December 2023: Interview with Luciano Marano
Interviewer: Aigner Loren Wilson (she/her) is a 2023 double Ignyte Finalist for best novelette and best critic. She is a senior fiction editor for Strange Horizons, and her writing has appeared in F&SF, Lightspeed Magazine, Monstrous Futures, and more. You can follow her on her website, newsletter, or on Facebook.
Horror Author: Luciano Marano is an award-winning author, photographer, and journalist. His short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies, including Year’s Best Hardcore Horror, The Best New Weird Horror, Monsters, Movies & Mayhem (winner: Colorado Book Award), and Crash Code (nominee: Splatterpunk Award), among others, as well as Nightscript, Pseudopod, and Horror Hill. His reporting, written and photographic, has earned a number of industry awards, and he was twice named a Feature Writer of the Year by the Washington Newspaper Publishers Association. A U.S. Navy veteran originally from rural western Pennsylvania, he now resides near Seattle (www.luciano-marano.com / Instagram: @ghosttowngossip)
This interview is a part of the HWA Seattle Member Blog Interview Series. If you’d like to check out the other interviews, check here. HWA Seattle members who would like to be interviewed for the blog, reach out to Aigner here.
Aigner Loren Wilson: You’ve published pretty widely in the horror genre. What’s been your best publishing experience or story?
Luciano Marano: I’m not sure I would call myself widely published—but thank you! I’ve unleashed upon the world about 25 stories and 3 novellas since 2017, when I scored my first sale, and it’s true that my work has appeared in many different venues and formats—print, digital, audio, etc. But, and this is not meant to sound too “Pollyanna” about things because I am most certainly not that type of guy, I have nothing but good stories to share regarding my experiences with publishers.
I have waded (and continue to wade) through more than my share of rejections, some of them meaner than necessary, and more than once I’ve had to prompt the payment of royalties I was owed, but that’s honestly it … so far. Fingers crossed, knock on wood, etcetera, etcetera. I personally would not work with somebody I did not trust anyway, and this thing I’ve only recently become comfortable calling my “writing career” has been helped along immeasurably by many terrific editors, the encouragement and support of other writers, and compassionate professional publishers.
ALW: You’re also a journalist and photographer. What role does documentation play in your fiction writing?
LM: From a very young age I felt compelled to tell stories, perhaps as a way of making sense of the world to myself, and I think that drive comes through in all of my work. Narrative is a huge element of my photography, and years of working as a journalist taught me there are many ways and perspectives through which to tell any given story. Good journalism most often revolves around specific people as avatars or examples of larger issues, which is something I try to do in my fiction as well: focus on people who are interesting and/or relatable, sympathetic, charismatic, whatever.
Without that, where are the stakes? Atmosphere and style are important, obviously, but all the works of horror fiction—hell, all the works of fiction, period—which have affected me had great characters at their heart. Also, having conducted and transcribed I-don’t-know-how-many hours of interviews, I like to think my fictional dialogue is one of the stronger aspects of my writing. Certainly, it’s been something readers have been kind enough to praise repeatedly.
ALW: You have a werewolf series, The Ambush Moon Cycle. Can you give readers a peek into that world and character?
LM: The Ambush Moon Cycle is a trilogy of novellas—Hidebound, Dark Cutter, and The Cemetery Special—centered on the trials and adventures of Rayne Ellison, a troubled young woman who suffers from lycanthropy, which in my story has nothing to do with the moon but is an inherited genetic condition that can be either managed (to a degree) or made worse by various environmental and psychological factors.
The first book finds her at an especially low point, having suffered a relapse during which she unwittingly murdered her best friend. Raye flees town, intent on finding a rumored commune of werewolves who supposedly have learned to control their condition. I like to say it’s a story of equal parts horror and heart … and guts … and claws ... and teeth. Mature audiences only, please.
Influences and inspirations include my experiences with depression and substance abuse (both lived and observed); Christopher Pike’s The Last Vampire series; the 1978 TV adaptation of The Incredible Hulk, starring Bill Bixby and Lou Ferrigno; Stephen King’s Cycle of the Werewolf; and Bad Moon (1996)—which, though I cannot recommend as a “good” movie, I’ve always enjoyed. There’s something genuinely tortured about Michael Paré’s performance and Mariel Hemingway holds her own. If you like any of that, I think The Ambush Moon Cycle will not disappoint.
ALW: Horror is a genre that evolves with societal fears and changes. Are there any contemporary issues or anxieties that you find particularly compelling to explore through your horror fiction?
LM: I don’t believe I’ve produced a body of work significant enough to merit that kind of analysis yet; I just write stories I want to read. I also believe any sane person willing to take honest and realistic stock of the world is obligated to admit things are bleak and getting incrementally worse all the time, but that’s probably always been the case in some way or other. Entropy is inevitable and death is coming for you, but it’s nothing personal. We each take different paths through the nightmarish hellscape commonly called reality, but we all end at the same place. The best you can hope for is a less arduous road to the grave and maybe a few good times along the way with people you care about.
And that’s what I love most about fiction: it lets you know that you’re not alone. Somebody else saw the world like you do. Somebody else felt the way you do, cared about and feared the same things. Eventually, everyone dies and the sun explodes and nothing matters. But before that happens, while it’s not yet too dark, why not walk together for a while, keep each other company, enjoy the scenery, raise a glass or two (or three or four), and maybe swap a few stories?
That’s probably why I love horror so much—it’s everything good about fiction distilled and concentrated. Horror is to literature as blues is to music: the highs are soaring, the lows are abysmal, and the few happy endings you’ll find are damn well earned and all the more precious because we know they’re temporary. Horror never lies to you. Horror doesn’t sugarcoat the odds.
Nevertheless, horror is the antithesis of death and entropy because only the living are afraid. So, I say go on and live a little, read a horror story. While you still can…
ALW: If a reader was unfamiliar with your work, what’s the story you’d suggest they start with?
LM: The first installment of The Ambush Moon Cycle, Hidebound, can be read as a standalone werewolf novella and is a fairly quick read, so that’s probably a safe bet. But if you prefer short stories, several of mine have been excellently adapted by the fine folks at PseudoPod and can be read and/or listened to free of charge. I think I’d recommend starting with either ’Till the Road Runs Out (read by Dave Robison and selected by Signal Horizon as one of the best PseudoPod episodes of the year) or Flickering Dusk of the Video God (read by Robert Eccles). A full list of my published works, with links, can be found on my website.
ALW: Do you have any upcoming releases or projects you’re working on that you’d like to talk about?
LM: Not to be coy, but I’ve got a few things in the works that, unfortunately, I cannot talk about just yet. I’m also shopping around a collection of stories, which I hope will see publication sometime in 2024. Depending on when this interview is released, people may be interested to know I am one of several authors slated to read short spooky stories at a Halloween fundraiser for Bainbridge Artisan Resource Network, an arts education nonprofit, on at 7 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 28. Admission and registration info can be found here. I’ll post updates on my blog and, though I tend to eschew social media, I did recently break down at last, bow to convention, and can now be found on Instagram as @ghosttowngossip.
ALW: What are you reading, watching, or playing right now?
LM: I’m not much of a gamer, but reading-wise there’s a LOT of great horror fiction coming out all the time these days, from both the Big Five and a slew of awesome indie operations, and I have recently been enjoying releases from Tenebrous Press, Apocalypse Party, Cursed Morsels Press, Bad Hand Books, Clash Books, Tin House, and Dread Stone Press, among others. At the moment, however, I’m on something of a nonfiction kick and have become slightly obsessed with the writings of Charles Bowden (start with either Blood Orchid: An Unnatural History of America or Murder City: Ciudad Juarez and the Global Economy’s New Killing Fields). Next on the TBR pile: Keith Rosson’s Fever House).
Regarding what I’ve been watching: although I came to it late, I was very impressed with the first season of Yellowjackets and look forward to checking out Season 2. I am also excited for the fourth season of True Detective and have been going back to previous seasons to get in the mood. I thought Guillermo del Toro’s Cabinet of Curiosities was a mixed bag, but the good episodes were great and I’m hoping for a second season.
Right now (it’s the final days of September as I write this) I’ve begun revisiting some old faves to celebrate the start of the spooky season, including The Crow, Lady In White, The Halloween Tree, Something Wicked This Way Comes, Haunters: The Art Of The Scare, The American Scream, Hocus Pocus, Trick or Treat (I mean the 1986 flick directed by Charles Martin Smith) and, of course, Creepshow (never forget the opening shots of little Billy Hopkins’ house and that jack-o’-lantern in the window—it definitely qualifies as a Halloween movie, people!).
To stay up to date on Luciano Marano, you can follow or find them here:
· Website
Thanks for reading. I hope you’ve found a new author or a deeper love for an author you already know.