Sherry Decker Interview by David Kempf

Sherry's short fiction has appeared in publications such as Alfred

Hitchcock Mystery Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Black Gate, Dark Wisdom and

the anthology, Best of Dark Wisdom. Her novelette, Hook House has been

selected to appear in The Best of Cemetery Dance 2. Sherry won first place

in the North Texas Professional Writers Association's fiction contest,

year-end Finalist and Honorable Mention in Writers of the Future, and

four-time finalist in the Pacific Northwest Writers Association genre

fiction contest. She is an Active member in both the Science Fiction

Writers of America and Horror Writers of America. Sherry lives in

Sammamish Washington with her husband, Richard. Hypershot is her first

novel (Eldritch Press). Her next, Fallow Fields is a horror tale. That

story takes place on the Olympic Peninsula near her home town. Sherry is

halfway through her third novel and considering doing something she never

planned to do - write a sequel to Hypershot titled Undercity.







Tell us how you became involved in writing fiction.



I've been a book lover since second grade, and was fortunate to have

a teacher who encouraged us to write short bits and then stand up in front

of class and read them. My high school Literature/Composition teacher gave

me extra credit for my short fiction, and I placed two stories in the

school's yearly creative magazine. I began my writing education trying to

write for children, but eventually decided my stories were too dark. My

real education came by taking Advanced Creative Writing from two wonderful

teachers at the University of Washington in Seattle - evening classes.

Those two teachers are Jack Remick and Robert Ray. Their classes were

tough. They had high expectations and little patience for students who

didn't take instruction. For instance, for the first two quarters in that

class we were allowed to use NO adverbs. None. It was difficult. Adverbs

flow easily and naturally from the pen of amateurs. Amateurs depend on

adverbs because they are easy shortcuts. Eventually, I learned how

powerful a strong verb can be, and that if your verb is powerful enough,

you don't need adverbs. Now days, about the only time I ever use an adverb

in my fiction is in dialogue, because characters use adverbs when they

talk. We all do.



 It was after those first two quarters in that class that I received my

first acceptance for a short story.



 I highly recommend Jack Remick's novel, Blood.It's about a hit man,

convicted of stealing women's underwear and sent to prison. You need to

read it to understand what it's really about. It's dark and violent.

How many books have you written?



Three so far. The first was my short fiction collection, Hook House and

Other Horrors (Damnation Books). Most of the stories in the collection

were previously published in professional markets such as Alfred

Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine, Cemetery Dance, Black Gate, Dark Wisdom,

etc. One story was chosen for The Best of Dark Wisdom (anthology) and

another for The Best of Cemetery Dance 2. In order of publication, the

books are Hook House and Other Horrors, Rusty the Robot's Holiday

Adventures (a children's book co-written with Michael McCarty - Pie Plate

Publishing), Hypershot (Eldritch Press) Fallow Fields a horror novel

(Eldritch). Fallow Fields takes place on a farm on the Olympic Peninsula

in Washington State. It may be the darkest story in my repertoire to-date.

I'm now working on my fourth novel titled, Salvage. It's another dark

science fiction story.



Tell us about your new book.



Hypershot is a futuristic earth adventure, dystopian, with an

abundance of dark fantasy and horror elements.



Nancy Kilpatrick said: Lovers of dystopian novels need to check out

Hypershot by Sherry Decker. The prose is excellent and the plot tightly

under the author's control. Decker weaves into this world an engaging

protagonist, a female hero who overcomes extreme obstacles to always

travel that extra mile. It's a real good read!



What I say: Dark, dystopian and dangerous, Undercity is a place no one

would choose to live. Two thirds of its population are slave labor and

hundreds risk their lives to escape through a treacherous three mile

route to the surface. Seldom, does anyone succeed. As a mid-rank member

in Undercity's military, it's Krea's job to stop them, until she loses

everything and everyone she cares about.



Do you enjoy creating horror fiction in particular?



Yes. I've always had a fascination with the dark elements in fiction. And

monsters. And the impossible. As a small child I watched Frankenstein on

television, which gave me nightmares and later I read Dracula and was

hooked. I started imagining what it would be like to write such stories.

As a young adult I read Stephen King; Carrie. The Shining. The Stand.

Salem's Lot . . . I'm an avid fan of his earlier works.



What do you feel is your greatest accomplishment as an artist so far?



 Perseverance. I first began writing Hypershot over twenty years ago when

I first met my most influential teacher, Jack Remick. To enter his class

I had to submit thirty pages of something that I was currently working

on. I didn't know that Hypershot would become a full length novel. I also

didn't know how awful my writing was at that time. But Jack saw something

in my writing that made him think, there's hope for her.



During those twenty-plus years, Hypershot was set aside numerous times

out of frustration, self doubt, lack of ideas, etc. So, I wrote more short

fiction. I also edited and published Indigenous Fiction ~ wondrously

weird and offbeat,² a short fiction magazine. Indigenous Fiction

flourished for five years before I found out I needed surgery to remove a

benign tumor pressing against my spine. Long-story-short I'll never have a

good back again. After a second back surgery I'm left with nerve damage

down my left leg which prevents me from doing many of the things I used to

take for granted. I love gardening but must limit that to an hour and a

half or I'm in pain for the rest of the day.



As far as my best writing, I'd say Hypershot contains strong material,

mixed with paragraphs that remind me I still have some self doubt. The

same goes for the next book, Fallow Fields and also, Salvage. Maybe

that will always be the case for me. Some lingering self doubt.



The first time I felt genuine success was when, Hicklebickle Rock was

accepted for publication in Alfred Hitchcock's Mystery Magazine. Later,

when The Clan was published by Hitchcock and was illustrated on the

cover, I was astounded. Now, having my first novel published by Eldritch

Press, I feel thrilled.



Name some of your favorite horror books.



I touched on some of them before: Carrie, The Shining, The Stand, Salem's

Lot (King), Prince of Tides (Conroy), Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon

(Harris), Dandelion Wine (Bradbury) The Other (Tryon), The Ocean at the

End of the Lane (Gaiman). There are many, many more but I'll stop there.

The list would be near-endless.



Name some of your favorite horror films.



Alien, (all of them), Silence of the Lambs, Red Dragon, the original Time

Machine, Dracula, The Thing, Riddick, Prometheus (I know, I know)

Rosemary's Baby, The Exorcist, A Clockwork Orange, The Omega Man, Silent

Running (not exactly horror) The Blob, The Andromeda Strain. Again, there

are tons more but these are the ones that come to mind at this moment.



Why do you think old school horror fiction remains popular?



Horror fiction doesn't attract everyone but for those of us who are fans,

we can't get enough. I have my favorite types of horror, but chainsaws

don't appeal to me, although vampires and zombies and other blood thirsty

creatures do. I've never figured out why, exactly. We have to admire the

imagination and the attempt to display such stories onscreen, and while

some of them had special effects that seem silly by today's standards,

they still manage to give us shivers and force us to consider, what if?

I love that old movie about the giant ants in the desert, Them!

Whenever it's on television, I sit down and watch it.



What are your latest projects?



Trying to come up with ideas to keep writing, Salvage. It's an

off-world adventure about a woman tricked and abandoned on a penal

satellite, struggling to survive against the harsh elements and desperate

inmates.



Please in your own words write a paragraph about yourself & your work.



I'm a wife, a mother, a grandmother who loves stories. I don't stick 100%

to fantasy, dark fantasy, or horror. I enjoy a bit of everything, even

romance on occasion. As a young teenager I was a Victoria Holt fan. But I

won't read Fifty Shades of Gray. One must draw the line at poorly

written trash. That's my opinion. Personally, I'd love to write something

that shocks, entertains and makes readers think. I love an unreliable

narrator or protagonist. The protagonist in Hypershot, Krea-D is like

that. She's a bit of a Mad Max character. She insists everyone else follow

the rules, but breaks them herself. The big eleven  publishers turned

down Hypershot, saying Krea wasn't 'sympathetic' enough. To me, that means

she wasn't predictable enough for them. They did say to my agent, Richard

Curtis, ³send us her next book, but since Eldritch Press loved my rebel

protagonist, they get my second book, probably my third book too. Seems

only fair.



I hope people will buy Hypershot and give it a chance. I'd love to get

feedback from readers, even if they have criticims. I actually will

consider their opinions. I want to know what they like and what they

dislike about the story and the characters.



Links:

Goodreads

Amazon UK

Amazon US