Dark bleatings everyone! In celebration of the release of The Perfectly Fine Neighborhood, we have come to the end of our author spotlights, and we’re ending with Stephen Kozeniewski. He is the author of the first story in the book, an editor of the anthology, and the owner of French Press, the press that released it. He tried to outrun me, but I’ve been on the treadmill a lot and I caught him. Enjoy the grilling!
PS. All pics of books are embedded with links in case you’d like to check them out 🙂
Kayleigh: Stop struggling, Steve. You’ll just get rope-burn. So, The Perfectly Fine House, in my opinon, is one of the most original ghost novels out there. You and co-writer Wile E. Young must have worked so hard on it. What “possessed” you to expand the universe and make so much more work for yourself?
Stephen: Spite, malice, revenge, boredom, and profit.
Kayleigh: All reasonable reasons! Can you talk a bit about your own story in it?
Stephen: You know, I’m actually really glad you asked me about this. I have to keep my impartial editor hat on most of the time when marketing and push the whole “this really great anthology full of really great stories from really great authors,” narrative, but, I mean, come on. Obviously mine is the best of the lot. Christina Pfeiffer, one half of the legendary Mothers of Mayhem, even nearly said as much in her review. You had to read between the lines a little bit, but the sentiment was definitely there.
So, “The First Ghost” was a story I conceived of during the pandemic when the only “safe” vacation for my partner and I was a cabin in the woods. And as anyone who’s spent any time in the woods can tell you, it can get downright terrifying out there at night, even if all the comforts of home are just inches away. So I wanted to tell a story about lounging in a hot tub while unspeakable danger lay just around the shadow’s edge, which was a disquieting feeling that often thrilled through me that weekend. And the prehistoric ghost who doesn’t play by the rules was one of the concepts Wile E. and I came up with during our original brainstorming for THE PERFECTLY FINE HOUSE.
Kayleigh: I don’t know what you mean about the woods, I’m never scared in the woods. Though… that’s possibly because I’m busy setting traps out there, like the one you stepped in. Anyway, back to the book! What was the “behind the scenes” process of putting together the first anthology from French Press? Were there highs and lows?
Stephen: Yeah, so, first I want to take a second to say thank you for having me here. I really admire what you and the entire tribe have done with Happy Goat Horror in just over a year. I appreciate you taking the time to interview so many of the PERFECTLY FINE contributors and pushing for indie horror in general. I particularly like what you’re doing with the more conversational articles, which is where I first took notice of your work on Ginger Nuts of Horror and where I really think you shine. But I’ve also picked up way more goatly recommendations than I should have, in spite of the fact that I hate everything, so you all had better be right. But, in any case, this website is your baby, indisputably so, even if you have to wrangle four or five other goats on a daily basis and deal with a never-diminishing TBR pile, giveaways, advertising across fifteen forms of social media, and a thousand other tiny little things, like probably spending fifteen hours adjusting a single widget on the goddamned WordPress engine just to get it perfect.
Which is a roundabout way of saying I think putting together an anthology is similar to putting together a group blog.
(Also, WordPress sucks and Blogger is infinitely better, goodbye, farewell, and amen.)
Kayleigh: *spends a long moment flattered into silence* Well, shucks! I feel bad about catching you in that net now. Thank you so much, this site is my baby. I think that makes all the horror books I bleat about sort of my grandchildren? And I agree with that analogy, by the way.
Was there anything that surprised you about the anthology-putting-together process?
Stephen: Yes! I’ve learned so much. First, I’ve always hated short submission windows as an author. But now I get it. People always wait until the last second anyway, and sometimes stragglers come in weeks afterwards, so you may as well make it a month or three months or something.
But I don’t want to just bitch about the rigors of the project. I’ve done that at length elsewhere. One positive thing I found unexpectedly was the sense of community that surrounds a project like this. Between our Kickstarter backers, the contributors, the editorial triumvirate, and the just plain fans I’ve been shocked and awed at how much people care about this damned thing.
I’ve tried to push for that sense of community since the beginning, because I’ve definitely participated in anthologies that felt like cold, clinical cash grabs, but I hope that in leveling with people about everything from how hard choosing stories is to exactly where every dime is spent, to consistently asking for help where we need it, that our fans and backers understand there are living, breathing humans behind the cold, glossy book cover.
Kayleigh: Yeah, the amount of stories that were submitted literally in the last 5 minutes of the submission window was hilarious. The sense of community was lovely, I could feel it with the Kickstarter campaign. There were definitely less fun points though, like having to reject great stories (several of which were written by friends of ours that submitted) simply because we had so few spaces and about a million great options. With that said, would you consider putting together another anthology? Perhaps one set in the world of one of your other novels?
Stephen: Well, I’ve discussed it with my long-suffering acquisitions editor and we both swore, “Never Again.” So, naturally, NEW PHASES: AN ANTHOLOGY OF UNIQUE WEREWOLF HORROR will be going up on the chopping block some time next year. That’s a semi-official announcement, but after the audience response during Horror at the Library! at Ephrata Public Library last week I think it’s happening. We’ve got tentative promises of stories from Somer Canon and Mary SanGiovanni. My story about werewolf astronauts going to the moon will apparently be stolen if it is not published in the next year. So…yeah. But, wait. What other universe of mine are you hinting at expanding? I honestly don’t even know. Are people clamoring for more braineating dicks?
Kayleigh: ‘Braineating Dicks’ should be the title of a Braineater Jones anthology! I personally would love to see an anthology compiled of stories set in the world of The Hematophages, that would be great! I’m extremely excited about a werewolf collection though!
Last question related to the anthology or rather, your TPFH co-creator, Wile E. Young. You find yourself in a death match with him (don’t ask questions about the specifics, you just find yourself in a gladiator ring or something) – you can take only one weapon. What is it?
Stephen: Well, first of all, I want to object to the premise of this question. Wile E. is one of my closest friends, not just in the community, but in real life. So the circumstances under which we get involved in such a fight are questionable at best. But assuming one of us is possessed by a “Fallen”-style demon or Wile E. finally reads the acknowledgements of THE PERFECTLY FINE NEIGHBORHOOD, or some similarly outlandish situation, then I believe I would choose my own claws! I want the tactile pleasure of chopping him right here in the gonads!
Kayleigh: I don’t fancy your chances if you go in empty-handed, to be honest. I’ve heard on the grapevine that, like Butters from South Park, he absolutely slays with line dancing. If country music is played during your fight, you’re doomed. Speaking of doomed, the zombie apocalypse is probably imminent now – what’s your survival plan?
Stephen: My partner and I have been taking consistent steps to secure Air Studio International Headquarters in case of any revenant uprising and two or three varieties of lycanthropes. There are several fruit trees in the yard and a bunch of shotguns and bags of rice and rolled oats in the attic, assuming no one is phrogging up there. Plus I think the key to any successful TEOTWAWKI plan is latex balloons, and we have a whole storeroom full of those. And some Mylars.
Kayleigh: If only you could get helium, then you could make a floating get-away contraption in case of urgent escape! Okay, two more questions and then I suppose I’ll let you out (since you were so nice about us goats during this interview).
Name one of your own books that you wish more people knew about.
Stephen: Hmm…well, I wish THE THING UNDER YOUR BED was popping off more. I think it’s a great little piece that would give people a taste of what I can do.
Kayleigh: I agree – The Thing Under Your Bed is an excellent novella, and one of my favourites of your works, actually! For those of you who enjoy good, old fashioned monster horror, this is an excellent read. Steve, lastly – can you recommend a great book to us?
Stephen: There are so many to choose from! I most recently just read the splatter western RED STATION by Kenzie Jennings. She’s a hell of an author. So check her out!
Kayleigh: Agreed! Alright, let me just loosen those ropes for you and then maybe we can grab some lunch…. oh, he’s gone. I don’t know why they keep doing that, it’s almost like they didn’t want to be tied up in the goat pen.
If you’d like to look up Stephen Kozeniewski, or get a copy of The Perfectly Fine Neighborhood, the links you need are below:
Happy Goat Horror 
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