A Horror World Conversation with Jeff Strand
By Steven E. Wedel

When Whipmistress Nanci sent me my June assignment, she said that author Jeff Strand has a “weird, sick sense of humor” and that he’d be “just my type.” Well, I’m not on the market, and I prefer chicks … but I do know that Jeff is one funny dude, so I looked forward to chatting him up, anyway.

Horror World: Jeff, thanks for taking the time out of a very, very busy May to talk with us here at Horror World. You have two books coming out this month, one a mass market and one a small press offering. Since there’s a lot to cover, let’s dive right in with PRESSURE, which should be on shelves by the time people read this. What’s the book about?

Jeff Strand: It's about a good kid named Alex who has a very brief lapse in judgment and ends up in boarding school. One of his roommates, Darren, is a bit...off. Kinda creepy. Despite that, the two become friends, which works out well until Alex discovers just how disturbed his friend really is. Then things get bad. Really bad. Dead dog bad. Their seriously messed-up relationship resumes in college, and then again in adulthood. Basically, the book is about "What if your friend was a killer...and he wanted you to be just like him?"

HW: What inspired PRESSURE?

JS: Well, around the time I claimed my 23rd victim, I thought "Wow, I should really write this stuff down! This would make a great book!"

HW: And what are you doing to promote the book? Will your fans be able to mob you at stops along a world-wide book tour?

JS:  They sure will! (Well, "world-wide" if I take an arrogant "America IS the world, punks!" view.) I'll be at the Bram Stoker Awards in California, the Seton Hill Writers Retreat in Pennsylvania, and also doing signings in Minnesota, Illinois, and a bunch in my home state of Florida. My website, www.jeffstrand.com, has all of the dates and locations.

HW: OK, stories abound about people who waited years and years to get a response from Leisure after submitting a manuscript. What’s your story? How did you get PRESSURE from the post office to the book stores?

JS: Don D'Auria at Leisure was aware of my small press work and I'd met him briefly at the World Horror Convention. I think the big spark came from Sarah Pinborough, who's had several novels published by Leisure, including the awesome BREEDING GROUND. She read the hardcover edition of PRESSURE, then e-mailed Don and said "You've GOT to publish this!" Don was receptive to taking a look, so a copy of PRESSURE went into the mail, and now it's a Leisure title!

HW: Did the excellent reviews you got for the initial release help you seal the deal with Leisure, do you think?

JS: I'm not sure what factors actually went into the decision. PRESSURE arrived in the Leisure offices with review quotes (including Publishers Weekly and, yep, Horror World!), a Bram Stoker Award nomination, and a ton of author blurbs. Ultimately I assume it just came down to "Did Don D'Auria like the book?" but all of the extra stuff certainly got it read faster.

HW: Do you have a multi-book deal with Leisure? Will we be seeing more mass-market Strand?

JS: The PRESSURE contract included an "option book," where Leisure got first dibs on my next horror novel. Fortunately for me, they offered a contract on that one, too, so my novel DWELLER will be out in March 2010.

HW: Let’s switch gears a little and talk about the Delirium Books release of BENJAMIN’S PARASITE. What’s that one about?

JS: It's about a gentleman named Benjamin who ends up with a really, really nasty intestinal parasite. It starts to change his personality and his body in unpleasant ways...and to keep his life exciting, he's also got bounty hunters, mobsters, and psychopaths trying to capture and/or kill him.

HW: OK, Jeff, as Nanci pointed out, you have a reputation as kind of a funny guy. And yet, these two books don’t seem to have a whole lot of humor in them. What gives? Are you done writing books with titles like CASKET FOR SALE (ONLY USED ONCE)?

JS: Well, PRESSURE was always meant to be a "serious" novel, as is DWELLER. But BENJAMIN'S PARASITE is definitely a comedy--a disgusting, horrific, disturbing comedy with lots of violent action and a couple of car chases, but a comedy. Except for maybe THE SINISTER MR. CORPSE ("A man dies, is brought back to life on national television, and becomes a celebrity zombie!") I don't really write novels with funny premises. No "He's a veternarian by day, werewolf by night!" stuff, and a straightforward plot synopsis of my work usually doesn't sound funny at all. The Andrew Mayhem series is the only time I emphatically try to be funny in the title. The fourth book will be LOST HOMICIDAL MANIAC (ANSWERS TO "SHIRLEY").

HW: Horror and humor have always had a twisted kind of relationship. Why do you think they often work so well together?

JS: Well, in my case, sort of going back to the previous question, it's because I build the humor on top of the horror instead of vice-versa. Take out all the jokes in GRAVEROBBERS WANTED (NO EXPERIENCE NECESSARY) and you still have a tense, scary story. Speaking in general, I think a lot of humor just naturally deals with dark subjects (it's not usually funny when good things happen to people, it's funny when BAD things happen to them) and well-done humor/horror fiction just exaggerates the dark comedy to the point where it becomes genuine horror.

HW: Being that you are a bit sick and funny, how does your family deal with you? How do you deal with normal people?

JS: Heh heh. I'm fairly normal and quiet in person. I think what people expect to see is something much closer to the way Joe Konrath (who I co-wrote SUCKERS with) is in real life--the guy is a cartoon character--but you can pretty safely take me to a business lunch without me saying "Whoa! That piece of chicken looks just like a fetus! Yummy!!!"

HW: What led you to write horror in the first place?

JS: It's what I liked to read. I originally was just writing humor, and bouncing from sub-genre to sub-genre, but GRAVEROBBERS got me suddenly labeled as a "comedy/horror" author, and I thought "I'm gonna embrace that!" It's definitely the most fun to write.

HW: My day job is teaching English. I can only imagine a guy like you would either be an English teacher’s perfect student, or a holy (or unholy) terror. What were you like in high school?

JS: Much closer to the perfect student than the holy terror. I wasn't a class clown type--I was usually good about being funny without being obnoxious. There were a couple of exceptions, but for the most part my teachers were ridiculously supportive of my writing. Hopefully they're not reading PRESSURE and thinking "What have I done? My career has been a horrible, horrible mistake!"

HW: How about college? You majored in creative writing. Some guy named Stephen King once wrote that the worst thing a writer can do is study writing in college. What are your thoughts on college writing programs?

JS: I wouldn't say that it's the worst thing a writer can do, but I'll admit that I left college with virtually no knowledge of how the writing business works. Discovering my first online message board and interacting with real, working writers was infinitely more valuable. I might be mistaken, but to the best of my knowledge no publisher has ever bought a piece of fiction from an author just because they had a college degree. Aspiring writers should go to college, definitely, but pick a different major and join a (good) writing critique group.

HW: So, what’s next from Jeff Strand?

JS: Well, of course PRESSURE is now at your local bookstore in a nicely affordable mass market paperback edition. I guess that doesn't count as "next" but I'm cheating. After that I've got THE SEVERED NOSE, a novelette coming out in July from Morning Star (an imprint of Bloodletting Press) and available for pre-order at this very moment. February 2010 will bring KUTTER, a novella from Cult Cargo Press, which is not up for pre-order yet but for which people should keep their ears perked. And, as mentioned, my next Leisure title, DWELLER, will be out in March 2010.

HW: What should the interviewer have asked you but didn’t because he was distracted by the creature that keeps peeking from your left nostril?

JS: "Jeff, are you going to cry if your book GLEEFULLY MACABRE TALES fails to win the Stoker on June 12th for Superior Achievement in a Collection? I bet you are! I bet you're going to bawl and whine and blubber and be a great big baby about the whole thing, aren't you? Loooooooooser!"

HW: Thanks again for all your time, Jeff. We wish you the best of luck with whatever twisted thing you pinch off next.

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