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Eric Sparling Q&A on ‘Peak’—“What if there was something on Everest that defied rational explanation?”

Chris Well

“I’ve always enjoyed novels with fantastic elements.”

Peak author Eric Sparling talks to Monster Complex about mountain climbing, his favorite horror stories, and the historical mystery behind his latest novel.

Eric Sparling is the author of Peak, a novel of horror that pits one man against nature...and against something wholly unnatural. The book is set on the dreaded mountain K2—the second highest peak in the world.

“K2 is one of the most desolate places on the planet,” remarked Saltwire.com. “The world’s second-highest mountain to only nearby Everest, K2 rises to 28,251 feet and has sometimes been called a savage mountain because it tries to kill. It would seem to be the perfect setting for a supernatural thriller.”

Scroll down for the official Monster Complex interview with the author.

Related: Eric Sparling: Peak [Spotlight]

Eric Sparling lives in beautiful Nova Scotia with his wife and daughter. His novel Peak was released in January, and he’s also the author of Tantramar. Sparling has been a reporter and an editor, and now works part-time at an animal hospital (owned with his veterinarian wife). Eric likes board games and comic books, rides a small motorcycle and wants a small sailboat. His hiking boots have carried him to the top of Mt. Washington and the length of the Fundy Footpath.

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What led you to write this supernatural thriller in the first place? And what inspired the mountain climbing setting?

“The seed of the idea for Peak was probably footage I saw shot by a person on K2’s slopes—it might have been a Gerlinde Keltenbrunner expedition?—of a storm blasting a steep section of snow and rock. It was beautiful. Utterly desolate, but beautiful.

“In the wake of seeing the clip, I told my wife that if I was ever terminally ill but still physically capable, I’d like to go to K2 and start climbing. Disappear onto the mountain, never to return. It was a moment of romantic fiction on my part, of course—I’d probably be too scared to end it that way—and my wife and daughter were both horrified by the idea of me leaving them that way. But that probably got my brain percolating the central premise of the novel’s plot.

“The supernatural spin came from two historical facts. 1) Sandy Irvine’s remains have never been found on Everest, and 2) Aleister Crowley climbed on K2. Irvine was George Mallory’s companion, and there’s always been a controversy surrounding whether it’s possible the two made it to the summit of Everest decades before Hillary and Norgay.

“So, I started thinking about the idea of Irvine’s body being found on Everest BEYOND the summit, and with a giant, single bite missing from the torso. What if there was something on Everest, something that defied rational explanation, and what if it was brought there by some sort of supernatural ritual performed by Crowley in a previously unpublicized trip to Everest? And what if he’d done the same thing on K2, or even on his other, ill-fated trip to Kanchenjunga?

“The Everest angle did not survive rewrites—the first draft had a number of fake newspaper stories breaking up sections of the novel—but that was where the initial notion came from.”

Are you a mountain climber?

“I have had the good fortune to spend some time on the slopes of mountains. I’ve been on a handful of trips to Alberta—and once to Washington state—and recently summited Mount Gordon.

“I am very much a novice, however. I hire guides, and I struggle with heights and exposure. I do like the challenge, though, and derive satisfaction from setting and (sometimes) achieving personal goals in the outdoors.”

Did your book require any kind of research? (If so, what kind?)

“Peak required a bit of intentional research but much of the climbing information in the book was absorbed over the span of years from my enjoyment of first-hand mountaineering accounts. I’ve read fifty or more expedition books over the last seven years, and K2 has been my favorite mountain for most of those years.

“I knew its geography fairly well (for a person who’s never seen it) going into writing the novel. I’ve also used mountaineering equipment, solo hiked and camped, and been taught by guides (I make no claim to having been a good student though!).

What do you like best about horror fiction? What are some of your favorite sources of horror fiction right now?

“I’ve always enjoyed novels with fantastic elements, and much of what I’ve written over the past two-plus decades has a fantastic element. Horror movies have been a staple of my viewing. John Carpenter’s The Thing is a nostalgic favorite, as well as James Cameron’s Aliens. I loved Evil Dead the first time I saw it back in the mid-80s, and loved the Omen films. Texas Chainsaw Massacre on the big screen was great.

“As for writing, Stephen King’s short story collections are terrific. I went through an H.P. Lovecraft phase, read Brian Keene and Jack Ketchum. Scott Smith’s book The Ruins is phenomenal, and I really enjoyed The Terror by Dan Simmons and House of Leaves by Mark Z. Danielewski.

“I like lots of things in horror stories on film or the page: smashing the world, putting characters in moral quandaries, questions about the nature of evil, questions about sanity and perception. I enjoy gore as part of a bigger tale, but I’m not a fan of stories that are only gore. It is perhaps odd that I wrote a novel about a haunted mountain because, in general, I’m not attracted to ghost stories.”

What are some of the biggest obstacles you have to deal with when writing?

“Some writers no doubt LOVE writing. I don’t. Writing isn’t fun for me usually, it’s work—but work I value highly. I derive a lot of satisfaction from doing it successfully, and derive profound pleasure from my finished books, especially the published ones.

“I wouldn’t call it a ‘love-hate’ thing with writing, more a ‘like-dislike,’ but with the background that finishing a book is satisfying, and publishing one is really gratifying.

“It’s just that, on any given day, I’m a human being with a somewhat uneven work ethic when it comes to writing. I’ve been more disciplined about writing at times in my life, and less disciplined at other points.

“But at any given point in time, there’s a good chance I’d rather drink a beer and watch Forged in Fire—or chat with a friend, play a board game, etc., etc.—than sit down and write. But I do it because it’s important to me.

“I feel very good when I execute a project well, and I have ideas in my head—and jotted down—that I want to see turned into works of fiction. But the actual process? It ranges. On a good day, writing flows well and I feel content. On rare occasions, I’ll write a passage I feel great about.

“Most of the time, though, it takes considerable discipline to force myself to write instead of doing any number of things that are easier and more fun. I don’t have a ton of time for writing, either, which—compounded by procrastination—means sometimes I struggle to produce as many pages as I feel I should. I also wrestle with giving myself the creative freedom to write whatever will entertain me, rather than second-guessing whether what I’m putting on the page will meet the approval of (for example) a publisher or readers.

“I have a magazine and newspaper background as well. The one form of writing that I unequivocally enjoy is penning op-eds. Composing a compelling argument, throwing in some artistic flourishes, editing it down to a tight six hundred words, and sending it out into the world to kick people in the teeth. That is fun!”

What are you working on now?

“I am 15,000 words into the first draft of a supernatural story set on the Fundy Footpath. I enjoy solo hiking and camping, and the FFP is one of the tougher trails in my part of the world. I completed the trail a few years ago.

“The idea with this new work is that a group of hikers set out on the footpath and as the journey progresses, they ‘change’ one by one. I don’t want to reveal too much at this point, but I think the plot is solid. Whether it ends up just competent or quite good will depend on how well I execute. I’m not sure yet if it’s going to be a novel or a novella.

Most of the long works of fiction I’ve written (around twenty?) have been novella length, around 25,000 words. I completed a 60,000 word story post-Peak that was only okay, so my agent (David Fugate) and I decided to shelve it. I don’t love everything I write. Many of my stories don’t make the cut, but occasionally one does.

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