Blurring The Line is the new anthology of horror fiction and non-fiction, edited by award-winning editor Marty Young, published by Cohesion Press. You can get your copy here or anywhere you normally buy books (the print edition is coming any day now).
To help people learn a bit more about it, I’ve arranged for each fiction contributor to answer the same five questions, and I’ll be running these mini interviews every weekday now that the book is available. (And yes, I have a story in it, so I’ll be interviewing myself too!)
The first story in the book is by the late, great:
Tom Piccirilli
Sadly, Tom died recently after a long struggle against cancer. I sent the interview questions to his wife, Michelle, and asked her if there was any way she could think of to include him. (Tom is a fantastic writer and you really should read anything by him you can find.) Here’s what Michelle sent back to me:
I wish I could help you by answering all these questions as Tom would have but in spite of the fact that I knew him better than anyone else, I don’t have specific responses to most of the questions. I can tell you that Tom never gave a serious answer when asked about inspiration so I guarantee that he would have responded with sarcasm.
As far as a book/collection or writer he would have said that everyone should read, number one would have been Harlan Ellison. He admired him tremendously and a month before Tom died, Harlan sent him a hand written note praising Tom’s writing and saying that Tom’s novel THE LAST KIND WORDS, which he had just finished reading, would make a wonderful addition to his library. I framed that letter for Tom and it now hangs in his office. He was so incredibly proud to receive recognition from a writer he admired that much. And I am so happy he received it in time to treasure it. Tom could rave about Harlan’s incredible talent for hours. I’d never read Harlan’s work until I met Tom. He insisted that I go buy a copy of DEATHBIRD STORIES right away. So he turned me into a huge fan of Harlan’s work too. We own every book Harlan has written (a few doubles from before we lived together) and they are all signed. We spent time with him at two World Horror Cons. Tom got on with him very well and loved to hear his personal tales about life in the writer’s trenches.
[So read Harlan’s stuff too! – Alan]
Previous posts in the Blurring The Line interview series:
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