The Dogs of Depression: A Guide for Happy People

The Dogs of Depression: A Guide for Happy People

Friday 27 February 2015

Women in Horror: EMERIAN RICH

Emerian Rich was born in Colorado Springs, Colorado in 1973, the only child of pastors. She lived in thirty-two different places by the time she graduated high school. With no siblings and no consistent peer relationships, the pen became an integral part of her life, granting her an inexpensive pastime that she could take with her anywhere. The characters in her stories became her friends and her journal, her only continuous confidant.

Night's Knights is Emerian's first print novel. She is the hostess of HorrorAddicts.net and writes for the speculative fiction blog dashPunk.com. She lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and son.
Find out more about Emerian at: www.emzbox.com
  1. When did you start writing horror?
In college, when I discovered Anne Rice. I read everything she wrote and horror was a new genre for me, so it was exciting! I had always been writing, but horror was something original, like a whole new world had opened for me.

2.   Have you written in any other genre?
Yes. I have written romance my entire life, even before I knew I was a writer. My first novel was when I was eleven. It was 87, handwritten in pencil sheets of notebook paper. It centered around a young movie star who becomes involved in a terrorist plane hi-jacking. This was circa 1984, so I really had no idea what I was talking about, but it sure was fun!

3.  What makes you uncomfortable?
Monkeys. I'm afraid of them, and when people find out, they think that is a signal to bring them up more in conversation. I am so bothered by them that I wrote a short about my fear and it's featured in the book Phobias (http://www.amazon.com/Phobias-Kay-Brooks-ebook/dp/B00HTAHJ4O/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1421445532&sr=8-5&keywords=emerian+rich&pebp=1421445534738&peasin=B00HTAHJ4O). I read it aloud  recently at a convention and it was probably the worst thing I could've done. People came up to me all weekend terrorizing me with monkeys sounds. I need to start handing out non-monkey contracts before panel.

4.  Does your family read your work?
Yes. My husband is also an author, so we swap. My mother has read my work for years, but she is a minister and when she reads my horror, she gives me the weirdest looks.

5.  Does your writing make you uneasy?
No, but sometimes the ideas or dreams I have that later become stories do. Once I get them down on paper, the shivers become giggles.

6.  Who would you say you write like?
Me. I have tried to write in the style of authors I like before, but the tale still comes out sounding like me. I can't help but put my personal spin on things.

7.  Who are your favourite authors?
Anne Rice, Andrew Neiderman, Jane Austen, Laura Landon

8.  Who influences you as a writer?
Everyone and everything. I am a very visual, eclectic person. I gather imagines, places, feelings, and people, from everything and everywhere I go. They are compiled in little scrapbooks in my mind and come out at the strangest of times.

9. Do you remember what your first horror book was that you read?
I don't remember the name or the author, but it was a romance with a ghost lady and a lighthouse. I loved it, but didn't reconnect with horror again until I was in college.

10.  How old were you?
Ten.

11.  Is there any subject you will not touch as an author?
It's hard to say never. There are things I don't like, like child abuse and rape, but I've written about these things. I haven't glorified them, but rather explored the feelings and strength of people who must endure these sorts of things. Hopefully I've given hope to readers so that they may conquer their demons like my characters do. If there is something that I won't write, it's not because I am scared of it, it's probably something that bores me like sports or politics.

12.  What was the best advice you were given as a writer?
Write because of the people who enjoy your work, not for the haters. Mike Bennett told me that, and it's still in my head today. It makes sense, but when you first start out, it's hard to shut out the critics. Sometimes they make you doubt yourself, your work, even your right to exist on the planet. Don't let their words have such power over you.

13.  If you had to start all over again, what would you do different?
I wish I knew I was a writer in high school. I could have taken English classes in college and been further along. However, I feel life is a journey we are meant to take to get us certain places. Who knows what I would be now, if I had taken that different path?

14.  How many books do you read a year?
Before I was published, 100+. Now, probably around 30. Why? Because of editing.  Authors generally end up reading their same work over and over again. I enjoy pleasure reading whenever I can fit it in.

15.  Do you write every day?
Yes. I can't stop myself. When I don't for some reason, I don't feel right. I get depressed and don't feel better until I've written twice as much. It's like a source of sustenance for me.








Please provide
Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Emerian-Rich/e/B0034MMP40/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_3
Twitter: https://twitter.com/emzbox
Linked In: https://www.linkedin.com/profile/view?id=58616188&trk=spm_pic
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/emzbox
Find out more about Emerian Rich at: emzbox.com


Thank you Malina! :)

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