An accomplished writer and part-time associate at a local haunt attraction, Selah Janel is working her way up the ranks as she puts out her work in various anthologies or stand-alone collections in the genre. Now, in honor of Women in Horror Month, I talk with her about her early interest in writing, her experiences about her work and working in the haunt industry.
Me: Hello and thank you both for taking the time to do this. First off, how did you get into horror in general?
Selah Janel: Thanks so much for having me! Horror was a very slow build for me. Growing up, I was always interested in stories and that ‘what if’ factor. I think partly, growing up in the eighties plainly exposed kids to a lot – even the cartoons I remember had some really dark elements. Carebears had an evil book like the Necronomicon in the first movie and Darkheart was pretty demonic in the second, it was typical to have characters losing their souls or going into mysterious comas in a lot of ‘girls’ cartoons, My Little Ponies had destructive ooze that ate the whole land – and that isn’t even counting the obvious stuff like The Real Ghostbusters! I had family members who also had a bit of an extracurricular approach to raising kids, so I grew up being told things like vampires lived in the old abandoned barns outside of town and was told bedtime stories about how princesses were kidnapped by goblins and kept in a tree forever or demons came and took parents away. Definitely not what I would recommend, and it all definitely embedded in my psyche since I was very gullible at the time. I was the biggest scaredy-cat, so I wasn’t allowed to watch much horror at first, but I was also really curious about the stories behind things – that what if factor, again. So I’d sneak off in the video store and read the box backs of horror movies, and as I got older I’d speed read RL Stine, Christopher Pike, urban legends books, and the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books between studying at school. It was a really weird contradiction because those things freaked me out so much, but I couldn’t ignore how fascinating the actual stories and elements were. And by that time I was tired of relatives and friends exploiting my scaredy-cat nature, so I just plain started purposefully reading and watching stuff to desensitize myself and figure out what I liked and what I didn’t. From there, it became a slow love affair and when I realized I could get paid to write it or make monsters, that was one of the coolest thoughts in the world to me! I’m still totally a scaredy-cat in a lot of ways, though.
Me: Were you into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
SJ: Definitely. I feel like a lot of things as I grew up or that came right before me leaned dark even if they were family-oriented, so it was a pretty natural slide. I still have a big place in my heart for things like Labyrinth, Dark Crystal, Neverending Story, a lot of the Don Bluth stuff, and all that. My first initiations into horror films were more to keep me in line – certain family members were really into horror and thought it was funny to show me parts and tell me that the monsters or murderers would come to get me if I was bad, so a lot of films felt really suffocating until I got beyond that. Little Shop of Horrors was a gateway, and by the time the Stephen King miniseries got big I learned to enjoy the plots and not worry about any mental torment – the fascination overrode that. College and my twenties were where I really started to get into things and explore more, and I stumbled onto The Lost Boys at a time where I felt cut off from my own life and worried that I had completely different tastes than anyone else in my theater department. Everything in that film felt so accessible to me – the acting, the writing, the costumes, the production design. A lot of care had been taken, but it was something that I could easily love and appreciate. It helped me keep going and stay on my creative journey – it wasn’t that I couldn’t do it, it was that I had to find what worked for me. It also really got me into researching vampires and history and other horror folklore. I also started making myself watch more of the genre to really try to figure out what I liked and not write off the entire genre. It started with Anne Rice and the movie version of Interview with the Vampire and progressed into things like Seven and Final Destination – things with really strong plot arcs or characters. I learned pretty fast that slasher or torture porn isn’t for me, but things with a strong story and interesting characters are. Friends got me into Japanese and other Asian horrors, and that took things to a whole other level. In my early twenties, I started acting in haunted attractions and eventually started doing design work and costume building on them. That was the first time I was really immersed in any type of horror community so I had a lot of people to pull suggestions and ideas from. It made me realize that horror had a lot of subgenres, and just because I didn’t care for one thing didn’t mean that there wasn’t a lot in the genre that I could love.
Me: When did you first develop an interest and passion in writing? Were you always interested in writing?
SJ: I’ve loved stories ever since I was little. I grew up watching Reading Rainbow, and there was a local access show called Gator Tales where a guy told different folk stories. Playing pretend was a big thing with me, I would come up with intricate, over-the-top vignettes for my dolls or playing with friends. It was just part of life, and when I learned to read I was encouraged to spend as much time as I wanted at the library. It just made sense to start writing ideas down, and I had teachers who pushed me to enter writing contests in grade school. Somewhere along the line, though, a family friend who had written books inadvertently convinced me to give up the ambition of writing. I don’t think it was purposeful, I think the idea was that she wanted to prepare me for how hard it was, but nine-year-old me took it to mean I couldn’t do it. Somehow, I decided that it was more realistic to lean into acting and go into theater, so it wasn’t like anyone could save me from myself there. I kept writing in secret as a hobby in high school and then college – I think I always had the desire for creative control on things, and writing let me do that. By then I also had a big interest in history, folklore, and curiosity on how things worked, how others lived, that sort of thing. By the time I hit my early twenties, I tried for a brief minute to get published, got discouraged, and focused on costume work, even though I was still writing for myself. At that point, I started to read more about writing, so even though I wasn’t submitting, I think on a subconscious level I knew I still wanted to try. At around 2010 I had a weird health glitch where some surgery metal came loose, it took forever to even get diagnosed, and at least one health professional had warned me that it could be cancer. Thankfully it wasn’t, but I realized that I could be doing something that could make me happy, so I started regularly submitting, writing, and doing what I could to get better.
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?
SJ: Madeline L’Engle changed my life. I had never thought about being able to write about different worlds until I read the Wrinkle in Time series when I was eleven. Later on, Ray Bradbury made me appreciate description and emotion in writing, and how you can take little, general ideas and make something amazing from them. I still follow a lot of his advice that he gives in his essays for my short stories. Neil Gaiman’s work came into my life after a college writing professor had pretty much said genre fiction was worthless and no real writer wrote it anymore, and I swear Smoke and Mirrors saved my creative trajectory because I realized how full of it my former professor was after reading it. Nancy A Collins blew my mind with the Sonja Blue series. I’d been hesitant about going too dark with things because it felt like a place I couldn’t go as a woman writer, that horror was a boys club unless you were Anne Rice, and on and on. The Sonja Blue books are so visceral, but also so original conceptually, that it really made me rethink the kinds of stories I wanted to tell and explore how to tell them. It was like I’d been given permission to go to places that I didn’t allow myself to before. More recently I’ve fallen in love with the works of Elizabeth Engstrom. Her style is so lovely, literary, and restrained, but her stories are some of the most disturbing I’ve ever read. She captures emotions so well and is amazing at leaning into moments just enough so they fall on your brain like an anvil once you realize what’s going on.
Me: What is your writing process? How do you stay focused on writing?
SJ: It really depends, and it constantly changes and evolves depending on what else is going on. I keep a running list of ideas for stories and longer works. I’ve started using an adapted method from Save the Cat to outlines books – I wish I’d read that book ages ago because it really de-stresses the outlining process. I usually start with a core idea, maybe a vague idea of an ending, and necessary characters, then mull things over until I have enough of a handle on them to either outline or write. I love to research, but I’ve learned to really go in being able to target what I need to know for specific scenes, or else I’d never get writing done. I’m a decent balance of plotter and pantser, so I leave some room open for improvisation. I like notebooks and pens, but if I start feeling like the momentum is building faster than I can write by hand, I’ll switch over to my laptop. Then it just comes down to getting out draft zero, full well knowing it’ll suck and not be developed. Once the initial structure is out I’ll do a first edit, add in more details, tweak pacing, and just keep going until I feel the story is where I want it to be. If I get more than a couple rejections on it, though, I’ll usually revisit it and do more tweaking, especially if an editor has been amazing enough to give me any kind of notes. Some I take, some I don’t, but it helps me look at things with fresh eyes. I also tend to do multiple versions of short stories for calls, depending on word count, what a place is actually looking for, content rating, etc. It’s not unusual for me to have two or three versions of something. As I’ve grown, I’ve also been lucky enough to attend some really great workshops and panels given by people like Michael Knost, Jason Sizemore, and others, so I try to remember what I’ve learned from them about building plots and editing. These days I make it a point to go in and whack out unnecessary descriptors, adverbs, and really take a look at the language I’m using – though I usually leave things to sit for a few days between edits so I can look at them with fresh eyes. It’s a constant process. I’m always thinking about possible ideas, which is hard because I want to do everything right now, so I’ve had to learn to strategize and listen to what I really want to be working on, or what I absolutely have to be working on. Like anything else, it all takes willpower and some days it just isn’t there. At the end of the day, it’s all about getting pen on paper or booting up the laptop and just making myself do it, even if it’s a low word count or minimal edits. I thrive off feeling like I’ve accomplished something, so if I can cross even a little thing off to make progress, I’ll try to do it.
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?
SJ: It depends, but deadlines and word counts are a big part of things. I really have to pay attention to word count for anthologies, because often it will affect the pacing of an idea, so I either have to choose wisely or really focus on knowing what needs to be shown, what details have to happen, what my scenes are going to be, who the necessary characters are. I don’t like to take a meandering approach with anthology stories, because I’m usually on a time frame, so I don’t have the time to rewrite or really sculpt things freeform. I’ve learned that for me, personally, it’s best to approach a lot of my anthology story writing like TV show episodes. In my head I’ll be ‘okay, so this would be the cold open, I have to get to this point before a commercial, this would have to be the point of view or the characters I’m focusing on, if there’ a reveal it has to happen by this point, there has to be a strong ending,’ things like that. It doesn’t mean all my anthology pieces have a similar rhythm, but I keep that general roadmap in my head. I can’t lean into as much detail in those pieces, even if I’m world-building, so I really have to make definite choices and run with them.
Me: What is the general process for getting involved in these projects?
SJ: It depends. Sometimes I’m invited to do them – there’s something to be said for going to conventions and hanging out with other writers and editors because a lot of those ideas get thrown around there. Sometimes someone will ask me if I plan on submitting, and sometimes I just see an open call I like and go for it. I’ve learned to be a little bit more selective because of how some of these projects are run, and if I’m doing something that’s for a very niche theme and it’s an open call it’s a little bit of a gamble because if it doesn’t get selected, it’s unlikely that I could shop it anywhere else. In some ways that spurs me on to tackle it like a challenge and really put forth something that’s unique that will hopefully catch editors’ eyes and be selected.
Me: How do you settle on the plots for your novels while working in various genres and themes?
SJ: I usually have a beginning, setting, ending, and a couple main characters in my head. Typically, if I give myself time to think on it while doing other things, a few specific scenes will develop in my mind. If I need to research or map out world-building, I’ll do it as I start and refine as I go. I’m a big list/memo/notes person so if I get a possible idea I’ll jot it down until I can come back and see if it will work in context. Tone and genre are usually set from the get-go, so I usually have an idea of how I want a piece to feel. Themes usually start developing as I write. When I was writing Olde School (currently not in print), it started as a thought process of what would a fairy tale society be like if it modernized and had a world history behind it, but very quickly I realized that I could hit on themes of systemic racism and sexism and how those lurk in the day to day and pop up in different media, so that’s become a big part of what that world is for me. It has a lot of different elements to it – horror, comedy, fantasy, and I learned to lean into what specific scenes call for. My old novel In the Red (also not in print anymore) was written, I really just wanted to adapt The Red Shoes into a modern version that celebrated rock music. It became just as much about addiction, fame worship, and self-betray vs self-redemption as it did about the speculative elements or the folklore. The setting, characters, and archetypes just plain opened themselves up to a lot of possibilities. When I write horror, I know I want it to be dark, but the characters tend to open up and lend themselves to explore different themes. With Mooner, I had no idea that it would become as much about what people were willing to do to get ahead or help people with good intentions – I was just out to write a historical vampire piece. With The Inheritance, I liked the idea of a creepy doll, but it became much more of a commentary on familial relationships and how they’re not guaranteed to be good. It can be trial and error, playing with what works and what doesn’t, but usually I’m prepared that if I have an idea, there’s more going on under the surface, so I try to stay open to explore all of that if it can serve the plot and the characters.
Me: As well, you are known for several massively successful haunts for King’s Island Halloween Haunts. How did you come to create these experiences?
SJ: I had been doing regional theater in between school, and once I graduated I was a bit burned out and decided to take a breather and chill near family, I performed in King’s Island’s Halloween event when it was Fear Fest, and that drove home how awesome the horror community can be. Later, I happened to get the job at Kings Island working on different costumes, and over the years I got promoted and got more projects tossed my way. My Haunt work started with people needing costumes to go with some prosthetics for walkaround characters, and I was really nervous because I’d never done anything like it, and so much was left up to budget and interpretation. The first year of that was good, but the next season I really started playing with materials and concepts. I started sketching again, and really dove into different ideas. After a few years, I was brought onto the production design team, so I sat in on the actual meetings and tossed around maze ideas, helped give story suggestions, and helped develop different looks and logistics.
Me: What is the usual process towards creating a new experience? How much involvement do you have during the planning stages of a new installment?
SJ: It depended on the year. By the time I left, I was involved in the production meetings. Sometimes we’d be discussing revamping mazes and shows we already had, sometimes we’d toss out new concepts, and often we’d get a list of broad ideas from corporate and be asked to think up something under that theme. For costumes, specifically, we had more freedom and a lot of that was the costume crew having our own meetings, but even a lot of that was constrained by budget, safety, and logistics. It isn’t just about coming up with a cool look or awesome monster – you also have a lot of performance and safety issues to consider, plus the budget we had usually extended over the whole event, so while I did have some room, I also learned how to do a lot with a little, which made me really resourceful. For the most part, once we had the concept and had general thumbs up on what we wanted characters to look like, we’d have our team build that while the day-to-day stuff was going on. Sometimes we’d get to fit people before we made outfits, sometimes not, so there was a fair amount of faith and guesswork involved. The actual building process could move pretty fast and I was usually juggling those character builds with general maze upkeep, putting the summer stuff to bed, and any random ambiance stuff that sprung up. It also depended on time and what was needed – some years I got the time to do full sketches, do multiple pitches, and have the time and money to do things comfortably. Other times I was digging through storage trying to get a head start on things, and conceptualizing characters while draping onto dress dummies. It was a great way to experiment with materials and processes – I really learned a lot about how I liked to work and design by working on Haunt. Pretty much, if I can survive that year after year, I can survive a lot. It’s so much fun, but it’s a definite marathon, and I just never quite knew what challenges were going to come up. It was a lot of long hours and figuring out how to effectively get certain effects on the fly – all while doing fittings and getting our set up area ready for the event, itself. I always used to compare working on it to being stalked by a slow monster late at night. You know you’re in it, you know it’s going to come up on you, you know it’s going to get you no matter what, but at first, it’s far off so it’s not as big a deal. Then, little by little it creeps up on you until it has you, so your ability to survive matters on what you do while the beast is still sneaking up.
Me: What has been the most surreal or memorable experience that has granted to you through your builds?
SJ: No one in humanity would believe my autobiography at this point, I’ve got so many stories! On a professional level, there was a year where I got to design these dark, Gothic fairy tale characters for a zone. That was a build where I was just smacking stuff onto dress dummies and letting my hands and instincts guide me. It really felt like everything just fell into place – it all looked cohesive together, people commented on the overall look, and it felt like I had come full circle from admiring stuff to producing it, myself. It was such a great, satisfying feeling. In terms of just general ambiance, I mean you have to realize that all the crews put in long hours and it got to be a thing that we’d prank each other, and somehow this ended up with me being chased by vampires driving club cars across the amusement park at one in the morning when I was trying to deliver outfits to where they needed to go. It’s so easy to say oh stuff doesn’t exist, but when it suddenly comes barreling at you when you’re dead tired, you’re still gonna run and have a minor panic attack.
Me: What else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers?
SJ: Right now I’m regrouping from a lot of personal change, so I’m a bit slow. I just released a few shorts onto kindle late last year that I’m proud of. The Inheritance examines past history between a woman and her dying father, with a creepy doll thrown into the mix, Candles is a zombie apocalypse take on Christmas, and The Ruins of St. Louis combines the aesthetic of sword and sorcery with a post-apocalyptic landscape and is a pretty fun piece. I’m shopping a lot of short stories at the moment and will have work out in a few magazines this year and next. In the meantime, I’m developing something that’s a bit of a spiritual successor to my story Mooner and has a Little House in the Big Woods meets Supernatural type vibe.
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?
SJ: Thanks again so much for having me! Honestly, some of the best advice I ever got was to just keep working. It sounds simple, but it’s one of the hardest things to do through everything that can be thrown at you. The only way you’ll keep learning and progressing, though, is by putting in the work and putting your work out there. Honestly, the horror field can be a warm, welcoming place, but it can be a hard place for women to get a toe in, so I’d say don’t let that intimidate you. Get writing, get creating, reach out to people, take opportunities, create opportunities for yourself. It’s all a bit of a landmine, knowing who to listen to and what the best place for you is, but the more you actually connect with people, whether that’s online or at cons or events or whatever, the more you’ll get an idea of what’s available and what you can do with it. You belong at the table, just like everyone else. Don’t be afraid to bring your own chair and plunk it down at that table if you need to. If you’re told no, look for a back door, a window, dig a tunnel into the basement. It’s going to get frustrating, and weird, and everything else, because getting into any form of the arts isn’t the easiest in general. It’s worth it, though, and people deserve and want to see your ideas. Just keep working and know there’s a lot of us out here pulling for you.
To follow her work, check out her official site:
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