Meat
MEAT is the story of Richard Shanti, who works in an abattoir. His stuns the animals before they’re slaughtered but he’s beginning to have serious doubts about his career choice. The novel is set in Abyrne, a post-apocalyptic English town controlled by corporate and religious forces.
It isn’t long before Shanti – secretly vegetarian – clashes with the authorities, forcing him to risk everything he’s ever loved in his search for the truth about Abyrne’s livestock. The novel was inspired by my research into the realities of factory farming and slaughter. I haven’t eaten meat since.
You won the British Fantasy Newcomer award, so how did that make you feel?
Like I was in heaven!
I hadn’t been nominated and didn’t know the award existed. I was out for a curry with some friends who’d been tipped off, though, and they steered me back to the award ceremony just in time. When it was announced, I almost fainted. I hadn’t prepared anything to say, so I blathered some nonsense, collected my lovely demon-shaped statuette and went to the bar to celebrate.
It was one of the best moments of my life.
Why is Meat the perfect Halloween read?
If you like your fiction riveting, grim and terrifying, MEAT is the ideal book to get cosy with over Halloween. But if you’re easily upset or suffer from nightmares do NOT even pick it up. Don’t say I didn’t warn you!
You have had praise from Stephen King, so what was your reaction when you heard his comments?
I was on a walking holiday with my wife, who was pregnant with our daughter, when the text came in from my publisher. It read: ‘guess what Stephen King says about you…’ my knees went floppy! Fortunately there was a bench nearby so I could have a sit down. I couldn’t have had a better bit of news at such a nerve-wracking time.
Are you a fan of his work and who else do you like to read in the genre?
I love Stephen King’s work, in particular his early novellas and collections of short fiction. His memoir On Writing is one of my favourite books of all time – I’ve read it three times and will revisit it soon.
I can highly recommend Sarah Pinborough, Adam Nevill, Poppy Z Brite, Alison Littlewood and Conrad Williams.
What is your writing process?
Haphazard is probably the best word to describe it!
When I’m working on a novel, I write to a set word target six or seven days a week until the first draft is complete. I then leave the manuscript alone for a month before editing it several times and sending it to my agent.
Between novels, I go ‘off the boil’ and sometimes remain in an uncreative slump for weeks or months at a time. Still, somehow the books keep coming…
What is the appeal of the horror genre for you?
The world is a scary place. None of us completely understands it – or ourselves – and we all know that bad people exist and awful things can happen. A tiny part of us is constantly afraid of something, whether it be the repetition of a horrible experience or just a phobia. Horror helps us to face fear and darkness either by exploring it or, quite often, by laughing about it.
As a writer, I love horror because it gives me the freedom to investigate what people do when the world becomes a dark and terrifying place. As a reader and viewer, horror is still the biggest thrill there is; scary but safe – like a rollercoaster.
(Of course, not all rollercoasters have the same high standards of maintenance…)
Please can you tell us a bit about your previous publications.
Blood Fugue (SALT, 2012) follows reclusive outdoorsman Jimmy Kerrigan, who protects an isolated mountain town from vampires. There’s a virus in the ground around Hobson’s Valley, much like tetanus, only this virus causes the infected to feed on human body fluids. We join Kerrigan just when the town is about to be overrun…
Splinters (Timeline Books, 2012) is a collection of my best short stories from 2001-2011.
The Black Dawn series (Angry Robot Books, 2013/2014) is an apocalyptic Fantasy. In it, Gordon Black and Megan Maurice – two teenagers from two separate eras – journey in search of The Crowman, a figure of modern myth who is either the saviour of our planet or the final incarnation of evil.
What is next for you?
Right now I’m rewriting the second book in the Black Dawn series – The Book of the Crowman. It comes out in March, 2014. I’m also going to do a little TV work, hosting the horror slot on a new program called The Book Show.
Meat by Joseph D'Lacey is published by Oak Tree Press (an imprint of Andrews UK)