Alan Baxter is a multi-award-winning author of horror, supernatural thrillers and dark fantasy liberally mixed with crime, mystery and noir.
This Is Horror podcast calls him “Australia’s master of literary darkness” and the Talking Scared podcast dubbed him “The Lord of Weird Australia". He’s also a martial arts expert, a whisky-soaked swear monkey, and dog lover. Alan creates dark, weird stories among dairy paddocks on the beautiful South Coast, where he lives with his family and other animals.
Alan is appearing on two panels at the South Coast Writers Festival: 'Space Opera' on Saturday, August 19, and 'Speculative Fiction' on Sunday, August 20. In the lead-up to the festival, he told us about his new novel.
What is your latest project?
I'm currently working on a supernatural/folk horror novel set in the fictional NSW South Coast region near Gulpepper, which is the focus of my books The Gulp and The Fall. This one is set one town south, in a place called Monkton.
It follows the (mis)fortunes of a teenager who has to try to fit in after moving from the city. He and his father moved after the lad's mother was killed in a car accident and the father had to take part-time work to be a single parent. But all is not well around the new house in the country. I get to play with all the tropes I enjoy with horror, plus this is a real coming-of-age story too.
Why this work?
I don't know! For me, a book is never one idea. It's a gestalt entity born when several ideas that might have been orbiting each other for a while come together. Or perhaps a new idea coalesces some existing ideas and then boom! Suddenly I have all I need for a book.
The truth is that I have way more ideas than time, so I tend to pick whichever book is taking up the majority of my thinking time at any given point.
What do you love about it?
With this particular book, I think it's the coming-of-age aspect, as I haven't written anything quite like that before. I have a book coming out next year that touches on it a little, but this one is a real band of pals against the adults who have no idea what's really going on.
That's a trope as old as time, of course, but it's not how tired a trope might be but how you give it new life that matters, and that's what I'm enjoying about this book.
What challenges have you run into?
So far not too many, but that may jinx me. For once a book is flowing quite well, but I have to pull it all together at the end, and that might end up being the real challenge here.
What are you most excited about for your events at the South Coast Writers Festival?
Honestly, the same as all festivals like this. For my event and any others I can get to, the whole thing is just so inspiring and motivating. Given that we sit on our own, making stuff up for the most part, getting out among other weirdos like ourselves is healthy and fun.
See Alan live by grabbing your tickets to Space Opera and Speculative Fiction via the SCWC website