Hello, all! Here’s one more interview with another contributor to our collaborative anthology, Allegra Gulino. Remember, The Ceaseless Way: An Anthology of Wanderers’ Tales is still on sale in paperback for a few more days, so if you’re looking for something to read while you’re home for the holidays, this is a great time to check it out! The paperback version is available here, and the ebook version can be found on a number of platforms here. (If you want to learn more about our collaboration group, Wandering Grove Press, you can join our Facebook group here or follow us on Bluesky here.)
If you missed my previous interviews with Fraser Sherman and Ada Milenkovic Brown, you can check them out here and here.
1. Do you think your two stories are a good representation of your usual style and subject matter? Is there anything about them that’s unusual for you?
My stories in Ceaseless Way are a good representation of my usual style and subject matter because they’re excerpts from my novel, Monsters Unbound, which I’ve been working on for about two years. This project has become my world, and its tone is a culmination of a lot of my previous work.
2. What’s one style or plot element you’d like to “steal” from another contributor?
If I were to ‘steal’ from any other contributor here – which I don’t condone doing – I’d probably take Ada Milenkovic Brown’s folkloric elements, Fraser Sherman’s brevity and quick action, Katherine Trayler’s dreamy atmosphere, Rich Matrunick’s sense of peril, Secily Sluker’s metaphysical vision and Arden Brook’s whimsey.
3. Are there any anthologies or collections you’ve really enjoyed reading lately?
I recently subscribed to the classic Fantasy and Science-Fiction magazine. While it’s not officially an anthology, its collection of short stories, one or two poems and a few pages of book reviews do feel like one. So far, I’ve enjoyed diving into a diverse variety of writing styles, genres and themes within its pages (yes, it’s a physical magazine). I always find tales to admire, be intrigued by and sometimes, to figure out – I’m not the best at parsing hard Science-Fiction.
4. What writers have had the greatest influence on you throughout your writing journey?
There are a plethora of author influences for me, starting with YA classics, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe series by C.S. Lewis, and A Wrinkle In Time trilogy by Madeline L’Engle. I cannot remember which came first, those two, or when I picked up J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit, but I was instantly hooked by the wonderful journeys that all three authors illustrate. In High School, I fell in love with Frank Herbert’s Dune series, and Stephen R. Donaldson’s Chronicles of Thomas Covenant. In class I was awed by Flowers for Algernon by Daniel Keyes, A Separate Peace by John Knowles and Jayne Eyre by Charlotte Bronte. In college, my English Literature major steered me toward classical literature. I came to favor the works of Virginia Woolf, William Faulkner, Lawrence Sterne, William Blake, John Donne, Emily Dickinson, James Joyce and D.H. Lawrence. More recently, I’ve come to love Ursula Le Guin, Emile Zola, Salman Rushdie, Margaret Atwood, Thomas Pynchon, and Marcel Proust. Over the years I’ve learned about writing craft (and continue to do so) and also about the attributes that I admire in books, so my reading standards have risen. Though my writing is grouped under the umbrella of Speculative Fiction, I’ve always read widely.
5. What is your editing process like? How long does it take you to bring a story from start to finish?
I edit while I write, instead of throwing the words down quickly and then going back to edit. This is because when I write, my vision for the scene is keen – I feel a sense of urgency about getting it as close to how I picture it as possible before I move on to the next section. Therefore, I’m not a fast writer, so focusing on daily word counts would only frustrate me because they’re usually not very high. I spend lots of time refining and reworking, not just on typing more words, However, once I’m satisfied with a chapter or section of the piece – it’s very polished and I don’t need to revisit it often. Then I can tackle what comes next.
6. Do you have any hobbies that aren’t related to reading or writing?
I love to sing – usually karaoke singing, though I was a community choir member for twelve years. I also love music and to dance – nothing professional. I frequently perform at No Shame Theatre events. Aside from that, I’m a consummate lap swimmer and gym goer. I also love to hike and to travel. When not out and about, I enjoy staying at our home in the woods, by a creek, where I give attention to our three darling rescue cats, a sixty gallon aquarium, house plants and garden.
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7. Are there any songs or pieces of artwork that capture the “vibe” of your stories (or of other stories in the anthology)?
I have a playlist that I’ve used for writing Monsters Unbound. It’s instrumental music from classics like Mozart, Franz Liszt, Beethovan, Chopin and Vivaldi, to more recent composers such as Satie, Leonard Bernstein and Leos Janacek, Igor Stravinsky. I also enjoy global pieces from South America, Africa, India, Romani culture and so on. I love composers like Andreas Vollenweider or the Silk Road Ensemble, that have multicultural instruments, rhythms and tunes. That playlist also includes soundtracks, from Bram Stoker’s Dracula, to Merchant and Ivory films, to Frida, to the Lord of the Rings and the Hannibal series. I love music that takes me on a journey, full of pathos, drama, or tenderness, but usually with at least a hint of darkness.
8. Are there any real-world places that inspired your two stories?
Absolutely, for Monsters Unbound. To inform and inspire my book, we went to Romania for two weeks last summer to collect information, imbibe atmospheres and explore historical sites. It was a fantastic trip and I want to go back! However, while my two stories in Ceaseless Way are set in real places – environments that I researched – they are not specific locations within that backdrop.
9. What would be the ideal place and time to enjoy each of your stories? What snacks and drinks would pair well with your stories?
A fascinating question. For Demon, He Called Me, it would add to the atmosphere if you could read it on a dock, by a river or on a boat, so you can hear the water lapping. As far as what to eat, I have two suggestions. The more luxurious would be a caramel/chocolate confection with sea salt, and a port wine. Or a nitty gritty option – sardines or anchovies and water to drink. For The Ortega Wolves Migrate North, some good Mexican fare, like pozole or chalupas, with sangria, consumed in a desert environment or at least near some cacti in a sunroom.
Thank you, Allegra! Happy holidays, everyone. I hope these interviews have inspired you to check out the book! : )
Cover image by GetCovers; original cover concept by Arden Brooks.
Katherine Traylor 