From the Bookshelf: A Spark in the Darkness by Peter Giglio

Author Peter Giglio didn't invent the vampire, any more than Stephenie Meyer invented the romantic vampire -- the late, great Dan Curtis, creator of the addictive afternoon soap Dark Shadows got there long before she added her sparkle.  What Giglio does accomplish with his page-turning new novella by the fine folk at Etopia Press is reinventing the well-traveled mythos of immortal creatures that prowl the world in search of human blood in an original way that is both engaging and unforgettable.  Despite its dark theme, "A Spark in the Darkness" is also a fun read.  I enjoyed its near-19,000 words mostly in one sitting, jumping up only long enough to turn down the volume on One Life to Live.  Giglio, a writer whose star is most definitely on the rise, instantly had me by the throat.

"A Spark in the Darkness" is, at its undead heart, the story of Edie Novak, a likable but lost woman trying to fit the pieces of her broken life back together while on a cross country hike.  Edie finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time at a seedy roadside dive, where she meets Randy Facinelli, a seemingly kind truck driver willing to give her a lift to her next stop along the way.  Randy, it is revealed, is actually a vampire who was turned in 1921 while smuggling whiskey during Prohibition.  Randy savagely attacks Edie, now divorced from husband Colin Novak and out of the life of their young daughter, Gail, his bite transforming her into that rarest of rare human-to-vampire metamorphoses, a goddess, you could say.  Only in Randy and company's gestalt, goddesses get locked up and used for pleasure.  Aware of all that she's lost, Edie stages a bold escape from Randy's lair, making it clear that she's a force to be respected.   

The action shifts to the Novak home in Salt Lake City, where Colin's new wife Allison, Gail, and company are enjoying the start of a snowy Thanksgiving Day gathering.  Among the guests is Tim, a young friend of Gail's who is secretly both cursed and blessed with the ability to hunt vampires.  It's a skill that comes in handy when Edie arrives (and Tim instantly recognizes her for what she has become), hoping for one final moment with her daughter and estranged husband.  But Edie hasn't come alone.  Randy and his brood are in dogged pursuit, and about to crash the party.

Giglio's writing style is both mercurial and mature in the same dose, the perfect blend of honoring the old that's been done before in vampire lore, while upping the bar several big steps forward with the new.  Check out this amazing excerpt from "Spark":

"Her heart hammered a fierce tattoo against her chest.  Nerves thrummed violently between each beat.  Bile burnt a trail up her throat.  She pushed back on it, but the force of fear won.    She bowed her head, gin-rich vomit cascading into her lap."

"Spark" culminates in a pulsing, don't-let-your-guard-down confrontation at the Novak house, leaving the reader supremely satisfied but also hungry for more of Edie -- and the author's work.  I had the opportunity to speak with Giglio about life in his corner of the writing realm, which includes new projects and taking over Senior Editor duties at Evil Jester Press, an indie publisher that is already signing such serious names as Ramsey Campbell, Steven Volk, and Lisa Morton to its forthcoming releases.

You seemingly came out of nowhere, and suddenly you're everywhere.  Who the hell is Peter Giglio?  Give me a resume, a bio, a sense of who you are. 
I’m a guy who likes to read and write, but I guess, thanks to my reputed omnipresence (pretty cool trick, huh?), people are starting to figure that out. Nowhere—the place from which I recently sprang—was Corporate America, where I enjoyed fifteen years of mostly managerial, always profitable employment. But I gave that all up last year, not due to downsizing or restructuring; rather, my muse beckoned, demanded, and assured me I had the stuff to make it as a professional writer. The muse was awakened in early 2010, when Scott Bradley, a guy I’d grown up with, asked me to collaborate with him on a short story. Scott had read some of my writing, which was nothing more than a hobby at the time, and saw a kernel of talent. He’s a Bram Stoker nominated editor and writer, so his invitation was met with enthusiasm. If I could get anything published, a lifelong dream would be realized. Not that I was doing anything to make that dream a reality—I’d never even submitted my work! We wrote “The Better Half: A Love Story,” a shifter tale that, ironically, went through many changes of its own—first it was about Werewolf Nazis (under a different title), then CIA Werewolves (new title), then a bizarre thing about best friends called “Bud,” then finally became a mediation on the nature of romantic relationships, shot through the filter of shape shifting. We loved writing the story, but chalked it up as an exercise. We emailed the story to John Skipp and went on with our lives. Flash forward to several months later, when Skipp, to our unexpected delight, bought the story for his anthology, Werewolves and Shapeshifters: Encounters with the Beast Within. Not only was I going to be published, I was going to be featured alongside Neil Gaiman, George R.R. Martin, Charlaine Harris, Chuck Palahniuk, Joe R. Lansdale, and several other heroes of mine. My muse hasn’t shut up since. 

I have to say, I think you're work is some of the most exciting I've read.  You're fairly flipping brilliant.  What's your process? 
Thanks! My process changes all the time, but one thing always stays the same: Cut out everything that drags the story down! I abhor predictability and filler, so when I edit, I take out the bits that don’t delight me and rework the stuff that seems too obvious. Lately, I’ve been writing longer outlines, step-by-step beat sheets. Discoveries still occur through composition, but I find this gives me a chance to think the details through before I hit the page. At the end of the day, the right process is the one that works, and every project is a little different, so I don’t know if I’ll ever land on any one way of doing things. 

Evil Jester Press.  One day, you and Charles Day collaborated on a short story, and the next you're running a book company with some fairly big name authors involved.  Did you make a deal with the dark powers?

Getting to know Charlie has been a joy. He’s so damn enthusiastic about the horror genre, which is a rarity in this day and age. He owns a small non-fiction imprint that focuses on issues of mental health, and had aspirations of opening a fiction division. I gave him some of my ideas one day, hoping he would use them. Instead he asked me to launch and run the press. I agreed on two conditions. 1. We would never use the press as a platform for our own work. Editorial gatekeepers are integral to good fiction and I’m not a fan of self-publishing. 2. I needed complete creative control over the direction of the press. I didn’t want to saturate the market with things everyone else was doing, and I didn’t want to slap books together just because I could. To my amazement, he agreed to both conditions, and I found myself in an enviable position. To answer your question about dark powers, I think the opposite is true. I made a deal with one of the most luminous entities in the universe, Charles Day. He puts up with all the moods that come with my pursuit for perfection, and that’s no small feat.

I'm fairly well-read and have to say that your work is always clean, always smooth, always engaging.  What are you doing that other writers should aspire to follow?

I self-edit—can’t stress that enough. Be ruthless with your darlings—I kill mine all the time! I also read everything I can get my hands on, not just horror fiction. Some writers tell me that they don’t have enough time to read. Bullshit! If you write, you have to read. You wouldn’t build houses without studying architecture, would you? I also listen to my editors. Annetta Ribken of Etopia Press, the best editor I’ve worked with to date, helped me restructure parts of A Spark in the Darkness, and the book is better for it. I also use first readers before submitting anything. Eric Shapiro and his lovely wife Rhoda gave me copious feedback on a novella called Balance—coming later this year—and I’m forever indebted to them.

What's the Peter Giglio, Author inciting incident? 
There have been a few. Reading Stephen King as a child was the first. Reading Philip K. Dick’s Ubik as a teenager was the second. And reconnecting with Scott Bradley, my childhood friend, and writing a story with him was the third and most powerful. 

What's next for you, as author and editor? 
I see 2011 as a year of emergence and 2012 as a year of collaboration. I’m currently writing a novel with Scott Bradley called The Dark, which is under contract. I will edit two new anthologies next year, teaming with other editors in both cases. And I’m dying to get more work over to Etopia Press, a fantastic e-publisher that’s earned my deepest respect. I’ll also be very involved in getting a film made. Scott and I wrote a screenplay that’s generating buzz in certain circles, an adaptation that I can’t go into detail about. Contracts are involved, moves are being made, and our fingers and toes are crossed that something will come of it. I’ll also be working with authors to get their books published through EJP, and I’m leading a project to get a few classic horror novels back in print. 2012 is going to be a very busy year!

For hopeful EJP authors, what is the best advice you can give?

Read without regard for genre. Daydream. Figure out what you want to say and ask yourself, "Who wants to hear it?" Research. Consider your reader’s time and patience. Look for gaps in the genre and seek to fill them. Plot carefully. Write. Edit. Edit. Edit. Repeat. Do this about twenty times and you’re well on your way.

We'd be surprise to know that Peter Giglio is...? 

Pushing 40 and still afraid of the dark.

Thanks to Peter for his fantastic interview.  And be sure to order your copy of "A Spark in the Darkness" from Etopia Press, on sale September 16!