Interview with Eric J. Guignard

Where are you from? What is your background?

I’ve lived in the same 25-mile radius in Southern California my entire life, mostly in the communities east of Los Angeles known as the San Gabriel Valley. My family immigrated from the French-speaking cantons of Switzerland last century, during the European immigration rush through Ellis Island, all searching for the great American opportunity. Mostly they ended up in lower-level blue collar jobs, mining and farming and assembly-line manufacturing. The military became an escapism. My father served and then was able to get into the government, and that set me on course to college and “office life,” which by reaction turned to the creative arts.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve been writing fiction with the goal of publication since February 2011. However, I’d been writing and drawing stories ever since I was a child. I’d just done it previously for my own interest, or for friends. I stopped in college, in order to pursue business and serious-minded life necessities… which, of course, I now regret. I don’t regret the pursuit of those other things, but I regret having given up writing for so many years. I never went to school for writing, and I only jumped into as a potential career-type desire after the realization struck me that I was missing out on something I’d been passionate about, and had been stuck in these other job cycles about things that gave me no enjoyment or enthusiasm.

Who are the writers that have made the biggest impact on you?

I recently made a list of favorite authors and influential books, so I’m going to cheat and copy my detailed response from that to here!

Some of my favorite authors include (in no order): Joe R. Lansdale, Cormac McCarthy, George Orwell, Stephen Graham Jones, Jeffrey Ford, Lisa Morton, Kaaron Warren, Dennis Lehane, Seanan McGuire, Stewart O’Nan, Lauren Beukes, Jack Kerouac, O. Henry, James Ellroy, Neil Gaiman, Steve Rasnic Tem, Jim Butcher, Stephen King, and many, many others.

Many writers sell their first works to small presses and indie publishers. How has the market changed since your first sale?

I don’t think the market has changed at all, in regard to that. Every writer I know, when starting out, searches out the small presses and indie publishers for their work. Unless they go straight into self-publishing, which is a possibility for some creatives who also have business savvy. Otherwise, once in a while I see a young author graduate from a prestigious writing program such as Clarion and then immediately start publishing in “big-name” markets. But for most people, again, small presses and indie publishers are the proving ground, the chance to experiment, make mistakes, learn about what goes on in the industry around us. I still write in the indie markets, and I’m proud to do so. Nurture the indie spirit!

I seem to remember you wrote a horror story set in a civil war prisoner camp. Tell the audience (if they don’t know the story) about it and are there any other historical events that inspired your stories? 

That story was “The Moon Over Andersonville” (AKA: “The Prisoner of Andersonville”) one of my very first pieces of published horror fiction. (And Mark, as I recall, you did a nice podcast of it for your Dark Dreams channel back in 2013!) As a new writer, I’d sent in the story originally as a flash fiction “draft” form to a small publisher, and they printed it in June 2011 without any revisions (my fault at the time; as a writer, you send in your work polished, and not in draft form—lesson learned). Later, I expanded the story a bit, added in the revised sections and republished it elsewhere. It’s in epistolary format, meaning reading the story is through diary entries. It takes place during the American Civil War, of a Union soldier held in the most notorious Confederate Prisoner of War camp of the era, Andersonville Prison (Camp Sumter) in Georgia, and the protagonist’s diary entries are simple, of his life there, and that he’d do anything to get out and go home. His new bunkmate transfers in and <spoiler alert> is found to be a werewolf, so the next full moon, the hope of escape may be realized. The story’s a bit more vulgar than I normally write, but it fit the atrocities of the situation. The background of the story is factually based on my ancestor, 3x Great-Grandfather Benjamin Merry, who was held at Andersonville, where it was reported that the prison was a “cesspool of dysentery, scurvy, malaria and all manner of other ailments and diseases.” Ben Merry sickened there (then transferred to Florence Stockade) and died of illness and buried in an unmarked mass grave. The character in my fictional story may have a bit of a happier ending, although it’s assumed he will be tormented in a different way.

I love history, and a great deal of my writing revolves around trivia or fascinating tidbits I read about of experiences from other eras, and adding speculative or horror elements to times bygone has always been a go-to for my creativity. I live in the present and that’s enough for me—when writing, it’s usually set pieces elsewhere, of the past or near-future.

You’ve been a member of the HWA for a long time. Are there benefits of being a member and what are they?

I love being part of HWA (Horror Writers Association). I’m involved with several writers’ groups, but I’m most vested and active in HWA, and I feel that HWA has bolstered me more than anything else I’ve done. Being a member of HWA is like being a member of the Screen Actors Guild or any other industry trade organization: It will not change your career in itself, but it’s a tool to use at a very minimal cost. It’s networking and it’s a unified voice for the genre. Members get access to insurance plans, legal advice, marketing efforts, scholarships, etc. There are a ton of other initiatives, readership and diversity advocacy, but as each program is led by volunteers, sometimes they work better than other times.

I joined HWA not knowing a single other person, but I wanted to learn and network, and in that way I’ve succeeded. I’ve made lifelong friends, benefitted from the organization’s offerings. I never went through any creative writing program, school, or otherwise, so when I joined HWA and was assigned a mentor (Weston Ochse, RIP), he taught me writing and taught me much about the industry.

At this point in my life, I can say I don’t “need” HWA any longer. I can do everything on my own. But I like to remain part of the group, be among my peers and friends, and give back through volunteer efforts, help out other members, mentor them, etc.

What advice can you give to new writers?

Be confident to fail. Read broadly. Experiment. What I tell others, and what I repeat to myself like a mantra, is simply: “Keep writing, and remember that every rejection is an opportunity for improvement!”

How do you feel about the current state of genre fiction?

It’s robust. The genre of Horror is often cyclical, falling in and out of favor with popular audiences, but currently it’s in a renaissance. There’s an abundance of great horror books, movies, television shows, and involvement in pop culture conversation.

Do you think your environment, past area you’ve lived in, has an effect on your writing?

I don’t strongly think so. I tend to write in very disparate settings, places I’ve perhaps not actually visited, but have been inspired to research and read about. So in that sense, it’s almost the opposite—it’s more dull to write about areas I’ve lived. I’d rather explore elsewhere.

How do you feel about censorship, and what seems to be censoring of literary and popular works from both sides of the political hotwire?

The censoring of most works feels wildly overwrought, especially when comparing the differences of books banned between geographic, political, or socio-economic areas or influences around the country. Just community by community, what is deemed as offensive versus important: A Brave New World by Aldous Huxley? Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins? Scary Stories To Tell In the Dark by Alvin Schwartz? OMG. That’s a whole other level of fearmongering, suggesting books such as those are going to corrupt impressionable minds.

On the flipside, when I was a teen I got a copy of The Anarchist Cookbook by William Powe, which teaches readers how to make guns and bombs out of household goods. Should that be banned from a school library? Yes, I think so, due to the physical danger it imposes, so I can understand the censoring of certain works. Although now, in the age of the internet, all that information can be found easily online anyway, so banning it is ultimately rather inadequate.

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Anyway, Stephen King posted a perfect, succinct Tweet about this, which I quote: “If they ban a book in your school, haul your ass to the nearest bookstore or library ASAP and find out what they don’t want you to read.”

Has Political Correctness ruined fiction? It seems you can’t write “Bad people” anymore without being labeled as that “bad person.”

No, I don’t think anything has been “ruined.” Tastes change, and social and cultural standards are certainly different than last decade, and the decade before that, becoming more nuanced and complex. The bar is a bit higher for authors to write characters authentically and without falling into cliches that may seem trite, harmful, or stereotypical, which is a good thing. I understand the label has been placed on authors occasionally that “they are what they write,” meaning if they write about an insensitive or small-minded individual, it must prove the mindset of the author, which is stock bullshit. Certainly there are racists and bigots who do compose fantasy fiction to express their ideations—and those individuals are often so transparent it’s laughable—but like any label, it does not hold true to the majority of creative scribblers. I still believe that I have the full freedom to write about bad people and not have any sort of such label placed on me. With that freedom does come a certain responsibility though, which aligns with sensitivity to subject matter, not glorifying intolerances. If I were to write about a “bad person,” it’s probably going to end as a cautionary tale—either that person learns the error of their way, or something bad happens to them, or else they may just become a contrast to show the disparity against another point of view. IDK, there are certainly situations I would not write about today, that I might have explored years ago. But not much. Again, I do believe “most” anything is allowable for creativity, as long as it’s done respectfully.

What projects are you working on now?

Through my press, Dark Moon Books, I’m publishing a series of author primers created to champion modern masters of the dark and macabre, titled: Exploring Dark Short Fiction (Vol. 1: Steve Rasnic Tem; Vol. II: Kaaron Warren; Vol. III: Nisi Shawl; Vol. IV: Jeffrey Ford; Vol. V: Han Song; Vol. VI: Ramsey Campbell; Vol. VII Gemma Files, etc.).

I also continue to edit and publish the anthology series, +Horror Library+, which promotes new, unthemed horror short stories from authors around the world.

My newest standalone anthology as editor is a Middle Grade literary-horror mash-up through HarperCollins, slated for publication in October 2025, titled Scaring and Daring Adventures.

I also enjoy writing short stories. I have a small piece appearing next month in Weird Tales Magazine, and my second collection, A Graveside Gallery, will come out in 2025 through Cemetery Dance.

I recently finished my second novel, Wrecked, Yet Sent Forth, which I’m beginning to shop around, and I’m in process of writing two more: one is a paranormal detective series and the other is a cosmic slipstream time-travel. Wish me luck!

For projects, news, updates, and other life-affirming indie horror news, here are my social media profile and web links: