An up-and-coming name in the author world, Red Lagoe has curtailed her name with appearances and publications in several anthologies before moving on to publish several works in her own name. Now, in honor of Women in Horror Month, I talk with her about her early introduction to writing, getting involved with those various anthology projects and her own work.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, when did you get into horror in general?
Red Lagoe: Thank you for having me! I grew up on 80s horror movies but didn’t start writing horror until around 2015.
Me: Were you into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
RL: My brothers would rent every horror movie from our small-town video store. Like, all of them. And from a very young age, I was watching slasher movies like Friday the 13th, Nightmare on Elm Street, C.H.U.D., Basketcase, Prom Night…Just an endless barrage of blood and gore. My mom wasn’t into the blood and guts, but she introduced me to Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock so I had a well-rounded horror film childhood.
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?
RL: Growing up, I didn’t read a lot of fiction. (“Blasphemy!” cry the writing gatekeepers.) My mom was a huge Stephen King fan—she had all the first edition hard-covers as soon as they came out. I remember picking one up and not understanding most of what I was reading. I wasn’t a strong reader as a child. I would read nonfiction—books about animals, children’s encyclopedias, I even recall flipping through the dictionary for fun on numerous occasions. In middle school, I enjoyed the Choose-Your-Own-Adventure books as a kid. I think it was the fact that I had some control over how the story turned out. Maybe that was some precursor for me becoming a writer. And in high school, I loved As I Lay Dying, Shakespeare, and Oedipus Rex. Which are all kind of dark and twisted, but I didn’t realize it at the time.
Me: What was the starting point to become a writer? Were you always into writing growing up?
RL: I wrote a horror story when I was 11 years old. It was about an alien creature that came to earth. A teenage girl and her dog had to fend it off while alone in a cabin. There were Molotov cocktails and guns and death. It was hand-written, and my mom typed it up on her typewriter for me, and then she helped edit. My original draft had the girl and the dog as the only survivors, and my mom said that was too dark and I should change it. So I guess the darkness has always been there.
But it wasn’t until 2011, when a series of events led me to quit my job and become a stay-at-home parent, that I started writing. I was bored out of my mind with domestic life, so I wrote a children’s book. That led to writing other genres, and eventually, I realized horror was my jam. And I’ve been writing ever since.
Me: What is your writing process? How do you stay focused on writing?
RL: I’m still learning. Focus has been difficult since March 2020. Life got messy and I’ve been ever-adjusting my process to work with my changing lifestyle with kids home from school. I often get up pre-dawn and write for a couple of hours before anyone else in the house is awake to distract me. I’m fairly diligent about setting work hours for myself and sticking to them.
Me: Having contributed to various anthologies early in your career, what tools and skills do you acquire working on those that transferred to future projects? What are some of your more memorable recollections about the experiences writing these short stories?
RL: Short stories are my favorite. I started submitting to different calls for submissions back in 2015-2016. With every rejection, I’d take that story and tweak it. I’d rewrite it. I’d take it to my critique group and listen to their feedback. Every story was an opportunity for publication, but each one was also practice. And even now, I feel the same. Every time I write something, I’m learning, I’m honing skills and becoming a better writer little by little.
I often think back to how I felt in early 2017 when I had just received my first three acceptances, all within a couple of months. I had this feeling like, “This is it! It’s happening!” And then I had rejections for the rest of the year. I like to think of that moment—that brief feeling that I was going to be successful. (Successful to me is supplementing my income enough to pay some bills—not fame.) I have bouts when it’s rejection after rejection, but I also have periods when I get several acceptances. And with each passing year, the acceptances increase, but I also submit a lot that gets turned down. So that feeling of “It’s happening…woop, no it’s not” keeps me grounded and focused on the fact that making a career of writing is not for the faint of heart and can take years and years. I’m doing this because I love telling stories.
Me: What is the general process for getting involved in these projects?
RL: Following a lot of horror publishers, including indie presses, and watching for open calls for submissions are a big help. I read the guidelines and if I can come up with a story for the theme, I write it. I get either a beta reader or my critique group to look it over, and then I submit.
There was a charity anthology that I was really interested in getting involved in. I saw a tweet about the We Are Wolves anthology and reached out to the organizers asking if there was any way I could help. They asked me to write a story. I’m so glad I asked.
Me: You also recently released your first collection Lucid Screams. How did you settle on the entries for the release?
RL: Lucid Screams is a collection of all the short stories I had written since I started writing horror. (well, maybe not all of them.) Any story that had been published in an anthology and wasn’t still under contract for exclusivity, made the cut. I also had several stories that had never been published, including some that were rejected, but they were reworked to be better stories and I slid them in there.
Me: Was there any part of your real sense injected into the characters and their lives?
RL: I think a little bit of me gets into some of my characters. There’s a lot of my personality in the character Melody in my zom-poc novel Fair Haven. I also have a deep-seated love of astronomy. So that love of the sky often slips into my characters.
Me: Once it was finally written, what was the process to having it published?
RL: Back in 2012 when my children’s book was done, I opted to self-publish. I did a ton of reading about it and learned as much as I could. I created an indie imprint La Red Books. And I used that imprint to indie publish Fair Haven in 2017 and Lucid Screams in 2020. The process of self-publishing is pretty grueling. Many of the stories in Lucid Screams were already professionally edited prior to previous publication, so that was helpful. But I had to reach out to several people for help with proofreading. But cover art, formatting, marketing on a laughable budget, and no professional design software, meant I was a one-woman show using whatever resources I had to get the job done. It’s not for the faint of heart.
Me: As well, you’re a staff writer for Crystal Lake Publishing’s Still Water Bay series. How did that come about?
RL: Crystal Lake Publishing has a monthly flash fiction challenge called Shallow Waters. I submitted to it on several occasions and had multiple chosen for publication in the Shallow Waters anthologies. I also attended the career mentorship through CLP, which was incredibly helpful. I was able to work directly with two editors on my stories—learned a lot about plot development, story structure, and flow of prose. I also received a lot of tips and articles from the CEO Joe Mynhardt on networking and marketing. Since Joe was familiar with my work, he reached out to me in late 2019 and asked if I would be interested in being a staff writer for his new shared world series. I jumped at the opportunity. There’s a piece of advice for new writers: Jump at all the opportunities. Even if it’s a podcast interview and you have anxiety about public speaking. It’s torture, but it’s worth it, in the long run, to put ourselves out there.
Me: What else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers?
RL: My second collection, Dismal Dreams, is in the editing phase. I’m aiming for a June release.
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!
RL: My advice is to go for it! I think the industry is making strides to be more aware of inclusivity, but there are people out there who will pick up a horror book written by a man instead of a woman, simply because they think a woman’s story won’t be “horror enough.” Which is crazy. I’ve read a lot of gruesome, dark, disturbing horror written by women. It’s important that we keep writing. I write my stories and submit. And I don’t wait for a rejection before submitting another one. I seek out reviewers and interviews and networking opportunities. People can’t find us if we’re not visible, so we need to make ourselves seen, and then let our twisted little tales of darkness prove themselves.
To stay up-to-date on her work, check out her official site:
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