†3Dark Author Spotlight: Richard Thomas

Hello everyone,

It’s that time again! Today, I bring you another author spotlight from †3Dark. This time, we’re beaming the light down on Richard Thomas.

For those who don’t know, Richard Thomas is one of the most prominent horror-authors writing today. His work is lyrical, gripping, and full of pathos. Chuck Wendig once said that Richard Thomas writes like ‘a guy with a gun to his head’, and I wholeheartedly agree. There’s a mania there, a fervor that almost speaks of therapy, but then this is coupled with a restraint, a control and precision which only masters of the craft can exercise.

What’s truly innovative about his work is his constant drive to do something “new”, rather than relying on old horror tropes, or blood and guts, to achieve a gripping narrative. I’m humbled to be working with him!

He has been published alongside Stephen King, Neil Gaiman and Clive Barker. If you want a fuller list of his credentials, see the author bio below:

Richard Thomas is the award-winning author of seven books—Disintegration and Breaker (Random House Alibi), Transubstantiate, Staring Into the Abyss, Herniated Roots, Tribulations, and The Soul Standard (Dzanc Books). His over 100 stories in print include Cemetery Dance, PANK, storySouth, Gargoyle, Weird Fiction Review, Midwestern Gothic, Arcadia, Qualia Nous, Chiral Mad 2 & 3, and Shivers VI. He is also the editor of four anthologies: The New Black and Exigencies (Dark House Press), The Lineup: 20 Provocative Women Writers (Black Lawrence Press) and Burnt Tongues (Medallion Press) with Chuck Palahniuk. He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller awards. In his spare time he writes for LitReactor and is Editor-in-Chief at Gamut Magazine. For more information visit http://www.whatdoesnotkillme.com or contact Paula Munier at Talcott Notch.

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I first came into contact with Richard over Twitter, funnily enough. I was bemoaning the difficulty of breaking into publishing, having recently had a series of rejections for a manuscript I was actually pretty confident about. I was already following Richard, being a big fan of his early work like Disintegration. Somehow, inexplicably, Richard saw my tweet and decided to respond, offering some suggestions of good publishing houses to try.  That random act of kindness, so unexpectedly out of the blue, was a real turning point for me.

Later, I would go on to read Richard’s third collection Tribulations and write a review of it. I would also join the team at Storgy. Things coalesced, Storgy wanted to do an interview of Richard, and I wound up, still pinching myself with disbelief, interviewing the great man himself. It was a two hour interview, jammed full of generous, generous insight. I don’t think he skimped on a single question. The openness with which he discussed aspects of his personal life, publishing, his journey, his writing process, was pretty dumbfounding. And the fact he was prepared to give so much time  to essentially a young enthusiastic geek.

So, from then on, I had a dialogue with Richard, and when I made my decision to make †3Dark a living, breathing thing, I knew that I wanted a story from Richard.

Richard will be taking the October 2017 story slot – and so far has remained fairly mysterious about what he’ll be writing for us! Of course, all the stories in †3Dark have spiritual, religious themes – but that is open to broad interpretation.

Want to see a unique, never-before-seen story from Richard? Then help us make 13Dark happen by backing our kickstarter! There are 14 days left, so please, help us out (and reward yourself) by getting your hands on a story from the master!

That’s enough from me for now!

Keep hale & see you next time!

(don’t forget you can follow @project13dark for more updates on this cool project, or, like our Facebook page)

@josephwordsmith