Dark bleatings, my lovelies! Today, we have the Co Main Man himself, my fellow Strange New Moons pack leader, Stephen Kozeniewski. Not only does he have a (very disturbing) story in the book, but he co-edited the thing and brought it to life. But don’t let his creativity fool you into thinking that he won’t chomp your head off when the full moon rises…
Me: The ending of Blackfish is the stuff of any parent’s nightmare. Did you start with this as you were coming up with the story, or did it come to you as you were writing?
Steve: The ending was pretty much all I had when I started, actually. The bigger question was how to reveal it properly without giving too much away. I worried that it was tragically obvious, and I was also concerned about the archaeology info-dump portion. More and more with my Hematophages-universe stuff I’m finding that I want to just get across “Hey, this is Space Egypt” or “Hey, this is the Space Titanic” without being too on the nose about it. So, it’s always been a tightrope walk between whether I’m belaboring the point or the audience might not have gotten it yet.
What was it about the werewolf theme that inspired you to set this story off Earth, and tie it to your The Hematophages universe?
No one else sent us werewolves in space. I was pretty convinced we would get cyber werewolves and space werewolves, so I had been tossing around other concepts, but when we didn’t select either I knew there was a hole to fill in the concept. People played a lot with “standard folkloric werewolves doing x” but very few people sent us “werewolf-like, but they came from x,” so I felt I had to.
(Editor clarification: we did receive a few ‘werewolves in space’ stories – as those of you who sent them to us will already know – when we opened submissions, but Stephen is talking about the stories that came in from the invited authors. He and I wrote our stories in the period between receiving entries from invited authors, and opening the few extra spaces up.)
Okay Steve, here’s an editor question: Ghosts were the theme of your first anthology, what is it about werewolves that compelled you to use this as the theme for your second one?
Eh, well, that was actually my co-editor’s idea. I had nothing to do with it.
Was it?! I must be getting old because I have no memory of this. Let’s move on before I remember the other ways in which I’m going peculiar. What are your most and least favourite werewolf tropes?
On the one hand, I do like when werewolves are ignorant to their condition, so it’s like a true split personality-type situation. I’ve actually been toying with the idea of a werewolf hunter trying to track himself down without knowing it for a long time but haven’t quite been able to make it work. However, I hate in horror in general when the characters are such dogmatic sceptics that it goes well past the point of even making sense. Like, dude, something’s clearly going on here, don’t just keep saying, “But werewolves don’t really exist!” Another trope I dislike is when werewolves are named something blaringly obvious like Wolff or Romulus. That’s Saturday morning cartoon-level villainy right there.
‘Blackfish’ is a tie-in to your novel, The Hematophages – how big do you think you might make this universe?
Well, this universe is already appreciably bigger than people think. The Hematophages is the most famous work therein, but I also released the novella Skinwrapper, which expands on the much beloved pirate faction from the novel. In addition to the Strange New Moons short I recently released a short in Negative Space 2, which actually features the crew of the Borgwardt from the original Hematophages again in a prequel. I have a few more shorts in the can and I am working on another in-universe novella, as well as a direct Hematophages sequel, and finally a crossover with Wile E. Young’s Black Magpie series. So, rest assured, for good or ill (probably ill) there is plenty more blood-eating to come.
As someone who, though mostly known for horror, writes across multiple genres, what would you say motivates your writing?
Money?
Typically speaking, do you tend to start with plot or character, and in the early stages, which element is the most important for you to get right?
Plot. I mean, characters are fun and all, but I’ve never said to myself, “Yes, I need to write a study about this imaginary person who’s taking up too much real estate in my mind.” I’ve always said, “Okay, this is the concept, now what kind of a person would be interesting to throw against it?”
Do your reading tastes match what you write?
Mmm, they do and they don’t. It sounds glib, but my reading has been getting more and more eclectic lately. I got back into alternate history a bit last year and lately I’ve been reading more fantasy and science fantasy, and I don’t write much of any of those. (Although, weirdly I’ve had a yen to lately.) I’ve also been reading more non-fiction in the last few years than I have in my entire life. Maybe that’s what inspired me to write Yes, I am a Vampire.
What motivated you to embark on such an undertaking as starting your own press?
That wasn’t much of anything but an organic evolution. Everyone who self-publishes usually develops their own imprint at some point, once they realize that it just says “Independently Published” on Amazon and in awards write-ups if you don’t, which just screams amateur hour.
I came up with “French Press” because I thought it was a terribly brilliant pun, and then once I’d learned the ropes and began opening up to other authors, I began calling it “French Press Publishing” which fucks up the pun but is a boon to the SEO. And there is, of course, something far more charming about saying, “I can offer you a publishing contract” versus “I can self-publish you.” So, it all just kind of happened.
In an ideal world, where would you like to see yourself and/or French Press Publishing a decade from now?
Well, I suppose my preference would be to shut down the imprint entirely because my work has broken through in mainstream publishing and I have to focus entirely on my own writing career. But assuming that doesn’t happen at all, or else it’s just starting to happen and the press still exists in some kind of hybrid form, I would hope that one of my authors was the one who broke through with runaway success and FPP was being looked at as some kind of kingmaker. Either that or I would have signed an author who was already a runaway success and people looked at FPP as the sort of press that can score a deal with so-and-so.
Alright, time to bring out the big guns. You probably thought I’d exempt you from the really tough questions, being editor and all, but I have to be fair.
It’s finally happened, the zombies are here and the world as we know it is doomed. You’re in charge of forming two equal teams – Zombie Killers and Supply Runners. Who’s doing what?
Gavin Dillinger
Somer Canon
Brian Keene
Candace Nola
Mary SanGiovanni
Dame Judy Dench
Gavin Dillinger and Candace Nola – Runner
Somer Canon and Brian Keene- Killer
Mary SanGiovanni – Maybe a nice support role? Morale officer, perhaps?
Dame Judy Dench – At ninety years of age, Dame Judy can probably serve the group best as bait.
I think Dame Judy could probably still throw a hefty punch. Next: You’re on the Nostromo watching in horror on a security monitor as a xenomorph makes its way towards a chamber that contains the entire crew, who are unarmed. It’s certain death if they’re found. Their only hope of survival is you using the controls to open a door and redirect the xenomorph, but the door you open will lead it to Newt. What’s it gonna be?
I mostly never liked Newt anyway. Mostly.
You’re in charge of casting for the remake of either Friends, Supernatural, Dexter, Firefly (or if you haven’t seen any of these, pick your own franchise that people might know!). Who are you casting in the main roles?
These are all terrible options, and I think there might actually be a Dexter remake now? Nevertheless, Dexter is the only one of those I don’t either outright hate or have never watched, so…I don’t know. I’m not very good at this fantasy casting stuff, either. Maybe Pedro Pascal could be Dexter. He’s pretty hot these days.
Finally, tell readers what they can expect if they pick up your books.
Probably a gradual, but overwhelming desire to have your fifteen bucks back.
Thanks to Stephen for this interview, though I can’t believe he so easily opted to sacrifice Newt….
Don’t forget to check out his hideously traumatic story in Strange New Moons. You can also find him at:
Happy Goat Horror 
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