A Horror World interview with Harry Shannon
By Steven E. Wedel

Harry Shannon knows how to entertain us. Long before his debut novel, Night of the Beast, won him respect and praise as an author of dark literature, Harry had made a name for himself in the music and film business. Harry's been an actor, a singer, an Emmy-nominated songwriter, a recording artist in Europe, a music publisher, VP of Carolco Pictures (“Terminator 2,” “Total Recall,” “Rambo”), and worked as a freelance music supervisor on films such as “Basic Instinct” and “Universal Soldier.” He holds an MA in psychology and is currently a counselor in private practice.

Horror World: So, Harry, with all that behind you, have you decided what you want to be when you grow up?

Harry Shannon: Sadly, no. Right now I'm just trying to become a decent father to my daughter. And by the time Paige goes off to college I will be 68 or thereabouts, and that's a bit too long in the tooth to be addressing the question. So I'm probably screwed. In the meantime, I'll just keep doing whatever creative things I can manage to get away with.

HW: It would be fascinating to pick your brain for a while about all your non-writing careers, but that's not really our focus today. However, if you could choose just a couple of fond memories to share from those days, what would they be?

HS: Fond memories? Hmm, guess I'd best stick to the clean ones. Certainly hearing a new song of mine played on the radio for the very first time. That always gave me chills. Performing for many thousands of people at Hallenstadium in Zurich during the 1981 Wembley Country Music Festival, with my ex-wife, Suzanne Klee. Being music supervisor as my friend Jerry Goldsmith conducted the score to "Basic Instinct" with the London Philharmonic. Being with Elmer Bernstein and Martha Coolidge on "Ramblin' Rose." I do miss working with and around brilliant musicians and directors.

HW: OK, let's talk books … though we’ll be coming back to a certain movie in a little bit. Night of the Beast wasn’t your first book. You actually entered book publishing with the short story collection Bad Seed in 2001. You followed that up with Beast, then Night of the Werewolf and, eventually, the last of your pulp Night books, Night of the Daemon. All those books are out of print now, but your Web site says we may see a return of the Night books in 2007. Tell us more.

HS: An excellent small-press outfit will be bringing the ' Night' books back in limited-edition hardcover format to keep them around. Already turned in the revised proofs. I'm hoping they'll also see a market for a trade paperback edition down the road, but I can't say more than that right now, at least not without permission. The first novel ( Night of the Beast) was quite campy and at times borders on parody, but I really liked Night of the Werewolf and Night of the Daemon, they're damned solid novels. I want more people to have a chance to read and enjoy them for what they are.

HW: The original publisher for most of your early books more or less folded up. That seems to be one of several common problems among small press publishers. Is the small press good for the genre? What would you tell new authors looking at the small press houses?

HS: Well, I personally learned the hard way that friendship does not necessarily create a good business relationship. I'd advise folks to choose carefully, and to not be in that much of a hurry. As for my first publisher in 2001, I liked the couple involved on a personal level, and although I don't regret those first books, editing flaws and production problems and missed royalties and all, I do feel bad that I stuck my neck out and told other authors that the company was okay to work with. Eventually a lot of people ended up angry and burned, and I eventually learned to keep my mouth shut. You see, most people who open a small press company have no idea what their getting themselves into. It's hard work and very tricky to turn a profit. If I had it to do over, I'd stick with more established companies such Cemetery Dance, Delirium, Subterranean. Can't name them all here. Now, let me add that there are a lot of other damned good small press people operating these days, far more than back in 2001, but as I said, it's very hard work, and no one wants to be left holding the excrement end of a long stick if somebody suddenly goes under.

HW: You moved away from the supernatural and tried your hand at noir fiction with 2004’s Memorial Day, from Five Star. What made you switch genres?

HS: I don't like at it that way, Steve. To me, crime fiction and horror are just kissing cousins. All the great ones like Richard Matheson, John D. MacDonald, Stephen King, Ed Gorman, Dan Simmons, etc. either crossed back and forth between genres constantly, or deliberately blurred those lines. Sometimes it's fun to have the supernatural to play with, but I tend to seat the horror story in a strong secondary form anyway. Night of the Werewolf, for example, is structured as a noir tale--- Night of the Daemon is kind of a Morrell-style a military thriller. And the Mick Callahan novels are about a very damaged and haunted man trying to come to terms with his shadow and face the external evil he encounters at the same time. There's a bit more emphasis on characterization, plotting and whodunit, but those Callahan books are still quite dark.

HW: You followed that up a year later with Eye of the Burning Man, and another sequel, One of the Wicked, is due out in 2008. What do you see as the biggest difference between horror and noir? Both seem to rely on dark elements and suspense. Which do you prefer?

HS: I enjoy them both, but as I get older I tend to read crime fiction more often than pure horror. Still, writing horror lets me be more specific with violence, which I quite like at times, and I can easily bring in supernatural elements to pile on the dread--or just string out suspense sequences to borderline absurd levels without taking away at all from the plot. It's loads of fun to write, actually. My crime fiction tends to be brutally honest. Personally, I see noir as quite moral in natural, something that offers up a cautionary tale about the risks of indulging our human appetites for sex, money and power. One mistake, a bad decision or two, and an otherwise good person goes down in flames. Just like real life, as a matter of fact.

HW: Your most recent book is The Pressure of Darkness, also from Five Star. Tell us what inspired this book, and a little of what it’s about.

HS: I am fascinated with love. Meaning what it is, what it is most definitely not. I am also fascinated with what Joseph Campbell called the cosmogonic cycle, i.e., samsara, the wheel of life and death; the decay of a form and reassembling of matter into existence of another kind. Whether you believe in reincarnation or not is irrelevant. So I created a framework that would let me tell a rousing adventure and explore those serious ideas at the same time.

HW:The Pressure of Darkness was released in November. How is it doing? Reviews have been good and it’s getting some Stoker recognition. Are you happy with it so far?

HS: I'm delighted so many people are digging it, Steve. Tried to write something I would just flat love to read, and came pretty close to achieving what I wanted. TPOD is also a deliberate attempt to blur the hell out of normal genre lines, something Gary Braunbeck picked up on right away when he named it one of the best reads of 2006. It's a horror/mystery/thriller/action hybrid that never stops moving, and yet also has some serious and disturbing psychological stuff going on underneath. As I said, at its core, "The Pressure of Darkness" is also a meditation on the subject of death. Each major character is facing mortality, one way or another, and all react to it in different ways--many flat out pathological.

HW: This book features another investigator. You seem to like using detectives and amateur investigators as protagonists, as do many other horror and thriller authors. Tell us why that works for you.

HS: It just lets us see through the eyes of the person investigating, and discover more as he/she learns. But it's also fun to try to design a story that lets the reader get ahead of the protagonist from time to time, and thus have to worry about him because of what he/she doesn't yet see.

HW: Author Gregg Hurwitz called The Pressure of Darkness, “ A blend of horror, Eastern philosophy, Spec Ops thriller, and virus white-knuckler …” You’re known in the online horror community as an outspoken – and rational – Buddhist and liberal Democrat. How much of your life view do you work into your books, and what is the key to doing that without hammering people with a message?

HS: I'm a progressive, but plenty frustrated with the Democrats, believe me. Still, my world view probably shows in the work, but I honestly don't make any conscious effort to do that. I think it just boils down to writing about things that interest me personally. I'm passionate about a lot of things. Sometimes I get off on a tangent about something and so much research material piles up I fear plagiarizing by accident or getting completely lost in minutiae. I've often cut pages and pages of stuff I liked but that seemed to slow the story down in context. No doubt some folks like I should have kept cutting, but that's the way it goes.

HW: All right, I said we’d come back to the movies. You scripted the horror film “Dead and Gone” and played a small role as a sheriff. I understand principle photography wrapped in May 2006. What’s the latest on this project?

HS: Yossi is finishing the sound in the next couple of weeks, and my old friend Harry Manfredini (Friday 13th) is already working on the music. We showed it to one distributor still unfinished, and got a serious bite anyway, so we are feeling pretty good about selling it right after the first of the year. We hope to do my script of "Night of the Daemon" next, if we can get the financing together.

HW: Will your role as the sheriff be as memorable as James Dickey’s portrayal of the law in “Deliverance?”

HS: Ha! I have a few lines at the end, mostly with Chris Bruno from TV's "Dead Zone." I'm just the grizzled old country dude who shows up to chuckle over the bloody bodies before driving off into the sunset with the female lead. Got to wear a badge and a gun, though.

HW: You've got a slew of short stories and novellas we haven't even touched on. People should visit your Web site at www.harryshannon.com to learn more about them since we’re running a little long. But quickly, which of those are you most proud of?

HS: I can't answer you that way, because I'm always relentlessly critical of myself, but there is a fun project coming soon from Cemetery Dance, edited by the very gifted Kealan Patrick Burke. It's called "Brimstone Turnpike," and I do like my creepy novella "Behold the Child." It was my first shot at that form. And Mike Heffernan's WW2 anthology "A Dark and Deadly Valley" contains a twisted little story of mine called "And the Worm Shall Feed." One of my favorite stories ever has gotten very little attention for some reason. It was published in Cemetery Dance in 2005, and is entitled "The Easy Way." I have a soft spot for it, but can't say why without slipping in a spoiler, so I won't.

HW: Is there a career-level Nirvana you're looking for? You've done so much in this lifetime, but you keep working. What do you need to accomplish to be fulfilled?

HS: I won't be fulfilled in this world, Steve. I don't think that's possible. So I just want to create and explore themes that interest me. I feel driven to test myself creatively in as many ways as humanly possible. As for money, I hope to send my little girl to a decent college when the time comes. That's about it. I honestly don't think to much beyond those two things. Well, I do feel the pressure of time running out. Precious time.  But then, I always have, so maybe turning 58 hasn't got all that much to do with it, other than upping the ante.

HW: Anything you want to add?

HS: How thanks, and about best wishes to everyone in the Horror World community for a prosperous and Happy New Year?

HW: Harry, you're a constant inspiration, not only because of your work but because you always make me take another look at my own beliefs about life. Thanks for your time here today. I hope 2007 is your best year ever.

HS: Thank you, Steve. And thanks for thinking of me.