Alexander Beresford grew up in Los Angeles. He now resides in South Florida with occasional escapes to a haunted cottage in Derbyshire, England where he communicates with ghosts, drinks rum, and writes.
He is a National Writer’s Association Short Fiction Award winner, a proud member of the Horror Writer’s Association, and studied Creative Writing at FIU with creative writing director/author Les Standiford. Alexander has written plays, screenplays, short stories, a novella, and Charla, his first novel.
What first attracted you to horror writing?
The seed of this attraction came way back when I began reading horror comics like Creepy, Weird, Nightmare, and Vampirella, before I was really old enough to be reading them. I thank my best mate’s older brothers for this early, seedy pleasure. This material had a big impact on me.
I began writing when I was in my teens and most of the very short stories I wrote at the time were all horror, that’s what came naturally to me. In my twenties I wrote a lot about relationships (another kind of horror). Today I mix it up within the horror/suspense genre: sex, the occult, supernatural stuff, psychological… I don’t usually pepper my material with extreme violence or heavy gore.
What is your most notable work?
The verdict is not out yet on whether Charla is a notable work or not, but it’s my first full-length horror novel, so it’ll have to be the one I mention here. It premiered at the World Horror Convention in 2012, released by Nicholas Grabowsky’s Black Bed Sheet Books/Diverse Media.
What are you working on now?
I’m working on my second novel, which is tentatively titled Promises. I don’t like to talk about work-in-progress, it seems to suck the energy right out of it for me and seems to damage my progress, so I’ll just say it’s another horror novel dealing primarily with a man’s terrible obsessions and his inability to keep a very serious promise he made.
There’s another novel I’ve put on hold for the time being called Doll Face about a young woman you would not want to bump into late at night on that dark side-street next to the pub.
I’m also working on a zombie short requested for an upcoming anthology,
And a film script of Charla.
Who do you admire in the horror world?
There really are so many people I admire in the horror world, a long list filled with curious anecdotes and solid reasons. Generally speaking I love the people in horror, who are (for the most part) unpretentious, intelligent, interesting, and fun!
To answer your question more specifically, I’ll share three names in Horror literature (out of the twenty or so on my ‘favourites’ list) and why I admire them:
Clive Barker: Balls. Imagination. The man holds nothing back, and his prose is inspiring, hauntingly beautiful. I’m a fan. Let’s do lunch, Clive.
Nicholas Grabowsky: I don’t have to kiss his ass, he’s already published me. I admire his writing (particularly in The Everborn); his passion for anything horror, and his heart (yeah, he has a heart).
Richard Laymon: For his wild creativity and the most amount of consecutive books from one author I’ve enjoyed.
Oh hell…and let me add the horror fans, who refuse to give it up, to let it go, grabbing the industry by the throat year after year and demanding, “Give me more, motherfuckers!”
Do you prefer all out gore or psychological chills?
I think there’s a time and place for all of it, even the real sick shit written by Edward Lee.
I have enjoyed it all through the years, though I prefer the various depths of psychological horror nowadays.
Why should people read your work?
I certainly hope people will read my work. Whether they should or not will depend on what blows their hair back. In relation to Charla, if you like sex, betrayal, occult/paranormal stuff, demons, and psychological horror amongst other things, then maybe you should check it out.
I will tell you that I leave it all on the page, so much so that I gave my parents a copy of Charla and told them to please NOT read it. They’re still not ashamed to introduce me to their friends so I don’t think they have.
Recommend a book.
In comics I recommend ‘From Hell’ by Alan Moore. If you’ve read it, read it again. Like right now.
In Horror literature I recommend Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart. It’s a beautiful little book.
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