Wednesday 16 October 2013

Some daft questions with Billie Sue Mosiman & review of Sinister Tales



Billie Sue Mosiman is one of the greatest and most prolific authors I have come across since receiving my Kindle Xmas 2009; but she does not fit the true Indie author profile she has merely embraced the digital revolution, she is in her own words a Hybrid author.

She has been published for over 30 years in a variety of magazines and anthologies.

You can now find her extensive library in ebook format on places like Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Sony, Apple store etc  - it is fair to say she is EVERYwhere!  Even on the blogospherepeculiarwriter

Her back catalogue includes, to date, 14 novels, a memoir travel book, and 160+ short stories in varying places, plus her autobiography, part 1.

This abundance of work does not diminish her talent in anyway but shows the true breadth and diversity of her abilities.

Oh, did I mention she has also been nominated for Edgar & Stoker awards. 

Her newest release is Sinister Tales a freaky little collection to get your heart racing.

I was fortunate enough to be able to ask the great BSM some very daft questions, so hopefully not your usual interview and more of a cheeseontoastgrilling!

What is your favourite sandwich? Drink? Chocolate/candy bar? (you can just pick one if you like!) 
I'm a sandwich fiend. Put it between bread, I'll eat it. Chocolate covered fingers are good. Seriously, I like tomato sandwiches, ham salad sandwiches, tuna salad sandwiches, and peanut butter and jelly.I like French Dip sandwiches with thinly sliced roast beef and dipped in beautiful brown beef nectar. I like meatball sandwiches. I like patty melts. Take it, put it on bread, add honey mustard or Kraft salad dressing and I'll eat it. Favorite drink-coffee. Favorite candy bar-Hershey's chocolate bar, no almonds.

Do you have a favourite place to write?
I can write anywhere so I don't have a favorite spot. I used to work at a desk. Then I sat in my easy chair with my laptop. Now I ride in an air-ride seat in a large truck and I write this way.

Who or What is your personal favourite character/novel? 
Hard to pick just one. Maybe today it's LeStat in Rice's INTERVIEW WITH A VAMPIRE. As in the movie version, it would be cool to be Brad Pitt and immortal.

If you had a theme track, what would it be? 
Old Bob Dylan songs or some Paloma Faith.

You are also writing your “memoirs” so who would play you and key members of your life in the televised series? 
I have no idea! Some small dark actress. For my mother, Jessica Lange, definitely because she plays looney so well.

And back to silly, if you could have any supernatural power what would it be? The ability to be invisible so I could disappear when I'm annoyed or angry because otherwise people get an earful. Or the ability to fly so I could take to the air and go all over the world. I would go there invisible, though, so I wouldn't attract crowds. We know how they acted to Superman. And pointing is rude.

My best endorsement for BSM is that when things go bump in the night in her house it's probably because they are trying to escape her imagination!

Now onto the review of her latest release; Sinister Tales.

Sinister: woah, now that’s a way to start. Do you ever consider what you bring back from holiday, what happens when it breaks? The freakishness has begun.

Transformed; The Kindness of Strangers: this little tale left me feeling a little sick to my stomach, no gore was needed for this, just the “kindness of strangers”. How people get their fun is quite sickening sometimes and BSM manages to tie it all down neatly.

Saving the System: I am wondering what berry or mushroom BSM ate before she wrote this one! It’s a true morality tale with a horror/sci-fi? twist.

Skins of our Fathers:  A short little story of a lonely hairless thing in the forest. Don’t trust anyone is the lesson here. Was he really saved? A little on the weird side, but entertaining.

Cursed: A cursed chair, not so spooky you might think. This gripped me and left me never wanting to sit down on anything but plastic again! A centuries long tale of possession, the last paragraph gave me goosebumps.

Dying in L.A.: BSM does not need horror or gore scenes to put the heebie-jeebies in your soul. Her ability to switch characters is brilliant, as you follow the story of “Rulebook” and his search the killer.

The Impossible: when you go mad why is it only you that knows it? Or was he?  grotesquely awesome.

Hell & Brimstone: A short tale of discovery, love, murder? and woe... How BSM manages to pack so much story, emotion and life into such a little space astounds me! The discovery and initial disbelief journey of a young women with the ability to start fires.... OH I hear you cry that’s been done before... yes, but NOT like this! You won’t be expecting what she manages to do with it or how her life turns out.

Out of the Sky: Aliens!! And very clever ones at that, they won’t need health care that’s for sure. The humour in this story only served to highlight the horror.

Shadowed Things: Thanks for that BSM I now need to sleep with the light on! This really gave me the shudders. Maybe the thing in the closet is real.

White Skulls: Great story about a flenser; a person who strips flesh from bones for a living, with the help of a vacuum and some beetles! An angry mob, an irksome boss.... who knows our downfall!
The gory bits are so bluntly written as to be normal, I read twice to make sure I had it correct.

Unreliable: well I always say I don’t find ghost stories scary; you got me on this one! I turned my light on when I went out to the bathroom.

Verboten: my heart was in my mouth with this little short, the emotions of love that BSM is able to evoke make this all the more creepy. When Mira goes missing her devoted sister must find her, at all costs.

Tru-Blood: Bigfoot, Wendigos, dances with drums, cannibalism, this has it all. My stomach did a bit of a flipflop at the end.



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