Meet The Maniac III
Read how Hamish is chasing after his dreams
As the year draws close to its end, we have one last soul to hoist into the spotlight
Just a few quick tidbits of news before we jump into the interview!
The Wicked Writing Contest ends on Thursday, the 21st of December, and entries will be accepted until 12pm MST. Its still not too late to write something! What have you got to lose?
Looking to engage in some community projects? Look no further!
- ’s Blackwater Project is still going strong, with new content being added regularly.
The Suff has made a
ChristSuffmas comeback! Look out for holiday horrors as your favorite urban legend navigates the treacherous, joy-filled season.- ’s Penter Painter’s Holiday Haunts has had many great additions to the collaborative Christmas anthology. If you are not looking to write, this would be a great place to read some original and fun Christmas stories!
In case you missed it last week, we updated and thinned out the list of people that would be most beneficial to tag in your Macabre Monday Notes/Posts. You can find the updated list at the bottom of todays post!
Now, on to the interview! Sadly, this month
was unable to perform to interview. Instead, I (), is hosting the interview this time around with . Enjoy!
Would you please take a moment to introduce yourself?
I’m a twenty nine year old writer from New Zealand. I grew up on a sheep and beef farm and have no business pursuing this strange dream, but it’s something that took a hold on me, so I’m seeing where I can go with it.
I studied English Literature and History at university, ended up working in the property industry to support myself while focusing on developing my writing craft outside of work hours.
Recently, I saved up a year’s worth of rent, moved to London and took a year long sabbatical to focus on writing a novel. I am now at the end of that year and am pitching the novel to literary agents.
At what point did you decide you wanted to be a writer/author?
I can pin point the exact moment, but I had a breakthrough at some point during my teen years where I realised “oh you can say things in books that people aren’t able to say in real life.” Once this revelation hit, my relationship with truth was altered in an irreversible way.
Suddenly I began filtering everything my teachers, adults and my peers said, through the question, “But would you say this in the same way, if you weren’t bond up in self-consciousness, social convention and having to account for how it may alter your reputation?”
In a nutshell, the moment I realised that the filter of fiction actually takes away another type of filter, I was hooked and decided I had to find a way of doing it myself no matter what it took.
What do you enjoy most about writing?
It’s the strange sensation of having ideas delivered seemingly out of nowhere that makes it so addictive. I know the line, “It doesn’t feel like it’s coming from me,” is a bit of a cliché, but it’s true. Most of my writing time is spent following a thread, finding out where it’s taking me, and being surprised by where I end up.
The hardest part of trying to explain this is, the thing that ends up on the page doesn’t amount to even a fraction of the version that is floating around in my head—the abstract version that’s free of my limitations as a writer and language itself.
So, the best part of writing is getting to witness that abstract, putting it down on a page is secondary.
What do you enjoy outside of writing?
I train in Brazilian Jiu Jitsu. I’m creeping up on seven years in the sport now. In a similar sense to writing, it’s a sport that lets me problem solve in real time, and follow a creative thread. Only, in this setting there is a resisting opponent dictating the bounds of where you can take it.
There’s something in the slow learning curve of the sport that helps to keep me encouraged on my trajectory as a writer as well. To be engaged in something that also takes years to master, but has slightly more measurable milestones of progression built into it, helps me recognize, “no I am improving. This isn’t a pointless pursuit. Even though it might not feel like I’m getting better. Simply by turning up every day and typing for an hour or so, I can’t help but improve.”
Who are your writing inspirations?
To be honest, most actually come from music. Nick Cave, Pink Floyd, Tool. I’m usually listening to music when I write. It helps shape an aesthetic in my head and maintain a certain tone. It’s always got to be the same artist during a given session, usually the same album as well.
In terms of authors I admire, my list isn’t actually very horror heavy.
Cormac McCarthy, George Orwell, Joan Didion, Aldous Huxley, Fyodor Dostoevsky, Bram Stoker, Margaret Attwood, David Foster Wallace—I know he’s caught some flack lately, but the writing made an impact.
What do you find to be the most challenging when it comes to writing in general?
Filtering out all the variables and settling on the “best” direction to take a plot. When I reach a turning point in a story, I always try to walk past the first choice that comes to mind, because I assume that’s the one the reader will be expecting and therefore the “predictable” direction. But this can be a slippery slope, if you decide to take things in too obscure a direction, people may come away disappointed. Why didn’t you do X with this premise? You don’t want to be predictable, but you’ve also got to recognize that a given premise only has so many optimal options. You don’t want to waste a good idea for the sake of originality.
What do you find to be most challenging when it comes to writing horror?
Maintaining tension. I have a tendency to fall in love with my own premises. So, I constantly have to pull back on the reins and ask myself, “is this scary? Is this serving the story? Or am I just trying to show off how “clever” I can be. At the end of the day, people are there for one reason, to be scared—or at least disturbed. Don’t serve them up something they didn’t order.
What is the most difficult thing you have ever written?
To be honest, my first non-fiction post on Substack was probably the hardest. With fiction, you’ve always got the built in, “these are the words of my character” (even though that’s only half true. But in non-fiction, every vulnerability is just a layer more exposed. Talking about real people in my own life was a hard hurdle to jump.
You can find that non-fiction post here.
Do you have any odd writing habits?
I wish I had a more interesting answer to this, but most of what I do is fairly meat and potatoes. I do record scenes I’ve written on my phone and listen back to it to hear how it sounds out loud. I suppose there’s something a little bit crazy about that, if you were to overhear me reading dialogue out loud.
Can you describe your writing process?
I start every day the same. Brew a coffee, read a short writing related article (usually on Substack) to get me in the zone while the caffeine kicks in, then write until I have to be somewhere. I never check my phone or emails during this period. I know if I let myself fall into the “being entertained” state, my window of being able to create, will be over.
Over the twelve month sabbatical I recently took to focus on finishing my novel, I had to teach myself to put an end point on these writing sessions, because in the absence of any obligations to pull me away from the writing, I would end up in this state of intense focus for up to six hours in some cases. (which I appreciate may come off as compulsive) After which I would be completely mentally drained and borderline incapable of doing anything productive for the rest of the day. Hmmm maybe that’s a better answer to the odd writing habits question.
Is there a specific style that you love when it comes to writing horror?
Definitely the subtler the better. I’m a firm believer that the imagination is much more diabolical than anything words can come up with. If you leave the terror unseen and feed a reader just enough prompts to send them down the dark, twisting spiral of their own psyche, you’ve hit the sweet spot. This is why I think the better CGI gets in films, the less terrifying these horror films seem to be. A director wants to use that tool because it’s there, but really, they should be giving more credit to their audience’s own darkness.
What piece of your work are you most proud of and why?
I’d have to say my recently completed novel, Echoes from the Trapdoor, simply by virtue of how difficult it was to finish it. I started the project six years ago, learning the writing craft as I wrote. Four years into it, I realised that I’d tackled far too ambitious a project for my own abilities and was unlikely to be able to finish it.
I went through an existential crisis when I considered how much time I’d sunk into this thing, but managed to regroup, re-focus, and eventually get it finished.
I’m currently at the pitching stage, facing the inevitable wave of rejections. Yet, even if I don’t find a publisher for this novel, I’m proud of that accomplishment because I know, there was a dangerous moment during that time where I was at risk of giving up entirely—which would have followed me for the rest of my life. “The notorious project I wasn’t good enough to complete.”
With projects of this size, it’s easy to fall into the trap of identifying with them and begin believing they’re a representation of your worth as a person.
The act of finishing Echoes from the Trapdoor required me to separate myself from it, which represents a turning point I’m proud of.
Do you have anything you would like to tell aspiring or struggling authors?
Just keep turning up every day. Crank out as many finished pieces as you can (short stories and flash fiction are great for this.) Don’t worry about perfecting things. Build a thousand chairs rather than trying to hone the original one to perfection. You’ll get better a lot faster that way. Of course, you’ve got to be consciously trying to improve, but don’t get too caught up on tracking your results. If you’re doing the work, the improvements will be presents. *One day you’ll look up and realise how far you’ve come.
*But this is only true if you’ve genuinely been putting in that work (and trust me, you’ll know the difference deep down)
What an absolutely amazing interview this was from someone so passionate about chasing his dreams and making a career out of writing. Thank you
for an inspirational look into your life, and your story. I admire your dedication to the craft and your work, and for what its worth, I believe you will achieve exactly what you are setting out for!Go check out Hamish’s work at his publication The Sudden Walk.
Meet the Maniac will back next month to feature another maniacal author from our community. Things are constantly changing here at Macabre Monday to better serve the community, so keep a lookout for (possibly) a chance to be interviewed!
Make sure to subscribe to Macabre Monday if you haven’t already so you receive all the greatest updates on the best horror community Substack has to offer!
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shared their thoughts on why it may sometimes be extremely hard to suspend your disbelief of what is going on in horror films, or really anything! Have you ever found yourself unable to enjoy a movie or show because of all the inaccuracies that you spot?That’s all I have for you this week! Check back in next Monday to see who won the Wicked Writing Contest!
Join the discussion on notes here on the Substack platform every Monday!
Stay Spooky.
If you are looking for people to follow on notes for Macabre Monday other than the ones above, check out all the people participating (updated list): haunting the staircase Jenovia Honeygloom John Coon reinancruz Koshmarov Michael S. Atkinson Author Michele Bardsley L.L. Ford A. B. Frank Patricia J.L. 👻🧶🖊️ Jessica Maison Jennifer Morrow Stirling S Newberry Nicolina Torres Lauren Salas Susan Earlam Jon T Daniel W. Davison Daniel O’Donnell Michael P. Marpaung Buck Weiss Leigh Parrish Macey Cole Noble Olivia St. Lewis EJ Trask Joshua T Calkins-Treworgy Skyla Anna C. Webster Carla Pettigrew V Kelly-Sibley Kathrine Elaine Renee George Alec Worley haunting the staircase ReddOscarWrites Slasher EJ Trask Josh Tatter The Man Behind the Screen Hamish Kavanagh
I'm really loving the "community projects" section, encouraging folks to work together, and even providing a couple of places where that can happen.
If anyone's interested in a nonfiction collaboration, I'd be super into the idea and happy to contribute a portion. I feel like there's a lot of interesting ground out there worth exploring, and stuff I'd enjoy thinking about. Besides writing about the genre itself (EG, horror novels, shows, or movies), there's plenty of other stuff in the realm of the macabre to be written about.
If nobody in particular wants to "own" a nonfiction section like that, maybe we could take turns hosting.
Thanks for the spotlight Jeff, it's much appreciated.