Three Question Interviews with Snowpocalypse Contributors

Recently, Black Mirror Press released the anthology Snowpocalpyse: Tales from the End of the World, including my story "Breath Over the Mouth of a Bottle." I asked some of the other writers in this anthology to answer a three question interview about their story, their writing, and the worst snowstorm they've ever experienced. Turns out they're all witty and well-published, and their snowstorm memories will give you the chills. My own answers are at the bottom.

S.B. McCauley, "The Snow Woman"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
Trapped in a mummified body for decades, the spirit of Yuki-onna is set free and unleashes her winter wrath upon the world.

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
I live in Houston, Texas now — so snow storms don’t really happen here. However, I spent some time living in England and Virginia where I experienced some true snow. The worst snow and ice storm I can remember was when I lived in Virginia. Everything was shut down for a few days and the branches on the trees were so heavy with snow that huge branches broke and fell across our sidewalks. And the ice, which collected behind my car, was a few feet thick and couldn’t even be removed with an axe. We had to wait until it thawed to get my car out. I don’t miss the ice!

3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you?
In addition to writing short stories, which are mostly supernatural and psychological horror, I’m working on longer works of middle grade fantasy. My current novel, entitled The Breaking, which was recently nominated for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators Joan Lowry Nixon Award, is about a 12-year-old boy who has the power to break his entire world apart, but he wants nothing more than to save his non-magical family from slavery.

Find S. B. McCauley Online:
Website * Twitter * Facebook *Amazon * Wattpad

---

Jennifer Loring, "The Wind Whispers, 'Witiko'"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
The disappearance of a man's unstable wife into the wilderness leads him to a legendary monster and the reason why the snow won't stop falling.

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
We've had some bad ones in the nine years I've lived in Philadelphia, but one of the worst happened just after my husband returned home from a trip with his friends. He had an allergic reaction that required a hospital trip — we lived close enough to walk, but all non-essential vehicles had been banned from the streets. It was eerie to walk through the city in the middle of the day in complete silence, with everything covered in white. We had to make our own paths through knee-deep snow that seemed like it was never going to end.

3. Where can readers find you?
Find Jennifer Loring Online:
Website * Twitter * Facebook * Amazon

---

Walt Socha, "Let There Be Light"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
After a technical fix to global warming fails and plunges the world into a snow-covered apocalypse, a small band of ex-NASA survivors frantically search for a solution while under the scrutiny of their dystopian overlords.

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
I can’t remember any particular snowstorm, but I grew up in eastern Ohio (properly pronounced by us former natives as “Ah-hi-oh”) where several feet of snow is normal during the winter. But now-a-days, I live in the Pacific Northwest (Portland, OR) where a half-inch of snow brings civilization (and traffic) to a complete stop!

3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you?
I’m a bit of a history buff, especially with regard to the factors that enable one civilization/culture to dominate others.

In my first novel (Conflict coming out November 1st), I explore what happens when the knowledge of “guns, germs, and steel” (Yes, that is a spoiler reference to Jared Diamond’s famous non-fiction book) is introduced into 11th century North America.

My elevator blurb for Conflict:

While working on a dude ranch in present day Montana, Joe Kuruk saves a young girl from a club-wielding warrior. His confusion is intensified when he realizes that the girl, Alta, has crossed over from another time and place. And the only way to reunite her with her family is to cross back with her. Accompanied by a few friends, Joe crosses into Alta's world only to find her home destroyed by a savage war chief.

Then the gate closes behind them.

Stranded in the Eleventh Century, in the lands around the present day Susquehanna River, Joe and his band fight to create a safe home for the refugees they've gathered. And to prepare for future European contact.

This is the first of a five book series. The second book, Contact, is due out February 1st, 2017.

Find Walt Socha Online:
Website * Twitter * Facebook * Newsletter

---

Eddie Newton, "White"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
My short story, "White”, is about driving on an endless wintry road, tense with dread, surrounded by blizzard in every direction, when one slide of tire or slip of steering wheel can be the difference between two very different futures.

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
The winter of ‘96-‘97 in Fargo, ND was like one long snowstorm, a record eight feet of fluff accumulating over the season. Every time I drove down the streets of the city, I marveled at white walls cut into caverns like alabaster trenches as tall as trees. Every time I drove anywhere, I felt like an X-wing pilot on a mission to destroy the Death Star: “Stay on target. Stay on target!”

3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you?
If you like political thrillers check out my e-novel, American Herstory, available on Amazon. Have you ever wondered what it would be like if women ran the world? (I mean officially. I know they already REALLY run the world.) It follows a D.C. cop in 2016 as she tries to prevent the assassination of the first MAN to run for President of the United States of America.

---

John Palisano, "All These Things We Didn't Believe"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
In "All These Things We Didn't Believe," a father must beat near impossible odds, and a nearly unbeatable trio of creatures, to find his son.

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
I was very small, but in the winter of '78 my hometown of Norwalk, Connecticut had so much snow my grandfather and father and uncles made us massive tunnels through the snow drifts. I still hear echoes of their voices and our laughter.

3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you?
Working on getting the next novel, as it always seems to be. Just released a Halloween mini-collection. Lots more coming out soon. www.johnpalisano.com

---

DJ Tyrer, "Dead England"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
The final survivor of a nation consumed by winter is left wondering if there is anywhere to run to and, if he's alone, who's out there?

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
I remember winters as a child when the drifts were deep and the insides of the windows were covered in ice. Wonderful!

3. Where can readers find you?
Find DJ Tyrer Online:
Website * Facebook

---

Matthew Shoen, "The Last Winter Buck"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
"The Last Winter Buck" essentially asks what if winter never ended in my hometown and what would my father do in that situation? The answer is he would stay, cut wood and make a living out of the inhospitable circumstances.

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
The worst snowstorm I remember was the Ice Storm of 1998 which left my house without power for two weeks and killed 35 people.

3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you?
Readers can find some of my published works in anthologies published by ACA Books, Sixfold Magazine, and an upcoming Cryptid anthology published by Bards and Sages Publishing.

---

Ron Wade, Cover Designer

1. Describe the SNOWPOCALYPSE cover in one sentence.
The cover is more a question than a story, what lies down that path, past the snow, beyond the trees? (The real stories of course; literally and metaphorically).

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
The worst (and best) snowstorm was the blizzard of ’78. I lived on my parent’s farm, only went to school about 5 days the entire month of February, and spent days either digging through the huge snow piles that had accumulated from clearing the LOOOONG driveway to the house or sledding the hill that fronted the house. The nights, well reading some of the stories in the book brought back memories (at least in my 14 year old imagination) of the nights.

3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you?
I am working on a couple projects, I have another cover for Ian page set, and waiting for release, have been talking to Clint Collins [of Black Mirror Press] about a couple of projects. Aside from covers I have a line of zombie targets that just released, each zombie with their own unique backstory, and am working on motion graphic pieces that dovetail into those products. You can see what I am up to at: ourzombieapocalypse.com

---

Sarena Ulibarri, "Breath Over the Mouth of a Bottle"

1. Describe your SNOWPOCALYPSE story in one sentence.
Aliens from a snowy planet are trying to terraform Earth, and a girl trapped in a snow-buried house with her dysfunctional family is the last human holdout that might be able to stop them.

2. What's the worst snowstorm you can remember?
I've spent a lot of my life in Colorado, and it used to be that they never cancelled school or shut anything down until the snowplow got stuck. (Now, well, every storm gets called a snowpocalypse.) The worst I remember was probably in the early 2000s during Spring Break, when my dad, my cousin, and I got snowed in with no power for several days. Though the characters and conflicts are different, I pulled quite directly from that experience for my Snowpocalypse story.

3. What else are you working on, and where can readers find you?
You've found me! I hope you'll poke around and read some of my other blogs, and check out my other published stories and the small press I run. I'm always working on several short stories in various stages of disarray, and there's that science fiction novel I keep giving up on and coming back to.

Thanks for reading these three question interviews!

---