Tobin Elliott -dreadcon author spotlight

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’ve been writing off and on for most of the past fifty years, but it was really only because I made a New Year’s Resolution for 1996 to get serious about it that I’ve truly focused on getting better.

I was also a Creative Writing teacher at both Durham College and Trent University (Oshawa) for 18 years, as well as a Communications Specialist for a large Canadian corporation. My first publication was in 2011, and I’ve been publishing fairly steadily ever since.

I retired at the end of 2018, spent most of the next year getting settled into a new lifestyle…then COVID hit. And I thought, when am I ever going to have unbroken stretches of time like this again? So, I took advantage of the lockdowns and cleaned up the first couple of books, finished the third, and wrote the last three in my six-book horror series, The Aphotic, which, of course, you’ll be able to get at dReadCon.

Why is DreadCon important for horror and dark fiction authors?

That’s an easy one… there’s really not a lot of literary horror cons around. I spend a lot of time doing in-store signings at Chapters/Indigo and, while I’m grateful for the exposure, probably the most common comment I get is, “Oh, it’s horror? I don’t read horror.” Because it’s a bookstore that caters to all interests, and only a percentage of them are looking for this particular genre.Whereas, at dReadCon, it’s EXACTLY what they’re looking for. Not only that, last year, my booth was right beside another horror author, but one I’d literally never heard of. I ended up buying three of Patrick McNulty’s novels, and all three blew me away. Without dReadCon, I might never have discovered him.So, not only is it a place for horror people to find stuff they love (thereby helping us horror and dark fiction authors), it’s also a place for horror fans to discover their next favourite horror author.

Do you have a favourite character you have written? If so, what book are they in and will it be at dReadCon?

I really do. Her name is Sam and the first time we meet her, she’s a really precocious, foul-mouthed pre-teen with abilities she doesn’t even know she has. We meet her first in the third book of the Aphotic series, BLOOD LOSS, but she also makes an appearance in the final book, FLESH AND BLOOD. She was both the easiest character to write—honestly, she just kind of exploded onto the pages with no warning—and the most fun to write as well. I put that kid through a lot, but only because I knew she could handle it.

What's the strangest thing you've ever Googled while writing a novel?

This is kind of embarrassing, but when I was writing a novella, the third installment in the now-defunct Sam Truman Mysteries (each volume written by a different horror author), I had a peculiar alien who would impregnate anyone she kissed. Unfortunately, on the guy that was impregnated in the story, the resultant birth occurred when a very spiny, very nasty alien newborn pushed its way out through his penis. So, I was trying to google how…um…elastic…the male organ was for being stretched, and I don’t mean stretched outward from the body, but stretching out from the sides.I ended up going down an incredibly graphic and terrible Google-hole, rife with photos and descriptions of manipulations that pushed the male organ far beyond the manufacturer’s recommended limits. And what’s worse, as I was, there was a point where I heard a, “Dad, what the f*ck?” behind me. My fourteen-year-old son had come up behind me and saw the screen.A lot of awkward explaining ensued, and a lot of smirks from my kid.

Has writing ever made you confront personal fears or experiences?

Oh hell yeah. Honestly, there’s a little (or… sometimes… a LOT) of me in virtually every story I write. I tend to draw very much on previous life experiences, and bend and twist them to become part of the fictional web of horror I weave. I’ve confronted tough family relationships, I’ve confronted past experiences that were tough to go through, and I’ve found the things that scare others the most are when I load my own personal fears into the narrative.

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

As above, I pull a lot from real life, but obviously when I’m dealing in vampires and werewolves and demons and Lovecraftian horrors, they’re not real life (or… are they?), so the inspiration comes from putting a very human, very relatable character in front of those horrors, or those situations, and then…

… well, then I have to get deep into their heads, and I have to know those characters so well that I can accurately write about their reactions. It makes me crazy when someone’s scared out of their mind, but they willingly run back into the dangerous situation for the stupidest reasons… or when a character’s in a potentially life-threatening situation, but he (and it’s usually a male character) can’t help but notice how damn sexy his companion is right now.No, I need real, visceral reactions. Because that’s what makes the scene unsettling.

How do you keep readers engaged when crafting slow-burning suspense?

Try and always have something going on. Even when you’re building to that scene, or you’re delivering information the reader needs to know (and desperately attempting to avoid the dreaded info dump), keep things moving. Have something occurring that can advance the plot, or increase the mystery, or show a facet of one of your characters.

Because, even in dialogue, it should be working on more than one level. Yes, it’s characters providing required information, but it should also be doing more work than that. How are the characters reacting to each other’s words? Are there internal thoughts that are utterly contrary to what they’re actually saying? Is one character judging the other? Falling in love with the other? Learning how much they hate the other? Becoming more or less impressed with the other? Building to a fight? Or a complete separation?

Show the reader more about those characters. If it’s a single character, same thing, how are they reacting to the events, the setting, the atmosphere? You can build mood through that. You can increase the suspense, the dread.Don’t just have a character pick up a gun… have them be shocked at the weight of it, the coldness of it in their hand. Have them fear the potential for destruction they now hold. Or, have them hold it like an old and trusted friend. Or whatever. Build the suspense. Build the character. Push the story.

What advice would you give to new writers trying to break into the genre?

I think, first and foremost, if you’re going to be a writer (in any genre), you also should be a reader. Read really good examples of the genre, but don’t be afraid to read stuff that’s not so good. You can learn just as much from the bad as from the good.As well, read in your genre, but read outside it as well. I write horror, but I read pretty much everything. And if I’ve enjoyed it, I figure out why. What was it that grabbed me? The story? The characters (even if it’s non-fiction)? The narrative style? What is it that I liked? Same with a book that’s not doing it for me. But, read widely, because there’s always takeaways you can incorporate into your own work.I’d also say, give yourself permission to not get it perfect the first time… because you won’t. The first draft is just working out the bare bones of the story and getting it down. After that, you can go back and improve it. But you gotta get it down, first.

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

That completely depends on the story. When I wrote OUT FOR BLOOD, a story that takes place in a high school in mid-1981, I created a soundtrack of music that went up to 1980, but nothing more current than that. All the music was music that the characters would have listened to.When writing Love Sick, a new, as-yet-unpublished short story, I listened to two songs. Bob Seger’s “Night Moves” and “Hollywood Nights” because it was those two songs that inspired the story.Same with The Lineman, the story that closes out the second volume of my UGLY STORIES ABOUT TERRIBLE PEOPLE DOING HORRIBLE THINGS collection. Glen Campbell’s “Wichita Lineman” gave me the idea for the story, so it was pretty much on constant replay.Other times, I just throw on whatever I feel like listening to. Either way, I guarantee, I’ll find some inspiration in the lyrics or the mood or the feel of whatever’s playing.

Tickets to the event are only $5 at the door

VIP tickets are only $20 and get you a swag bag with books, coffee and snacks and early entrance!

www.dreadconcan.com

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