R. Leigh Hennig gathered many of the amazing authors from Mother: Tales of Love and Terror for a council at the roundtable about writing, mothers, and horror. Join us as we pop in for a brief spotlight on how the stories of Mother, and their makers, worked their horrible magic to create this book.
Author Spotlight: R Leigh Hennig, author of “Here in the Cellar”
Q: If there were ever a FATHER anthology put together as a sequel, would you follow that up, or write something totally new?
A: Yes, I think I would write a Father story in conversation with my Mother’s story. Not only do I have a lot I’d like to say to my own father someday, but as a dad myself, I think I’d like any ‘sequel’ to as well be a message of sorts for my own children. If “Here in the Cellar” were a cautionary tale, then perhaps any Father-themed follow-up to that would be more hopeful.
Q: Have you explored these themes before, and if so, to what depth?
A: Child abuse is often a central theme to many of my stories. I think a lot of editors shy away from that, but it’s vitally important to talk about, which is why I was so excited that this story was included in the anthology. I really felt like the editorial team understood what I was trying to do here.
Q: What would you like readers to take away from your story?
A: That there aren’t often ‘clean’ endings. Stories don’t have to end how you want them to, and a lot of times things are the way they are just because even if you don’t understand it or expect otherwise. As readers, we carry a lot of baggage with us in terms of the expectations we place on a story (‘Why didn’t they do that?’, ‘It’s hard to believe they did this,’ etc), but it’s important for us to remember that some of the best stories, the most meaningful, hurtful, or important, defy those expectations, whether we like it or not.
Q: Why did you decide to submit to this anthology? Was there something particular that called to you?
A: I knew from the moment I saw the call that I had to write something for it. If there was ever any theme that was tailor-made for my work, ‘bad mothers’ is it. Though I realized too late that I was too emotionally invested in the story because rejection would’ve really hurt. Obviously, that’s a part of submitting, as every writer knows, but I felt this story in my soul and just had to get it out there. I think that’s what they mean, however, when they say ‘write what you know.’ Fortunately this time for me, it worked.
The Weird Team is comprised of several unhinged individuals that have a love of life and a lust for adventure. They scour the world to find the strangest, scariest, and most wonderful news in the universe.
