Interview - Andrew Nadolny

An upcoming author with their first works starting to be made public, writer Andrew Nadolny has started off on a strong note with his career as he includes some strong work this early on. Now, in honor of his involvement with the release of the upcoming novella collection '24 Frames Per Second' entry in the Dark Tide series from Crystal Lake Publishing, I talk with him about his early interest in writing, his piece "I Am the Rainbringer" in the compilation and upcoming projects.

Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, when did you get into horror in general? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?

Andrew Nadolny: It’s my pleasure, and I’m always excited to talk horror! I’ve been into horror—especially movies— since I was a kid. I grew up in the 90s, back when we still had brick-and-mortar movie rental stores. Every other weekend or so, my dad would take me to our local movie rental store, Choices. He especially enjoyed horror and action movies, so each time I would find a stack of the scariest-looking movies and bring them over for his review. He’d proceed to dismiss most of them as “not scary,” “boring,” or “stupid”, but inevitably, a few would make the cut and we’d watch them. I think he must’ve seen every horror movie ever made up to that point and had very particular ideas about what he liked. He couldn’t stand horror comedy for one, haha.

As for me, I remember being absolutely terrified by A Nightmare on Elm Street. I loved all of the Elm Street movies. Puppet Master, put out by Full Moon, was another favorite. I remember the first time I’d seen it, swearing I could see the puppets running around upstairs. I slept with my dad that night! My dad never cared for Tremors, but I loved it! Scared the living daylights out of me the first time I saw it, but I appreciated the silliness of it and its subsequent films as I grew older. I don’t know why, but I just enjoyed the adrenaline rush of watching something especially scary in the dark with my dad and either popcorn or candy.

Me: Who were some of your favorite writers growing up? Do you try to take influences from their style with your own voice in your work?

AN: I’m still not sure if this is a good or bad thing, but my dad was never restrictive of anything I read. As long as I could read it, he’d buy it. So when I was 9, I started reading Christopher Pike. I devoured every book of his I could find, and I loved his pacing and ability to tell such a tight and engaging story with characters I loved. Shari, from the Remember Me series, was one of my favorites. A year later, I discovered V.C. Andrews in a K-Mart because the cover for Darkest Hour was so cool looking. I’d found the content to be pretty shocking, but my dad listened to Howard Stern’s show on the radio every morning before school, and hearing that for an hour or two every day in the morning sort of desensitized me to a lot more adult themes in the books. I loved them because they were absolutely horrifying without falling into that “spine-tingling” motif. I enjoyed the gothic horror aspect and the family drama.

When I wrote my first stories, they definitely borrowed a lot of elements from V.C. Andrews, especially the dark family secrets type thing; however, a lot of my current work takes heavily from Joyce Carol Oates and Gary Braunbeck in particular.

Me: What was the starting point of becoming a writer? Were you always interested in writing as a child?

AN: In third grade, my teacher, Mrs Glaubitz, gave us an assignment to write a short story. I wrote a story about my classmates searching for an artifact in Egypt. It was the first time I’d ever written a story, and it was very exciting to me. The second story I wrote was unprompted. It was typed up on my dad’s typewriter and called “The Mystery at Midnight Manor,” heavily inspired by all of the Christopher Pike books I’d read up to that point. I still have a copy on my computer! But the real turning point was a story I’d written in fifth grade called “Fire of Eternity.” In it, I’d taken a good friend of my dad’s and turned her into a killer. It was very adult (I thought!) and I was incredibly proud of it. I printed it out and brought it with me on a school field trip we’d taken to The Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. I was editing pages on the bus ride, and a classmate asked what I was doing. I somewhat loftily replied that I was “editing” my book, and they asked me to read it. Well, by the end of the ride, all of the pages were circulating around the bus, and so many of my classmates were reading with anticipation. It was the first validation I’d ever received as a writer, and it really kicked off the thought that I wanted to do it as a career.

Me: So, that brings us to your new novella, ‘I am the Rainbringer’ in the “24 Frames Per Second” collection. What can you tell us about the book? How did you settle on the plot for it?

AN: I’ve described it in some interviews as a “love letter to my younger self,” which is cliché as hell, I know! But it does draw heavily from my relationship with my dad at the time that he was sick, as well as a lot of unresolved emotions I’d had about our relationship, along with his passing. The protagonist in the story goes down a lot of rabbit holes and self-destruction that I was thankfully sheltered from with the help of a fantastic support system. She takes her grief and, coupled with her father’s dying wishes, seemingly becomes a serial killer. It’s during this slip into darkness that she meets an older man who takes all of her trauma and searching and encourages her to live out these desires in front of a camera.

Oh, and did I forget to mention that the ghosts of his parents are more than just a metaphor, and a major part of her sheltered life with him?

I wanted to really get into my love of movies and also express some of my own feelings on cinema, themes, metaphor, etc, while exercising a lot of demons. This story was in my head for the longest time, the box opened every time I turned around, whether it was hiking outside, cooking dinner, or even cleaning the house I would often find I had more to say, more things that the protagonist wanted to express through me, and it morphed from a third person account in the second half, into a full-blown movie script with some encouragement.

Me: Being done in collaboration with Tim Waggoner and Gary Braunbeck, how was the initial approach to be included? Was there anything established about a unified theme tying all of the stories together?

AN: It was somewhat unexpected, actually. Gary [Braunbeck] told me he had been discussing a potential anthology of stories and had invited his friend Tim [Waggoner] to be a part of it. He explained that usually, these anthologies by Crystal Lake like to feature a newer author as well. And that was when he asked me if I thought I could write a 20,000-word horror story about movies in a few months. There was a moment of “Can I really do this?” to “holy cow, Andy, when are you going to be given such an incredible opportunity again?” Needless to say, my answer to him was an enthusiastic yes, and I just started writing words that very day. Luckily for me, the words actually worked themselves into a plot.

Me: What was your writing process? How do you stay focused on writing?

AN: My process tends to be fairly erratic. I’ll go through periods where even the thought of sitting in front of a computer makes me too anxious to even try. But then, like clockwork, I’ll come back full circle to a point where writing is all I can think about. With me, it tends to be a feast or famine, so I try to take advantage of the wave of inspiration. And in those moments, I keep a small notebook and can often be seen stopping in the middle of anything (save driving, haha!) to feverishly scribble down ideas.

I have noticed recently a correlation between how much I read and how much I write. When I read more books, it will inevitably fill up some formless inspiration meter that will kick off more writing ideas once I reach a certain point. And it doesn’t always correlate theme-wise either. I’ll find the most improbable idea springs forth from, say, a turn of phrase or a style of writing. Heck, sometimes I’ll read something that I feel I need to respond to, and thus a story will be born.

Me: Was there any special significance to making the characters involved in a fight against a serial killer?

AN: Not really in this case. The serial killer aspect originates from a joke my dad used to make before he died about gathering up all of his enemies for one “last supper.” I feel that serial killers have been a prominent theme, and I thought I could bring a different angle to it as well.

Me: Was there any part of your real personality injected into the characters’ relationship with each other?

AN: There were a lot of parallels to my adolescence and inspiration from my memories of being an unpopular nerd in the late 90s and early 00s. My relationship with my terminally ill dad also helped to shape a lot of the narrative. Flannery O’Connor had written, “Anybody who has survived his childhood has enough information about life to last him the rest of his days.” So with all my writing, I pull from my experiences growing up and into the present day. I’ve really come to embrace the notion that in my life, there aren’t any limits to the events and feelings that I can draw my inspiration from. That’s really opened up an entirely new world for me.

Me: Once it was finally written, what was the process for publishing it?

AN: There was the editing process, and I definitely need to credit Jaime Powell for her determination to help me make this story the best that it could be. She helped me work on my choice of certain stylistic devices, tighten my prose, and all while maintaining my voice. Once the final copy was submitted, the rest of the process was transparent and simple, from a quick email exchange bouncing titles around to the ordering of author copies. I’d had a previous off-putting experience in another book published elsewhere under a pseudonym, and this was refreshing and, dare I say, delightful.

Me: What do you do to keep your creative energy flowing?

AN: I read a lot of books and listen to a lot of music. I try not to pigeonhole my interests into one specific genre in either the books I read or the music I listen to. I find that different narrative styles and stories originate from different music, especially. I love putting on my headphones and taking a long hike, whether the weather is nice or not. There’s nothing quite like a hike in a frozen forest with hardly a single sound. I also love to turn my music up on long night drives.

Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!

I’m currently working on a novel as well as shopping around another novella. I’ve also started becoming more active in local writing communities and spaces, and that has been a real pleasure. I’ve kept to myself for most of my writing career, so this has been exciting and new for me. I look forward to appearing at signings and conventions later this year and into the next. I’m also working on getting back into art to go along with some of my trippier ideas. I appreciate the opportunity to introduce myself to readers and share my inspiration and story!