Wicked Horror took a minute to catch up with horror author and poet Anthony Crowley. He has all sorts of irons in the fire at the moment, including contributions to horror anthologies, a tribute to the work of David Bowie, and so much more. We probed him about some of his influences as a writer and also got his take on how being a horror writer will inform his perspective on the David Bowie tribute to which he is lending his talent.
Wicked Horror: What are some of your greatest influences as a writer?
Anthony Crowley: Many of my influences have always been either literary or music and film related. They range from Edgar Allan Poe, H.P.Lovecraft, Jack Ketchum, Liberace, Lady Gaga to Ray Charles, Elton John, Sir Christopher Lee, James Purefoy, or Oliver Reed. The list is endless. Every day life and powerful people also influence me. It was an incredible honor last year to interview Jack Ketchum for Fear Magazine Issue 35. You should check it out!
Wicked Horror: I will seek it out. How has horror cinema played a part in the stories you create?
Anthony Crowley: The classic Hammer Horror and Universal Monster flicks have played an important part throughout the years in my life. A few of my stories and verses have been partly inspired by those masterpieces. It feels refreshing and exciting to write an inspired piece. I tend to either write my own extension from that specific scene or a complete different direction of a character. A couple of my inspired works are Constructing Death a dark verse which was themed around The Curse of Frankenstein. The verse itself appears in Massacre Magazine Issue 2 and now it’s featured in my short collection The Black Diaries-vol.1. Another example of this was when I wrote “Ghosts of Helders Lodge” which will be featured in my forthcoming story collection Doomsday After Midnight. The story was initially inspired by the legendary Vincent Price and The House on Haunted Hill.
Wicked Horror: You are involved with a literary tribute to David Bowie. Will your contribution to that be informed by your tenure as a horror writer or can we expect something completely different from what you have done in the past?
Anthony Crowley: When you create either a story or a poem it is a healthy direction to further oneself into writing in other genres or sub-genres. I have contributed to two forthcoming anthologies in memoriam of David Bowie and an Art Decades magazine special. The poetic verses I’ve contributed to 47-16-a memoriam to David Bowie are “Cosmetically Cosmic” and “Space Age Chameleon”. I wanted to focus on the Sci-Fi genre for these works because if I had chosen to write within the horror genre it would have been unfitting and a waste of time, because many of David Bowie fans and the world will know about his life and influences. I wanted to create something in the same genre that David Bowie has worked in over the years. My story “The Roads of Mars” will be featured in The Sun Machine – A literary tribute to David Bowie. “The Roads of Mars” will be an uplifting tribute that will take the reader on a cosmic journey from earth to Mars. I can’t discuss the story but the feedback I received from Salem Kapsaski (editor of The Sun Machine) was heartfelt and honorable. All proceeds from those anthologies will be donated to Cancer Research UK.
The cover artwork for The Sun Machine is created by Rahel Kapsaski. She’s an amazing talented artist and actress. I feel very honoured to have enlisted her incredible talent for two of my future releases, my Roman/dark fantasy series, titled Sorcero and my novel The Shadow Experiement. She will also be starring in a new dark fantasy/Medieval movie, titled Clan of the Raven. Filming begins this year.
