Interview with Emma E. Murray

Emma E. Murray writes psychologically complex horror stories that have all made a lasting impression on me. I had to know more about her process!

She’s released a novellette, When the Devil from Shortwave Books, and a novel, Crushing Snails from Apocalypse Party Press, both of which I loved. Soon, she’ll release Performance of a Lifetime from Archieve of the Odd, and next year, she has a short story collection and another novel in the pipeline! I look forward to reading everything she writes.

Here are Emma’s answers to some of my questions!

I've read two of your books, When the Devil and Crushing Snails, and both are powerful stories that deal with the effects of domestic abuse. Was it emotionally draining to write these stories?

Domestic abuse is a theme that comes up often in my work. It is always emotionally draining but simultaneously very cathartic for me. I’ve unfortunately lived through several kinds of abuse and emerged on the other side much stronger and more empathetic to fellow survivors because of it, so it only feels natural to include those kinds of horrors in my fiction. I know some people may find those scenes uncomfortable and avoid them, but as someone who lived through similar things, I feel it’s an important, often-overlooked everyday horror in so many people’s lives and a reader’s discomfort is part of exposing those real life horrors.

In some ways, I felt that the worst (okay, maybe the second-worst) villain in Crushing Snails is us...the ways we fail to show up for the people in our lives and ignore the suffering of strangers. So many things could have happened to prevent the disintegration of Winnie’s life, right?

This was very much the feeling I tried to develop for the reader over the course of the novel. Seeing those ways that others failed Winnie either through their own fear, selfishness, or feeling it “wasn’t their business” is intentional, and I want my readers to really process how their own decisions and actions could affect someone so drastically. However, this isn’t to preach that everyone needs to step into things every time, but more that we should be more observant and kind to our fellow people because you never know what a kind word or small gesture could do for someone at the end of their rope.

Do you find yourself sympathizing with even your cruelest characters, or are there some you unabashedly hate? Hmm, or a third option -- are you able to neutralize your feelings towards them by seeing their issues in a clinical way? Or maybe the answer is a fourth option I haven't thought of yet. 

Ha! I honestly could never truly hate any of my characters because even the cruelest and farthest from myself still have a grain of myself in them. How could they not? For example, Winnie’s father is a cruel, horrible man who is hard to sympathize with compared to the other characters, but I tried to make even his character complex enough, with hints dropped at how his own upbringing and life have warped him, to give the reader at least a tiny drop of sympathy for him. In my mind, there are no people who are wholly “bad” or “good.” We are all somewhere in the middle, even if we lean more one direction, and all were sweet, innocent children at one point, so even if some of us do unforgivable and “evil” acts, that doesn’t mean they lose their humanity. They might deserve to be locked away forever and punished, but they are still people and because of that, I can sympathize with them on some level.

Who are some of your artistic inspirations?

I’ve always strived to write like my literary heroes, especially Joyce Carol Oates, Flannery O’Connor, and Cormac McCarthy. Besides writers, I love the way Lars Von Trier, David Cronenberg, and Yorgos Lanthimos tell stories and am continually inspired by their films and the always slightly uncomfortable yet beautiful vibes they always have. I aspire to be even a fraction as brilliant as any of them.

You were an elementary school teacher at one point! What did you learn from that experience that's helped you as a writer of dark, disturbing tales?

Yes, I taught first grade for many years. I think my time teaching young children helped my writing in two significant ways. First, I think I write children more accurately and realistically than many writers because of my years of experience talking with and taking care of them nearly every day. I have more child characters than most horror writers, and I think being a teacher and a mother definitely caused that. Second, I feel that it really helped me to better understand humanity at its core even more than my background in psychology did. Young children are still figuring out how to empathize and navigate difficult emotions, and I think that by spending so much time working with them, it helped my ability to craft complex and realistic characters in general.

Did you know from the beginning that Crushing Snails would be an epistolary novel, or was it a decision that came later? Do you remember where you got your first inspiration for this book?

I figured out quite quickly in my drafting that Crushing Snails would be epistolary. I love unreliable narrators but I feel they’re most effective when the reader is given glimpses of outside perspectives, so the idea of having the transcripts and other character POV chapters came about as my way of reminding readers that Winnie isn’t always being fully honest, and certainly not objective in her observations.

I don’t quite remember my first inspiration for the novel because it happened years before I actually drafted it, and the first draft was written eight years ago, so things are a bit hazy, but I know I had the ending scene in my mind for at least a year before I sat down and started writing the novel. It was the image and idea I couldn’t shake, so I knew it was the base of my story and then everything grew around it. But one huge inspiration for me was reading case studies of serial killers and other violent criminals. I’ve always been fascinated by the way nature and nurture combine to create these human monsters and knew I wanted to write a story that explored that in depth.

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

Hmm, that’s a fun one! :) I’d like to be asked “Who’s your favorite character?” because I’d love to answer “Gabe!” He’s an amalgamation of many friends (and myself) from my rebellious high school days when we thought we were these tortured souls and badasses when in reality we were just sad, lost losers lol. And even though I’ve heard from readers that Gabe was easy to hate, I love him because he reminds me of the horrible yet wonderful time when I was figuring out who I was and struggling through the hell that was high school.

Thank you so much, Emma!