29/08/13 Interview:

Jason L. McPherson

Name or Pen Name: Jason L. McPherson

Email: contact me at jasonmcp@hotmail.com

Biography:

I am Jason L McPherson. I write dark, gritty horror stories.

I live in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Carolina’s with my

wife and four children. I’m pretty much a reclusive hillbilly.

I enjoy the great outdoors, poking dead things with a stick,

roaming the mountainsides, fly fishing and whatnot.

Yeah, that’s me.

•When did you first realise you wanted to be an author?

At an early age, but I did not pursue it until much later in life.

I wish I had, I wasted much of my youth acting a fool and regret

it every day.

•Do you have any interesting quirks that only occur when writing?

Long writing sessions take their toll on me. I am so intensely

focused that I wear myself out, physically and mentally. It often

reminds me of a quote by the great George R.R, Martin,

“Some writers say they love to write. Not me, I love having

written.” I know exactly what he was getting at.

•Where do you get your ideas for your books?

A lot of my ideas come to me while out in nature, camping, hunting,

or fly fishing in the Blue Ridge Mountains of the Carolina’s where

I live. I need seclusion to think, solitude. I usually have a vague

idea as to what I want to write before I get started on a project,

but I don’t really know until I get the first draft done.

•Out of all of the books you have written, do you have a favourite? If so, why?

I have written two books now, but The Gorge is still my favourite,

and probably always will be. No matter how many books I write,

The Gorge was my first real attempt at a novel and I poured

everything I had into that book. Everything.

•What do you think makes a good story?

Conflict, suspense, great characters and in some cases the

atmosphere the story is set in can make for a great story if

done right. But most of all, without conflict you have no story.

•Who are your favourite authors?

Louis L’Amour, Robert McCammon, Jack London, Dean Koontz,

Stephen King, Ralph Cotton, Clive Barker, Cormac McCarthy and

James Dickey, to name a few. I read a wide variety of genres and

a good bit of non-fiction. I read every day.

•If you could pick one actor to play a character in your book, who would it be?

It would take someone pretty epic to pull off a Mason Clardy, but I

would love to see what Hollywood would come up with!

•If you had one piece of advice for an aspiring author, what would it be?

Read every day and write as often as possible. Remember that

rejections are a part of the game and never give up. Ever.

•Please can you tell us about your latest book and what it is about?

I have a novella coming this year from Spore Press that I’m very

excited about. A story of the undead that takes place literally in my

backyard, a place called Glassy Mountain, titled, The Dead Walk

Uphill. It is a gritty, gory, hard hittingzombie story. I wanted to take

an angle I have not really seen done within the genre. The story

takes place on a burning mountain, infested with the walking,

howling corpses of the undead.

•Is there anything else you would like to share with your readers?

I am currently working on another novel that I’m completely

obsessed with. This supernatural horror story is driven from the

watery graves beneath the deep, cold water of Lake Jocassee, a

man made impoundment here in Upstate of South Carolina. I’ve

spent many an hour studying and researching the community and

graves that were flooded when the power company dammed the

river and flooded the Jocassee Valley back in the early 60s.

Those marble headstones mired in the silt bottom of that lake have

always fascinated me. What I’ve created from that research and my

imagination, is a nightmare of a story. A story I look forward to

sharing with all of you.

Jason L. McPherson