Faye Knightly - dReadcon Author Spotlight

We are delighted to have this author at our event for the second year running. Faye Knightly, 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.

My works are paranormal romance featuring witches, vampires, and shifters. While they all have that romance component featured strongly, there are some darker themes that make them perfect for the dReadCon event.

I’ll also be doing a launch party at dReadCon for a co-written novella that is more of a pure horror featuring a Halloween carnival run by the devil’s minions where entrants unknowingly sign away their souls. Told from the hero and the villain’s pov, Hell of a Thing, is one helluva ride, and features a cube-like fun house where each room is more deadly than the last and our protagonist is forced to battle her way through. Expect some demented spice featuring the devil himself.

I am also the co-founder of The Sisterhood of the Black Pen and will be showcasing some of our anthologies at the event. We founded this group as a way for new female writers in the horror genre to familiarize themselves with the publishing process, and it has been a wonderful experience. Because we’re able to be choosy with our selections, our anthologies are fantastically frightful. Definitely keep an eye out for some of these authors to hit it big.

●     What draws you to dark fiction—fear, mystery, or the psychology of horror?

I’ve always been a horror fan, and I feel it’s because of how exciting it is when you’re scared. Being frightened is a hit straight to your nervous system, and it is fun to experience.

●     How do you balance fear and deeper themes in your writing?

            Balance? What’s that? I feel everything when I’m writing, including fear and heartbreak. It’s one big reason why I’ve stuck with short form horror and not produced a full length novel–I’m a scaredy cat and don’t necessarily want to live in that place of terror for such an extended time. Case and point, the year I contributed to and produced Twisted Tales of Holiday Horror (Christmas horror anthology) for The Sisterhood, I completely ruined Christmas for myself. My story was about an evil vampire/grinch character who preyed on children who believed in Santa, and, well, let’s just say I have kids of my own and it was pretty hard to keep the spirit alive that year!

●     What type of music, if any do you listen to while writing?

Anything with lyrics absolutely doesn’t work for me. I have a few songs I’ve come to associate with some of my books, but they’re never right and even atmospheric things don’t tend to encompass the entirety of a story and how I’m feeling as I’m crafting the tale. So what do I listen to? White noise fan…6 hours oscillating fan on youtube music. It’s boring, but it works for me and helps me tune out distractions.

●     Where do you find inspiration for unsettling or eerie scenes in your stories?

Mostly from situations or scenes in the media that frighten me. I’ve always been scared of the unseen terror, and the unknown nature of a surprise attack. I also like to take things that seem innocent and imagine a scenario where they’re not. For example, we had a fun series on The Sisterhood socials where we challenged our authors to take the most innocent thing they could imagine and turn it into a horror story. It was a lot of fun.

I guess that’s the opposite of taking an eerie scene and incorporating it into a story, but what it really means is to provide a different narrative for something you wouldn’t expect to be harmful. Adding in that suspense and fear can effectively turn anything or any situation into horror.