AISFP 236 – Ronald Malfi and Kevin Lucia, Part One

Continuing our Coffin Hop Blog Tour, Timothy C. Ward tags Horror author, Kevin Lucia, author of Things Slip Through, to help interview one of the best Horror authors you might never have heard of, Ronald Malfi. For those who associate Horror with blood-and-guts shock fests, his is not that kind of Horror. Listen on and get a taste for his blend of mystery and heart in the stories he tells.

Discussed:

  • Ron’s latest release, Cradle Lake, which started out as a sub-plot of his novel, Floating Staircase
  • How much he embraces similarities between himself and his characters, especially in writing a book with a main character who is an author, even playing on the meta-fiction themes.
  • “When people say ‘write what you know,‘ they’re saying, write within the confines of what you believe life to be. I think there’s a real honesty in that.” – Ronald Malfi
  • How Ron puts his signature touch on using Horror motifs in his fiction.
  • “People think you don’t have a story unless your character undergoes some big change at the end and redeems himself… sometimes a story is just as good as holding up a mirror and showing a reflection of things in society and real life, and sometimes those things don’t have an explanation, or those things aren’t redeemed, or there is no absolution.”
  • The 800 page manuscript he just turned into his agent and a little bit about this unreleased story.
  • His next book out with Medallion Press, December Park (out in 2014)–what he calls his most sentimental and autobiographical story to date.
  • How he thinks about character first before story (giving example of Floating Staircase), and how ghost story is what happens around the plot of that character’s story.
  • “The characters and their problems come first. If you’ve got really good characters and really good problems with those characters from the get-go then the stories build themselves around them.” – Ronald Malfi
  • In the intro, I mentioned the Introduction to Writing: Science Fiction and Fantasy course taught by Michael A. Stackpole.

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AISFP COFFIN HOP GIVEAWAY Details:

The Coffin Hop is an annual blog tour amoung indie horror authors and artists with over eighty sites offering fun content and giveaways. This year, they’re releasing an anthology by many of these authors, called Coffin Hop: Death by Drive-In, and proceeds will go to www.litworld.org. Every book title I mention until the end of the Coffin Hop Web Tour, on the 31st, will be available for two winners to choose from (one per winner; in ebook form; and US only, sorry). To enter, comment below, tweet a link back to a post with #AISFP, or share the post from our Facebook page.
Running tally of books to choose from:

Total Coffin Hop Posts so far:

Book Review: ANNO DRACULA: JOHNNY ALUCARD by Kim Newman

SF Book Releases This Week: Oct. 29, 2013

AISFP 236 – Ronald Malfi and Kevin Lucia, Part One

Dystopian Horror

Top 3 Villains

Book Review: APOCALYPTIC MONTESSA AND NUCLEAR LULU
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authorphoto Kevin Lucia, Guest Co-host

Things slip throughKevin Lucia is a Submissions Reader for Cemetery Dance Magazine and his podcast “Horror 101” is featured monthly on Tales to Terrify. His short fiction has appeared in several anthologies.

He’s currently finishing his Creative Writing Masters Degree at Binghamton University, he teaches high school English and lives in Castle Creek, New York with his wife and children.

He is the author of Hiram Grange& The Chosen One, Book Four of The Hiram Grange Chronicles. His first short story collection, Things Slip Through is forthcoming in November. He’s currently working on his first novel.
Timothy C. Ward
Executive Producer

Timothy C. Ward has been podcasting since 2010, first as AudioTim, and now with AISFP. His first publication, Cornhusker: Demon Gene (A Short Story), is available on Kindle for $.99. He just turned in his novel to his editor, Joshua Essoe. Kaimerus is described as “Firefly crashes on Avatar and wakes up 28 Days Later.”

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Comments

  1. Vitina Molgaard says

    As a reader of Ronald Malfi and his work I completely enjoyed this interview and am looking forward to the second half of it. Your questions and discussions were right on. Mr. Malfi is the genuine article when it comes to writing. I read and review over at horror Novel Reviews and The Floating Staircase was one that came across our page. Horror from my opinion does not need to be blood and guts thrillers…a good read is much more like what is being discussed here. I want to know characters and what is right and wring in this world of human beings. There are plenty of stories out there to shock us but the best i have read are the ones that delve deeper in human nature and the horrors that walk around on two legs…called people. Thank you….just me…Vitina Molgaard

    • Thanks so much for stopping by, Vitina! Ron is really good. I’ve read and enjoyed The Narrows and Floating Staircase. Hope we get a chance to talk story more in the future. I’ve got HNR on my list.

      I’ll work hard tonight to get the next part ready for tomorrow. In it, Ron and Kevin talk about Peter Straub as one of their favorite authors, and it makes me really want to read him.

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