Heartless: An Interview With Allan Leverone

What was your inspiration for writing HEARTLESS?

I’ve long been fascinated by sacred rituals, especially those pertaining to ancient cultures. If you think humans are cruel to each other in the twenty-first century—and I’m not for a minute suggesting we aren’t—try researching things we did to each other in centuries past. Some of what we’re capable of as a species will keep you awake at night.

And I wanted to take a crack at an undead tale. The problem is that you can’t swing a dead cat right now without hitting another zombie book; they seem to be everywhere, even more prevalent than sparkly vampires, and I didn’t want to simply rehash the same old, tired, “Here come the rotting corpses, what do we do now?” storyline.

So I tried to combine the two into something a little different. HEARTLESS begins with a graphic prologue, which takes place centuries ago, during a Mayan ceremony involving ritual human sacrifice. Fast-forward five hundred years and the rest of the novella occurs in present day, with a sociopathic young man targeting pretty women; a serial rapist-murderer traveling the country indulging his homicidal fantasies.

The connection between the ancient blood sacrifice and the twenty-first-century killer doesn’t become clear until late in the novella, and if I’ve done my job right, when everything falls into place, the reader will be jarred by a reality completely different than what he or she is expecting.

What themes were you exploring?

Themes are in the eye of the beholder, but in my opinion, there are a couple of things going on in HEARTLESS. The standard horror fiction theme is good versus evil, and of course that’s here.

Maybe.

But what starts out as your standard “bad guy kidnaps good girls to do bad things to them” may not necessarily be what it seems. Everyone understands there are degrees of evil, but HEARTLESS addresses the question of whether maybe there are also acceptable degrees of evil.

Another theme that comes up in my work a lot is redemption. Human beings are capable of unimaginable cruelty to each other, but we’re also capable of incredible kindness and empathy. But what if there’s no possibility of redemption, ever; what if through no fault of your own, you’re doomed to walk the earth as nothing more than an empty shell? What if redemption is impossible? What then?

Did you start writing as a kid or did the skill and desire develop over time?

I was probably seven or eight years old when I wrote my first short story. It was about a guy who gets lost in the woods in a blizzard. He isn’t found until spring, and when a hiker stumbles over the body, one tear is frozen onto the guy’s face. I said it was my first story, I didn’t say it was any good, okay?

I’ve always loved to write, and my intention when I went to college was to become a newspaper journalist. Then I began to realize how few journalists actually make a living wage, and decided to go in a different direction, and that was it for writing for about the next thirty years.

I kept reading, though; I’ve always been a voracious reader. Then, about six years ago, the writing bug returned with a frenzy. I started out writing a sports blog, but eventually came to the realization I wanted to write fiction. So I started doing it and haven’t stopped since.

Do you consciously set out to write darker fiction?

That’s a good question. It seems like it should be an easy one to answer, but it really isn’t. I write the kind of stuff I like to read, and my entire life has been spent reading dark fiction and thrillers, so I suppose it only makes sense that’s what I would write.

I don’t have anything against literary fiction—that highbrow cousin of genre fiction where nothing much happens but you’re supposed to think deep thoughts—it just doesn’t interest me. I much prefer to see real people struggle against flesh-and-blood issues, life-and-death problems, and the more of them the better. I’m not sure what that says about me, but there you go.

My wife says I’m an eternal pessimist, that the glass is always half-empty with me, but that’s not entirely true. Sometimes the glass is completely empty.

Who are your major influences and inspirations?

There are a bunch of them. Lawrence Block for his longevity and unbelievably adept use of dialogue.

Tom Piccirilli for the way he splashes his blood all over the pages of everything he writes. The guy wrings emotion out of every word.

Stephen King for, well, just about everything he does. It seems to be fashionable to bash King, but I don’t believe he gets enough credit for almost single-handedly breathing new life into the horror genre at a time when it really needed it.

In no particular order, and for different reasons, Edgar Allan Poe, Mary Shelley, Lee Child, Shirley Jackson, Vincent Zandri, Peter Straub, Dean Koontz.  Man, I could go on and on. You’re sorry you asked now, aren’t you?

Do you follow a strict writing schedule or write when the ideas come to you?

I have to laugh when I read about authors who say they make a point of writing first thing in the morning. I wish I could be that structured. Between working full-time as an air traffic controller, babysitting my five-year-old granddaughter, doing household stuff and trying to make sure my family doesn’t forget what I look like, it’s a challenge to find time to write at all, never mind doing it on a strict schedule. Basically, I always try to write on my breaks at work, and then also whenever I can carve out the time to do it at home.

There’s no such thing as “waiting for inspiration,” though. If you expect to be a professional author, you have to sit at the keyboard and write, whether you feel inspired that day or not. Some days are more productive than others, but books don’t write themselves. A real sense of discipline is required, one that’s not easy to maintain but critical.

What is the scariest book you’ve ever read?

Another great question! It’s a tough one to answer, because different books can be scary for different reasons. And I’d love to say HEARTLESS, but that would be a cop-out and would make me look like a pompous ass to boot.

I find psychological stuff more compelling than blood and gore. For consistent creepiness, I would have to go with THE SHINING. The idea of a family trapped with no escape and at the mercy of a guy descending steadily into madness just gives me the shivers. The ending of PET SEMATARY sends chills down my spine every time I think about it. William Peter Blatty’s THE EXORCIST is chilling. THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE is a classic.

If "writer" wasn't a career option, what would your ideal career be?

Well, you’ve eliminated the only one I’d really like to do, so I guess I’ll go with the career I’ve been doing for thirty years—air traffic control. People feel it’s stressful, and it certainly has its moments, but when I leave work I can feel I really made a difference.

Plus, I can write on my breaks when I’m not talking to airplanes, and when I go home, I leave the job behind. No phoning clients, no business trips, no calls in the middle of the night. It’s a pretty cool job and the only thing I really know how to do besides writing.

Any tips for up-and-coming or unpublished writers?

Unless you’re totally committed to it, don’t try to be a writer. The hours suck, rejection is virtually a constant companion, self-doubt threatens to overwhelm you ever single day, and in most cases, you end up working for pennies an hour. That’s if you get paid at all. Just forget about it.

There. Now that we’ve gotten rid of the wannabe’s, let’s talk turkey, because I know you really want to write. Here’s my tip: Write constantly, and read when you’re not writing. It’s like anything else: The only way to improve is by practicing.

Oh, yeah, and develop a thick skin while you’re at it, because no matter how many glowing reviews you get for your work, the one that’s going to bother you is the one that says you’re a talentless, no-good hack whose time would be better spent drooling in the corner. Or maybe that’s just me.

Allan Leverone is a three-time Derringer Award Finalist for excellence in short mystery fiction as well as a 2011 Pushcart Prize nominee. His dark short fiction has appeared in Shroud Magazine, Dark Valentine, Twisted Dreams, House of Horror and Morpheus Tales Magazine, as well as many others, and his debut novel, a thriller titled Final Vector, was released by Medallion Press in February, 2011.

A member of the International Thriller Writers, the Short Mystery Fiction Society and the New England Horror Writers, Allan lives in Londonderry, New Hampshire with his wife, three children, one beautiful granddaughter and a cat who has used up eight lives. Learn more at www.allanleverone.com.

***Posted by Dave Thomas