Kevin Lucia

As a writer and reader, I've never been much for "bloodbaths" in books and movies, where substance was incidental, as long as buckets of gore and blood was involved (So, as you can imagine, I've never seen Hostel or any of the Saw movies, nor do I intend to). I'm okay with some of it as necessary to the story, but I'm not into "shock value" horror. I also hate it when decently scary movies, (like Event Horizon), dump buckets o' blood everywhere because they run out of plot with thirty minutes left in the movie.

I'm much more of an atmospheric writer, and I enjoy those types of movies and books as well (this is why I've become an UBER fan of Dean Koontz and as of late, Nate Kenyon). Now, don't get me wrong - I love Stephen King, Joe D'Lacey, Brian Keene and others, and their body counts are always high. However, there's also strong storytelling right alongside their mass destruction of human flesh, so I don't feel as if I'm spying on a charnel house or cattle slaughter (although, technically, Joe D'Lacey's novel "Meat" is ABOUT cattle slaughter - of a kind - but I digress).

As I writer, I've always tried to be subtle with my blood and gore. On one hand, I don't want toss it around indiscriminately, so that the writing was all about that. On the other hand, good guys need to get mauled and killed now and then to preserve credibility and realism, and I don't want to use blood and gore only as a tool of punishment - like the bad guy gets chunked to pieces as a moral balancing of the universe.

For me, the overriding story is paramount. If I'm writing a psychological thriller or about an encounter with Cthulhu, more than likely I'm going to go for chills down the spine, loss of sanity, that sort of stuff. Vampires could go either way. Werewolves...well, that kind of DEMANDS for some spilled blood, don't you think?

How about evil doctors possessing ancient hoo-doo powers, summoning evil gods to perform their unholy operations?

Hmm.

I have two linked stories appearing in two upcoming anthologies, Necrotic Tissue's Malpractice: An Anthology of Bedside Terror, and Snuff Book's RAW: Brutality As Art. Ironically, I didn't submit stories to them that were intentionally graphic, nor did I consider that my focus. They just "fit" with my graduate school thesis project, a set of linked stories, or a "novel-in-stories" about a haunted town deep in the woods.

NT's Malpractice theme first got me thinking: Wouldn't a haunted little town that is quite possibly a nexus for supernatural forces and all things evil have an evil hospital, too? With an evil doctor?

Now that's a bedside horror. Then, when the RAW anthology came out, I thought, "Hmm. Wouldn't an evil doctor, (with a PHD in evil medicine), regard his practice as an art form?"

And that's where my stories have come from lately. In the spring, I'll be working with a graduate professor to put together my thesis. I probably won't try to publish a collection right now. Don't really think enough folks would buy it. But I'm looking forward to threading all these stories together:

Way Station - Coach's Midnight Diner
Darkness Road - NexGen Pulp Magazine, Issue 1
My Brother's Keeper - Dark Horizons, Issue 4
Water God of Clarke Street - Shroud Publishing anthology, Abominations
Old Bassler House - Shroud Publishing Anthology, Northern Haunts

And, upcoming titles:

Monsters - All Hallows
Therapy - Necrotic Tissue's anthology, Malpractice
A Willing Donor - Snuff Book's anthology, RAW.

Anyway, some of these stories are chilling only, some with just enough blood, and some...with a little more. Those with strong stomachs, be sure to snag a copy of either Malpractice or RAW, and if you do...let me know what you think. Those who get whoozy at the sight of a hangnail, skip those, and when one of my current stories gets published, (a slightly dark fairy tale re-take on Rumplestiltskin - yes, in the same town), that will probably be for you.