Interview with YA fantasy author Ralph Burton

Today’s special guest helping me kick off a new month is Ralph Burton. We’re chatting about his new young adult fantasy, The Falls.

A copy of Ralph Burton’s newest book, Masquerade and a $20 gift card, open where Amazon ships, ends Nov 7 at midnight. Click here: Ralph Burton Feature

Bio:
Ralph Burton is a twenty-five-year-old horror author from Aylesbury, UK. He enjoys drinking tea, coffee, listening to classical music and likes cats. His favourite authors are Roald Dahl and Angela Carter. His first book is Eldritch Nights (2019) and his most recent book was The Falls (2021). His new book Masquerade will be out by winter 2021. He currently resides in Oxford, UK.

Welcome, Ralph. Please tell us about your current release.
My latest book is called The Falls. It’s about a troubled family of four recovering from a brutal house fire. This family is about as broken as you can get. Dad’s a recovering alcoholic. Mum’s probably the most normal, though she’s got a fascination with a dark and strange history. Our hero Emily is fifteen, suffering from paranoia and depression. She just wants to put her headphones in while the world burns around her. She lost her grandma and the family dog, Caesar, in the fire and she blames her brother, Robert, who’s a shady character: in his late twenties and still living with his parents, always dressing in a business suit, criminal history etc. I must say, no way is this family based on my own — we’ve never had a dog.

They move into a large mansion they think is haunted, but it’s far worse than that. All sorts of strange people are coming out of the basement. Soon, Emily discovers she can disappear inside the basement as well. The Falls is a YA Fantasy Horror, but I like to think it has crossover appeal

What inspired you to write this book?
I came up with the basic idea when I was sixteen (I’m twenty-five now). The idea of the house came first: this huge place with a graveyard out front and loads of pumpkins out back – somewhere where it’s permanently Halloween. I had a lot of fun coming out with the epitaphs for the gravestones, trying to get them to rhyme. The idea of how the house would be “haunted” was always there right from the start, as well. One of the first images I had was of a chariot bursting through a pair of doors.

Excerpt from The Falls:
We went downstairs again into the basement, our backs hunched as we made our way across the gloom-laden room. I found my sneakers on the floor and put them on, gulping as I did so. Robert inched for the fridge, his hand twitching as if he was about to grab something hot. How ironic: he was about to open a fridge. He retrieved the goggles then fasted them to his head.

Robert shared a look with me.

‘Let’s get ready,’ he said.

Those words caused me a surge of excitement as if me and my brother were finally hanging out and getting along, just like we used to do, playing hockey in our backyard all those years ago.

My big brother.

He hauled open the door with a tremendous whoosh.

And then he was blown back.

A tidal wave of blood swept through into the basement and carried us off our feet, down to the far wall. The foul-smelling liquid, burgundy red, made me splutter and cough. I fought to remain above, as not to swallow any of it, but some blood went in my mouth. It covered me, all of me, like Carrie at her prom. Robert screamed, equally horrified, and thrashed his arms as the blood dragged us back, towards the open fridge where we saw this blood sea consuming the desert and under the blaring sun, these screams flying out as Egyptians realized their precious Nile had turned stinking and red. Robert’s legs were dragged through the fridge but, tossing his arms about, he grabbed onto the side of the fridge and dragged himself back out. He slammed the fridge door shut, screaming. That brought about a sea-change as the blood dropped us down to the floor. What was left in the basement were a few sporadic puddles and splashes against the wall. The entire place stank like rotten meat.

Both of us stared at the fridge, soaked through the bone, our clothes stained red.

Robert spluttered, blood bubbling out his nose.

I felt the stuff trickling down my clothes. Inside me, this dark boiling scream was rising, about to rip my jaw in two.

‘Are you familiar,’ Robert seethed, his eyes wide open; ‘with the Book of Exodus?’

The sheer rage in his voice made me want to giggle.

 

What exciting story are you working on next?
Next, I’m editing another horror story called Masquerade, about a family of four girls who wake up in The French Revolution every time they fall asleep. It’s like Les Mis meets Nightmare on Elm Street. I based the four girls off the family from Little Women, though.

After I’ve finished editing that, my next book will be called “Tonight” and it’s about a pair of detectives trying to solve murders in a steampunk town at the turn of the century. It takes place over the course of one day with the clock ticking down. It’s like “Sherlock Holmes meets 24” but it’s got lots of weird Andrew Lloyd-Weber influences I hope people like.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Writing’s always been something I’ve enjoyed and do for fun. I started writing seriously when I was twelve. That’s when I wrote my first serious novel “New Year’s Day”, about an assassin chasing someone in witness protection; it’s lost now to history. I’ve never really gone around with a name-tag that says “writer”. I just like coming up with the ideas and think it would be pretty cool if they were written down.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I’m a Film Studies student so I do that for most of my day but I always usually find an hour to write or edit. What’s just as important is finding an hour to read: I try to get through a hundred pages a day.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I like to have either a coffee, tea or can of coca-cola with me when I write. Music has to be blasting out, as well. Though, for the sake of my housemates, I often wear headphones.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to be a film director but there’s a certain limitation with movies. It’s easier to put impossible ideas down on paper instead of going around trying to get a budget to film them. Also, the MeToo stuff made me reconsider a career in the film industry; it’s always seemed dark and bone-crushing.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
If you like my books, thank you very much! You can check out my website.

Also if you don’t like them but think the covers are really cool, you can buy mugs and t-shirts with the covers on! I’d really like to shout out the person who does my cover art. GermanCreative. She’s absolutely wonderful. You can find her on Fiverr.

Links:
Website | Amazon | Goodreads