Interview with dark fiction author William Brennan Knight

Today’s guest author is dark fiction writer William Brennan Knight. We’re chatting about his new novel, Identicals.

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Bio:
William Brennan Knight is originally from Chicago and settled in Arizona in the late 1980s. In his life, he has been a father, musician, and business owner. His passion for writing began early in his childhood and flourished as he grew older. He enjoys reading horror, supernatural thrillers, and science fiction, as well as memoirs and biographies.

William’s books have received praise from a variety of recognized reviewers, including the Publishers Weekly/BookLife Prize Fiction Contest (semi-finalist), Horrornews.net and Readers Favorite (5-star winner).

William currently lives in Southern Arizona and spends most of the summer in the mountains of New Mexico.

Welcome, William. Please tell us about your current release.
Identicals is a story that revolves around a family that has lost a young child in the most horrific way. The main character is Jack Clausen, who has spiraled into a deep depression that has cost him his job, his family and his self-respect. Through an odd set of circumstances, Jack finds himself with an opportunity to bring back his lost daughter, but the cost will prove to be very high. Identicals centers around horror and supernatural themes, as well as (non sci-fi) time travel. I sometimes describe the book as the Omen (the movie) meets Groundhog Day (the movie).

More about the book:
Semi-Finalist in the 2021 Publishers Weekly/BookLife Prize Fiction Contest in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Horror category!

“Knight has crafted a disturbing, horrifying, and eloquently written novel that expertly captures the sensations of desperation, fear, and confusion.”–2021 BookLife Prize Fiction Contest.

If you had the chance to bring back a lost loved one, but the cost was the death of an innocent person at your own hand, would you do it?

In the year and a half since Jack Clausen lost his five-year-old daughter, RosaMarie, his life has fallen apart. His marriage is failing, he’s been fired from his job, and his drinking is problematic. Sitting in a local bar on a typical weekday, Jack encounters an old woman who issues a dire warning: “You must be on time and pay your debt.” Later that night in a drunken stupor, Jack ignores three phone calls from his teenage son, Bryson. After learning Bryson was calling him for help but then died from an overdose, Jack decides he cannot live with the guilt and pain of losing two children.

Depressed and despondent, Jack steps off a platform into an oncoming commuter train. At the moment before impact, someone grabs him from behind and pulls him away from danger. His rescuer is a small person with unusual features who offers Jack a way to bring his daughter and son back, but there is a high price to pay. When Jack agrees to the deal but then refuses to pay his debt, events spiral out of control, leading to series of different realities, each worse than the one he originally tampered with.

What inspired you to write this book?
Identicals is the only book I’ve written that came to me as a complete story from beginning to end. Usually, there are many plotline and character decisions to make (I call them forks in the road) throughout the creative process. Sometimes, the story doesn’t really have an ending until I’m well into the middle of the book. However, Identicals came to me as a complete assembled package from start to finish. A gift, really. As a result, I completed it in about half the time it would normally take.

 

Excerpt from Identicals:
Juanita stood at one end of the room, jabbering insensibly while leaning over with her arms outstretched. The boys were standing behind her, stuck in a rigid pose with their eyes locked on their sister and their mouths hanging open.

Slowly, confusion gave way to shock, and Jack felt sluggish, almost like swimming in molasses. He tried to comprehend the visual, but his brain glitched and wouldn’t process the information his optic nerves provided. Someone, or something, stood near the fireplace next to the cracked and broken coffee table. It resembled RosaMarie, but it wasn’t her. The entity’s facial features were distorted somehow, and the thing, whatever it was, looked much, much older than his daughter. Many decades older, in fact. Maybe centuries older.

It held a jagged shard of glass in its hand, and the point was pressed against its other arm, pushing hard enough to draw blood near the wrist. In the dim light in the living room, he saw an outline behind it, which passed through it, and finally stood out in front. It flickered like a hologram while changing size and shape. Jack tilted his head to the side and frowned, but a flash of light illuminated the creature completely for a moment, and he knew.

While hideous boils and lesions created a mask that amplified the hate behind the deep snarl, he recognized the shape of its face and body. The small stature and rounded shoulders; the evenly cut pointed teeth and facial features spaced too far apart. He was looking at Torto, but not the version he encountered in the other reality. The animus and enmity drifted up from the slick layer of sweat that covered its body. Jack could smell it; a stench unlike anything he had ever experienced before.

 

What exciting story are you working on next?
Interestingly, ideas for three new books appeared almost simultaneously. Identicals was the first, and the next one is titled, Rage Fuel, which has just entered the editing phase. All three of these books will be related, but they won’t be released in a series. Rage Fuel is a horror story that takes place in a nursing home and explores the themes of neglect, loneliness, and abandonment that older people often experience. In some sense, it was a difficult book to write.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
Somewhere in elementary school. I won a creative writing contest in 4rth grade if memory serves. It was about a guy who fought crime. For some reason, I remember he had a tobacco pipe where his nose was supposed to be. The real passion for writing blossomed in my teenage years when I co-authored a novel with a friend. I still love that work and read it occasionally, although it’s extremely speculative even by today’s standards

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 do write full time. The front half of the day is devoted to marketing, which, like most authors, I don’t usually enjoy… Okay, being honest, that part kind of sucks. The back half is when I spend most of my time editing, which is a seemingly ongoing and endless process. The actual creative and fun stuff for new material happens later at night from around 10 pm until midnight or after. That’s the zone when I’m locked in and the words flow freely. I have to watch the time, because midnight can turn into 4 am really easily. Hey, after all, I’m a horror writer, right?

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
Besides the fact I tend to get started on the creative writing part when everyone else is going to bed, I have a particular superstitious quirk I’ve never quite understood. I get very involved with my characters, and it’s difficult to say goodbye to them once the book is finished. I suppose that’s the only explanation I have for why I always have someone else type “The End” when the story is over. In the six books I’ve written, I have never typed those two words when the first draft is done.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
Depends on the age. I would say the progression went from NFL quarterback to rock star to writer. Like most people who eventually bend to the will of necessity, I didn’t dream I’d ever be running a business for a couple decades before I got to be what I actually wanted to be before I grew up… That may be confusing, but it makes perfect sense to me.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
It’s important for me to let the people who take the time to read my books know how much they’re appreciated. There is no better feeling than when someone reaches out to let me know they enjoyed a book I wrote. I try to stay as engaged with my readers as much as possible, primarily through my newsletter and blog, but I do my best to personally answer as many emails as I can. The “Knight Dwellers,” as we call ourselves, is a group of great people who share my love for all things related to the horror genre.

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