Formerly a film critic,
journalist, screenwriter and teacher, Gemma Files has been an
award-winning horror author since 1999. She has published four
collections of short work, three chap-books of speculative poetry, a
Weird Western trilogy, a story-cycle and a stand-alone novel
(Experimental Film,
which won the 2016 Shirley Jackson Award for Best Novel and the 2016
Sunburst award for Best Adult Novel). She has two new story
collections upcoming, one from Grimscribe Press (In
That Endlessness
Our End,
February 2021) and one from Cemetery Dance (Dark
Is Better).
1. Tell us
three things about yourself. (If you’ve done this previously,
ideally tell us three different things than last time!)
Fairly
recently, I found out that the half of my family I thought was Dutch
was in fact German, or—given the etymology
(Hoover/Hober/Haber)—possibly Bohemian Ashkenazi Jewish, as
represented by a man who emigrated to Canada and married a full Cree
lady, which is how one of my cousins on that side got a tribal status
card. Similarly, the journey I've gone on while parenting my son, who
is on the Autism Spectrum, has led me to accept the fact that if
psychiatrists had been looking for girls with ASD back when I was ten
or so (the height of my bullied-and-a-bully years) then I might have
gotten my own diagnosis, as opposed to almost getting treated for
early-onset schizophrenia; thanks, Mom, for totally rejecting that
option. Oh hey, and remember how I said last time that I sang in a
choir? Turns out, choirs are perfect breeding pools for COVID-19, who
I guess means those days are over. For how long, we just don't know.
2. Many
writers have said the COVID-19 outbreak and the lockdown have made it
harder for them to create. Have you found this? Has the outbreak
affected you as a writer and if so, how?
A) Oh
hells yes. B) Well...
My husband
works from home, and my son has been out of school since the end of
February. Neither of them are going back anytime before maybe October
for Steve, next February for Cal. Which means that I spend a lot of
my time doing quotidian make-work, laundry, shopping, cooking. I run
errands for my Mom, who's been in full lockdown since before we
started self-isolating. I also look after Cal, which as of September
includes essentially being his Educational Assistant for stuff like
“distance learning” schoolwork, music lessons and drama classes,
all conducted over Zoom. I'm not trained for this, aside from loving
him and understanding how he communicates, and it really knocks me
out. But Mom has finally accepted him as part of her “pod,” which
means she's okay taking him for a couple of hours so I can get
500-1000 words in here and there, and that's how I'm a few scenes
into a whole new story. And after almost eight months of finishing
very little except notes and poetry, that's no small thing.
3. Which
piece of writing are you proudest of?
Still
Experimental Film, I think. If that ends up being what I'm
best-known for, I'll be content.
4. …and
which makes you cringe?
I don't
really hate anything I've written, at least not to that extent. Maybe
that's because I started selling stories when I was already a
“professional” writer? My parents are actors, and I grew up with
freelance culture running through my veins; as long as you actually
got paid something—even, say, five bucks U.S. and a copy of a
magazine run off on a machine in someone's basement—then you're
doing okay, by those standards.
5. What’s a
normal writing day like?
Even when
I don't get concentrated time to write, I'm still always writing.
This is something I've come to both accept and depend on. I steal
moments here and there, scribble stuff down in notebooks or on my
phone (then email the files to myself), bookmark things I post on
Facebook for transcription later on. Assemblage starts with making
the components, right? So even just saving a new file, copy-pasting
stuff into it and then moving those blurty little bits around until
they start to make a kind of narrative sense are all part of the
process. And when you can't concentrate enough to write you can still
consume, which helps keep the juices flowing...hopefully, anyhow.;)
6. What work
of yours would you recommend for people on lockdown and in need of a
good book?
I have a
new collection coming out in February that I'm pretty proud of (InThat Endlessness Our End, from Grimscribe Press), and I know that
Jon Padgett is looking for people to review it in exchange for ARCs.
Also, all the stuff I previously published through ChiZine
Publications is finally available again, this time through Open Road
Media. And then there's the two Trepidatio collections, Spectral Evidence and Drawn Up From Deep Places; the latter, in
particular, could really use some love. Otherwise, if you've read
Experimental Film then try out the Hexslinger Trilogy if you
haven't already, and if you've read all of those try out We Will All Go Down Together. Plus, if you're broke, I do still “publish”
fanfiction at Archive of Our Own under the handle handful_ofdust,
like the fool that I am.
7. What are
you working on now?
Right at
this moment, I have a bunch of impending anthology requests I need to
fill, so I'm working hard on that. In general, however, I'm plotting
out a new novel...not the one I've been working on for the last three
years, but something as physically far away from the slow apocalypse
we're currently living through as humanly possible. It's called In
Red Company, and it's set in 998 AD, Northumbria, England. The
basic pitch is Midsommar meets The Devils.
Plague-threatened nuns and visionary anchoresses and sexy
relic-stealing bishops and old dead goddesses, oh my. No idea when
it'll be finished, but it keeps me amused.
Hope you enjoyed the interview with Gemma. Tomorrow is the launch date for Roth-Steyr, and I'm very excited about it. Today's your last chance to pre-order it, which you can do here.
