Why did Gary Hendrix write about a haunted furniture store? Has he experienced anything like what happened in his book? How much research did he have to do? If he could choose any person, dead or alive, to spend an hour with, whom would it be?
What was your inspiration for this book? Did you by chance spend the night in a furniture store that was supposed to be haunted and experience any of the horrifying things your characters did?
I love haunted houses with a deep passion, and my editor had read a manuscript I was shopping around called McMansions of the Damned that he didn’t want to buy, but he liked my writing. So we were talking and the idea of a haunted Ikea came up. The rest was just contracts and typing.
Orsk is the second largest city in Orenburg Oblast, Russia. Did you name the store after this city? If so, why? If not, how did you go about choosing the name for the store?
The original name was Minsk, but then I realized that it sounded like a store that sold minks. I had set a previous story I wrote called Yeti vs. Bear partially in the city of Orsk and thought at the time it sounded like a piece of furniture.
Which one of the characters that stayed overnight in the store was your favorite? Why?
I’m Team Matt & Trinity. In haunted house books, everyone spends all their time running away from the ghosts, or they run towards it because they think it’s Tommy. “Tommy? Is that you? Quit kidding around, Tommy! Ah, aahhhh!” Ghost Bomb are running towards the ghosts because they want to touch them, they want to film them, they want to ask them questions. Why not? Lean in!
Was there any special process you went through to choose your characters’ names? Did any of them have any special significance?
Most times character names just pop into my head. Later I find out they’re an actual person I knew in high school, so I have to change them, at which point I’m just desperately pulling names out of a hat.
Many horrible things happened to your characters during their night in the store. Was there a point where they took control of the story and told you just what was going to happen?
No. That would be very scary.
There were humorous scenes in the book, and there were plenty of scary ones too. Which scene was your favorite? Which scene was the most difficult for you to write?
I think I wrote about 25 different versions of Ruth Anne’s final scene. It was too horrible, and it took me forever to tone it down so that people did not throw anything at me after reading it.
The title of the book is awesome. How did you go about choosing it? Were there many other possible titles you had picked out?
My editor came up with it, actually. He’s a trained professional, and I prefer to leave that kind of dangerous work to individuals with a license and the proper safety equipment.
How much research did you have to do for this book?
Research is my favorite part. I love finding out how stuff works. There’s a ton of Ikea literature out there in the field of Ikea Studies. I did a lot of interviews with Ikea employees, past and present, and I actually spend a few days in an Ikea down in Florida, just roaming around, asking for help, eating meatballs.
Did you know how you were going to end the book when you first started writing it? How long did it take to write this book?
I have to know the ending to a book before I start. It’s never the ending I wind up with, but I have to have a direction of travel, or I’ll just start feeling deep despair all the time and asking silly questions like, “When does it all end???” It took me about five months to write Horrorstor and another three months for my editor to agree with me.
Are you are writing a sequel? When will it be done?
The only way I’ll write a sequel is if it’s called Petstör, and I think that would be far too disturbing to be read.
Do you have a set time to write each day? Or do you wait to be inspired?
I’m not sure I’ve ever been inspired, so I’ll have to go with A) “Do You Set Aside a Time to Write Every Day.” Final answer.
There weren’t any boring parts in Horrorstor, but did you ever become bored with parts of the book while you were writing it? If you did, how did you handle it?
Thank you! I actually don’t think there are any boring parts either. I’m glad we agree!
Is horror your favorite genre in which to write?
It turns out that if you want to write about ghost leprechauns, Krampus, haunted McMansions, or high school exorcisms, people need to classify it as horror to feel comfortable.
What kind of books do you like to read?
I hate to sound boring but I read everything. Right now, I’m reading an out-of-print paperback original from 1961 called Nightmare, the 1989 nonfiction Barbarians at the Gate about RJR Nabisco, working my way through a re-read of Tom Wolfe’s Bonfire of the Vanities and Judy Blume’s Summer Sisters. I’m loving them all.
Which author has influenced your writing the most?
Hong Kong movie subtitles. Authored by drunk expats or college students with high school English, they’re the place where I realized how exciting language could be. When not closely monitored, I start writing in them.
How do you manage to balance your time between family, friends, and writing?
My wife is a chef, which means that I see her for one (1) hour each week. So I spend the rest of the time writing. I’m not sure when I see my so-called friends.
zombie, pixabay
If you could spend one hour with just one person, dead or alive, whom would you choose? Why?
Any dead person. I’ve always assumed I could kill a zombie if I was pushed into a corner, and I think it’s about time I found out.
Do you have any advice for writers who are striving to be published?
Stop striving and self-publish. The two books I self-published before selling Horrorstor taught me everything I needed to know about writing a book. It’s like when you get a car and take apart the engine and put it back together again to see how everything works, only this is the wimpier version.
Where can your fans find you on the Internet?
My website, www.gradyhendrix.com, is a cabinet of moderate wonders, and I’m on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/grady.hendrix.9) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/grady_hendrix) like all good authors, although I’m not nearly as funny on Twitter as I feel like I should be.
Note: This interview was originally published on The News in Books in October 2014.
Recommended Article: Horrorstor: a Novel – a Review
Amazon Link: Horrorstor: A Novel
