Feature Interview: Alex Laybourne, Author

Alex Laybourne, author

Alex Laybourne is a horror writer who owes his chosen genre to the English town of Lowestoft out of Suffolk where a sparsely populated area and an eerie costal setting breeds nightmarish inspiration. He is the author of three novel series: HIGHWAY TO HELL, DIARIES OF THE DAMNED, and POUND LANE.

 





KARMA GIRL: Thank you for agreeing to interview with me today, Alex. I'm glad to have you. Before we begin, I'm going to give you a short and sweet UNUSUAL DISCLAIMER: Abandon all hope ye who answer questions here! Are you ready?

ALEX LAYBOURNE: I am ready, prepared and fully equipped for the dangers that lie ahead.

KG: You brave fool!

Tell us a little about yourself. Where did you grow up, and what made you decide the writer's life was for you?

ALEX: I grew up on the east coast of England in a small town that I am glad to have grown up and left. I have spent the last seven years living in the Netherlands in a lovely coastal town with my wife and our four children.

KG: How did you get into horror?

ALEX: I have always written stories, I can remember being a kid and hand writing stories that were pages and pages long. I was fifteen when I first decided I wanted to be a writer, and that never left, although life did intervene and stop me writing for several years.

KG: Are you haunted by some terrible Krystal Lake experience? Survived a serial killer, perhaps?

ALEX: Well, to be honest, the hospital where I was born is a mental health home. It wasn't when I was born, I should stress that, LOL.

I remember reading Stephen King when I was a kid. I read IT when I was about nine or so, and it enthralled me. I loved it. I guess that kind of stuck. Although I never really thought of myself as a horror writer. I just wrote fiction that was dark.

It was only in the last five years or so that I really settled into the genre.

KG: Authors Mary Shelly and Robert Louis Stevenson were both inspired to write some of their greatest works by nightmares. Have you ever been inspired by a nightmare, and what did you eat the night before so that I might attempt to duplicate the results?

Highway to Hell

ALEX: I can't say that I have ever been inspired by a nightmare. I don't actually have them very often. Most of my ideas come to me when I least expect them. Today was an example. I was delayed on a plane flying to England for a business trip and out of nowhere the ideas for my third Highway to Hell novel just started coming to me, everything fitting together nicely.

It was great.

KG: So waiting rooms and airplanes are like hell...yeah, I can totally get behind that.

And speaking of hell, you seem to write a lot about the place. Have you ever been, and are the accommodations as nice as the brochure has led me to believe?

ALEX: The rooms are comfortable, but the turn down service is sloppy. I found several entrails in my bed, and I'm sure it wasn't a chocolate on my pillow.

KG: Didn't leave you feeling minty fresh, did it?

ALEX: No, it left me feeling kind of dirty and ashamed. Of course that could have been because of the souls I had ordered for room service. The spice they used to fry them in didn't agree with me.

KG: Yes, and they do tend to stick to the teeth, don't they?

You said you recently got an idea while being stuck on a plane. What are you currently working on now, and will it involve demonic flight attendants?

ALEX: I am currently working on several projects, including: A short story collection tentatively titled Within Asylum Walls, writing a vampire novel, and also the third novel in my Highway to Hell trilogy.

KG: You sound like a busy guy, which brings me to my next question: Have you ever had writer's block, and if so, how did you cure it (if not through a deal with the devil)?

ALEX: I can honestly say that I have never had writer's block. I don't believe in it. If one story isn't flowing for me, or if I just can't make it work, I shelve it and work on something else until I am prepared for it. I like to keep myself busy, and having multiple projects is the best way to do it.

KG: So...definitely a deal with the devil.

Diaries of the Damned

Can you tell my readers a little about your Diaries of the Damned series?

ALEX: The Diaries of the Damned is my first foray into the Zombie genre and is comprised of nine individual short tales that tell the story of different survivors, yet when put together form a different story that unravels now just what has happened but why, how and who, was responsible.

KG: So each book reveals a little piece of the puzzle?

ALEX: Yes, every installment has a small reveal. It is not until the final chapter that the shocking truth is revealed.

KG: Sounds intriguing. I'll certainly be putting them on my TBR (To Be Read) list.

Now it's time for THE SERIOUS THREE. This is the part of the interview where I ask you three very important, incredibly sober questions. You must answer them as honestly and as cleverly as possible. Are you ready?

ALEX: Fire away *Raises Weapon of choice*

KG: *Hides behind barricade while sneaking surreptitious glances*

Question #1: What does the devil really look like? Hooves, horns, and a pitchfork, or is he just some guy with bat wings sporting a pimp hat?

ALEX: The devil looks like us. We are the devil, We create him, we keep him alive. We fear him because we fear ourselves, what we could, wish to do. I have written about the Devil in many different stories, and never once have I described him in the same way, because he is different to all of us.

KG: Well, if he looks anything like me, pimp hat it is.

Question #2: If you ever met Old Scratch and he wanted to make a deal for your immortal soul, what would you ask in return? I will still respect you if you say, "An eternal cure for writer's block." If you ask to enlarge certain body parts, however, you lose points.

ALEX: Fine, I won't enlarge anything... it's always disappointing when the swelling goes down anyway.

I don't know what I would ask for. I believe in working hard to get where you need to be and don't think any deal would benefit me in the long run.

Besides, I think I gave my soul away a long time ago.

KG: It's cool. I rent mine out for bargain basement prices.

Finally, Question #3: Where can my readers follow/stalk/steal pieces of your wardrobe and/or hair (Facebook, twitter, blog, home address, etc.)?

ALEX: I tend to blow my nose quite regularly on twitter, and flap my gums on Facebook. Anybody looking for DNA to clone the awesomeness that is me can go there. I have also been known to rant, swear and general cause a ruckus. I do everything under my own name, so there is no way I can hide.

My blog is www.alexlaybourne.com and I can be found on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Alex-Laybourne/212049612180183

KG: Well I'll definitely be looking out for those discarded pieces of tissue for cloning purposes.

Thank you for taking the time to answer these questions. Here's for hoping there's air-conditioning in hell.

ALEX: There is. The units are made out of the rib cages of the damned.

Good to know, Alex. Good to know.