Interview with Brian Bowyer

Happy Halloween! Today I have a quick interview with Brian Bowyer, author of dozens of books of horror such as Old Too Soon, as well as a fascinating memoir called Writing and Rising from Addiction, and a recent book of poems called BLACKOUT: Micropoetry. In his fiction books, the horror is often turned up to 11! It is only appropriate that he usher in this All Hallow’s Eve.

Here is his intriguing online bio:

Brian Bowyer has been writing stories and music for most of his life. He has lived throughout the United States. He has worked as a janitor, a banker, a bartender, a bouncer, and a bomb maker for a coal-testing laboratory. He currently lives and writes in Ohio. You can contact him at brian.bowyer@hotmail.com.

If you follow him on social media, you’ll find that he posts very entertaining videos of his personal opinions and anecdotes. And sometimes a song!

I've heard some people say that when they watch horror, they find themselves shouting at the main characters to make different, safer choices. That's part of the fun for them, I think. But I get the sense that you don't judge most of your characters or get frustrated with them. Why do you think that is? Or am I totally wrong about this?

You’re right: I never judge my characters or get frustrated with them. They’re always in control of the stories, anyway; not me. I’m just along for the ride, trying to write the events exactly as I see them.

You've been through a lot of intense and dangerous events in your life, and you talk quite openly about them in your memoir. When you read horror books by people who are more sheltered, is it obvious to you that they haven't witnessed some of the stuff they're talking about? Do you have any advice for these writers?

No, that’s something I never even think about when reading fiction. I read fiction for the same reason I write it: entertainment. If people like my fiction, fine. If they don’t, I could not care less. I write my stories to entertain myself.

What's an older book you really enjoyed, one that might surprise people?

The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers is an older book I enjoyed, which might surprise people. An even older book I enjoyed is Victor Hugo’s Les Misérables.

I've read Stephen King's "On Writing," which (like your memoir) is probably as much about addiction as it is about writing. It seemed to me that King was able to kick his addiction to alcohol and drugs in part by embracing an addiction to reading and writing. In your memoir, you also indicate that you have an addictive relationship with reading/writing. For example, you describe how the first time someone gave you a horror book, you read it seven times in one week. Do you think some addictions can be healthy, and do reading and writing work that way for you?

For clarification, I was in a juvenile-prison cell when I read PET SEMATARY seven times, with nothing else to read except NIGHT SHIFT (which I also read multiple times) until Moscar—the correctional officer who gave me those books—returned from vacation, or I probably never would have done that. But yes, I do think some addictions can be healthy, and yes, I also believe reading and writing work that way for me.

Of all that you've written, what do you remain most proud of?

I’m not proud of anything I’ve written. Anything that anyone ever reads by me is whatever I was writing at the time I wrote it to entertain myself. If they like it, cool. If they don’t, that’s cool, too. But I have definitely entertained myself immensely with everything I’ve written. If it has my name on it, it absolutely entertained me from the first page to the last.

I read BLACKOUT: Micropoetry, and I was surprised by how elegant and romantic your poems are. When did you get into poetry?

When I began writing song lyrics for rock and metal bands I played guitar in as a teenager in the 1980s.

What's a question you'd like to be asked?

“Is it okay if I put a trillion dollars in your bank account?” is one. “Are you available to produce Metallica’s next album?” is another. “Will you please choose between Rob Zombie, Quentin Tarantino, and Adams Family Films to adapt one of your books into their next movie?” is yet another. I could go on and on . . .

Thanks so much for asking me to answer these questions, Ivy! This was a lot of fun.

Thank you, Brian! Happy Halloween!