​Welcome to the blog page, where we add interviews, articles, and sneak peeks!

AN INTERVIEW WITH E.S.

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The classic question: Are you your characters?

Every one of them. They teach me about life and expand my empathy. It's a privilege.

 

Your series has a lot of LGBTQQI folks in it. Is that a subcategory of your oeuvre?

No. My character's sexuality is incidental.

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But you do write about sexual orientation and identity. Is that important to you?

Only in so much as I believe everyone has the need and right to be themselves.

 

There is a love scene between two women that is very beautiful, and very specific about female sexuality, which is kind of rare.

It IS rare! I admit I get irate about that.  I read book after book and see movie after movie that doesn't acknowledge the importance of our clitoris, our g-spots, and it's harmful. It perpetuates ignorance about genuine female sexuality. Whatever their medium, creators owe the world better than that. We owe the truth,  to not contribute to the glut of ignorance and misery about sex, love, responsibility. 

 

Do you consider yourself a feminist writer, as you've been called?

Yes, in so much as I write about whole people, not gender stereotypes. I'm disappointed when gifted writers I admire succumb to formulaic binary roles instead of exploring real relationships.

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I notice some editing in the podcasts' transfer from the written book. Would you call the podcasts' abridged?

No. Reading aloud for an audience is different from reading in your head.  I've allowed for the vital, performing medium of podcasting theater to step forward in its own right. For example, if you were reading the book you wouldn't hear music, as you do in the podcast. There's been a  measured amount of adaptation in deference to this different venue, including some movement in the order of a couple of scenes. 

 

I want to ask you about my favorite character, the sentient zombie, Adain. It's fascinating to read about his struggle to retain his human values.

I love Adain. To me he is the most tender and human of all the book's characters. It's almost painful to write about him, he's so close to the skin. His personal commitment not to lose touch with his core self is magnificent. He is not just an artist. He's in touch with the art of living.

 

There is some pretty bloody not to mention gory content in your books. What makes you write about violence and darkness?

The bloody content is not the most violent aspect of the books. The violence lies in how twisted human nature can become, how removed from compassion and morality. Horror confronts this, bluntly and in analogy. People read it because they're grappling with understanding, with coping with the dark.

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Is your writing for Young Adults?

Well, when I was a young adult I would have enjoyed these books because they don't sugar-coat how complex and tough life can be when you're young, how much guts it can take to carry on with carving your own path and making choices. They respect young people's intelligence, as they should. But they aren't written specifically for young people. Just people.

    Ok, this is me up on my soapbox: Young people get cancer, have abortions, have children, deal with drug addiction, complex relationships, holding jobs, taking care of families, and death. Yet society strips them of political power. Men are drafted years before they can vote and have a say in who sends them to die in war. It’s wrong. We as a society need to be inclusive, eliminating not only ageism but youngism.

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In Scary After Dark you write about the applicability of horror to politics. Is this important to you? I notice there is a character who is very Trump-like, President Diddler.

Diddler is not Trump, but Trump is Diddler. Of course horror is applicable to politics - what is more horrifying?

 

Your main protagonists are bonded by love, in spite of grim circumstances. Is there a message there?

Message? Maybe.  Whatever their flaws they have the courage to remain loving and vulnerable. When they lose that, they lose themselves. 

 

Is there another book coming soon?

It's cooking.

 

April 15, 2020