Tag Archives: Broken Eye Books

Fearsome Lullaby: Interview with A.C. Wise

Welcome back! This week, I’m thrilled to spotlight the absolutely awesome A.C. Wise! A.C. is the author of the forthcoming novella, Catfish Lullaby, from Broken Eye Books as well as the collections, The Kissing Booth Girl and Other Stories and The Ultra Fabulous Glitter Squadron Saves the World Again, from Lethe Press, along with many incredible short stories.

Recently, A.C. and I discussed Catfish Lullaby as well as her work as a reviewer and her writing plans for the future.

A couple icebreakers to start: when did you first decide to become a writer, and who are some of your favorite authors?

Writing is something I’ve always been interested in, and something I’ve always loved doing. Somewhere around 3rd or 4th grade, it finally clicked in my head that writing was a thing people could do professionally in such a way that people could read their work. That’s when I decided I wanted to be an author someday.

Some of my favorites authors… I swear I’ll try to stick to just a few and not go rambling on and on. Ray Bradbury, Silvia Moreno-Garcia, Elizabeth Bear, Neil Gaiman, Caitlin R. Kiernan, E. Catherine Tobler, John Langan, and N.K. Jemisin. I should probably stop there, right? I could keep going…

Congratulations on the forthcoming release of Catfish Lullaby! Could you share a little about your process in developing this story?

Thank you! The novella began life as a short story, and when Scott Gable approached and asked if I had anything novella-length for Broken Eye Books, I realized there was more to the story that I wanted to tell, so I went back and expanded it. The original inspiration came from a song I sort of half heard at a county fair. The sound system wasn’t great, so I couldn’t tell what the singer was actually saying, but my writer-brain decided he was singing about a tall tale type figure like Paul Bunyan either walking into or out of a swamp, and from that, Catfish John was born. So thank you, singer whose name I don’t know, for your song that I probably woefully misheard!

The cover art for Catfish Lullaby is just incredible! Can you tell me about the artist, and how the cover evolved?

The artist is Sishir Bommakanti, who does generally gorgeous work. Seriously, check it out! (https://sishir.com/) All the credit for how the cover came together goes to Scott and Sishir. Scott found Sishir, sent over my novella, and all I had to do was sit back and wait. I couldn’t be more thrilled with the way the cover turned out! I’ve been very lucky with covers in general, between Catfish Lullaby, and my two Lethe Press collections, which had covers done by Staven Andersen and Reiko Murikami – two more incredible artists!

Everything about Catfish Lullaby, from the blurb to that beautiful aforementioned cover art, seems to have a very strong sense of place. I feel like I can hear and smell the swamp just from reading the description of the book. What drew you to this particular setting?

The fictional town of Lewis, where the novella is set, is very loosely based on the town in Louisiana where my husband grew up. Very loosely. I cheated on the geography, made the land much swampier, and rearranged things to suit the story. I can’t imagine setting Catfish Lullaby anywhere else though. There’s a kind of quiet you get there that you don’t get anywhere else, and a sense of isolation that can be both comforting and eerie. It’s definitely the kind of place where a living myth could hide away, and where bits of otherness could easily leak through to our world.

You’re a highly prolific short story writer. At this point, do you have a specific approach to crafting a short story (i.e. specific outlining strategies, a certain rhythm to how long it takes you to finish a story, etc.), or does the process still vary greatly each time?

The process varies greatly each time. Some stories flow, to the point where it feels like they arrive fully formed, and it’s a wonderful thing. Other times, it feels like banging my head against a wall. I rarely outline my short stories, at least not in a formal sense. I do occasionally leave myself notes and waypoints so I have a rough idea of where I was going next time I sit down to work on it, but other than that, I mostly figure it out as I go along.

In addition to your fiction writing, you’re also a very busy interviewer and reviewer. What draws you to interviewing and reviewing, and what do you feel, if anything, they’ve taught you about writing fiction?

Interviewing is a fun way to connect with other writers, and reviewing is an excuse to yell about stories I love. Really, they’re both selfish activities. Short fiction in particular can often get overlooked when it comes to reviews, so that was the other impetus behind the Words for Thought column at Apex Magazine. That said, I feel like short fiction is starting to get more of the attention it deserves thanks to fantastic and dedicated reviewers like Maria Haskins, Charles Payseur, Bogi Takács, Vanessa Fogg, Adri Joy, forestofglory, and the various reviewers at Locus Magazine, among others.

I think one of the main things reviewing has taught me about writing, or fiction generally, is that different people connect with different stories. A story may leave one person cold, and it may blow another person away, and sometimes it can be a matter of that story finding the right person at the right time on the right day, or vice versa, a person just being in the wrong frame of mind for a certain story when they come across it. Which I guess is a roundabout way of saying write the story you want to tell, rather than trying to guess at what you think your potential audience might want.

What projects are you currently working on?

I’m currently working on edits to a novel so my agent can start shopping it around (eep!), and I have a handful of short stories in various stages of completion sitting open on my laptop.

Where can we find you online?

I blog somewhat sporadically at www.acwise.net. On Twitter, I’m @ac_wise, and there I mostly shout about short fiction I love, and post pictures of my corgis. My regular review columns appear at Apex Magazine (monthly) and The Book Smugglers (roughly quarterly).

Tremendous thanks to A.C. Wise for being part of this week’s author interview series!

Happy reading!

PRETTY MARYS ALL IN A ROW Now Available for Pre-order!

So you may have heard (possibly from this very blog) that I have a novella coming out later this year. I am so super stoked for this. Pretty Marys All in a Row is my first work of longer fiction to makes its debut in the world, and that is completely thrilling and daunting and all sorts of other intense emotions. *cue confetti*

This particular story has lived with me for a long time. It revolves around the Marys of folklore and urban legends (think Bloody Mary and Resurrection Mary), and deals both with their origins in our nightmares as well as what happens when we start to forget them. I’ve loved urban legends since I was a kid, and I’ve wanted to write about them for years, so to be able to fold that love into my work in fairy tales, horror, and dark fantasy is a bit of a dream come true.

Another dream come true? The cover for the novella. Let’s take a gander at it, shall we?

Pretty Marys All in a RowSeriously. That’s my cover. I don’t know how I got so lucky. After adoring the cover for my collection, I really thought there was no chance I’d love my second cover just as much, but hey, here we are, and I couldn’t be happier. Major shout-out to Gawki for their stunning artwork. I honestly can’t swoon enough.

We’re in the home stretch before Pretty Marys is unleashed on readers. The tentative release date is November 28th, though that date may shift a bit as the cover is finalized with the printer. Otherwise, the novella is ready for the world. You can pre-order the book now over at the Broken Eye Books website, and you’ll also receive an advance digital copy.

To say I’m elated and honored about the release of this novella is such an understatement. It’s been an incredibly fantastic process working with editor Scott Gable of Broken Eye Books. I’ve said it before, and I’ll say it again now: I am so fortunate to work with such great editors and presses. How one writer got as lucky as me, I’ll never know, but I’m thankful for it every day.

As we close in on the release date, I’ll of course be sharing more updates about the novella. In the meantime, if you’re on Goodreads, then feel free (*nudge nudge*) to add Pretty Marys All in a Row to your bookshelf. It does a writer’s heart good.

Happy reading!

PRETTY MARYS ALL IN A ROW, My Debut Novella Coming Soon from Broken Eye Books

You might have seen the announcement earlier this week on the Broken Eye Books website, but if not, then allow me to share a very exciting update: my debut novella, Pretty Marys All in a Row, is slated for release later this year!

Inspired by the Marys of folklore, this novella is part fairy tale, part horror story, and part one of those ideas that has lived with me for years (and I’m so happy to have finally been able to get it all down on paper). In this writer’s personal opinion, Pretty Marys is among the very, very best things I’ve ever created, so I’m thrilled that it will soon be shared with the world.

And here’s the official description to give you an even better idea of what it’s all about!

You’ll find her on a lonely highway, hitchhiking at midnight. She calls herself Rhee, but everyone else knows her by another name: Resurrection Mary. And when she’s transported home each night to a decrepit mansion on a lane to nowhere, she’s not alone.

In the antique mirror, call her name three times, and Bloody Mary will appear. Outside, wandering through a garden of poisonous flowers is Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary, a nursery rhyme come to gruesome life. Downstairs is another jump-rope rhyme—Mary Mack, forever conscripted to build her own coffin. And brooding in the corner with her horse skull is the restless Mari Lwyd.

They are the Marys, the embodiment of urban legend and what goes bump in the night. Every evening, they gather around the table and share nightmares like fine wine, savoring the flavors of those they’ve terrified.

But other than these brief moments together, the Marys are alone, haunting a solitary gloom that knows them better than they know themselves. That’s because they don’t remember who they were before—or even if there was a before. And worst of all, they don’t know how to escape this fate.

That is, until a moment of rage inspires Rhee to leap from the highway—and into the mirror with Bloody Mary. Suddenly, the Marys are learning how to move between their worlds, all while realizing how much stronger they are together.

But just when freedom is within their reach, something in the gloom fights back—something that isn’t ready to let them go. Now with her sisters in danger of slipping into the darkness, Rhee must unravel the mystery of who the Marys were before they were every child’s nightmare. And she’ll have to do it before what’s in the shadows comes to claim her for its own.

Broken Eye BooksIf you want to read more about the book and my inspiration in developing it, then be sure to head over to the Broken Eye Books site for the official announcement! And of course, tremendous thanks to editor Scott Gable for taking on this project!

Now as we move toward the fall release date, Patreon supporters of Broken Eye Books will receive the ebook first (likely in early September) with a wide release to everyone else down the road. So that means if you’re really eager to read Pretty Marys All in a Row along with all the other great releases available and forthcoming from Broken Eye Books, then consider becoming a supporter of their Patreon.

And naturally, expect me to be discussing Pretty Marys a whole lot more in the upcoming months. I can reveal that I’ve already seen a mock-up sketch of the tentative cover, and it’s incredibly beautiful and eerie. As soon as it’s finalized, I’ll be sure to share it here and promote the fantastic artist who’s designing it! It’s a very fortunate life to work with so many amazing editors, writers, and artists!

Happy reading!