Mike Robinson’s story, The Hive, is a dark tale that has queer characters and speaks on the nature of abuse, or rather abuse survival, and the excuses people can make… and why they shouldn’t.
The Hive looked like nothing: a normal street intersection. But that was the mask it wore.
– The Hive, by Mike Robinson in A Woman Unbecoming
Q (Crone Girls Press): Author Interview Question 1: What drove your story for this anthology? Tell us the “story behind the story.”
A (Mike Robinson): Unfortunately, I’ve had several friends, male and female, who were victims of domestic abuse. The opening of “The Hive”, where the main character is meeting her abused friend for lunch, loosely parallels a real-life meet-up with one such friend who, through dazed eyes and a half-grin full of denial, tried to downplay the extent of their situation. I wanted to rustle them out of that “checked-out” state, to put them in touch with the full onslaught of rage I knew must be brewing deep within them. I’d say that’s the urge that inspired this story.
Q: What does it mean to read and write horror when you’re competing with news headlines (for example, this anthology came about in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V Wade)? How has it changed (or not!) your approach to the genre as a writer or as a fan?
A: I think it’s made the genre even more important as a cultural roundtable, or campfire, around which we can gather to commiserate in our “horror-ific” catharsis. There could also be a weirdly perverse sense of perspective it gives you: things could be worse…when Cthulhu rises. When ingested properly, horror can offer emotional tools to deal with adversity.
Q: There are a number of different flavors of horror. Where does your story fit, and what drew you to this particular category?
A: I mostly write horror that could be called “literary contemporary”. It’s more philosophical, more atmospheric, more concerned with the reaction to the monster than the monster itself. As horror deals with the unknown of existence, I’ve always thought it shares a certain backdoor kinship with more contemplative literary fiction. A lot of literary fiction is trivial navel-gazing, but marrying its best capacities for artful language and psychological insight with horror’s knack for titillation, sensation and celebrating the universe’s stranger aspects is, as an author, an ongoing effort of mine.
Q: Why do you write horror? What about the genre appeals to you as an author?
A: It’s probably one of the most fertile of genres, in terms of spawning subgenres. It can be nicely paired with other genres, too. Whether folks like to admit it, several notable classic or literary books benefit from strains of horror, “Blood Meridian” and “Moby Dick” being good examples. It’s not afraid to dream, to nightmare, to take the world and what we know of it and extrapolate into realms amazing and insane and awe-inspiring and terrifying. It celebrates the Unknown, and it’s not afraid of the dark.
Q: What’s next in your writing journey?
A: I’m actually working on a non-supernatural novel right now (my first), entitled “The Trailcutter”, a literary-mystery inspired by my experiences hiking in and around Los Angeles County. And my latest horror novel, “Backwaters Dark”, is out on submission right now via my agent.
About The Author
It was at the tender age of 7 that an interconnection of cells and organs called Mike Robinson (then Mikey) penned, or pencilled, his first story, The Aliens That Invaded My Backyard!. A runaway international bestseller, it went on to win the World Fantasy Award, Hugo Award, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker Prize. Or maybe those things were also just products of his imagination.
In weathering the pressure of following such an unlikely debut, he later became the author of multiple books: the trilogy The Enigma of Twilight Falls, The Prince of Earth, Dreamshores, Skunk Ape Semester, The Atheist, Dishonor Thy Father (with M.J. Richards), one collection of short fiction, Too Much Dark Matter, Too Little Gray, and more. Most tack toward the weird, the darkly fantastic, the metaphysical, the odd residue scraped from the bottom of our “souls” (he was a PhD in puns). And there’s plenty more where that came from.
But the story buck doesn’t stop there. A native of Los Angeles, his blood is half-celluloid, so it was inevitable that he also became a screenwriter and producer, not to mention co-editor of the magazine Literary Landscapes for the Greater Los Angeles Writers Society, or GLAWS, from 2011 to 2018. A short film he cro-wrote, Chrysaline, debuted at the Louisiana International Film Festival in 2016, and his feature film, Corral, a psychological, supernatural thriller, is tumbling through post-production.
He is represented by Jennifer Azantian, of the Azantian Literary Agency.
You can find Mike online at:
mike-robinsonauthor.com
Be sure to check out his story in A Woman Unbecoming
Crone Girls Press 