Author Spotlight – Kev Harrison
Kev, thank you for joining us. Can you tell us about who you are and also about your writing: for example, what genres and themes do you write in and about, and is there anything that has influenced your choices?
My name’s Kev Harrison and I write dark fiction. Much of it tends not to be visceral enough to be called horror, but I deal as much in emotional suffering as in physical. I’m from Britain, and grew up and lived in various towns and cities during the first thirty years of my life, but I’ve since lived in Turkey, Poland and now Portugal, where I plan to stay. My life abroad, and travel more generally, often provides backdrops or folklore bases for my stories. When I’m not reading or writing fiction I can be found trying to find balance between my opposing loves of food and beer, and running.
Can you tell us a bit about your publications and writerly highlights, and what else we can look forward to seeing from you in the future?
Only a week before Trickster’s Treats 4 was exhumed, I was fortunate enough to have my second story from Demain Publishing’s excellent Short Sharp Shocks range come out. Curfew is a tale set on the English south coast, at a B&B where hospitality is in seriously short supply. That followed last year’s Cinders of a Blind Man Who Could See, which was a folk horror novelette and April 2020’s The Balance, my folklore-laden eco-horror debut novella, which reimagines the Slavic folktale of Baba Yaga. I’m delighted with how that one has been received, and proud of the story. As for the future, I’m doing my damnedest to sell my second novella, have a story coming in the third instalment of The Infernal Clock anthology series towards the end of the year, and am about halfway through the draft of my first novel, a story set around the eastern Mediterranean and based on some of the folklore of the region.
This year has presented a lot of challenges for many of us. Instead of discussing those, what are some of your 2020 highlights?
As mentioned above, the release of the novella has been a big highlight, especially as it was released simultaneously in a really well-produced audiobook format, alongside the usual paperback/eBook media. I’ve also been invited to two anthologies, which is a first for me, and gives me the idea that I’m on the right course with my work.
Thanks for chatting with me, Kev. Lots of titles to choose from in here, if people would like to see more of your work. Congrats on all the recent publications.
My website is www.kevharrisonfiction.com and I really recommend people sign up to my newsletter there as there is a big giveaway coming up in October.
As for social media, my main presence as a writer is on Twitter: www.twitter.com/lisboetaingles
Kev’s story “Shaft” appears in Trickster’s Treats 4: Coming, Buried or Not! , a charity anthology in support of the Indigenous Literacy Foundation.
