Countdown to Hallowe’en 2016: Interview with Peadar Ó Guilín

As the title suggests, this is where we begin our now-traditional countdown to the Horror highlight of the year: over the next month we will give you interviews, reviews and things that have piqued our interest until the 31st October. We hope you enjoy them as much as we have putting them together.

To start with, we’ve asked Peadar Ó Guilín, the author of the recently released and deliciously creepy YA novel The Call, set in a broken post-fairy-apocalypse Ireland to talk to us. We asked him about dark storytelling and things that go bump in the night.
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Welcome to SFFWorld, Peadar. Could you tell us a little about The Call?

P: Thanks! The Call is a dark YA fantasy that mixes up some of the nastier parts of Irish mythology with a more modern survival story. I often describe it as “Harry Potter where everybody dies”. Although to be fair, it’s only the vast majority who die in the end.

Your earlier work, the Bone World Trilogy, has cannibals as main characters. The Call has sadistic, vicious Fae. Why the fascination with dark fantasy and science fiction?

P: It’s not so much the darkness that fascinates me, as the reason for the darkness. In my earlier trilogy, I wanted the reader to identify with the cannibals and to despise the civilization they share their world with. Not because I myself think cannibalism is a good thing, but because they were put in a situation where they really had no choice but to become what they did. The Sídhe of The Call, were also made, rather than born.

In The Call, your version of Fairyland is not exactly ‘fair’. In fact, it’s quite horrific. Where did the inspiration for this come from?

P: I was slowly building up to it over the years. Earlier short stories of mine have versions of The Grey Land. But really, it was obvious to me the Sídhe had to be living in a sort of Hell. According to the legends, they were forced out of Ireland by my ancestors, and we all know that when you ethnically cleanse a people from their land, it’s not so that they can live in paradise! Displaced peoples always go somewhere awful, and the more terrible their exile the stronger the urge for vengeance becomes.

I think the creepiest thing about your Fae is that they do awful things while smiling cheerfully. How did you come up with your interpretation of the ‘Fair Folk’?

P: Like the Grey Land, this aspect of the fair folk came about via evolution from earlier stories of mine. In this case, the story was “Fairy Fort”, with its unhinged cannibalistic, dancing Sídhe.

One of the things I enjoyed in The Call is that all of your characters are so complex. Which one did you find hardest to write, and why?

P: Conor was probably the hardest for me. I wanted to make him understandable despite his utter awfulness. I don’t feel that I succeeded completely, but I enjoyed the challenge all the same.

It’s October, and with Halloween approaching, it’s the perfect time of year to dip into books like The Call. What’s your favorite spooky read?

P: I think Adam Nevill’s “The Ritual” is a wonderful horror. It has everything I like: a fast pace; unbearable tension; and a wonderful, wild monster.

How about movies or TV shows? Do you have any seasonal favorites?

P: I’m still a huge fan of The Ring. As a writer, I have great admiration for the horrible, structured way in which the curse operates. I think it’s brilliant.

Are there any Halloween traditions you like to follow?

P: We Irish “invented” Halloween, of course. It used to be our New Year. I don’t do much for it now, but I really miss the games and traditions we had as kids. I loved eating barmbrack — a type of cake — and was always desperate to be the one who found the coin that promised future wealth. The parties were great too!

Personally, I’m terrified of zombies (though I wouldn’t want to meet your Fae, either!). What fictional monster would you hate to meet in a dark alley or cornfield?

P: The alien from… Alien. Who wouldn’t be horrified to incubate a creature that will burst out of your chest?

You’re ‘Called’, and disappear from our world to find yourself trapped in your worst nightmare. Where are you? And what fictional character would you take with you to be your back-up?

P: I find William Hope Hodgson’s The Night Land to be particularly chilling. Again, what always scares me is the idea of crushing inevitability, and that’s the overriding feeling I get from this work. I think, if you’re really giving me the choice of a companion, I’ll have Gandalf come along to help me out. He can drive away monsters with bursts of fire, and maybe turn very ordinary me into a hero.

What are you working on now? Do you have plans to take Nessa’s story further?

P: Yes. I’m working on the one and probably only sequel. I have no idea what to call it yet…

Interview by Juliana S. Mills (many thanks!) for SFFWorld, copyright September 2016.