Xerox Ferox by John Szpunar

Author:John Szpunar
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781909394117
Publisher: SCB Distributors

JS: What was the first story of yours that was published?

NC: There’s a magazine that’s still going called hacker’s source. It’s a really low budget magazine that’s based out of texas. In 2004 or 2005, they bought a ghost story I wrote called “Non-foods”. It was about a supermarket. It got published in there. When it came out, I cringed because they were supposed to edit something and they didn’t. It made the whole story look so amateur and i’m glad it’s forgotten. The first pro-sale I had was a story called “toes”. It came out in 2006—it was in an anthology called deathgrip: exit laughing. The reason that i’m very proud of that book is because i’m in there with william Nolan, the author who wrote all the logan’s run books. I almost had a heart attack when I saw my name on the roster with him.

JS: How many attempts did it take you to get something published?

NC: A lot of people will tell you hundreds, but I must have submitted a good sixty times before I sold something. So, that’s not bad. Then again, the competition’s more fierce now, thanks to the internet. Now you’ve got people submitting who would never have submitted before. The slush pile is three times as high. My friend l. L. Soares and I did a humorous horror anthology called dark Jesters, and we got over 200 submissions. It was brutal. I don’t think i’ll ever edit an anthology again. We were only picking ten stories, and we had some top-name guys. John skipp and ellen Datlow do several anthologies a year. I don’t know how they read that much.

JS: How did the Horror Fiction Review come about?

NC: In 2003, I had hernia surgery and I was home for six weeks. After four weeks, I was sitting around, and I just had that itch to do a zine again. I looked at my bookcase—i had around 400 books that i’d never reviewed so I started to. I put out about seventeen print issues from 2003 to 2008. All of these publishers started sending me review copies. I can’t even tell you the last time I paid for a book. And now, the thing is online. I’ve got around five people reviewing for the site. Right now, i’ve got a mountain of books on my computer.

JS: What are your feelings about converting to an eZine?

NC: I went into it kicking and screaming, but one of my favorite fanzines in the eighties was called temple of schlock.

JS: By Chris Poggiali.

NC: Yeah. And right now, that is the best movie blog on the internet. And to me, it’s even better because he puts new stuff up every week. To me, that’s the best example of a zine that became a successful blog. For a while, michael weldon was doing it. He had an online presence somewhat, but I think he’s vanished from the face of the earth.

JS: Where did you get the idea for your first novel, Don of the Dead?

NC: When I saw dawn of the dead, my friends and I were all italian.

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