Australian horror and paranormal fiction has surged in popularity in the last twelve months, with a number of new authors making a splash on the international stage with groundbreaking novels. HorrorScope is highlighting some of these rising (and established) stars throughout May with a series of interviews. The first author to step into our spotlight is
Stephen M. Irwin.
Stephen M. Irwin's debut novel,
The Dead Path (Hachette Australia, 2009), was nominated for the Australian Shadows Award and the Aurealis Award.
The Dead Path was later published in the UK (as
The Darkening) and USA. Stephen is also an accomplished short story writer and screenwriter.
What was your path to selling your novel and what obstacles did you face along the way?In late 2006, my wife and I looked at our household budget; I’d just finished a consultancy job and we realised that I didn’t need to bring any more money into the household for another three months. I’d had the delight of winning a few short story competitions at that point, and we thought this might be a good opportunity for me to write something long-form – a novel.
I didn’t have any particular story ideas screaming to be let onto the page, but I thought I’d like to write a ghost story (among my favourite kinds of story), and that it should be set in my hometown of Brisbane (which I know well, and I thought my familiarity with the setting that would help make the place feel real for the reader). Three months later, I had a first draft manuscript … and no idea what to do with it, save that I didn’t fancy the idea of cold-calling publishers.
I knew enough about the film industry to suppose that, in publishing, life would be easier with an advocate, so I went about trying to find an agent. This was a bit like finding a concierge at a caravan and camping show; however, I received an email saying that a very experienced publicist was coming to Brisbane to conduct a seminar – so I went along and caught up with him after his talk, told him I had a paranormal thriller manuscript that needed a good home with loving owner, and he put me in touch with my agent, the wonderful Selwa Anthony. She worked her magic and put the manuscript in front of the right eyes at Hachette Australia (proving instantly the value of a first-class agent!) who came back with some marvellous notes (these involved a few tweaks but mostly the inclusion of more material fleshing out the secondary and tertiary characters). A revised manuscript was turned around fairly quickly, and in the first half of 2008 we had a contract, which was an enormous thrill.
I’ve been trying to use ground-penetrating radar on your question, to hunt for the obstacles under this seemingly smooth road to publication. I guess the biggest was my own impatience. I learned that one needs a great deal of faith in this business: faith in yourself to get started, faith in your agent, and faith in your own work once it is out there and you are marking off the days and weeks until you hear some – any! – news. Self-confidence and patience are very valuable in this field of endeavour.
Tell us about The Dead Path. Are any sequels or connected novels planned?The Dead Path is a supernatural thriller about Nicholas Close, an Australian sharing a fairly happy life with his wife in London, working an uninspiring job and renovating a small flat. One afternoon, a glimpse of a strange, not quite human face among the dark oak trees of a London park causes Nicholas to drop his motorbike – he is largely unhurt, and phones home to tell his wife he’s had a bingle. But she slips on the ladder and breaks her neck, dying instantly. And so Nicholas’s life is turned upside down. Not only is he a widower, but the trauma and accident have opened a part of his brain that’s been sleeping – he can now see ghosts: the spirits of the unhappy dead caught in endlessly repeating loops of the last moments of their life. Nicholas returns home to Australia, hoping to find some peace. Instead, he discovers in his home suburb that a large, dense tract of trees that disturbed him in his childhood has escaped the developers’ bulldozer. And now that he can see ghosts, he understands why the bushland disturbed him. From a gravel path outside ‘The Woods’ he can see the spirits of young children being snatched away into the dark trees.
Last year, I enjoyed a national book tour with The Big Book Club, doing a lot of talks around the country about
The Dead Path. I was delighted to be approached by quite a number of people who’ve read the book, asking if there would be another Nicholas Close novel. There must be something about the surly bugger that appeals to people. So, I’m thinking that a sequel is something well worth considering. I recently went to Europe to do some research that I’m hoping will help propel me on my way into a strong sequel to
The Dead Path.
The Dead Path features ghosts, magic, and even allusions to Celtic mythology. How has mythology and the supernatural inspired you as a writer?I’ve loved reading since … well, since I learned how to. And while I read fairly broadly in a wide and growing range of genres, stories about the supernatural continue to be ones I’ll always gravitate toward. Lovecraft, Wyndham, Leiber, Matheson, King, Bradbury … all of them helped cement a true delight in stepping behind the veneer of normalcy that our world puts up, into the darkness where hidden things creep and scheme.
I think the hallmark of a great story about the ghostly and supernatural is an ability to plug into the truth in a solid way. Stories in the genre that work best for me are those that either seem to start firmly in a world we know and recognise as true (before pulling the rug from under us), or that tap into storytelling themes so old and fundamental to our thinking that we accept them as true, at a subconscious level if not a conscious one. That is where mythology proves a rich vein to mine. The themes, characters, imagery, and sentiments of ancient mythology are tracks that a great deal of our thinking runs along, no matter how pragmatic a person we might be. Perhaps that is why authors like J. K. Rowling, whose wonderful stories that have sharpened a whole new facet on magic, have been so successful: almost all of us in the so-called West grew up on stories like those collected by the Grimm brothers – stories which, themselves, have deeper, older roots. And the older and deeper the root, the more firmly the story will hold while you hang your adornments off it. I used the pre-Christian mythology of The Green Man in
The Dead Path – his image, of a human-like face made of or emerging from foliage, is one that most of us recognise even if we don’t know the tale behind it. For me, researching mythology is one of the delightful parts of the writing process.
What are your thoughts on dark/urban fantasy and horror publishing in Australia? Internationally?I feel very fortunate to have had a horror novel – set in Brisbane! – published by such a huge house as Hachette Australia. I think that it is a great sign that publishers of scale are getting behind the genre. Horror, in particular, is a genre that has done very solid business in countries like the US for the last few decades, but I think it has been a bit tough for Australian writers and publishers of Australian horror in the last little while.
However, we have a strong tradition of pumping out both excellent horror writers and fantasy writers. There are too many great fantasy authors to name, but to people like Keri Arthur, national borders have proved no obstacle to success. Horror seems a little different; quite a number of supernatural stories by Australian authors have foreign settings (John Harwood’s excellent novel
The Séance springs instantly to mind).
I suspect that it has simply taken time for overseas readers to get into the habit of accepting that great horror stories can be set outside the UK, the Continent, and the US. Just as Chinese cinema became acceptable mainstream in the West over the last decade and a half, I think Australian fantasy and horror is finally also being recognized as coming from a first class pedigree.
What worries me most about the horror genre in particular is that readers aren’t buying (and therefore publishers aren’t putting money behind) too many horror short story collections and horror novellas, the latter especially. These are vital forms of presenting and invigorating the genre, and I hope that new technology like the Kindle and eReader will result in readers again being happy to pay for and consume en masse fantasy and horror in these vibrant, shorter forms. My advice would be, if you like short story compendia and novellas, buy them! Prove to publishers that these are desirable formats.
How does your approach to writing novels differ from scriptwriting?A novel is a bigger embarkation than a feature screenplay. A screenplay is perhaps 15,000 words; a novel is six or more times that in size. But my approach to story doesn’t much differ between the two. I still rely on getting myself across the three Cs – character, catalyst, and conflict – before starting out (that is, I like to know who the story is about and being told through; to have the inciting incident in my mind; and I like to know what obstacles will likely be facing the main character on his/her journey).
The big difference is in terms of flesh. In screenwriting, you have to play the selfless cartographer: you have to travel in your mind out into the world of your film, map it with excruciating detail so that you know everything about how the world appears, how your characters look, walk and talk, what the quality of the light is like and how it smells … and then steadily erase all but the most essential details from the map, so that when you hand the screenplay over to the producer and director, they feel like they are able to discover the world freshly (even though you’ve given them every single hint they need!). Screenplays are just scene headings, Spartan action description, and dialogue. They are also rigid in terms of format: present tense, third person, and (except for the Voice Over) no expression of what is going on in characters’ minds.
Novels are completely different; two great parts of the experience of reading a novel are being able to chew on tasty prose, and being allowed inside the skulls of characters to know their thoughts. That is both exciting and scary, because the possibilities are limitless. However, I think my experiences in writing for the screen – particularly in terms of pacing and succinct visual description – have been a benefit to my novel writing.
Which do you enjoy the most (novel writing or screenwriting)?Which do I enjoy? I love a three-course dinner, and I love a good club sandwich; having to choose between them would be a bit onerous. I am happy to be able to flip between screenplays and novels.
What can we next expect from you, publishing-wise?My second novel is due at the publisher at the end of 2010, so if all goes well, we'll see it on bookshelves in mid-2011. It's a supernatural thriller, too, and I am quietly excited about it. I am doing some television writing as well, and I'm really hoping to return to short story writing very soon.
May was a massive month for sales of horror and paranormal titles at Dymocks Southland; in addition to our three-week International Zombie Awareness Month promotion, May also saw the release of new books in the Vampire Academy, Sookie Stackhouse and House of Night series', as well as heavy promotion for the June release of Stephenie Meyers' latest book. Bloodsuckers vs The Walking Dead!
One of Australia’s best-loved comedians reads from, and signs copies of, his collection of unsettling short stories, Under Stones (review 
