WIHM Special - Chloe Hammond

An up-and-coming name in the publishing world, author Chloe Hammond has turned her series of adventures into the inspiration for the book series Darkly Dreaming. Now, in honor of Women in Horror Month, I talk with her about the beginning stages of her writing career, her upcoming projects and the other books in the Darkly Dreaming series.



Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, when did you get into horror in general?
Chloe Hammond: When I was very little, about 5 or 6 there used to be this big thick, midnight blue hardback in our local library, about old witch Baba Yaga. Oh, she terrified me! I’d borrow the book, and read a bit, and then lie in bed at night, knowing the book was downstairs and being too scared to fall asleep. So the next time we went to the library and give it back, and go home filled with relief that the book safely confined again. But then a couple of weeks later, the draw of the fierce Russian witch would be too much. I’d take it out again for another long week of delicious terror, living in the world where she snacked on children and lived in a hut with chicken legs, that would run after you if you tried to escape, until it was the weekend again, and I could return it.

Until one day, I got in from school to find my mother brimming with happiness that she had been able to buy me a present she knew I would love. The library had had an old book sale, and there in the bookcase was the big blue book. My favourite book. Only now I could never take it back.

Me: Were you into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
CH: I love a good horror, dark fantasy or sci-fi. I’m fussy, and won’t watch just anything, but a horror film that completely absorbs me is such delicious torture. The first horrors I watched were Jaws, and then Dual. As I got older I watched Vamp, Lost Boys and IT. Next came Interview With a Vampire, and the Nightmare on Elm St collection.

Me: Who were some of your favorite writers growing up? Do you try to take influences from their style with your own voice in your work?
CH: I loved, and still do, Stephen King, Anne Rice and Poppy Z Brite. I’m sure their rich voices have flavoured my prose. I certainly aim to write my human monsters as viciously as King.

Me: What was the starting point to become a writer? Where you always into writing growing up?
CH: My teacher read us a poem about dragonflies when I was 7, then set us to writing our own for homework. I spent all the evening rolling words like river pebbles in my mouth. Tasting and testing to decide where to put which for meaning, and rhythm and rhyme, and then which could be taken back out again without losing the flow. That was it. I was hooked. I’d always had a vivid imagination, and the games I played for hours with my toys started to be pinned to the page.

Me: How did you settle on the plot for your novel Darkly Dreaming?
CH: I wasn’t actually given any say in the matter. I had terrible nightmares when I developed
bad anxiety and depression. The emotions in these dreams were so intense that I started writing them as scenes, and quickly realized I had the bones of a story. As I wrote my character introduced themselves, and then snatched the reins out of my hands to take me on a wild ride, that I’m only just finishing, now that I’ve started to write book 3 in the trilogy.

Me: Was there any special significance to making the characters, Rae and Layla, being vampires?
CH: Yes, that’s what my nightmares were about, vampires. Vampires stalking me, hunting me, and finally, I was a vampire and I had to find a way to send away everyone I loved without telling them what I was because if they found out, I would have to kill them.

Me: What is your writing process? How do you stay focused on writing?
CH: I write to keep my anxiety and depression at bay. I put haunting folk, like The Staves, Lana Del Rae and Gretchen Peters on Shuffle play and Spotify, and lose myself in an alternative world, so like our own, but with tortured monsters in the shadows. I don’t actually write as often as I would like. I work full time in a busy job, and still do shifts at least twice a month in the hostel with the homeless teenagers where I used to work. But any quiet 5 minutes I get, any bus journey, every walk to work in the morning, my mind is with Rae and Layla, polishing and honing each scene, so it’s all there, ready to take shape on the page.

Me: Was there any part of your real sense injected into the characters? Who is easier to write for due to that?
CH: Very much so. I based my main characters’ personalities on myself and my best friend
initially, to make sure they were real and believable. They have quickly evolved from
there, but it means I am fluent in being them, so much so that I jump at any opportunity
to attend an online book party or page takeover as my characters.

Me: Once it was finally written, what was the process of having it published?
CH: Well, it was all a bit complicated for Book 1, I had written a couple of scenes, and had the ideas in my head when I saw a call for the first 3 chapters of a finished novel by a new concept publisher- one where selling preorders would get you a publishing deal. I decided to go for it and submitted my first 3 chapters. I was shocked to get an email a few days later asking for the rest of the manuscript by the end of the month. I wrote like a fiend! I got a first draft completed and submitted and was invited to have my novel included in the launch of their site a few months later. I spent those next few months feverishly rewriting Darkly Dreaming repeatedly, until I felt it was a book I could be proud of. Then I got it edited. In the meantime, I had commissioned an artist to paint my cover art to my exacting description, written a Tag line, a blurb and an author biography. So shockingly, I was ready for launch.

Sadly, I was not happy with the website ultimately, and I withdrew my novel before the end of the campaign. I felt they were asking too much for the books, and offering no marketing support at all to the authors, but getting to keep over 50% of anything I made. By then I had discovered the amazing online writers’ community and made some good friends. I learned about their experiences self-publishing. Despite receiving 3 more offers from small presses, I chose to stick with self-publishing after researching websites and not being completely happy with what I found. I am diabolically bad at marketing, but at least I know my website is lovely, and my books are exactly how I want them.

Me: You have mentioned turning their adventures into a trilogy, what future as ventures are in store for Rae and Layla?
CH: Darkly Dancing, Book 2 Of the Darkly Vampire Trilogy is already written and published.
Layla has been an idiot and gone out dancing. She’s been seen and brought terrible trouble to the friend’s tiny Pride. Trouble that involves the most ancient vampires of all, and risks all of their lives.

I’ve just started writing Darkly Dazzling, Book 3 of the Darkly Vampire Trilogy- there’s been a terrible blood-soaked coup in the vampire world. One that threatens everyone, human’s too. Those that have snatched power are greedy and corrupt and psychopathically obsessed with fun. But they seem to believe Rae is on their side. Can she keep them distracted while her friends organize a revolution?

Me: Do you have any other writing projects at the moment?
CH: I love getting involved with charity anthologies, and I have short stories and poems and several. I’m also in the final stages of creating a beautiful audio version of Darkly Dreaming, read by a local Welsh actress in her gorgeous lilting accent. It means a lot to me to finally be able to offer my writing to those who can’t read easily, for whatever reason.

As for other ideas beyond Darkly Dreaming- oh yes lots, watch this space I got fallen angels, disappointed ghosts, and a girl who sleeps through the apocalypse.

Me: Lastly, being that this is Women in Horror Month, what special message do you have for any women out there looking to join in the industry in any capacity as you are one yourself? Thank you again for your time!
CH: Go for it. We are good at this, good at feelings and futures, and things that go bump in the night. Thank you- it’s been fun. These are great questions.

This interview ran as part of our month-long Women in Horror Month celebration. Click the banner below to check out all of our interviews and reviews we've conducted for the event: