Eric LaRocca (he/they) writes horror and dark fiction, including the novella Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke (LJ starred review) and the story collection The Strange Thing We Become: And Other Dark Tales (LJ starred review), both of which came out in 2021. Here, LJ horror reviewer Emily Vinci asks LaRocca about writing, inspiration, and queer horror.

How’d you get started writing, and what other writing projects have you done?

I started writing when I was very young. I was always a very creative child and was especially drawn to the art of storytelling. I began writing for theater, and I was fortunate enough to have several of my works performed on stage by a local theater company in my hometown of Kent, CT. After I left high school, I attended a college in Connecticut, and that’s primarily where my love of writing fiction developed under the tutelage of several very kind and talented professors. They saw how determined I was to work in the horror genre and they constantly encouraged me to elevate the genre and execute premium content. After finishing my undergraduate program, I attended an MFA program in Boston to hone my skill set in screenwriting. It was a rigorous and writing-intensive two-year program filled with many challenges; however, it taught me how to remain disciplined and how to effectively meet deadlines. Moreover, I left the program with a sizable portfolio of written work that has proven to be supremely valuable since I graduated.

Your skill for shaping and molding your stories comes through beautifully in your writing. When it comes to your craft, how do stories come together for you? What inspires you?

Stories usually come together for me from the moment I decide the piece’s title. I’m quite superstitious when it comes to approaching creative projects and I usually cannot begin writing a piece unless I have a title in place. Aside from conjuring a compelling title for a piece, I’m inspired by almost anything. For a while, I was especially transfixed by bizarre rituals and practices from around the world and I would strain to find ways to incorporate their uncommon practices (self-mummification, self-mutilation, etc.) in my pieces. Sometimes I’m drawn to a specific image I’ve conjured or I’m mesmerized by a certain phenomenon, but it truly varies from project to project.

In Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke, as well as in a story in your recent collection, you use internet communication—forum posts, IMs, email—as the narrative structure. Why are you drawn to this format, and do you find it useful in horror specifically?

I think I’m so inherently drawn to this unusual format because I’m so terrified of the internet and cyberspace in general. One of my greatest fears is coming across content I’m not supposed to access on the internet or seeing something I can’t unsee. I think that’s a common fear for most other people. I also think there’s something uniquely voyeuristic about reading these chat logs or forum postings. The reader knows full well that this is going to end poorly, but they can’t take their eyes away from it.

You are making your presence known in horror and queer horror specifically, and I’d love to know—who are some of your favorite queer horror authors and why do you love them? Who should library workers familiarize themselves with?

There are so many incredible queer authors currently operating in the horror sphere. I always recommend the work of Hailey Piper or Joanna Koch. Their work is so visceral and so devastatingly unsettling. I highly encourage folks to check out their content if they haven’t done so already. I’m, of course, also inspired by queer literary icons like Clive Barker, Michael McDowell, Chuck Palahniuk, Dennis Cooper, Poppy Z. Brite, and Caitlin R. Kiernan. Queer horror is flourishing, and I suspect it will continue to blossom for years to come, thanks to the brave writers stepping out of the shadows and sharing their words.

I think I can safely say that 2021 has been a big year for you, so what’s next?

I have a book containing two novellas being published by Stygian Sky Media near the end of 2021. That release is titled I Wait for You in the Dark and contains my first-ever published novella Starving Ghosts in Every Thread, as well as a new, never-before-published novella titled Devilment. After that, I’ll have some time off promotion to work on some other projects that I’m excited to finally get to. In June of 2022, I’ll have another novella (titled We Can Never Leave This Place) published by Journalstone/Trepidatio Publishing. I am so grateful for all the incredible opportunities I’ve been afforded in 2021 and I’m sincerely looking forward to sharing more of my work with readers in 2022 and beyond.

Emily Vinci is the fiction manager at the Schaumburg Township District Library, IL, and a horror reviewer for Library Journal.