Today on MASTERS OF HORROR we get to meet another incredible Canadian writer, Marcus Hawke! Usually when I search an author on Amazon they have a scant few lines about themselves, but I definitely hit the motherlode with Marcus, and after reading his bio I feel like I’ve known him for years! The man is a veteran writer with an indomitable spirit who’s perseverance teaches all of us that if you love what you’re doing and you believe in yourself you can achieve great things. Read his Amazon bio below and then keep reading because the man has things to say!
Marcus Hawke is a writer primarily of horror and dark fiction, some fantasy and sci-fi, and a few things that defy categorization. He was born in Toronto, moved around quite a bit during the dreaded formative years, and finally settled in Calgary where he studied at the Alberta College of Art and Design.
Many moons before that, he had aspirations of becoming a filmmaker and......well......a long story short, that didn't happen. But one thing that wasn't curtailed in that time was his love for stories and the written word. Starting with the likes of R.L. Stein in childhood, it grew into a full-fledged possession thanks to the works of Stephen King, J.R.R. Tolkien, Anne Rice, and Ray Bradbury.
After years worth of rejections, he finally had a short story called Bump in the Night published in Jitter magazine in 2016. Since then his work has appeared in a number of publications from Dark Pine Publishing, Jitter Press, Lunatics magazine, Strange Elf Press, his first full-length novel, The Miracle Sin, his first collection, Acts of Violence: Twelve Tales of Terror which won the 2023 Godless Awards bronze medal for best collection or anthology, and most recently his first novella, Grey Noise. He also edited the October Blood Halloween anthology under his imprint, Hawke Haus Books. He lives with his feline overlord in an apartment building haunted by the type of neighbors that make a person wish a ghost would come to visit in the cold, often gloomy great white North.
In his spare time he reads, draws, paints, plays Dungeons & Dragons, and rambles in third person while writing website bios.
Tell me a little about yourself.
It's been said that if other children are delivered by a stork, I must have been dropped down the chimney by a vulture. I grew up in a number of different places, mainly Toronto, Winnipeg, the literal one-horse-town of Guelph, and now Calgary. Yes, I still work a day job — freelance grave digger. Basically I follow the obituaries and offer to dig the final resting place for deceased loved ones like good ol' Yorick. It pays just slightly better than being an indie author.
Why write horror? What excites you about the genre?
I wouldn't say that it excites me. If anything, just the opposite. It soothes me. Gives me relief. Mainly I think the fascination with horror, both for readers and writers, it's because there's a lot of it around us, at large, in the world which is usually far worse than any we can imagine and put on paper or film. So I think it's a way to examine it. Provide ourselves with some form of an inoculant by giving ourselves digestible pieces that we might better understand it. As well as a catharsis in which we might use to channel our own traumas and demons for something purposeful.
What’s the scariest book you have ever read?
I don't think I have read a scary book. And I don't think that most horror is "scary." Think about it. What was the last book you read that was actually “scary” (whatever that’s supposed to mean now anyway)? What we call scary is really a number of other elements combined. Disturbing, creepy, unnerving, intense, shocking, disgusting even but scary? Even if I think back to the best Stephen King books I’ve read, none of them scared me. Tense, engaging, disturbing, but not scary. You know what the last thing to scare me was? Don’t Look Up. A doomsday “comedy” staring Leonardo DiCaprio and Jennifer Lawrence that I didn’t find a single thing funny about because it held up a mirror to the world today so perfectly that it made me, and I’d wager anyone who thought the same, really fear that this could very well be our fate.
What are you working on right now?
Right now the main thing I'm working on is a follow up to my debut novel The Miracle Sin called The Trouble With Faith and Other Stories. It will be quite a bit different in format in that it won't be a formal novel exactly, but a series of connected stories following the events of the first book. And I suppose I'd say, "It's Buffy the Vampire meets Constantine with a dash of the X-Files, and I have too much self respect to sleep with you just for a movie deal...well...actually I don't, but the answer is still no."
Describe the greatest success you’ve experienced so far in your writing career.
For this I'll have to tell a little bit of a story.
I had been submitting short stories trying to get them published for years and had grown quite frustrated and defeated with the whole thing, when I remembered some words of encouragement that I had received two years earlier while expressing these frustrations online with my apparent lack of progress.
"Keep the faith. It's not a foot race, and if she can make it, so can you."
The commenter: Anne Rice. Yes, THE Anne Rice. One of my all time favorite authors. She posted an article about a girl who had been granted a publishing deal from writing One Direction fan fiction (yes, really) and responded to me. So I started looking through every mag and zine that was accepting submissions at the time and happened upon one called Jitter. I'd never heard of it before but they were allowing authors to submit up to three stories for their upcoming October issue. I submitted three stories. The first was rejected. The second, called "Bump in the Night" was accepted. The third was….wait...WHAT?
"Hello Marcus Hawke. Congratulations on being published in Jitter (Issue #5). In this letter you will receive information regarding... "
Finally, after years, years of trying time after time, it had happened. It didn't even matter that the other two had been rejected because all it took was one. And it's true what they say: you always remember your first. And that's always my message to aspiring writers. Just keep going. Keep working, keep improving, keep submitting, and keep the faith.
Not in fate or destiny or whatever god you happen to believe in (if you do), but in yourself.
As always on MASTERS OF HORROR I want to thank Marcus for taking time out of his busy schedule to answer my questions and let us get to know him a little bit more. Like everyone else my TBR stack is taller than me, but this is one talented author you should move to the top of the pile.
Check out some of the reviews from Marcus’ book GREY NOISE…
“This novella resonated with me in so many ways, it’s melancholic in tone with an important message that is horror in itself. But there is a part that made me smile from ear to ear because the imagery of a certain transformation was absolutely mind-blowing!”
“Y'all...I SCREAMED when I came home to this in the mailbox. Legit dropped everything and this book did not leave my hands until I finished it.
Officially my favorite read of 2023 so far(guarantee it'll be in my top 5 of the year).
Marcus just has this hauntingly beautiful writing style and I can't get enough.
Who knew nostalgia and nihilism worked so well together?
Highly recommend this to anyone looking for a quick, disturbing story. This one will be stuck in my head for a long time. Also, the pics are such a fun touch...that first 'ad' is perfect and I wanna blow it up and put it on my wall”
“This story is deranged and terrifying, yet Marcus wrote it so poetically. I finished it and literally thought to myself: "That was beautiful." I don't know what that says about me, but this piece will sit in my soul for the rest of my life and I'm more than okay with that.”
I mean…damn, enough said, am I right? I don’t know how you live your life but my next read is GREY NOISE by Marcus Hawke.
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