Interview with author Michael Aronovitz
Michael Aronovitz is a horror writer, college professor, and rock critic. He has published three novels, Alice Walks (2013), The Witch of the Wood (2014), Phantom Effect (2016), and his fourth one, The Sculptor, is scheduled to be released in March 2022. His short-story collections are Seven Deadly Pleasures (2009), The Voices in Our Heads (2014), and Dancing With Tombstones (2021). His two earlier collections are currently out of print, however, Aronovitz rewrote and modernized their best stories in Dancing With Tombstones (2021). The author has been published in magazines and anthologies such as Weird Tales, Searchers After Horror, The Castle of Horror, and Apostles of the Weird. A lot of his work is currently being translated into German and re-released by Firma Edition Barenklau. On top of all this, Aronovitz’s written numerous rock articles and has his own column, called The Goblet of Shock, at Metalheads Forever Magazine.
To find out more about Michael, click here for his website. To read my review of Dancing With Tombstones click here.
Which novel was the most fun to write? Why?
A great question. I loved writing all the novels, though “fun” is an odd adjective to attach to a process I am addicted to. I don’t write because I necessarily “want to,” but rather, because I “have to.” I would go insane without it. Writing is an activity through which I can vent (and hopefully make into an aesthetic) my joy, frustration, rage, hope, love, obsessions, and criticisms. I have written five novels, the latest just completed at the end of December. Before I send it anywhere, I have my mentor, Lovecraft scholar S.T. Joshi reading it, and I have not heard back yet. That is the one that was the most fun, but I will compare it to the others that are published.
My first novel, a ghost story called Alice Walks (2013 - Hardcover – Centipede Press, electronic – Cemetery Dance) was the smoothest in terms of drafting. It only took eight months, and I never had a moment where I didn’t know what was coming next. As opposed to “fun,” I would say, actually, that it was gut-wrenching, a ghost story wrapped inside the tragedy of a family. It was also exciting because every day felt like a release, an epiphany.
My second novel, an apocalyptic fantasy called The Witch of the Wood (2014 – Hippocampus Press) was exciting because I felt that I was doing new things. It was my experiment with hyperbole, and whether or not it sold a lot of copies, I felt that the process was fresh and rewarding, like a crisp clean breeze in the face.
My third novel, Phantom Effect (2016 – Night Shade / Skyhorse) was my rebellion piece, an outlet for frustration, mostly with small market magazines putting silly restrictions on things because it was “trendy.” I heard a lot of noise about first-person narration being a beginner’s tool and the idea that points of view must be limited to one character, and that flashbacks were for hacks. Phantom Effect was loaded with all of the above, as pre-chapters were in first person and chaps were in 3rd limited. I had multiple points of view and a literal funhouse of flashbacks. The process was excruciating because often, I couldn’t snag where I was going to take it next. I had weeks where I wrote nothing at all (took two years) but finishing it and tying up all the loose ends was quite satisfying.
The fourth novel is titled The Sculptor (2022 – Night Shade / Skyhorse), and it is a serial killer/mystery piece. I had lots of fun writing that one! It was also difficult, as I did extensive research on policemen and often had (poorly crafted) storyboard pictures taped all around my office so I could match up all the timelines. That novel comes out on March 1st, 2022.
My fifth novel, as said, hasn’t been shopped yet as I just finished it last month. It took a year and a month, and it was a blast. It is the sequel to The Sculptor, and I simply love the characterizations. I always work on stuff as I write, and with this one, I wanted to explore the female point of view. The players in this one are a professor of English and his three daughters, Sage, the artsy tenth grader, Jody, the tomboy in eighth grade, and Esther, the spoiled seven-year-old. My influence was Louisa May Alcott’s Little Women. Though I did have periods where I held off (busy year with teaching college), it was simply a blast to put these kids and their dad into all kinds of peril. I was so happy writing it, that it was difficult to sit down and do a new chapter. I was afraid I was going to fuck it up! I would say The Sculptor II is my most complete piece, as it feels realized in terms of all the heavy-hitters: characterization, evolution, foreshadowing to payoff, etc. I don’t outline. I “discovery write,” not because I like worrying that I will work for six months only to realize the piece won’t work, but it is the only way I know how to do it. It is going to take me a year or so to get to the end, so how could I possibly know what I will be thinking in a year? While some claim my method is like jumping off cliffs and hoping for hang gliders, it is just the way that I roll.
When and how did your love for horror blossom?
I am going to nail another question here and say my influence is and was Stephen King. He simply draws the best characters I ever read. I also see the cloud a bit differently than most. Darkness is ultimately satisfying as long as there is some poetry to it, so to speak. Drama is based on peril or a number of them, and horror seems to get to the point faster.
If you could collaborate with any writer, alive or dead, who would it be and why?
No one. I got into writing because I am a poor collaborator. I want it my way. If I am going to spend a year-plus writing something, I just don’t have the time for compromise. If you put a gun to my head? Amazingly, not Stephen King. I read his book about process titled On Writing, and I simply disagree with a lot of his philosophies, especially the idea that the given writer MUST write for the same number of hours a day and kick out six pages (paraphrased…he might have had a different number, but the relevant part is that he had a number to begin with). As said, I just don’t work that way, though I have many periods where I do work eight to ten hours in a day writing. If I had to work with someone, it would be Charlie Brooker, the creator of the Netflix Black Mirror series. His stuff is spectacular and the closest stylistically to what I am trying to achieve.
Is there any difference in your creative process when you’re writing a novel, versus when you’re writing a short story?
Yes! I don’t outline, but rather, I have to have a scene unit or image or character to aspire to. With novels, I rarely know the whole story until I am halfway done. I don’t outline short stories either, but by default I suppose, I pretty much know the “A” to “B” to “C” and the ending before I start.
Can you tell us a little about your upcoming novel The Sculptor?
My pleasure! The elevator pitch! Forgive me, I believe this is what Night Shade / Skyhorse uses on the pre-order page, but it is good the way it is.
At age seven, Michael Leonard Robinson commits his first murder, turning tragedy into an aesthetic. By the time he turns eighteen, he has become an expert with computers, gaming systems, and the art of video imaging. And now in his forties, fully realized, he has long erased his digital footprint. He is thirty years ahead of our most advanced scientists, military ops tacticians, and elite information tech specialists. He is a master of disguise. He can invent projected realities.
Of course, Michael Leonard Robinson could work his dark vision on a global scale, yet he doesn’t need “the world” for a fetishistic thrill, just a police captain, his receptionist, a detective, a rookie junior officer, his sister and mother, and a lot of dark theater.
Robinson appears to these characters in disguise, film clips, and flashes as he torments them. Their multiple viewpoints are puzzle pieces.
When they fuse to complete the puzzle, the final sculpture becomes clear.
What are some of your favorite horror books?
The Silence of the Lambs (Thomas Harris, 1988), The Stand (Stephen King, 1978), Christine (Stephen King, 1983), Misery (Stephen King, 1987), Night Shift (Stephen King, 1978), Skeleton Crew (Stephen King, 1985), and anything by Hemingway, who I think of as a horror writer of the finest kind.
Do you have a writing routine/rituals? If you do, what are they?
No music. No television. Get absorbed. Write for as long as possible until 4:00 PM when it is time to eat and drink beer.
Do you have any advice for writers that are trying to get published?
I don’t know that I am qualified to give advice, but I do believe that writers should not mold themselves to someone else’s trend or social agenda. We spend too long and give too much to start tailoring the work to someone else’s vision.
What is your favorite horror sub-genre?
Dark Psychological.
Which authors, if any, have inspired you in your writing career?
As said, Stephen King, but I could not go without also mentioning Tolkien. The Lord of the Rings is plainly my favorite work altogether.
