Dawn Colclasure's Blog

Author and poet Dawn Colclasure

Friday, March 15, 2024

Interview with Deborah Sheldon, Author of Redhead Town

 

 

Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author and editor from Melbourne, Australia. She writes short stories, novellas and novels across the darker spectrum of horror, crime and noir. Her award-nominated titles include the novels Body Farm Z, Contrition and Devil Dragon; the novella Thylacines; and the collections Figments and Fragments: Dark Stories and Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories. Her most recent works include the novel Cretaceous Canyon and the novella Redhead Town. 

 

Deb’s collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Collected Work’ Award, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award, and longlisted for a Bram Stoker. Her short fiction has been widely published, shortlisted for numerous Australian Shadows and Aurealis Awards, translated, and included in various ‘best of’ anthologies.

 

She has won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Edited Work’ Award twice: for Midnight Echo 14 and for the anthology she conceived and edited, Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth andBabies. As a senior editor at IFWG Publishing, Deb specialises in horror anthologies. Upcoming in November 2024 is Deb's Spawn 2: More Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, sequel to the multi-award-winning and multi-award-nominated Spawn.

 

Deb's other credits include TV scripts such as NEIGHBOURS, AUSTRALIA’S MOST WANTED and STATE CORONER; magazine feature articles; non-fiction books (Reed Books, Random House); stage plays; poetry; and award-winning medical writing. Visit Deb at http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com

 

How long have you been writing?

 

All my life. Before I knew any letters of the alphabet, I’d draw my stories; simple tales of a heroic boy and girl – usually with their dog, cat and bird – defeating a bad guy.

 

But if you’re talking professionally, I sold my first piece in 1986 when I was 18 years old and just starting my three-year Bachelor of Arts degree. It was a non-fiction article on steroid abuse that was picked up by an Australian bodybuilding magazine. Back then, I was an avid gym-rat.

 

Now, I’m pretty much sedentary thanks to Sjogren’s syndrome and degenerative disc disease. Remembering 18-year-old Deb – with her boundless energy, low body-fat and muscles – feels strange and foreign, almost like picturing someone else’s life.

 

But that first sale lit a fire in my belly that can’t ever be quenched. In the intervening 38 years, I’ve devoted my life to writing, sitting at its feet in my attempts to master its various forms such as scriptwriting, journalism, medical writing, fiction and, most recently, poetry.

 

How did you find a publisher for your book?

 

Circuitously. My two main long-form publishers are IFWG and Severed Press, both based in Australia. Between them, they’ve released a great deal of my work including four novels, four novellas, three short-story collections, and two anthologies (with a third in the wings). I’m happy with my publishers and our working relationships, yet I wanted to potentially extend the reach of my readership via a US publisher.

 

It took some doing to find the right fit. That’s where PsychoToxin Press comes in! I’m thrilled that they’re keen to publish an Aussie author who wrote an Aussie story. They’re even okay with Australian spelling, which is – quite frankly – my hill to die on. This is important to me; it’s a cultural thing.

 


What can you tell us about your new book, Redhead Town?

 

It’s a vampire tale wrapped in a dystopia where the government has ultimate control over how life is lived in a small country town. In part, Redhead Town was influenced by the Covid lockdowns in my city of Melbourne, Australia, which were amongst the harshest and longest in the world. As a dark-spec/horror author, not being permitted to leave my house for fear of being arrested definitely shaped my writing of this story.

 

Where did you get the idea for your book?

 

From my adult son, actually. Over the years, Harry has sparked the idea for quite a few of my works, mostly short stories. For what would become Redhead Town, he suggested in one sentence, “Vampires, but they’re like meth-heads”.

 

I took that prompt and ran with it.

 

What are some of the ups and downs you went through while writing your book?

 

I loved developing the characters and interpersonal relationships of the Murphy family; Mark, Bernie, and their son Nathan.

 

Conjuring the dilapidated state of their fictionalised town, Oleg’s Creek, was also absorbing.

 

Best of all was creating my own kind of vampires. That’s where my creativity took flight!

 

The downs of writing this novella? Well, I guess identifying too much with the main character, Mark, as he tries to live in a strict society that doesn’t allow for individual wiggle room. Redhead Town is, for me, a soft exploration of totalitarianism and what it might look like in its initial stages.

 

Please share where we can find you on the Internet, as well as social media.

 

I’ve got a website and a monthly newsletter with giveaways.

 

I’m on Goodreads

 

A Facebook page managed on my behalf by a third party

 

Lastly, my Amazon Author Page

 

Where can interested readers buy your book Redhead Town?

 

Via Amazon and PsychoToxin Press.

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