Interview with Damien Angelica Walters

I’ve been a fan of Damien Angelica Walters for several years now, and as part of Apex Books’ Back Catalog Blog Tour, I’m thrilled to have Damien visiting the blog today. Please give her a warm welcome!

---

Let’s start with an introduction. Can you please tell us a little about yourself?

My short fiction has been published and reprinted in many publications, including Shirley Jackson Award finalist The Madness of Dr. Caligari, World Fantasy Award finalist Cassilda’s Song, Best Horror of the Year, and The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror. My novel The Dead Girls Club is forthcoming in December of this year. I live in Edgewater, Maryland with my husband and two rescued pit bulls.

I’m always fascinated by the writing process. What sort of writing routines do you have that work for you: write at home, at a coffee shop, write every day, or when the mood strikes?

I have a home office so in the morning I make a cup of coffee and sit down at my desk. After a bit of goofing about on social media, maybe answering interview questions, I work on my current project.

Because we’re celebrating all things Apex Books this month, please tell us a fond or funny memory that you have, relating to Apex. It could be a story about getting published, or a book event you attended with them, or any interesting interactions you’ve had with the Apex team.

Maurice Broaddus told me at Killercon in Vegas that Apex was interested in a short story collection by me. He told me to send him an email when I got back home. I suspect he still thinks I thought he was lying, but I didn’t. I wrote and rewrote that email several times—I just couldn’t see how anyone would want a collection of my work—and by the time he emailed me to say he was serious, I still hadn’t sent it. I did, however, respond very quickly to his email. The possible collection we spoke of eventually became Sing Me Your Scars.

You’ve been published by many different publishers, but let’s talk about the books you’ve released with Apex. Can you give us a quick description of each book?

My Apex releases, Sing Me Your Scars and Cry Your Way Home, are short fiction collections. SMYS contains twenty stories, with eight original to the collection, and the title story was ultimately nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. CYWH contains seventeen stories, all reprints, including the Bram Stoker Award-nominated “The Floating Girls: A Documentary.”

I think many readers know by now that you have a novel coming out this year from Crooked Lane Books (The Dead Girls Club, which I’m very excited about!). I’m wondering if there’s anything in the works with Apex that you can talk about?

Thank you! I’m excited about The Dead Girls Club as well and hope readers like it. The only thing I have in the works right now is a novel-in-progress based on the abovementioned “The Floating Girls: A Documentary,” but who knows what the future will hold.

Read any good books lately? I love getting recommendations from authors I love:-)

And I love recommending books to people I like. I could probably list a hundred but here are a few I’ve particularly enjoyed over the past few months: Wilder Girls by Rory Power, Growing Things and Other Stories by Paul Tremblay, The Girl in Red by Christina Henry, The Toll by Cherie Priest, Wanderers by Chuck Wendig, Lock Every Door by Riley Sager, Whisper Network by Chandler Baker, and My Lovely Wife by Samantha Downing.

And some forthcoming books I can’t wait to get my hands on are: The Testaments by Margaret Atwood, The Furies by Katie Lowe, The Grace Year by Kim Liggett, The Monster of Elendhaven by Jennifer Giesbrecht, and The Deep by Alma Katsu.

We have very similar reading tastes, and The Grace Year and The Deep are two forthcoming books that I can’t wait to read as well. Thank you so much, Damien!

Interested in checking out Damien’s books for yourself? You’re in luck, because Apex is offering 25% off all their books, all month long! You can get Sing Me Your Scars and Cry Your Way Home at a discounted price, as well as many other fantastic titles. All you need to do is use the code SEPTEMBER at check out. Click here to start shopping!

---

About the Author:

DAMIEN ANGELICA WALTERS is the author of The Dead Girls Club, Cry Your Way Home, Paper Tigers, and Sing Me Your Scars. Her short fiction has been nominated twice for a Bram Stoker Award, reprinted in Best Horror of the Year, The Year’s Best Dark Fantasy & Horror, and The Year’s Best Weird Fiction, and published in various anthologies and magazines, including the Shirley Jackson Award Finalists Autumn Cthulhu and The Madness of Dr. Caligari, World Fantasy Award Finalist Cassilda’s Song, Nightmare Magazine, and Black Static. She lives in Maryland with her husband and two rescued pit bulls. Find her on Twitter @DamienAWalters or on the web at damienangelicawalters.com.

Check out my reviews:

Sing Me Your Scars

Cry Your Way Home

Paper Tigers