Steve Stred is an up-an-coming Dark Horror author.  Steve is the author of the novel Invisible, the novellas The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, Wagon Buddy, Yuri and Jane: the 816 Chronicles and two collections of short stories; Frostbitten: 12 Hymns of Misery and Left Hand Path: 13 More Tales of Black Magick.  He also released the dark poetry collection Dim the Sun. 

Steve always has a number of works on the go and enjoys all things horror, occult, supernatural and paranormal.

Steve Stred is based in Edmonton, AB, Canada and lives with his wife, his son and their dog OJ.

Interview:

1. Will you tell us about your most recent published work?

My most recent release is my Novella ‘The Girl Who Hid in the Trees.’  It’s an urban legend, coming-of-age horror story that follows Jason and his friends as they try and figure out just what’s creeping in McConnell’s Forest.  It’s pretty gruesome and it’s a really fast read.  I’ve had a lot of feedback that readers were able to read it in about an hour!

2. What personal challenges do you face as a writer?

Time.  There’s always the challenge of money for covers and editing and then there’s the struggle with getting your release seen when there’s SO MANY fantastic books out and coming out, but for me it’s time.  I do all of my writing on my work breaks and lunch breaks so I need to focus and use it efficiently.

3. What is the most difficult part of your artistic process?

I don’t think I do have a difficult part.  Maybe it’s the way my brain works or I process how I want the story to unfold, but for the most part I don’t struggle with any specific areas.

4. What one thing would you give up to become a better writer?

Huh, good question.  That’s something I’ve never been asked before or even thought about.  Maybe I’d give up a bit of sleep to be able to write more?  That’s if I could get some writing done at home haha!

5. How did publishing your first book change your process of writing?

It made me more efficient.  I’ve self-published everything and now I have a pretty good idea of how long it’ll take to prep the finished product for release.

6. How many unpublished and half-finished books do you have? Will you tell us about them?

A bit of a loaded question, simply because of the way I operate!  I have three more releases planned this year, all are “done” just in various stages of “done.”  I’ve already begun working on four releases for 2020 and four releases for 2021.  As I mentioned before, I try to be efficient and organized.  This stems from my years as an athlete and having both short and long term goals laid out and the stepping stones to get to each of the goals.

As for the rest of my 2019 releases;

End of June release – The Stranger.  Full-length Novel, firmly in the horror genre.  Currently with a sensitive reader due to a character who is a bit of a bigot.  Want to make sure I wrote him effectively.  The story follows a family that goes on a camping trip and nature isn’t too fond of them.  I’m still awaiting cover art and I still have to do final copy edits.

October release – Ritual.  Novella.  This one’s a grisly demonic release, following Brad as he is prepped to open the black heavens and allow the congregation to ascend.  Art work is done, I need to go through it one more time then it’ll go to my editor.

December release – Piece of Me.  Full-length novel.  This is related to two short stories I’ve released (For Balder Walks and Poppa?)  Essentially a winter horror type novel, where a woman waits for her husband and son to return from a hunting trip.  She’s optimistic they will but there’s creatures that live in the dark that come out at night.  Then on one of her food searching trips she spots another person and things unravel from there.  Awaiting art work, need to go through it again and then off to the editor!

7. Do you read your book reviews? How do you deal with bad or good ones?

I read every single one and on Goodreads I will always comment thank you.  I know reviews are for readers, but for me personally reviews are for me as well.  I only write to release the books I want to read.  That fact anyone else reads my stuff is mind blowing!  But if I see a consistent trend, then I want to use that trend to better myself.  As an example – my latest The Girl Who Hid in the Trees, one consistent thing I’ve seen in the reviews is that some of the characters didn’t have a lot of depth.  Perfect.  Now I can work to make sure in my future releases that I work to make that part better.  As for good or bad ones, if you love it great!  Hate it, great!  Not everyone likes everything and that’s ok.  All I ask is for details either way.  I’d always prefer a 1 star and this etc etc etc is why I didn’t like it than a 5 star review with no details.  Someone will buy a book from a 1 star review with reasons versus a 5 star without.

8. Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?

Yes… kind of.  I interlock most of my releases in some form or another.  I have a reoccurring creepy character in a lot of my work.  I just think it’s a neat little tidbit for people who enjoy my stuff.  Then there’s other things that no one picks up on.  For example, and some folks won’t have even got this reference until they read this – I have a novella called Wagon Buddy.  It’s about Scott, a bullied kid who develops an imaginary friend, his wagon buddy.  This friend wears a long black cloak and a mask to hide his rotting face.  He won’t tell Scott his real name or where he hails from.  Wagon Buddy is also in The Girl Who Hid in the Trees.  It’s the creature that plays the bone piano.  So there, maybe I just blew some people’s minds haha!

9. What other authors are you friends with, and how do they help you become a better writer?

I’ve connected with a massive amount of authors out there through social media and there’s so many that I’m comfortable messaging and know when they get a chance they’ll message back.  It’s been very cool to develop those relationships.  As for friends, I’d say the ones I’ve developed the most with and communicate with the most would be David Sodergren (who also does my copy editing), Mason McDonald (who also does my cover art), Andrew Cull, Justin M. Woodward, Brian Bogart and J.H. Moncrieff.  They help me become a better writer in a few ways. First – they themselves are world class writers.  So to see their output and read their works, makes me step up my game.  Second – they take the time to answer any of my questions, no matter how odd it is haha!  Third – feedback.  They tell me if somethings working or something isn’t.  It’s invaluable.

10. If you could tell your younger writing self anything, what would it be?

Readers will come, reviews will come, just keep your head down and keep writing!  When I first started out I really, really struggled to get any reviews.  Now I know that’s just the way it is!

11. What are common traps for aspiring writers?

I think there’s a few.  The first is the idea that you need to have gone to University and received a degree in English Literature or Creative Writing to write a book.  You don’t.  The second is the idea that you need to write for hours and hours at a time or write each and every day.  You don’t.  Write when you can.  Set aside 15 or 20 minutes each day and just put your phone away or turn the TV off or whatever and write.  If it’s only 100 words, that’s 100 words more than you previously had.  I wrote a complete short story (Abraham, Look to the Sky) via email to myself one night, when my son fell asleep on me and I had my phone.  It can be done.  I think the third is that you’ll write a novel, send it off to a publisher and they’ll send you a massive cheque back for a book deal.  I think we all need to find the best avenues for our product to be released and if that’s trad it’s trad if its self-pub then go that route.  Self-publishing does not mean it’s bad, poorly edited, or not worth your time.  For many of us it’s the most efficient and feasible route.

12. What’s the best way to market your books?

All of it haha!  I’ve found way more success with directly connecting to readers by interacting and showing them not only my writing life but my real, family life.  I personally don’t push my books all day every day.  I also work really hard to help promote everyone, because I think everyone deserves to succeed.  I’ve tried some paid ads, Facebook stuff, Amazon stuff etc etc, but for me – I’ve always had the best success with interaction and word of mouth.

13. What is your favorite childhood book?

I don’t really remember any specific book from when I was little.  I read a lot of books when I was younger and I started reading Stephen King when I was pretty young, around ten or so.  I grew up reading a ton of the Little Golden Books, as well as The Hardy Boys and Archie comics.  My grandparents lived down the road from us and they still had the books my mom and aunts and uncle had read, so I had a pretty good collection of Hardy Boys and westerns.  Then our neighbour Patti Moody had a vast Stephen King collection even back then, so I was able to borrow those once I was deemed old enough to read them!

Social Media:

Stevestredauthor.wordpress.com

Twitter @stevestred

Instagram @stevestred

Facebook – facebook.com/stevestredauthor