe.

MUIR: You are often compared to Stephen King, and I did it myself in the opening of this post. Compliment or albatross? As a writer, what traits do you think you share with King? Where do you think you differ? I should note, you've also been compared to Clive Barker and H.P. Lovecraft...so maybe the King thing is just shorthand...

NICHOLSON: The King comparison is the easy grab for anyone in the horror field. It’s great to be mentioned in the same breath with one of the world’s most popular writers. I don’t take it seriously, and I doubt many readers do, either. I see myself about 40 novels behind King, and I still haven’t written one as good as his worst. What I admire most is his prolific and persistent attitude. That, to me, is the talent that shot him to the stars. Lots of people can write a nice paragraph. But to do it over and over for decades is incredible. I liked Barker’s early stuff and Lovecraft had a great imagination, but I don’t buy into those comparisons, either. I haven’t earned a place yet among the established names of the genre. That’s a long-term goal, though.

MUIR: I've tried my hand at writing horror fiction, and it ain't easy. Particularly creating characters that audiences want to follow, and that are distinctive. Yet you have mastered this aspect of horror fiction totally. How do you go about creating such memorable characters in your work? Do you base them on people you know, or are they created out of whole cloth? Reading your work, I get the idea that characters and mood are the most important aspects, and plot, perhaps, secondary? Would that be an accurate assessment?

NICHOLSON: Don’t tell anyone, but I don’t plot. The story just happens, usually because I trust the characters to have real motivations and feelings. I don’t try to intellectualize too much. I mean, hey, I’m a grown man writing about ghosts and demons and demented preachers and ESP and alien infections. But the weird stuff is just stage dressing. I feel each of my novels has a theme, though I usually don’t recognize it until months after publication. Scaring people is a great side effect, but not my main interest. I want readers to wonder about the mysteries of the human heart.

MUIR: Okay, this is a tough one: how do you make a book scary? Do you write what scares you, or do you think about what society seems to think is frightening?

NICHOLSON: We all love the safe scares of fiction, whether it’s a book, movie, or video game. We like the sense of control, the knowledge that we can walk out of the theater or close the book at any time, the power of understanding what we’re experiencing isn’t real. You can manipulate the audience with jump scares and cheap set-ups, or you can spend the time drawing the audience under a dark and suffocating spell. One where they second-guess their own motives and actions. Or, you can close the book and turn on the news if you want to be really shocked.

MUIR: Are you working out your own demons while writing these stories? Do you ever scare yourself with these books, or are you pretty much immune?

NICHOLSON: Once in a while I get frightened, but I’m more likely to get tense. When something really personal is going on, or a character is experiencing it, I find my gut clenched and I’m hunched over the keyboard, pecking and rattling the keys. I do think some of it is exorcism of fears or wounds in my own life, so I get some therapeutic value out of storytelling. But that’s been true of stories throughout human history. Why else would we feel the need to share our experiences? To teach, learn, and survive.

MUIR: Your latest book is The Home. Tell us a little bit about the story, and how you created it.

NICHOLSON: The Home was inspired by a child’s death at a nearby group home six years ago. The child was allegedly unruly and had been placed in a restraint hold and locked in a closet, where he died. Of course, I had to make my group home haunted, give my character manic depression and telepathy, and surround him with a strange cast of characters. Throw in secret neurological experiments and a mysterious agency, and stir. And, for good measure, the ghosts are insane.

MUIR: People ask me all the time which book I've written is my favorite. I say I can't pick favorites among my children. Do you have a favorite novel?

NICHOLSON: I understand different stories appeal to different people. The Harvest is my least popular novel but some people tell me it’s their favorite and a movie director is looking at it because the storyline appealed to him. The Manor is my most polished because I had several months to revise it, yet some people found it a little too smooth, as if the interesting edges had been worn down. The Home went through a hasty revision or two, but really was pretty much published the way it came out of the typewriter, with no second reader. Same with The Farm next year. I never really read them once they’re out. I don’t have time, and I would probably only see the flaws. After all, I already know the ending.

MUIR: What's a writing day like for Scott Nicholson?

NICHOLSON: My typical day means I have to squeeze writing into whatever slot I can get. My most successful periods are those when I have a fairly rigid routine, getting down two to four pages a day. Other times I wallow in the reality that consumes all of us from time to time, and once in a while I have wonderful stretches of blissful production, when I’m cruising on automatic and no crisis is at hand. I haven’t really noticed a difference in quality using any of the methods.

MUIR: Finally, where can readers can find your work? What's your next project and when can we look forward to it?

NICHOLSON: The Farm will be out in July, 2006. I have a story out right now in Red Scream #1, with stories scheduled for Black Static, The Book of Dark Wisdom, Crimewave, and the anthologies Corpse Blossoms, Deathgrip: Exit Laughing, and Poe’s Lighthouse. I recently had an outline accepted for an adventure thriller with vampires, probably out in 2007. I have a few scripts that I occasionally send around. You can keep up with all that at Haunted Computer. I have to list everything there or I’d lose track of it.

Thank you, Scott, for taking the time from a busy schedule to do this interview. Hopefully, we'll catch up with Scott again soon, and as soon as I get a chance, I intend to read and review here his new novel, The Home.