Horror Q & A: Kenneth Bykerk (Something Wicked This Way Rides)
“I live in the Old West…This lets me delve into the history of my home while bringing back to life the ruins that surround me.”
The short story collection Something Wicked This Way Rides from Dark Owl Publishing is an anthology featuring some two-dozen authors exploring the Old West with a twisted view, showcasing the 1800s through stories featuring the wicked, supernatural, demonic and just plain weird.
Author Kenneth Bykerk contributed the story “Claude.” In this interview, he explains his personal connection to the Old West, reveals his inspiration for this story, and shares what he’s writing next.
More interviews in this series:
Q1 What’s your favorite thing about mashing up horror with the Old West?
I live in the Old West, in an old smelter ghost town suburb of an old mining ghost town, and as such, there is the inspiration for my work. This lets me delve into the history of my home while bringing back to life the ruins that surround me. For me, Weird Westerns account for most all of my Tales.
Q2 Did you approach your story as a western story with elements of horror—or vice versa?
This story began as a western, a mining western and not a cowboy western ‘cause, well, the Old West was won with pick and shovel while the cowboy and his guitar took all the credit. Being the location of my stories, they are all westerns, though only most are in the Old West. They are all horror, though, and thus I approached this Tale as with my others… with both lenses looking.
Q3 What inspired this particular story of yours?
I had a day off with no charges to occupy me, and so I took a stroll through the forest out the back door. I’m mostly a night owl and was snow-blind most of the hike because I have a habit of breaking my cheap sunglasses. That snow-blind hike through knee-deep snow was basically it.
Q4 How does your story in this anthology compare/contrast with your usual fiction?
This piece is a pretty good portrayal of what I am doing. This Tale inspired but was written a year after another Tale, which this Tale as well hints to elements in at least three others. From there, they spread out into a history that is slowly unfolding for me.
Q5 What do you want to tell Monster Complex readers about your latest or upcoming work?
I just finished a 78k novel structured off a Sestina, a poetry form with 39 lines and a complex repeating structure of six words. Each “line” is a 2k word short chapter containing those six words spaced evenly throughout. Each “line” rotates those six words with six characters, providing alternating visions of the action. It gets confusing from there, so I’ll just say it’s basically an overly complicated way to kill hobos.
(Editor's Note: In addition, a companion tale to “Claude” by Kenneth will be released in Weirdbook in the near future.)
FIND THE AUTHOR ONLINE
ABOUT THE BOOK
Something Wicked This Way Rides
(Dark Owl Publishing)
An anthology of weird westerns and genre fiction in the Wild West
Click here for the Goodreads page!
This book is appropriate for teenagers.
The anthology Something Wicked This Way Rides explores the Old West with a skewed view, showcasing the weird western genre through stories that explore the peculiar and fantastic, the wicked that was and could have been. Experience spiritual nightmares, mythical monsters, cosmic outlaws, discerning gods, and science run amok. Even the North Pole Security Division isn't immune to the supernatural strangeness that stalks the late 1800s. In the tradition of pulp and western stories of a bygone era, these are thirty tales to intrigue, amaze, and perhaps downright spook readers out of their boots.
Includes stories from:
Marilyn "Mattie" Brahen
Kenneth Bykerk
Dwain Campbell
Gregg Chamberlain
Vonnie Winslow Crist
Stuart Croskell
Steve Gladwin
L.L. Hill
Adrian Ludens
Stefan Markos
Gregory L. Norris
Q Parker
Darrell Schweitzer
Bradley H. Sinor
Charles Wilkinson
Martin Zeigler
