Dark bleatings everyone! So there I was, taking a lovely walk across the mountains, when I spotted a Flewitt in the distance. I thought, “hey, I want to interview that guy!”, so naturally – because I hear this is the best way to get an interview these days – I snuck up on him with a giant sack, and then carried him off. Like Krampus. I know what you’re thinking… I absolutely CAN lift him, I’ve been in the gym!
Note: pics are embedded with links for your ease, if you’d like to check out any of the books!
Me: Hey Paul!
Me: Thanks for being here!… For crying out loud, stop wriggling. If you’ll just answer the questions, I’ll let you go. Firstly, I want to know what drew you into the darkness… what got you into horror?
Paul: I remember it well. I picked up a children’s anthology from my school library when I was ten or eleven called “Cold Feet.” In that collection was a short story called Video Nasty, by Phillip Pullman. He is the guy best known for the His Dark Materials books, and it predated that series by a few years. It involved a bunch of British school kids who found a snuff film, and decided to watch it together one afternoon. One of those kids would get a nasty surprise, finding that the victim in the video was actually his mother.
It was a story that really stuck with me, invoking emotion and really holding that twist until the very end. It hooked me instantly, and I sought out more of that kind of thing with a rabid appetite.
A few years ago, I reached out to Phillip Pullman on twitter, just to thank him for that formative work in my personal history. He’d forgotten he ever wrote it, but was grateful of the reminder and very humble that it was one of his stories that spurred me to embrace dark fiction.
Me: It’s so cool that you got to chat a little with the man himself! It’s King for me, and I think I’d just babble like an idiot if I ever conversed with him. Who’s YOUR favourite horror author?
Paul: Damn, that’s a big question to answer. Way to put a dude on the spot.
So, the modern indie market is where I firmly believe the most exciting work is being done. That’s where the chances are being taken and the publishers are taking the risks, which is how boundaries are pushed. In that field, its pretty impossible to list all the writers I want to. There are a lot of guys out there doing great work for a bunch of tastes. A few of the names I would mention in that field would be Mark Cassell, Roland Bercy Jr, Jeff Strand and Candace Nola. All of them, in different subgenres of horror, are really doing the business.
In the mainstream, Clive Barker is always going to be my maestro. I say that because he married together horror and fantasy in a way I never thought was allowed when I was a kid. I discovered him at a time when I’d kinda worked out the formula of both genres, and was able to predict how a story would work out. I was a little jaded, thinking the blueprint was set and there was no way to write in both fields. Barker came along and opened doors in my mind that I never even considered might have been closed, which gave my own writing an added spice. Without Clive Barker, I may well have given up reading, never mind writing. I owe him a huge debt of gratitude for coming along in my life at the time he did.
Me: I agree with you about everything you just said. And, sidenote: every time I think of Mark Cassell, I think about the first time I met him, when he was engaged in a humorous feud about paper bags. But that’s a story for another day. What about books… what’s your favourite book?
Paul: Again, this is a huge spot to be put in, because there are just so many to choose from. This is one of those questions that might be answered differently on another day. I’ll give today’s answer though.
On the indie scene, I think you would have to go a distance to beat any book in Mark Cassell’s Shadow Fabric series of books. He came up with a whole mythos, and he presented it with such tense narration. He’s a bit of a throwback to classic horror, but melds it with a modern sensibility. I would certainly recommend those books to anyone, and they really haven’t had the attention they deserve.
As far as mainstream, and this isn’t strictly horror, but I’ll go with Clive Barker’s Imajica. Because of Stephen King, he’s pigeonholed as a horror writer, but I have reservations about limiting him to the one playground. For me, Barker straddles horror and fantasy, and Imajica is his Lord of the Rings. It’s where he is at his most ambitious, and it’s a masterclass of world building and character creation. Pie Oh Pah us perhaps my favourite singular character in any book, so unique and tragic in its conception. Its also ahead of its time, approaching gender fluidity before anyone was really talking about it as a thing. Barker does that kind of thing, discussing gender identities we just didn’t consider, and many people absolutely abhorred back in the day. Barker gave us understanding, showing us the beauty of what love is, regardless of how that love is manifested. That’s what Pie represents to me. And aside from that, Imajica is a book that looks at metaphysics and theology in a way I’ve never seen before. It’s mindbending, and could very well give rise to a couple of religious cults. Imajica is possibly as close to a perfect work of fiction as I’ve ever read.
Me: Imajica has been on my shelf waiting to be read for years, and I think I’ll move it up my TBR list! And I agree with you about Cassell’s Shadow Fabric. Do you have a favourite book out of your own works?
Paul: This is going to be a really cringey, cliche reply, but it’s the last book I released. Architecture was a struggle, and one I took years to actually get right.
Originally, it was conceived as a seqyel to my first book, but I just couldn’t get it to work. Having the characters from that first book just seemed extraneous and ill-fitting. It took a long time to see the woods for the trees with that one, but once I took the Poor Jeffrey cast out and made he narrative more linear, it truly made sense. Once I made that breakthrough, the Gabriel, Kitt and Forrest characters really came to life for me and it made sense. From there, I really allowed myself to fly with it.
Yes, there are elements retained from the PJ story, but it’s very much it’s own thing. It’s one I really enjoyed writing eventually, and I’m so happy with how it turned out.
Me: And so you should be, sir! I’m very into “favourites” in this interview, I’ve just realised. But I’m not veering off course now! Who’s your favourite horror character?
Paul: I already spoke about Pie Oh Pah in the book world, so I’ll go with movies for this question.
Here, I’m going with Pinhead from the Hellraiser series. Yes, it’s Barker again, but it’s just another example of Clive bucking trends and finding another, more unique way. At a time when horror villains were just slashing, one dimensional characters, Barker gave us the Hell Priest. Pinhead appeared for around twenty minutes in the original film, but he delivered such eloquence, such grace. His speeches mean something, his aspect was aloof and above the bestial presented by Freddie, Jason and Michael Myers. Wes Craven and John Carpenter may have given us horror royalty with their films, but Barker gave us a horror deity with Pinhead.
Me: Yeah, Pinhead is an absolute icon! Okay, it’s recommendation time! Can you name a work of horror from any medium that you wish more people knew about?
Paul: Again, I’m repeating myself here, but Mark Cassell’s Shadow Fabric mythos is my pick here. In the 70’s and 80’s, I’m convinced these books would put Mark in the same bracket as King or Herbert. It has that same sensibility and precision. Maybe Cassell is a throwback, as am I to a degree, but it honestly saddens me that this series doesn’t have a mainstream following and put him over the top.
Me: I feel that way about every Kit Power book. I never stop talking about him. In fact, he’s tied up in his own sack in my basement right now. Wait… what? Nothing! If he’ll just answer all my questions….
Anyway, real world horror or supernatural? And what’s your favourite supernatural or sci-fi monster?
Paul: Damn, I might be misinterpreting this question here, but I’m going with this as a two part question.
Real world horror speaks to me of stuff that really and truly happened. So, there are two answers here.
I find cults really intriguing. Like, how does one person enrapture a group of people so completely that they unquestioningly do their bidding? Charles Manson is the obvious choice, but there’s also Jim Jones and David Koresh. All are absolutely intriguing.
From a fiction standpoint, I have to mention the Cthulu mythos. Yes, Lovecraft has a very questionable aspect to his writing, but his concepts are what makes him one of the godfathers or modern horror. The Cthulu mythos is the peak of his achievements as far as mythos building, and one I simply can’t ignore.
Me: My bad – I meant more like, do you prefer things like Hostel, or Doctor Sleep? But those are great answers! And you get extra points for bringing up The Ancient One. Let’s move on to a vital question… what’s your zombie apocalypse plan?
Paul: Its bold of you to assume I have a plan. Literally, my only plan in that scenario is to have someone near me with a gammy leg.
Seriously though, there’s a lot of farmland within a few minutes of where I live. I’m on the doorstep of the peak district, so I can get lost fairly quickly.
Me: I’ve been very disturbed recently by how many horror authors don’t have a detailed plan to hand, because if there’s one thing I know it’s this: the zombies are coming. If you could pick 5 people to help you out when the world ends, who would it be?
Paul: I mean, Daryl Dixon and Rick Grimes are pretty much a given at this point. Stu Redman is a third. Then, I’m a little lost. Apocalyptic isn’t really my genre, but there was a series called Firebrats that I read when I was a kid, with a couple of teenagers called Todd and Danielle who did okay. So, I’m going with those five.
Me: Not bad, not bad. I’d add Buffy to that list also. Okay, just one more and then I’ll let you out – what are you currently working on?
Paul: Well, I’m currently experimenting with other genres, and writing book three in a dark fantasy trilogy. The first two novels aren’t published yet, because I didn’t want to be the next George RR Martin and leave people waiting, so I have the first two I’m sitting on until I know book three is in the bag. So…
This one begins in our world, and leans into urban fantasy a lot more than my other stuff. There are still horror elements, but this embraces my fantasy sensibilities much more than anything I’ve written before. It has a secret society with a leader bent on tipping the balance of creation, knowing that the harmony of the dominions hinges on balance. He is bent on unbalancing those dominions and engendering chaos, which is pretty simple to achieve in our world.
Book two is more straight fantasy, taking place wholly in a place called The Quoge. Here, we see the foundations of the unbalancing of the Dominions, and the potential turning of the tide.
Book three, will be tying the whole thing together, melding urban and high fantasy in the way I always thought it could be done.
Its about as ambitious as I’ve ever been in my writing, and it’s a huge risk, but that’s what it’s all about, right?
Me: That trilogy sounds awesome! What do you think… Paul? PAUL! How did you untie the…. come back, I’ve changed my mind and have more questions! Paaaaaaaaaaul!!!!
Ah shit, I knew I should have locked that door.
The goats thank Paul Flewitt for his time, and for doing our bidding! If you’d like to find out more about him, check out the links below:
Happy Goat Horror 
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