This week, we have a special interview with Richard Thomas, here to talk about his new release, Incarnate. He is the award-winning author of four novels, four short story collections, 175 stories in print, and the editor of five anthologies.
He has been nominated for the Bram Stoker (twice), Shirley Jackson, Thriller, and Audie awards.
Read on below to hear all about his new novel and his writing process then be sure to pick up Incarnate for yourself today!
If you had two minutes to pitch INCARNATE to a new reader, what would you say?
Great question. Incarnate is an arctic horror sin eater novel inspired by The Thing and The Terror, with a dash of Lois Lowry’s The Giver. It takes the rural native feel of Stephen Graham Jones’s The Only Good Indians and combines it with the cosmic horror of John Langan’s The Fisherman to tell an immersive story about isolation, desperation, absolution, and justice…but not without hope.
How did you come up with the concept for this story?
When I started working on this novel, I was fascinated by the idea of emotions manifesting into some kind of form, and that’s essentially what “incarnate” means—to be made into flesh. Micaela Morrissette’s story, “The Familiars,” which I teach in my Contemporary Dark Fiction class, was always on my mind—the thing under the bed, not an imaginary friend or ghost, but the manifestation of grief. That’s where it originated, and when I started thinking about a location, I ran across Barrow, Alaska (now called Utqiagvik) and the long period of darkness (about 67 days). So, this book is in an imaginary place between Alaska and the arctic, but I knew my desire for maximalism, and immersion would work well in this place. Add to that a sin eater—a sort of shaman—who absolved people of their sins on their deathbeds (creating a range of monstrosities) and I was off to the races.
Is there a favorite character that really resonates with you more so than the others? Why do you think that is?
This novel has a unique structure—three acts, so we have three protagonists: Sebastian Pana, the sin eater, who starts off the book; the Mother Monster in a desert wasteland for the second act; and the young boy, Kallik, who finishes the story. It was important that each one of them had a unique role, and then took the baton handoff of the story, and did their own thing with it. So, I love them all. There are a number of monsters and creatures that pop up now and then, and I found them to be pretty interesting, rather unsettling, as well.
Do you have a favorite moment in the book? What makes it your favorite?
The end of each act has a lot of power, building to a climax for each of the three main characters. So I’d say each of those final scenes resonates with me. The progression of meals the sin eater eats, and the creatures he births into existence, were a lot of fun to write, so I have a certain fondness for the end of the first act. I also remember reading the final scenes to my daughter, and I was worried it was too cliché or melodramatic, but when I looked over at her, she had tears in her eyes, so it seems to have worked. That was very important to me.
Tell us about your writing process. Have you found that it changes with every story, or do you have an established routine?
It does change for every book and story. My first novel, Transubstantiate, I wrote on my lunch hour every day. My second novel, Disintegration, I wrote half in my MFA (over six months) and the second half (two years later) in about a week, 40,000 words. Breaker, I wrote in a fever dream of 25 days. And Incarnate I did research for two years before sitting down and writing it in essentially two weeks. Stories I like to focus on one at a time, and they can take a day, a week, a month. Typically, if it’s working, I can get a good rough draft done in a day. I’m kind of a feast or famine author—it’s either flowing or I’m getting nothing. If I have deadlines, well, that tends to change things, too.
What one thing must you always do or have while writing and why?
I have to be excited about the concept, the core idea, and feel that I have the authority and capability to write it. That’s very important to me. So, I try to lean into my strengths. And then it’s just carving out the time and taking it seriously, not letting other things interrupt it. It’s work, but it should also be a passion, a labor of love.
Which author has most inspired or impacted your writing style?
Two authors immediately come to mind—Stephen Graham Jones and Brian Evenson. I’ve read both of them extensively, become good friends with them both (I consider them both informal mentors), and their originality, weirdness, emotion, immersion, and impact have influenced so much of my work. Stephen does a great job with people, families, locations, and emotion and Brian leans into the psychology of horror, and the uncanny, in very original ways. But I could say so many people—A. C. Wise, Chuck Palahniuk, Steve Toase, Brian Hodge, Livia Llewellyn, Kelly Robosn, Usman T. Malik, Victor LaValle, Rich Larson, Ted Chiang, Liard Barron, and of course Stephen King.
What is the most valuable piece of advice that you WISH you had been given when you were starting your career?
Figure out who you are, what your influences are, and what makes your writing different. If you write horror, what kind of horror? Who are the authors you’ve read over and over again? What television shows and movies have blown you away? It’s so important for us to understand where we come from, what we’re trying to do, and what we have the authority to write. It’s not random, and each author has something special and different to say, and their own way of saying it.
What are you most proud of thus far in your career?
Oof, that’s a tough question. Two things come to mind, First, that I finally had the strength and insight to quit drinking and start writing, at the age of 40. If I hadn’t done that, I never would have written anything of value. And second, being a finalist last year for the Bram Stoker Award, for my fourth collection of short stories, Spontaneous Human Combustion, meant a lot to me. There we 64 collections on the recommended reading list, and to make the top five (in my head I came in second LOL) really made me feel like the horror community saw my work as something special, and that meant a lot to me.
What current projects are in the works that you would like to mention?
Doing research on my third novel, which has a ways to go. I have a number of stories out this year— “The Darkness Between the Stars” in Lightspeed (took me fifteen years to get in there); “Naomi Ascends” in the Neutral Milk Hotel anthology, And One Day We Will Die; “Sunk” in The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird anthology; and “Kuebiko” in Three-Lobed Burning Eye.
PRAISE FOR INCARNATE
“This is not the conventional sort of horror novel in which something monstrous intrudes upon a recognizable reality; instead, the very fabric of Thomas’ world is fragile and subject to reorganization. Fans of Brian Evenson will enjoy—and perhaps cower from—this cold-weather tale. A haunting horror novel set in a dire wasteland.”—Kirkus Reviews
“Incarnate is a stunningly creepy supernatural thriller set in the remote arctic. It captures the terror of being alone in the frozen darkness with something dreadful. Weird and thrilling!”—Jonathan Maberry, NY Times bestselling author of The Sleepers War and NecroTek
“A numinous slow burn blending foul and folklore from one of horror’s best, Richard Thomas’s Incarnate is a sumptuous and sinister exploration of human sin.”—Lee Murray, five-time Bram Stoker Award®-winning author of Grotesque: Monster Stories
"Thomas is one of the best when it comes to the art of visceral horror. Incarnate is as cold and immaculate as winter in the deep arctic."—Laird Barron, author of Not a Speck of Light (Stories)
“Thomas creates a detailed, transcendental world full of both beauty and brutality. There are too many monsters to count, and yet we still dare to hope. My favorite work of his to date.”—Multiple Bram Stoker Award-winning author, Mercedes M. Yardley
"Thomas's characters peer behind the thin veil between worlds, mapping a landscape that's sinister but not hopeless. Incarnate will stick with you long after the last page."—Angela "A.G." Slatter, award-winning author of The Briar Book of the Dead
"Richard Thomas is a major name in the horror genre, and his latest book, Incarnate, once again proves why. This is a strange, profound, and powerful tale about good and evil, and it's one that will stick with you long after you've turned the final page."—Gwendolyn Kiste, Lambda Literary and Bram Stoker Award-winning author of Reluctant Immortals and The Haunting of Velkwood
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