An Interview with Deborah Sheldon
This month, Undertaker Books released Deborah Sheldon's newest novel, BODILY HARM, We sat down with Deborah to find out about her process and what inspired her book.
What inspired you to write Bodily Harm?
From 1992 to 1994, I worked on two seasons of the true-crime TV series, AUSTRALIA’S MOST WANTED. I was the researcher and scriptwriter of crime re-enactments – two per episode – and I liaised with about 400 detectives in the cities of both Melbourne and Adelaide. I was in my mid-twenties; the same age as my son, and he seems like just a kid. I guess I was too. Now, I look back on those years and wonder how I ever got through them.
Every week I was researching and writing about some of the most violent, heinous yet unsolved crimes in Australia. Victims, and family members of victims, often saw AUSTRALIA’S MOST WANTED as their last hope for justice or closure. A mother of one murder victim used to call me frequently to talk about her daughter, and as she cried, I would sit at my desk, gripping the phone, trying to block out images of the crime scene while doing my best to listen, console, reassure. I can still recall those ghastly photographs to this day.
While I’m proud of my work on AUSTRALIA’S MOST WANTED, and grateful for the opportunity to participate in such an important program, I admit it took a toll on me. I had nightmares, drank too much, made risky decisions. When the show ended, I wrote the screenplay BODILY HARM to exorcise some of the rape, armed robbery and murder from my system. In 1997, the TV production house Crawfords Australia optioned my screenplay, but it went unproduced.
The story never left me. Many years later, I dusted it off and adapted it into a novel.
Tell us about your writing process. How do you go about developing your characters and plot?
I consider plot and character to be two sides of the same coin: a character’s decisions and reactions to events are what creates the plot and moves it forward.
That said, for long-form projects like novels and novellas, I always start with plot. My go-to technique is to brainstorm for a while until I can feel the bones of the story, and then I jot down plot points, maybe one or two for each chapter. Nothing too detailed – I don’t want to restrict myself – but just enough to stop me from aimlessly writing in circles.
Next comes fashioning the characters. Primarily, I focus on what kind of personality traits the characters need in order to act the way I want them to in my story. I think about what the characters know and understand about themselves on a conscious level, and what might drive them subconsciously; a kind of exploration into Jung’s id, ego and superego, if you like.
When I’m writing a novel, my creative brain is like a dog with a bone, always chewing on it. Most of my ideas for chapter events, character motivations and dialogue exchanges arise when I’m engaged in mindless activities, such as washing my hair. I’ve often wrapped towels around myself to race for a pen!
Which authors or books have had a significant influence on your writing style or storytelling?
I read across a wide range of genres. Generally speaking, I enjoy short stories, novellas and novels from the early 19th century to the current day, with a special love for mid-twentieth century fiction. Everything I’ve ever read has had an influence on my writing style in one way or another. But the works of three writers stand out to me as especially notable: Ernest Hemingway, Raymond Chandler, and Daphne du Maurier.
Why did you choose to write horror?
Because it’s the most honest of all genres. Horror fiction looks life square in the eye and says, yep, this here is a meat grinder; we all suffer, only to die in the end.
After many years in non-fiction and scriptwriting, I started exploring prose fiction in 2007. At first, my short stories were dark and melancholic. Soon, I ventured further into noir, which is an enduring passion of mine because of its central tenet: everyone carries the seed of his or her own destruction buried within the psyche, just waiting to be set off by an external catalyst.
And then, in 2014, I wrote my first pure horror story, “Perfect Little Stitches”, which was shortlisted for an Australian Shadows Award, reprinted various times, added to a few “best of” anthologies, and included in my award-winning collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories (IFWG, 2017).
Ever since my switch to fiction in 2007, I’d been groping towards horror as a form of expression; it just took me seven years to find it.
What is your favorite subgenre of horror? Or even outside of horror?
I’m a fan of all types of horror, from psychological to splatter, although I dislike gore for gore’s sake. It has to be important to the story. I’m not interested in just being grossed out.
However, I’ve got a special place in my heart for body horror – which, by definition, is anything that reminds you of your own morbidity and mortality. Many of my short stories focus on this subgenre. Two of the anthologies I conceived and edited, Spawn and Spawn 2, are about pregnancy, birth and babies. What could be more “body horror” than giving birth?
The other subgenre I love is creature horror. Perhaps this stems from my enduring fixation with classic films such as KING KONG (both 1933 and 1976), JAWS, PREDATOR, and ALIENS. I’ve published various creature titles through Severed Press, with my latest being the multi-award-nominated novel Cretaceous Canyon, which is about dinosaurs. Australian ones, of course!
What was the hardest part of writing Bodily Harm?
At its heart, I think Bodily Harm is a story about star-crossed lovers. Different time, different place… The challenge was balancing the love story with the violence, so that one didn’t overwhelm or negate the other. To do this, I had to go to some dark places within myself. Dredge up bad memories. Allow myself to be vulnerable on the page. Those kinds of things are difficult for any writer.
What did you enjoy most about writing Bodily Harm?
The dialogue. As an Aussie, it’s always a pleasure to hear your own slang when reading a book or watching a show. Bodily Harm has a few “ocker” characters – “ocker” meaning a boorish or unsophisticated Australian – and I leaned into the idioms with abandon.
I love colloquial dialogue in fiction. For example, a few years back, I was reading a 1930s noir novel in bed, and came across the term “kicked in the slats”. Huh, what? My husband lay next to me scrolling on his phone, so I asked him to look up the term. Turns out it means “kicked in the ribs”. Oh, I was delighted!
As a writer, I have a special fondness for words, but I hope readers of Bodily Harm will appreciate the Aussie vernacular. I tried to ensure that it was all context-dependent, so non-Australians can decipher the meanings without needing Google to translate.
What’s next on the horizon in your writing life? Any new books or stories in the works?
Oh, there’s always lots going on! I’m looking forward to my crime-thriller and psychological-horror novel, Bodily Harm, coming out in October. It will also be my first novel through an American press!
In November, the sequel to my baby, the multi-award nominated and multi-award-winning anthology, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, will be released worldwide by IFWG Publishing. Spawn featured stories by Australian writers, while my latest edited anthology has work by both Australians and New Zealanders. Look for Spawn 2: More Weird Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, and please pick up a copy.
I’ve also signed a contract to write a creature-horror novel, and hope to have the manuscript delivered by the new year. Publication should be around early– to mid–2025, fingers crossed. I’ve pinned down the novel’s premise. Now, I just have to work out the plot points, and figure out my character motivations. And then write it, of course!
What’s the biggest thing that people THINK they know about horror books, that isn’t so?
That it’s only about gore. Oh, not at all! Compared to other genres, horror has an extensive number of subgenres including psychological, gothic, supernatural, paranormal, thriller, crime, body, splatter, creature, folkloric, phantasmagorical, historical, futuristic, sci-fi, occult, just to name a few. There’s literally something for everyone, from tame to hard-core.
My writing buddy used to disdain horror fiction. So, when she first started workshopping my stuff, she thought she enjoyed it solely because the stories were written by me. And I kept telling her, no, it’s not just me, this is what horror fiction can offer the reader! She has since gone on to write her own horror pieces, some of which have been published.
What are the advantages and disadvantages with working with an editor, vs just self-publishing on your own?
I’m an old-school writer, which means I prefer to run the gauntlet of gatekeepers. Ninety-nine percent of my work is traditionally published. (Where’s the challenge in pressing an “upload” button?) Sorry, but I can’t offer an unbiased opinion here.
Where can readers find other work you have published?
By visiting my website, Goodreads, or Amazon Author Page. My primary publishers are Severed Press and IFWG Publishing, so they have details too. All my titles are available online, but you can still buy some of my books from brick-and-mortar bookshops. If not, just ask. That’s one great way to support writers and the publishing industry; visit bookshops and order paperbacks!