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Interview Overview
In this group episode of The Writer’s Chair, Daniel Willcocks sits down with three contributors to Erie River Publishing’s anthology The Earth Bleeds at Night: Christopher O’Halloran, Em Starr, and Richard Thomas.
The conversation digs into what makes the anthology’s theme so fertile, how each writer approached it, and why short fiction remains one of the best creative playgrounds in horror. Along the way, the guests talk craft, research, atmosphere, rejection, imposter syndrome, and the strange mix of validation and community that keeps short story writers coming back for more.
Interview Transcription
Daniel Willcocks
Hey, it’s me, Daniel Willcocks, and joining me this week in The Other Stories Writers’ Chair I’ve got Christopher O’Halloran, Em Starr, and Richard Thomas, and possibly Mark Towse… but we’ll get into that if the occasion happens.
Today’s a bit different because normally I do one-on-one interviews, but as you can hear, I’ve got a group here. This group is part of a brand new anthology published by Erie River Publishing, The Earth Bleeds at Night. You’ve all written some fantastic stories. I devoured them earlier and really enjoyed them, but we’ll get into specifics in a minute.
To set the tone, I’m going to read the blurb:
Delve into the abyss with The Earth Bleeds at Night, an anthology that plunges you into the heart of darkness and implores you to ask what terrors are capable of making the very earth bleed. Featuring a haunting lineup of award-winning authors alongside the most promising new talents in horror fiction, these stories promise to unveil terrors that will haunt your dreams.
From the eerie whispers of literary horror to the blood-curdling screams of campfire tales, each narrative will drag you deeper into the void. Open this book if you dare. Let the earth bleed.
Right. To begin, I’ll ask you to go around and introduce yourself briefly so people get a sense of who you are. Christopher, would you like to kick us off and say a little about your writing background?
Christopher O’Halloran: Writing, control, and “Water Drops on the Heartstone”
Christopher O’Halloran:
Yeah, sure. I’ve been writing for a while. In my Grade 12 graduation I got the award “Most Likely to Be YouTube Famous” because I used to do short comedy skits on YouTube with my friends. That’s kind of where I started.
From there, from about age 12, I’d been reading Stephen King… earlier than I probably should have. I realised writing is the art form you can control the most. If you’re making a movie or a skit, you rely on people, weather, locations, equipment. But to write, you just need paper and a pencil… or whatever. Just your mind. That’s what drew me to it: the control.
Daniel:
And just because this is audio-only… you’ve got a bunch of rosettes and ribbons behind you. Are any of those YouTube awards?
Christopher:
I wish! No, those are all my wife’s. She rides horses, so she’s got dressage awards. I’m very proud of her.
Daniel:
Shout-out to your wife as well, that’s amazing. Let’s jump into your story. Yours was Water Drops on the Heartstone. Tell us a little about the premise, and why it linked into the theme of The Earth Bleeds at Night.
Christopher:
This story was written a couple of years ago, and surprisingly it’s one of my most rejected stories. I think I have upwards of 25 rejections on it.
It’s about a mother who wasn’t really equipped to be a mother emotionally. It’s her dealing with the fallout of losing her estranged child, trying to come to terms with that, trying to find answers within herself and forgive herself for how she abandoned her child, in a sense.
It’s informed by personal stories from loved ones, and also the struggles of parenthood. My wife and I have two young boys and the stress that comes with that is palpable. I wanted to represent that realistically, without vilifying it. Just showing the struggle of being human.
Daniel:
As a reader, it comes through with honesty and vulnerability. It feels real, especially the little touches. There’s a moment at the funeral where a pinky finger brushes an ex-partner’s hand and the hand moves away. Those nuances make you understand without spelling it out.
Also, I won’t ruin the opening visual, but there’s a great opening image in the cupboard that really pulls you in. What was it about The Earth Bleeds at Night that made you feel this fit?
Christopher:
There are a lot of themes of nature. It’s where the woman and her daughter really connected, at this waterfall. “The earth bleeds at night” invokes sorrow to me. Emotion coming up from the earth, cracks forming, pain erupting… and what better way to explore that than with a death?
Em Starr: Australia, bloodwood trees, and “Dolly Rocks”
Daniel:
Perfect. Em, would you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your story?
Em Starr:
Hello everyone. I’m hailing from Melbourne, Australia. I’m an emerging writer, although I’ve been writing my whole life. I was that kid who scared everyone in primary school with stories about the scary man who lived in the tree outside.
A couple of years ago I started writing professionally and I’ve just had my twelfth short story published. I’m working on my debut novel at the moment, a supernatural surf horror set in 1990s Australia.
Daniel:
I don’t think I’ve ever read surf horror. I don’t surf, but my eldest daughter is married to a surfer so I know the culture. Tell us about your story in The Earth Bleeds at Night.
Em:
I’d been wanting to write a story for a while. Originally it started as an outback slasher, burying bodies. Then I wanted the killer to harvest some kind of stone or reward from the earth, something cyclical.
But I don’t write many slasher stories, so I moved away from that quickly when the open call came out. The “harvesting from the earth” idea clicked.
In Queensland there’s a place called Mount Tamborine and you can fossick for thunder eggs. They’re little balls of lava with crystallised minerals inside. Depending on what minerals were present when it solidified, you get opal, quartz, jasper and so on.
I was also influenced by a filmmaking family who made a film called Hellbender. It focuses on how one generation consumes the next. That inspired this idea of cycles: nature consuming itself, humans doing the same thing generationally.
That’s how I got to my Dolly Rocks story.
Daniel:
It’s very effective, and I had to Google a lot of terms. The mineral detail, the plants, the texture of the place. Was it written specifically for this anthology or was it something you already had?
Em:
The idea was marinating, but everything fell into place when the call came out. We have bloodwood trees down here and if you damage the roots or the tree it oozes red sap that looks like blood. That felt perfect.
Bloodwood trees on Mount Tamborine, thunder eggs… it all came together. I did a lot of research, but I like that. I take a subject I don’t know well, research the hell out of it, then bring my own experiences into it. And I try to bring Australian influence into my stories too. The more I lean into everyday Australian details, the richer it gets.
Richard Thomas: Maximalism, place as protagonist, and “Supplication”
Daniel:
Richard, would you introduce yourself and tell us a little about your story?
Richard Thomas:
My name is Richard Thomas. I’ve been writing for about 15 years. I have four novels, four short story collections. I’ve edited five anthologies. I ran a magazine, Gamut, for two years, and a publishing house, Dark House Press, for a few years. About 135 stories published.
I’m a Bram Stoker finalist twice, a Shirley Jackson finalist and a Thriller Award finalist. I’m in Chicago, Illinois, and I work full-time as a writer, editor and teacher, sometimes publisher.
When they invited me into this anthology, I started thinking: what can I do that feels different? I don’t want to regurgitate my own work.
I’d been thinking about Adam Nevill’s story “Hippocampus”. The first time I read it, I didn’t like it. It felt quiet and nothing seemed to happen. But when I reread it, I realised it’s brilliant. It’s the silence after the gunshot. The echo of something violent you’ve just missed.
That inspired my story, Supplication. It’s basically from the point of view of a place. There’s no “I” character. The character is the space.
Theme-wise, with climate change and everything going on, I keep thinking the planet will be fine. We might not. Nature pushes back. The story is based on a forest preserve near me, a place you can’t really find unless you’re allowed to find it. Weird things in the woods, a cairn of bones, everything building towards this uprising from the space, and at the end the “earth bleeds”: a crack in the earth, lava seeping out. Nature rebelling.
It was tricky because I’m a maximalist writer. I like density, sensory detail, heavy setting, so I did a lot of research on plants and animals native to the area, and pushed into weird creatures too. The goal is creepy and unsettling, but also beautiful and haunting.
Daniel:
I love the term “maximalist writer”. Reading it, I could picture the cinematography, the slow pan, that camera drifting into the woods. It felt experimental, dense and immersive.
Why short stories?
Daniel:
This anthology theme is huge and your stories are wildly different. One question I love asking writers: what is it about short fiction that you enjoy? What do you get out of that limited space?
Christopher:
Pragmatic answer: I like that it’s short. You can start and finish relatively quickly. As an artist that’s satisfying, and as someone with ADHD it scratches my brain in a good way.
Em:
Same. Writing is lonely, and with a novel you don’t get the “I finished something” feeling for a long time. Short stories let you purge ideas quickly. I’ve usually got 10 to 15 ideas on the boil. When I write one, I’m obsessed with it. Then it’s done, it blows away on the wind and I move on.
Richard:
All lengths have value: flash, short stories, novelettes, novellas, novels. Short stories let you experiment, take risks, play with voice and form. And pragmatically, there are more markets in the speculative umbrella. You can try different genres, different structures, different approaches.
Is there money in short stories?
Daniel:
I get asked this a lot: is there actual commercial viability in short story writing?
Richard:
It depends on your goals. Money is one variable, but there are others: connecting with editors, getting visibility, building relationships, awards, getting your work read.
Financially, short stories alone won’t usually replace a day job. But as a side income it can matter. Collections can be built from published stories, and short stories are easier to adapt into film than novels.
If you think writing short stories will let you quit your day job, I’d advise against it. But as part of a writing career, they’re valuable.
Christopher:
For me, money from writing tends to fund fun things. Success is finishing a story I’d want to read. Getting paid is a bonus, but I don’t want to give stories away for nothing either.
Em:
It’s the validation for me. Someone believes in you enough to invest in you. That never gets old.
Imposter syndrome and rejections
Em:
Every time I get an acceptance, part of me thinks, “Really? Someone’s willing to pay me to do this?” It’s exciting.
Christopher:
And part of my brain goes, “They made a mistake.” Richard, after 15 years, does that feeling ever go away?
Richard:
No, it doesn’t. It’s always thrilling, and I still get rejected constantly. Editors are subjective. A rejection doesn’t mean the work isn’t good. It could be timing, taste, what they’ve already bought.
If you feel ready, start at the top markets and work your way down. It’ll be slower and more painful, but you’ll know you took the shot.
Where to find the guests
Daniel:
Before we wrap, where can people find you?
Em Starr:
You can find me on Bluesky and Facebook, or my website: www.emstarrr.com.au.
Richard Thomas:
You can find me everywhere. My website is whatdoesnotkillme.com. My latest novel is Incarnate (Arctic horror). My collection Spontaneous Human Combustion was a Bram Stoker finalist. If I can ever help anyone listening, reach out. Writing is isolating, and we’re better when we talk to each other.
Christopher O’Halloran:
I have a novel coming out, Pushing Daisy, from Lethe Press, hopefully around April, with a cover reveal soon.
But I also want to highlight an article by Felix I.D. DiMauro about his experience at DreadCon as a Black author in Canada, and the subtle racism he experienced. We need to address diversity in this industry head-on, including in leadership and editorial choices. Editors should actively seek out BIPOC authors, not just rely on slush piles.
Daniel:
Absolutely. Everyone in the room is nodding.
Closing
Daniel:
We’re going to have to wrap there, unfortunately. Massive thank you to Michelle and the team at Erie River Publishing for putting together The Earth Bleeds at Night.
I implore people to read this collection. Obviously, you’ve got stories from the authors in this room, but there are so many other brilliant stories in there too.
Huge thank you to Em Starr, Richard Thomas, and Christopher O’Halloran for joining me today, and a massive thank you to you, the listeners, for tuning in.
Find out more about The Other Stories podcast over at theothersstories.net, and I’ll see you next time when we strap our next willing victim into the writer’s chair. Goodbye, everyone.
