Interview with short story writer C.M. Forest

Short story writer C.M. Forest chats with me about his new dark fiction collection, The Roots Run Deep.

During his virtual book tour, C.M. will be giving away a $15 Amazon or Barnes and Noble (winner’s choice) gift card to a lucky randomly drawn participant. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit his other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
C.M. Forest, also known as Christian Laforet, is the author of the Benjamin Franklin award winning novel Infested, the novella We All Fall Before the Harvest, the short story collection The Roots Run Deep. His short fiction has been featured in over a dozen anthologies across multiple genres. A self-proclaimed horror movie expert, he spent an embarrassing amount of his youth watching scary movies. When not writing, he lives in Ontario, Canada with his wife, kids, three cats and a pandemic dog named Sully who has an ongoing love affair with a blanket.

Welcome, C.M., please tell us about your current release.
The Roots Run Deep is a collection of short, horror stories. There is an overall theme of existential terror running throughout, but the stories themselves are comprised of various subgenres of horror.

What inspired you to write this book?
I’ve always been a fan of short stories (both as an author and as a reader)! My first published works were short stories, so it was only a matter of time before I put together a collection. The Roots Run Deep covers all of my short fiction written from 2017 until now.

Excerpt from The Roots Run Deep:
“Lily! Your mom is not going to be happy with Daddy if I don’t get you home, honey.”

Robert drummed his fingers on the lip of the plastic rim entrance to the playland. He leaned into the opening and listened for any sound at all.

“Lily?”

A terrible thought came to him. What if someone’s taken her?

He shook his head to dislodge the idea from his brain. But a growing level of unease, like some dank fungus flourishing in the darkest of places, kept the horrible possibility present in his mind.

“Lily, this isn’t funny, baby.” Robert stuck his head farther into the hole, and his voice immediately echoed back at him, a dozen clones parroting his words.

Panic, the likes of which Robert wouldn’t have thought possible—certainly not so quickly anyway—arced through his body. He yelled again into the structure.

Nothing.

Not even the smallest knock or scratch to indicate there was anything alive in the playland at all.

What exciting project are you working on next?
My next project, at least what I’m currently working on (we’ll see if it reaches the finish line) is a novel set in Detroit.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
I would say I first considered myself a writer when I was first published. That isn’t a knock at sub-published authors. It’s just that, I’ve always wrestled with imposter syndrome, so having a publisher accept and print a story I wrote made me believe that I could actually do this.

Do you write full-time? If so, what’s your workday like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I wish I could write full-time! I have two kids (one is 11, the other 13), so that eats up a nice chink of my day right there. I also have a very mundane day job (the less said about it, the better!). Because of these things, I usually only get a chance to write in the mornings. From 9am until about noon, is when you will find me at the coffee shop, slugging away on my next project.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
I don’t really have one. I sort of wish I did. I’m pretty vanilla when it comes to writing. I just need a place to set up my computer and I’m ready to go.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I always wanted to be a comic book artist. I even went to school for animation in an attempt to make that dream happen. It was while in school for animation that I started writing. By the time I graduated, I stopped drawing completely and have been exclusively writing ever since.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Once, at a comic convention, I bumped into Stan Lee! He was a very tiny man.

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