Tamara Thorne

answers the Usual Questions

Tamara Thorne

California writer Tamara Thorne writes horror because she has always been fascinated by horror.

Her mother read her fantasy classics when she was an infant and she wrote her first ghost story in the first grade.

Has your interaction with fans, for example, at conventions, affected your work?

No, though I'm constantly amazed at what readers sometimes get out of my stories. Most people see what I see, but some see so much more, or something very different than what I intended. It's sometimes baffling where these ideas even came from, but it's all good.

Tamara Thorne

Is there any particular incident (a letter, a meeting, a comment that stands out?

The letters that stand out to me are usually from younger readers - junior high through high school - who tell me they hated reading until they tried one of my books. That makes me feel wonderful. No matter what else I do or don't accomplish in this life, this will always be something that makes me feel like I've done something right.

Do you have a favourite author or book (or writer or film or series) that has influenced you or that you return to?

I read Ray Bradbury voraciously as a child (and adult) and his love of place infected me. His novels Dandelion Wine and Something Wicked This Way Comes are especially dear to me. His locales are as much characters as his humans are. I first read Shirley Jackson's Haunting of Hill House when I was ten and that, along with Richard Matheson's more physical version of the same story, Hell House, both influenced me. I was pretty young when I read Tom Tryon's Harvest Home and The Others and those books have probably influenced me as well. But it's really all about Ray Bradbury and Greentown Illinois, about the taste of rain in the air, the glow of a case glass lamp in the town library and the smell of old books. He instilled my love of atmosphere. MAD Magazine still informs my work, too.

Who is the person you would most like to be trapped in a lift with? or a spaceship?

Scottie, damn it!

Who is the person you would most DISlike to be trapped in a lift with? Or a spaceship?

Tom Cruise. I'd need to deck him at some point.

What would you pack for space? (Is there a food, beverage, book, teddy bear, etc that you couldn't do without?)

My cats and their accoutrements, my Mac and pens and notebooks so I can write, King's Dark Tower series since I haven't read it yet, LOTR to read again, a stack of classic MAD Magazines and National Lampoons, jigsaw puzzles, crossword puzzles, my Tom Lehrer collection, some classic rock, Scott Joplin, and Mozart. And a shitload of Twinkies because, in space, no one can resist their cream.

What is the most important thing you would like to get/achieve from your work?

I write to entertain. By entertaining myself, I hope to entertain others. That's pretty much it.

What is the special satisfaction of your work?

I love when readers tell me I gave them nightmares or kept them up all night reading. I love it when they tell me I made them laugh. And I get huge satisfaction out of listening to my characters come to life and take over the story.

submitted by Tamara Thorne

3 October, 2013

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Just the facts:
Born: California
Resides: Southern California
Bibliography/Awards: tamarathorne.com/books.html

Web site: http://tamarathorne.com
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