Horror Author Q&A: John S. McFarland (The Dark Walk Forward)

“I love more unsettling, understated styles. Horrors more suggested than hitting you over the head.”

Horror author John S. McFarland talks to Monster Complex about his new horror story collection, reveals his connections to Ray Bradbury, Isaac Asimov, and the Twilight Zone, and shares what he doesn’t like in horror fiction.

John S. McFarland’s short fiction has appeared in numerous journals, in both the mainstream and horror genres. His tales have been collected with stories by Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, and Richard Matheson.

His work has been praised by such writers as T.E.D. Klein and Philip Fracassi, and he has been called "A great, undiscovered voice in horror fiction."

McFarland’s horror novel, The Black Garden, was published in 2010 to universal praise, and his young reader series about Bigfoot, Annette: A Big Hairy Mom, is in print in three languages. The Dark Walk Forward is his first collection of short stories.

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1) In The Dark Walk Forward, your characters are often struggling with loneliness or alienation before encountering the horror. Would you say these stories find the horror being a kind of relief from everyday life?

Interesting observation! In a very real sense, yes. There are few real horrors familiar to middle class people living everyday lives, worse than loneliness, alienation and self-hatred.

These characters are very familiar with these horrors when the new horror, the unfamiliar one, enters their lives. These new horrors are distractions, yes, but also an added dimension to their fears.

2) There is a literary quality in your writing as you offer us glimpses into the lives of these people. How consciously do you lean into your influences?

It is a cliche to say, I suppose, that each of them is a part of me or represents an element of my personality. Empathizing with them is essential, and not that difficult.

I want to examine their personalities, and by extension, my own, and explore what they do or what becomes of them in these extraordinary circumstances. I think this is essential to write believable, relatable characters.

3) In the introduction to The Dark Walk Forward, you share that as a boy you wrote fan letters to Ray Bradbury and Isaac Asimov, and they wrote back! What impact did that have on you as a future author?

It was pretty incredible to get those letters as a young teen. Bradbury’s was very kind, thoughtful and encouraging. He made me feel that this iconic figure was supportive and a mentor, and that ideas I had about his work and my own actually had validity. I gave him opinions and asked questions about his themes and style and he took them... seriously. That made it seem as though I could be taken seriously by the wider world.

Asimov also was validating, but in a much less meandering and pastoral way. His advice was don't focus too obsessively on originality of an idea, but instead take an idea and make it my own. See something in it nobody else sees, or at least interpret that thing in a unique way.

Both, I found, were very helpful.

4) Your stories eschew the flashy in favor of creating a sense of dread and helplessness as your horrors intrude on the everyday lives of your characters. What draws you to set your stories in these historical contexts and these locations?

One reason is language. I feel I can give free reign to the language I am most comfortable with in an historical setting.

Also, I grew up reading the great horror and ghost tales of the 19th and early 20th Centuries: Lovecraft, M.R. James, LeFanu, Stoker, etcetera. That place in my imagination I can revisit and broaden with these settings.

I have always been struck by the great societal trauma of WWl, the unexpected horrors of melding 19th cent tactics and mindset with 20th century technology. I wondered how people recovered from that, and what it was like if you couldn't.

Also, my town of Ste. Odile is based on the old French colonial Mississippi River town of Ste. Genevieve, a place where my family history goes back to the 1750's. I always wanted to explore and exploit that history and use the town in fiction.

5) TDWF includes tales spanning from 1983 to 2020. How has your writing style or process changed over that time?

The 1983 story was the very first fiction I ever wrote. I had a lot to learn about motive, dialogue, inner conflicts and just moving characters around in space.

I am much more self-assured now and have a clearer idea what works and what seems contrived. Plus I have two awesome editors who read everything I write now.

6) What have you learned as an author that you would like to tell your younger self?

The real horrors are inside us. And at the right time, in the right situation, most people, MOST people, are capable of ANYTHING.

7) Your first publication was in an issue of Rod Serling's The Twilight Zone Magazine. (Seriously, how appropriate is that?) What was the origin of that story and its appearance in TZ?

Interesting story in itself, actually. The story is called One Happy Family and was actually inspired by the fact that my daughter was born in a home birth. Yes, it was planned.

I started wondering, what if the mother needed to really concentrate to have a 'normal' baby? What if, otherwise, she didn't know what she was going to bring into the world.

I concocted a story of well-adjusted, loving freaks, one of whom lives in an aquarium.

It so happens that a young T.E.D Klein was editor of TZ then. He loved the story and took it immediately.

It was well-received and caught the eye of famed anthologist Martin Greenberg, who included it in his anthology, A Treasury of American Horror Stories.

From that day on I could claim to have appeared in a tome which also included Stephen King, H. P. Lovecraft, Robert Bloch, Richard Matheson AND Isaac Asimov. Mr. Klein allowed me to use some of his comments as a blurb in the new book and has become a friend. No small achievement to have Ted Klein blurb you!

Interesting side note: two years after the first appearance of “One Happy Family,” Katherine Dunn published her revered novel Geek Love, also featuring a loving family of freaks, one of whom lives in an aquarium. A lawyer told me I have a case but these things are hard to prove and expensive. Just sayin'.

8) As a fan, what do you look for in a horror story?

I have tried but I just don't care much for the anti-natalism of Ligotti, Nicole Cushing and Christopher Slatsky. Brilliant writers all, but I find the work unsatisfying, muck filled and leaving me wondering, where is there some sort of payoff and the real dread and horror. Its there, I suppose, but I can't connect much.

I love more unsettling, understated styles. Horrors more suggested than hitting you over the head.

Most dread-inducing book I have read in years is Michelle Paver's Dark Matter. I love many of Susan Hill's ghost stories and Sarah Waters' The Little Stranger. I am still connecting strongly to the writers of old I mentioned above.

9) Looking back over this collection, what are some favorite memories of your author journey to this point?

I have lived my writing live as a hermit, essentially. It has been great discovering how many kindred spirits there are out there.

I used to think as a teen, I was the only person who knew about Lovecraft. There are whole industries orbiting around him.

Getting the feedback and validation of other writers, editors, publishers has been rewarding in a way I never predicted. Makes me wish I had spent a lot of those years between 1983 and 2020 more profitably!!

I did publish my first historical horror novel, The Black Garden in 2010 in which I introduced the town of Ste. Odile. That book is being re-issued October 1 this year, and it's sequel, The Mother of Centuries, will appear next year.

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Interview: John S. McFarland (The Dark Walk Forward) | HNN

Interview with Horror Author John McFarland - Puzzle Box Horror

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