Five Questions with [Author]
Panatier, Silva, Rebelein, Janz, Johnson, Fracassi, and Jones!!!
Hello, All,
In late March 2024 to celebrate the publication of book 3 of Stephen Graham Jones’s Indian Lake trilogy, I asked if I could feature a brief interview with him in my Substack. I’m resharing that interview (see below) because I’d like to make the “Five Questions with [Author]” a more frequent feature in my newsletter.*
And guess what? It starts next week.
8/26/25: Chris Panatier, author of Shitshow, publishing 9/9/25
9/2/25: Katherine Silva, author of Where the Soul Goes, publishing 9/9/25
9/9/25: Sam Rebelein, author of Galloway’s Gospel, publishing 9/16/25
9/16/25: Jonathan Janz, author of Veil, publishing 9/16/25
9/23/25: Eleanor Johnson, author of Scream with Me, publishing 9/30/25
9/30/25: Philip Fracassi, author of The Autumn Springs Retirement Home Massacre, publishing 9/30/25
You can expect a newsletter from me each Tuesday from next week until the end of September. These are great interviews with great writers, and I’m very excited to share them.
How did I choose these particular authors? I was lucky enough to read each of their upcoming books as Advance Reader Editions, and I loved each one. Other than Eleanor Johnson’s work, I’d read work by the other authors and was already a fan (and now I’m a fan of Johnson’s work, too).
There are so many good books publishing this fall, it’s impossible to keep up, but I wanted to highlight these particular titles and give each author an opportunity to discuss their inspiration, process, and love of writing (especially horror writing, or horror movies, in the case of Johnson’s book).
The real reason I’m doing this? I love speaking with authors about their work and about writing and about books and other horror media. These interviews are only five questions each, but the authors have been generous with their responses. I’ve learned a lot from each of them, and I hope you will too.
See you next week!
Be well, be happy, be kind,
Chris DiLeo
*I also interviewed Scott Cole, author of Headless, and that interview was published in my newsletter in early March 2024.
And now . . . Five Questions with Stephen Graham Jones
Above: Stephen Graham Jones and me, AuthorCon 2022.
FIVE QUESTIONS with STEPHEN GRAHAM JONES:
1. We know you don't outline, yet these three books intricately work together, so what did this trilogy teach you about writing connected books?
That a trilogy works just like a novel, in that you can have zero plans and less suspicions, but . . . you can get lucky, and find a way through it all, and in a way that feels maybe not "planned," I wouldn't ever want any of my stuff to feel like that, but organic, anyway. But, what else I learned is that feeling of responsibility to the reader. I mean, I always feel that in novels, too, in stories, just in fiction in general. But, writing Jade, and so many people believing in her, I felt a duty to be honest to her story in a way I hadn't really felt before, in standalones.
2. There's plenty of gore in THE ANGEL OF INDIAN LAKE, yet it never feels exploitative or indulgent. How conscious were you of walking this line between bringing on the blood and not drowning your story in it?
Man, given the choice, I probably would drown the book in it. Well, okay, I wouldn't, but the only thing keeping me from doing that would be that, if every moment's screechy, then no moment's screechy. So, can't have blood on every single wall. But you can have it on a lot of them.
3. You really bring it in this book (bring it to bear, if you will . . .), the characters, the violence, and so many allusions I want an annotated edition. Jade's voice is so strong, the cinematic feel so dazzling. I'm in awe. The book is a masterpiece. How the hell did you do it?
Just wrote myself dry before starting, where I had no ideas. That's always the best place to start from, I think. Then you have to really dig deep.
4. No one writes like Stephen Graham Jones. All those non-verbs acting up, commas and question marks everywhere, punctuation running madly free from the schoolhouse. And it all works so damn well. In what ways do you consider language, particularly its rhythm and sound, as well as all that punctuation, when you're writing?
Hopefully I don't even do anything dastardly like stabbing a dependent clause down after a semicolon, do I? Or mispunctuating dialogue? Or—I shudder to even consider it—use an en-dash where I meant to em-dash? But, yeah, I did do one different thing with restrictive clauses in here. I decided I wanted to feel how playing with them in a different way might change the rhythm, and the effect. Was fun. Might be stuck like that now.
5. You're always inspiring. The interviews, the essays, the "Acknowledgments" in your books—you're endlessly expressing gratitude and simultaneously encouraging the rest of us writers. You value good teachers because as you wrote, they're "the butterfly who flaps its wings, starts the hurricane." On behalf of the rest of us, let me implore, Teach us! We need a Stephen Graham Jones book on writing. Thoughts?
Who knows, I might do a monograph on semicolons at some point, as I think there's a few different flavors, and it's fun to watch them try to change in common usage, over the decades. I think about them a lot, maybe too much. I hardly ever deploy them, but that's just because, to me, they're neutron bombs, man. They take careful handling.
BONUS: I love Jaws (I'm standing on a Jaws carpet right now), and the movie features prominently in this trilogy. According to Jade it's "got the beating heart of a slasher." Why do you love it so much?
Jaws is a good time, yeah. But I like Scream more.