Emily A. Weedon: dReadCon Author Spotlight
- BookBox Canada
- Jun 12
- 5 min read
This is the second annual dReadCon, and we are thrilled to have you attending.
Tell us a little bit about yourself, what books we can expect to see at dReadCon, and where we can find you on social media.
I am a novelist, Hemo Sapiens and Autokrator, and screenwriter from Toronto. I worked in the film industry for many years, including on The Bride of Chucky which landed me a part in the film! I’ve also worked on spooky or near spooky film and tv such as Urban Legend The Final Cut Part II, Lavender, Strange But True, The Last Don Part II, and Murdoch Mysteries. I was conceived in a haunted house near Ipswich, England! I grew up in a small town in Ontario and spent most of my time reading about ghosts, vampires, fairies and mythology so it was probably inevitable I wound up writing dark fiction. I will be attending Word on The Street in September doing a horror panel and will be touring Ontario and Alberta in support of the launch of Hemo Sapiens, September 30, just in time for spooky season.
How has the dark fiction or horror writing community supported you in your journey?
I am absolutely THRILLED to attend DREADCON and get to mingle with fans of Horror! I found support and friendship from horror and horror adjacent writers like Tim McCregor, Micheal Rowe, Craig Davidson, Paola Ferrante, Patrick Tarr and Andrew Robertson, Greg Rhyno and out in the stores, online and beyond. All of these writers have read at my reading series Drunk Fiction and helped build more community with Canadian writers as a whole.
Why is DreadCon important for horror and dark fiction authors?
Canadian gatherings like DreadCon could not be more important for Canadian creators right now, given the tariff situation, difficulty traveling to the US to access markets, given our enduring need to really recognize and nurture the amazing home-grown talent we have across literature and film. Horror has been having more of a moment than ever in books and fiction and Canadian writers are at the forefront of that. The fact is: horror sells. It speaks to us on high and low levels at the same time, it is the dust of which we are made.
Do you have a favourite character you have written? If so, what book are they in and will it be at dReadCon?
I have two favourite characters! Cleo from Hemo Sapiens is a glamorous, knowing arch villain for the ages. I wanted to make a character that had the “legs” of both Hannibal and Miriam from The Hunger. Diabolically smart, far outwitting her prey, with long, deep plans for humanity. As well, I adore Tiresius from Autokrator, a woman who has hidden in a deadly, all male society as a man her whole life. She’s risen to the top and has even bigger, power-hungry plans. I love working with larger than life female characters. Both books will be for sale!
If you were trapped in your own horror story, which character would survive the longest?
I personally would do ok as a character in my own horror story. My female vampires are fairly benign to other women, as their drive is kicked into gear by procreation. If I were to run afoul of Cleo or Heloise: game over, instantly. They’re very powerful and don’t let anything get in their way.
What's the strangest thing you've ever Googled while writing a novel?
How bodies decay. External gestation of babies. Step by step autopsy procedures. How much blood is in a body. What happens to a body after police investigate a crime scene. This is a tiny sampling. I worked in the film industry for many years and had to research many weird things. I fear I might get arrested for my search history.
Would you rather spend a night in a haunted house or a week in a post-apocalyptic wasteland?
I choose Post apocalyptic wasteland all the way. I am a chicken and get scared alone, late at night. But I was raised by hippies, so I was halfway born to be a prepper!
If you could co-write a story with any famous monster (Dracula, Frankenstein, etc.), who would it be?
If it is the monster who is the cowriter, I pick Hannibal. Dracula would drain me and steal the manuscript. Frankenstein would be too slow with block printing. Ghosts are tedious and repetitive and would throw the book around. Werewolves would alternately piss on the manuscript or take it outside and bury it… Hannibal I think I could handle. I would be on my best, polite behaviour and we would nerd out on ancient history and cooking together. I’d ask to cook vegetarian though. If it is the author of one of these famous stories, I am very much down for hanging out with Mary Shelley and getting ripped on absinthe.
What advice would you give to new writers trying to break into the genre?
Read Stephen Marche’s “On Failure.” Write a whole thing and don’t talk about it until you are done. Writers groups are chat clubs, not places to write. Enjoy your own company. Then come up for air or you won’t get pages out. Start a new whole thing as soon as you are done the last thing. Be immaculately professional when you take your work to someone for feedback: be ready. Spellchecked, finished. No first drafts – polish your stuff before you take your chance with a published author mentor, agent, publisher. And GO TO READINGS AND LAUNCHES to SUPPORT WORKING WRITERS ALL THE TIME! to understand how much work goes into being a writer other than the writing itself!!
How do you approach world-building in dark fiction?
Worlds grow along with my main first idea, the first inception of an idea. I start with a What If question that really has legs. “What if pregnancy cravings/pica explained a vampire’s need for blood” was the ‘big idea’ for Hemo Sapiens. I then set about creating a world full of female vampires and make justifications, like anthropological and physiological differences that could suspend the readers disbelief it might be so. And because I am a student of sociology and ancient history, I think about how would the people I want to engage with live among us now, how would they have in the past. A call and response emerges in the writing response once a question like that is set in motion. In Autokrator, I asked “What if women had it worse than they do now?” and created a speculative world where women have been banished from life. That question begs others, and in answering all the questions, I create my world and its underpinning.
Do you have any writing rituals that help you get into the mindset for writing dark fiction?
Being forced to take publish transit or go to a doctors appointment can do the trick. So can reading nonfiction – Leonard Shlain’s Time, Sex and Power played into Hemo Sapiens a lot, as did Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Sapiens, and some anthropology and archeology textbooks. Whenever I come to a dead end, I tend to turn to nonfiction and the scientific and natural worlds.
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