NZ Horror Books: Author interviews with Michael Botur and S. Jayne Bradley

Next up in the October series of NZ Horror Books Author interviews:

Michael Botur

Who are you? Michael Botur - fiction writer. I’m also a professional journalist, mostly freelancing, and I'm a 'pub poet' - at home with a beer and a microphone. I've always been a short story specialist. I pivoted to writing horror about 2019. It's so much more fun and thrilling than literary fiction, which is a bit wanky and dreary and doesn't have enough life or death stakes. 

Your signature style: Painstaking research into interesting cultures and the worldviews that come with those cultures. I've just finished a story set in the violent wastelands of post-apartheid South Africa which was so, so hard to write. Lots of learning about Xhosa, Bantu, Zulu, Afrikaner and Coloured people, their languages and neuroses and values etc. Some of the funkiest stories I've written have had heroes and cultural settings which are Māori, Ethiopian, Sri Lankan, Northern Irish and more.  

Toot your own horn: I was the first Kiwi to beat the Aussies and win the Australian Horror Writers Association Robert N Stephenson Short story award for Test of Death. They sent me a cool trophy with Frankenstein on it. And paid me a healthy amount of cash. All spent on whiskey and KFC to fuel more writing, of course.

Give your opinion on Kiwi horror right now: NZ hasn't made the most of horror. Literary snobs look down on horror. And those cunts at the NZ Listener, NZ Herald and other review publications point blank refuse to review horror.  

I reckon if you surveyed the 100 active film producers in NZ and asked them what horror book have impressed them lately, they would struggle to name any. We hardly get any exposure. We could use a gutsy publisher to help market horror and get it talked about because this fascinatingly diverse country has lots of great horror material. 

Words written: Glass Barbie, my most recent novel, was very ballsy. It's incredibly provocative and wild and Gonzo.

Future stuff: Novel coming out - at least six months away. New short stories coming - paintstakingly crafted. Tomorrow night I might win a short story competition, or I might not. I'll carry on writing, regardless. 

Favourite Kiwi horror movies(s): Google tells me The Dead Lands is a horror. That's a stretch....hmm... maybe. I respect The Dead Lands. 

Anything else Kiwi horror related you want to share / give a shout-out to:  Shout out to Mister Denver Grenell -- hard worker; supportive of others; and Denver's got excellent taste in film, literature and culture. The man likes The Mars Volta, so I like the man. (Well gosh - thanks Mike! The feeling is mutual. Denver)

Where people can find you: Goodreads Read another Q & A HERE.

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NZ Horror author:

S Jayne Bradley

Who are you? My author name is S Jayne Bradley, my full name is Suzanne Bradley, but you can call me Su. I am a horror writer who specifically writes epic horror poetry, horror stories told entirely in rhyme.

Your signature style:  I tend to lean to more genre horror, vampires, werewolves, witches, demons. I also dabble in the Weird Fiction Genre as well, eldritch horrors, ghosts and the things that slip between shadows in the night.

Toot your own horn:  My first book Clocks Locks Corpses!: And Other Epic Horror Poems was a Finalist in the Sir Julius Vogel Award this year.

Give your opinion on Kiwi horror right now: I think we are at a strange point in New Zealand Horror, we are leaning towards more and more mainstream genre horrors to appeal to a wider international audience. I would also love to see a reboot of the Tv Series Mataku, a Māori language horror series from the early 2000's, very similar to Tales from the Crypt. 

Words written: Currently I have a few projects I'm working on. The first is a third book of Epic Horror Poems, which will include A third part in the Tad the Vampire Slayer series, and many other ideas. The other project is a series of interconnected horror short stories, this time in Prose. I'm also working on a Romantasy with a friend. 

Future stuff: I will be at Armageddon from the 24th to the 27th October, I am sharing a stall with Award winning Author Nikky Lee, and I will be running DnD games for Questbook there as well. 

Favourite Kiwi horror book(s): The Quiet Earth, very old favourite, probably read it a bit too young.

Favourite Kiwi horror movies(s): The Locals, an indie film that came out in 2003. When I saw it in the cinema I was one of two people in there. 

Where people can find you: www.sjaynebradley.com, & Instagram