A celebrated author and poet with her work appearing in numerous collections and anthologies, Francesca Maria is a widespread name in the scene with her short-form and long-form stories available in compilations and by herself. Now, in honor of Women in Horror Month, I talk with her about her early interest in writing, her overall writing process, and the upcoming collection series They Hide: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark.
Me: Hello and thank you for taking the time to do this. First off, when did you get into horror in general?
Francesa Maria: Thank you for inviting me! My oldest sister, who is ten years my senior, introduced me to horror at an early age: Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker. I remember being mesmerized by the book covers of Salem’s Lot, Carrie, and countless others. I was also a big fan of Nancy Drew as a kid which dabbled with horror tropes like witches, ghosts, and all things that go bump in the night.
Me: Were you into genre films growing up? What films specifically got you into watching horror movies?
FM: My folks were pretty strict about what we were allowed to watch as kids so I only caught glimpses of horror movies when my older siblings would sneak them home from the local video store. I remember hearing the grisly sounds from Faces of Death when my eldest sister was babysitting me. She brought home the video and didn’t let me watch it but said I could stay in the kitchen within earshot. I don’t know what was worse, seeing the video or just hearing the sounds. I managed to sneak a couple of peeks and remembered feeling nauseous.
When I was a bit older I watched A Nightmare on Elm Street which completely freaked me out. The scene where Johnny Depp gets swallowed whole by his bed gave me nightmares for weeks. From there, it was Friday the 13th, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and The Fly that left the biggest and most long-lasting imprints on my young, horror-filled brain.
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?
FM: As I mentioned before, Stephen King, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker were where I really cut my teeth in the horror genre. I loved King’s ability to create a universe that immersed you in the story. His work was so believable: towns, characters, settings, etc., that you felt the supernatural elements could also be possible which made them even more terrifying.
I loved Rice’s ability to create over-the-top characters within lush and lavish settings. It was easy for me to get lost in her books.
For Barker, he just straight-up scared me. Every story in Books of Blood is a gut punch to the senses. It was my first introduction to horror as something that was ‘disturbing.’ It wasn’t just about supernatural or impossible scenarios, Barker had a way of touching some primal fear that I didn’t know I had.
And I don’t try to emulate their styles but I do try to remember how their work made me feel: unsettled, afraid, uneasy, disturbed, terrified, and lost, and it’s those same feelings that I try to evoke with my work.
Me: What was the starting point of becoming a writer? Were you always into writing growing up?
FM: I grew up in a haunted house, full-on poltergeist-type stuff: lights going on and off, doors opening and closing, TVs going on and off, phantom footsteps, you name it. So I grew up with fear. It was as natural to me as breathing.
When I learned to write at the age of six, my first story was about a group of kids who stumbled upon a haunted house at the end of their cul-de-sac. It was pretty impressive for a six-year-old, I think it ended up being twelve pages long. And I’ve been writing ever since.
In retrospect, I can see now how writing was a way for me to process my fears.
Me: What is your writing process? How do you stay focused on writing?
FM: My writing process has changed a bit over time and continues to morph depending on what I’m working on at the time. When I was writing THEY HIDE: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark, I had given myself a deadline to hit 65K words. Most days I would wake up and write from ~ 8 a.m. until 11 a.m. then I’d come back to it at night and polish it or start a new story. Hitting a daily or a weekly word count goal was really helpful for me, it kept me motivated and focused.
When I’m writing my comic, BLACK CAT CHRONICLES, there’s a lot more research involved than actual writing. Since the stories are true tales of horror, I spend a lot of time reading, taking, and collating notes, and finding reference materials to share with my artist. Then I’ll plot out the pages, the pacing and visually put down some rough ideas for each page, like stage directions in a play, for the artist. The writing or dialogue is done at the very end.
Lately, as I’m working on new short stories, I’m finding that I am most creative late at night when the house is quiet and there’s no more work to be done. I’ll take out my notebook and handwrite a new story. Then in the morning – when I’m sharper – I’ll type it up and start editing what I wrote the night before. From that point, hopefully, the story has legs that I can continue to build on while I’m editing.
Me: Is there any specific type of genre you prefer writing? Is there any style or format you find easier to get into even without a preference?
FM: I love writing all sorts of things but they all tend to end up in the horror genre bucket. Horror is my wheelhouse, it’s what I know, love and fear – so until that tank runs dry, it’ll most likely be what I continue to write.
I try to let my stories write themselves. Most of my stories have a mind of their own. They’ll be in first person present or 3rd person past or told from various POVs with different styles and voices. Every style and format has a familiar rhythm and equally challenging pitfalls so I don’t lean into or avoid one or the other.
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?
FM: Every piece of writing aids the future development of the writer. It doesn’t matter if it’s a micro flash piece or a novel-length book, or a short story for a magazine, every work strengthens the writer like a muscle that is getting flexed over and over again.
The pieces I have submitted for anthologies helped me hone in on my craft by stretching into various sub-genres of horror and writing stories focused on a specific theme within certain parameters. I challenge myself each time to create something I haven’t written or read before.
Hitting the submission deadlines and word counts for those anthologies helps me to stay on target and disciplined when it comes to my own work’s deadlines and count goals.
Me: What is the general process for getting involved in these projects?
FM: If by projects you mean anthologies, each process is a little bit different. Each publisher wants something unique and has their own guidelines for what to submit and how. For the horror genre, there are a couple of go-tos: Horror Tree and Submission Grinder. These sites list out what markets are open for submissions along with details about word count, deadline, and specific parameters they want to be included within each story submission, i.e. Mermaid themed, witches, mothers, etc.
There are always tons of open submission calls for various types of genre fiction. Once I find a market that I want to submit to, then I’ll either look through my unpublished work and see if anything I have would fit, if I do, I’ll take another edit at it and submit. If not, then I’ll write something from scratch and once I finish it, try to get at least one other set of eyeballs on it before I submit it to the publisher or editor.
Then it’s a waiting game to see if you’ll get accepted or not. It takes a lot of patience.
Me: How did you settle on the plots for the stories of your new release They Hide: Short Stories to Tell in the Dark?
FM: Like I mentioned earlier, the stories just kind of write themselves. I don’t pre-plan or plot them out ahead of time. It isn’t until I’m done with the first draft that I realize what the major themes of the story are and the plotlines. It’s in the subsequent drafts that I go back and make it look like I knew what I was doing all along.
With THEY HIDE, the only thing I knew up front was, ‘this is going to be a witch story’, or ‘this one will be the werewolf story’. I wanted to be just as surprised as the reader when I was writing each story. I never knew how they would end until I had written them.
Me: Was there any part of your real self injected into the characters?
FM There’s probably always a little of myself in the characters that I write. I tend to share the emotions my characters struggle with: fear, powerlessness, hopelessness, etc. I try to drudge up my own childhood fears and emulate those on the page through the characters I write.
In THEY HIDE there are a number of stories that are very close to my own, real experiences.
Me: Once it was finally written, what was the process for having it published?
FM: I entered a pitch contest on Twitter called #PitDark. It was an opportunity for horror and dark fantasy writers, publishers, and agents to find each other and see if they’d be a good fit. During #PitDark, authors had a full day to create pitches of their work in progress, limited by the Twitter character ceiling of 280. If a publisher or agent ‘liked’ one of your pitches then you would be invited to submit your synopsis or full manuscript to them.
Brigids Gate Press liked a number of my pitches and asked me to send them a full manuscript. After a few months of staring at the ceiling and checking my email incessantly, I got a response of approval. They wanted to publish THEY HIDE. It was a dream come true and has been an exciting ride ever since.
Me: How did moving from The Black Cat Chronicles comic book series to short stories challenge your writing skills?
FM: I’ve been writing short stories since I was a wee lass and only started writing comics a few years back. I can say that writing comics has definitely made me a better writer for several reasons. When writing a comic, I need to visualize each scene in detail and then translate that into something akin to stage directions for the artist. It helps me ‘see’ the story unfold as I’m writing it. When I’m working on a short story, I utilize this skill to better create a tangible setting that the reader can hopefully see clearly in their own imagination.
And given the fixed and limited amount of space in comics, only the most important words make it onto the page. There’s no room for extraneous detail. Looking at each word and deciding if it’s important enough to include helps me when I’m editing my short stories – especially when they also have a restrictive word count. Can I say the same thing with fewer words and still maintain the voice, style, and pacing of the story?
Me: How do you do to keep your creative energy flowing?
FM: There are a lot of different things I do to find and keep my muse. I like getting inspired by new submission calls. When there’s a new anthology on a topic or theme that I’m excited about or haven’t written about yet, my creative juices start flowing. The new story starts to write itself.
I have also taken a number of writing workshops that are genre specific and provide various writing challenges. Those have all produced a lot of fruit and given me a large body of work to submit to various markets.
I’m also a big fan of physical exercises like walking, bike riding, or drumming help to get the creative juices flowing.
Me: Lastly, what else are you working on that you'd like to share with our readers? Thank you again for your time!
FM: I am working on issue #4 of Black Cat Chronicles: Portland’s Underground It’s about the true horrors of men being kidnapped and forced into slave labor on sailing vessels in the 1800s.That should be coming out later in fall 2023.
I also have a few other projects that I can’t discuss just yet but hope to be able to soon. Stay tuned!
Thanks so much!
This interview ran as part of our 2023 Women in Horror Month celebrations. Click the banner below to check out the rest of our month-long celebrations including various reviews and interviews:
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