Michele Lee

1. So let’s get the big question out of the way. Your first novel, I Will Rise, received a Stoker Award nomination earlier this year. What did that feel like?

It was a tremendous honor. I am a huge fan of horror fiction and many of my favorite books have been Bram Stoker award winners or finalists. To be counted among them is simply mind blowing. It’s a distinction I wear with great pride. The award banquet was awesome. I met so many great writers.

2. When I read I Will Rise I was both distracted by the prose and blown away by the similar feel to Fight Club by Chuck Palahniuk. Is Palahniuk a role model for you?

When I started writing I WILL RISE I was definitely on a Palahniuk kick. I read three or four of his books back to back (CHOKE, SURVIVOR and INVISIBLE MONSTERS – oddly enough I still hadn’t read FIGHT CLUB, but if you read Palahniuk, his style is pretty consistent from book to book). At the same time, I was also really heavy into James Joyce’s short story collection DUBLINERS, and his crazy novel ULYSSES, and I was re-reading T.H. White’s take on Arthurian legend, THE ONCE and FUTURE KING.

Like all art, IWR draws its inspiration from an eclectic mix of sources. Along with White and Joyce and Palahniuk, I love filmmakers like Lynch and Cronenberg and Gordon and there are shades of their influences buried in the narrative as well. I think the book is a messy mash up of all these disparate styles fused with my one true literary love – horror.
Since it is written in the first person, it tends to get a little crazy with the stream of consciousness thing – gloriously self indulgent and proudly experimental. It worked for some and turned off others, but it was a fun experiment.

As to the question, Mr. Palahniuk is definitely a role model. He is one of my favorite writers and to draw such comparisons is a huge honor.

3. Are there any lessons you’ve taken away from the writing and publication of I Will Rise?

Tons. On the writing side, like with each new book, I learn what works and what doesn’t. I play with pacing and voice and grow from the practice of hammering away at a narrative each and every day. Writing is an incredible art form because you get better with age. Every new book I write shows me just how much I don’t know and what I have to go out there and learn. I WILL RISE was a lot of fun to write because I became this selfish, neurotic, foolish character and just went off. My other books are written in the third person and as an omniscient narrator you have a different role and a responsibility to all of the characters. Writing in the first person as an extremely unreliable narrator you can goof off a little.

Since IWR was my first publishing credit ever, I basically learned everything I know about the publishing industry in this past year. When I started submitting IWR I knew nothing about small press and the mass market and the horror writing community. I didn’t know any of the business intricacies. Now, I feel much more confident about my role within the industry as an artist and I am prepared to make those important career decisions. It was a tough thing to wrap my head around. I want to write. I don’t want to look over contracts and market and sell, but the reality of the situation is that in order to be successful you have to understand all of these things. Like with my writing, I get better and better at it with each passing day.

4. You teach high school English, does that give you hope for the future of fiction or take it away?

Hope. It’s all about hope. That’s why I am a teacher and that’s why I love my job. At the beginning of the year I take a survey and ask my kids (I teach ninth graders) who likes to read. I’ll get maybe two or three hands (out of 40) per class. Throughout the school year I try to talk up fiction (horror in particular) and get kids excited about reading and hope to win over a few converts. I usually snag a few.

On a wider scale, the world is moving so fast and a leisurely paced hobby like reading fiction for the pure joy of it seems to be falling out of favor. Why read when I can watch cable or play video games? I love watching cable and playing video games, so it’s hard to argue, but then somewhere along the line I also learned to love to read. Where did I get it? Who knows? My parents aren’t big readers; I just sort of gravitated toward it on my own. With all of these modern distractions, books are looking less and less interesting to kids with no desire to read. It’s a scary time.

5. Other than world domination, what plans do you have for the future?

Well, world domination is a pretty all-consuming goal. It lives little time for much else. Until I get there, I plan on teaching and writing and writing and teaching and enjoying the hell out of my rather charmed life.

6. In the punk/underground/social commentary feel of your work, would popular success be good or bad? Can you be popular without selling out?

Popular success is never a bad thing. It is my ultimate goal. The more people I reach the better. I’m not doing this so I can be the king of some exclusionary scene. Selling out is settling for mediocrity. I’m not here to grumble at the machine. I’m here to infect it and write edgy fiction that entertains and gives use something to think about. My punk / underground sensibilities come from my love of punk / underground sensibilities and the subversion inherent will probably always be a part of my fiction, but this isn’t to say I am not trying to have a little fun. This is what I like about Palahniuk – his books are uncompromising and perverse, yet he has a legion of fans that get it.

Look at some one like Larry David of HBO’s CURB YOUR ENTHUSIASUM, he’s made a fortune hating everyone and everything! I aspire to be the Larry David of popular horror fiction.

7. So I Will Rise has zombies, and As Fate Would Have It has cannibals. What’s next?

So much stuff…

I just completed two novellas with two great writers I’ve met through the HWA (Horror Writer’s Association). One called UGLY SPIRIT, written with Benjamin Kane Ethridge, about the seriously screwed up ghost of a serial killer and his haunted estate, the other called THE INFINITE, written with Michael McCarty, about an ancient blood witch, awkward dorks and bored teenage girls. They are both looking for homes.

I have a dark fantasy trilogy called THE BASILISK, about lizards, sun Gods, telepathic zombies and a serial killer tasked with killing 1000 virgins to save the world, doing the rounds. My agent is currently pushing it to the majors (fingers crossed).

I finished two new books in ’08 and have just started shopping them. LAMBS is about three teens, one haunted by murderous ghosts, one a pyromaniac, and one a Satanist, whose lives collide. DEATH & DESIRE in the AGE of WOMEN is about women going crazy and taking over the world and one married couple’s struggle to survive the violent onslaught. I’m going to start sending them out soon.

I just recently finished my half of a dark, urban fantasy called ORDER of DEATH. I’m writing it with Benjamin Kane Ethridge and it is looking to be pretty awesome. Violent, dark, high fantasy in the tradition of George RR Martin, but twisted in our own special way. I can’t wait to get it out there.

I have a short story collection entitled BLOOD & GRISTLE being considered by a publisher.

I just started a book tentatively titled BIRD DREAM. Should be done in March and then it is on to a new one.

Oh, and I write video game reviews for Fear Zone (fearzone.com). You can find new stuff and any of my old reviews archived on the website.

8. Is there any horror trope you won’t touch?

No. I’m willing to tackle anything and put my spin on it. It’s all about imagination and reconfiguring those tired old tropes into something new and vibrant. Vampires have been done to death and right off, I’d probably put my foot in my mouth and say, “I will never write a vampire book,” but then, I was recently approached by a writer who wants to collaborate on a vampire book (though its about a psychic vamp rather than your traditional bloodsucker) and I’m excited to dig in and give it a shot.

I’m good with any and all tropes, just not the boxes they tend to come in.

9. Why don’t you give us a bit of blatant promo for As Fate Would Have It?

Glad to.

So yes, AFWHI is about cannibals and heroin addicts. Those are the big, easy selling points. Cannibals – yuck! Heroin addicts – oooh edgy! Put them together and you got literary gold. Blah, blah, blah. What the book is really about is love and death.

I was lucky enough to make it to my late twenties without having to experience much in the way of death, but in the last few years I’ve lost a few people who I have been really close to and it hurt like hell. I entered my thirties more freaked about death than ever. While writing FATE, I purged a bit. I got a lot of things out and tried to come to terms with inconsolable loss. I wish I could say I emerged secure and happy and all of that. I still fear death and still think about it everyday. Truth is, the book is pretty damn grim. It’s darkly funny and reasonably entertaining, but there is a big streak of unrelenting black running up and down its spine and it might leave a bad taste in your mouth or raise a lump of discomfort in your throat. Alas, misery loves company (or so they say). I’m hoping readers can commiserate and fish a bit of catharsis out of it.

10. Who is the one person you’d get the warm squishies from if they read your book and sent you a (public or private) note about how much they loved it?

Stephen King (me and every other horror writer, right?). He is the reason I love to read and (though there are many writers I admire and call influences) he is probably the real reason I write. Back in seventh grade, I stumbled upon THE BACHMAN BOOKS in my junior high school library and nothing has ever been the same.