WHAT MUSIC BEST CAPTURES THE MOOD AND FEEL OF COSMIC HORROR TO YOU? WHAT DO YOU LISTEN TO, WHILE WRITING?

In high school, I wrote (awful) weird fiction while blasting albums by gothic punk bands like Social Unrest and Rudimentary Peni. These days, I really require silence. In a pinch, I’ll dial up a 12-hour rainstorm video on Youtube. But my life is so full of music and high volume assaults that writing is a respite and I prefer quietude. As for music that conjures that air, I’d point people directly to Heresie by Univers Zero. It’s Belgian chamber-prog from the late '70s, and was long described as “the darkest album of all time.” For something more modern and grim, try Things Viral by Khanate. I also think the microtonalities of Wendy Carlos’ Beauty In The Beast and the barnyard vocal cacophony of Diamanda Galas’ early b-side “Wild Women With Steak Knives” are highly unsettling—in a good way.

AN EDITOR ONCE WROTE IN SUBMISSION GUIDELINES THAT HE DEFINED A PROSPECTIVE CTHULHU MYTHOS STORY BY TAKING OUT THE MYTHOS ELEMENT, AND IF IT DID NOT TOTALLY COLLAPSE WHEN ANY OTHER SUPERNATURAL AGENT WAS SUBSTITUTED, HE REJECTED IT. WHAT UNIQUE PROPERTIES OF THE MYTHOS KEEP YOU COMING BACK (OR IS IT JUST THE GLUT OF MARKETS LOOKING FOR MYTHOS STORIES)?

Lovecraft is in my DNA. I spent many hours of in-school suspension with a math book dustjacket cloaking my copy of Bloodcurdling Tales of Horror and the Macabre. Luckily I outgrew trying to write remotely like HPL a long, long time ago. But since there is a market, and seemingly unending fascination with new twists on old ideas, I’ve found myself in print in a few tribute anthologies. Generally speaking, I like to update my mythos with all the sex, drugs, and rock & roll that Lovecraft missed out on. Lovecraft wrote often of unearthly, indescribable music––in The Music Of Erich Zann, the daemon pipers in the court of Azathoth, et al.––but attempts to reproduce said musical madness has yielded a mixed bag.

YOUR BOOK STARR CREEK DESCRIBES AN UPBRINGING THAT WOULD SEEMINGLY RENDER ONE IMPERVIOUS TO SANITY LOSS AS A RESULT OF WITNESSING SUPERNATURAL ABOMINATIONS. WHAT WOULD IT TAKE, TO ACTUALLY DRIVE YOU INSANE?

That’s a good question because I’ve done a pretty remarkable job of steeling myself to the horrors of this privileged first world life I enjoy. I feel like I have more of a solid foundation and grasp on reality than most—something I worked hard on during my development as a highly psychedelic teen. But being a booking agent for thirty bands from around the world is certainly putting me to the test… Essentially all of my stresses are external, mostly a factor of me being den mother/shrink to a bunch of brilliant, crazy artists. I guess the best way to push my buttons and lead me off an emotional cliff is to stand in front of me at a concert and start filming the show with your phone...