Can you tell us a bit about you?

How long have you got?

My name is Dave McCluskey, I live in Liverpool (UK). I live with my partner Lauren and our daughters Grace and Sian. We have a sausage dog called Ted.

I write as D E McCluskey, mostly in the horror genre, but I have crossed genres a few times, just to mix it up a bit. I began my career writing horror comics (for children) before moving on to adult horror comics. I have released 4 graphic novels, 2 are horror (Doppelganger and DeathDay Presents), 1 is a rhyming version of A Christmas Carol, and the other is a children’s book about Fr Christmas and his reindeer called Olf, (no one dies in this one).

I then moved onto writing novels, again mostly horror.

The Twelve was my debut, and to this day is still my best seller. Then I collaborated with a Liverpool music historian, to create the historical thriller, In The Mood for Murder. This is based in Liverpool in 1946, and (fingers crossed) will be made into a film later this year, if the planets align.

I have written the horror/zombie/comedy Z: A Love Story, The Contract (with C William Giles), then I wrote Butterflies, this was a step out of my comfort zone, as it is a female led romantic drama, with humour. TimeRipper came next, this is a time travel sci-fi thriller about Jack the Ripper. Then Cravings is an extreme horror novelette. I usually advise people not to eat before reading Cravings. 

I also write as Dave McCluskey for my children’s books, with A Seagull’s Tale being my first foray into this world. It’s all finished, but I want to give this an airing with an agent before I think about self-publishing this one.

What projects do you have going on?

Again… how long do you have?

I write almost constantly. I just love it. So, my projects at the moment are numerous.

Horror books:

Mutant Superhero Zombie Killing Disco Cheerleaders from Outer Space (with Uzis)

The Boyfriend

Reboot: A Cosmic Horror

The Vaccine Machine

Nine Months

Gore: The Witches of Liverpool

Graveyard Shift

Dark Spirits

Fantasy books:

The Glimmer Saga:

                Glimmer

                The City of the Fireflies

                The Throne of Glimm

Thrillers:

The Spirit of Christmas

Sing Sing Sing for Murder (sequal to In The Mood for Murder)

Black Feather Fever (sequel to The Contract)

Children’s Books:

Olf

An Abominable Christmas

Santa Claws

Sun Sea Sand & Santa

I’m sure I’ve missed some out, but these are the main ones I’m working on at the moment. All of them are passed first draft, while others are up to draft 8 or 9 and ready to be sent to proof readers and betas.

What is the book you enjoyed the best while writing it?

My favourite book, while I was writing it, was Z: A Love Story. There are a number of reasons behind it. The first one is the genre of it. It is a love story, set at the beginning of the zombie apocalypse. It is a story of two tales running alongside each other but drawing closer. One is a comedy about a shy, lonely man in London who has fancied the girl in his office for years and finally get the courage to ask her out. The second is a nasty, vicious, gory horror action thriller in the USA, where the virus has escaped…

I loved writing this because I love writing comedy and putting it in scenes where it’s probably not supposed to be.

I also enjoyed writing this as I was going through a divorce at the time of writing it, and it took me away from the real-life horror of the break-up, and what it was doing to my little girl at the time. It was a true escape.

What kind of music do you listen to?

Favourite bands: Queen, The Beatles, Aerosmith, Bon Jovi, Motley Crue, SixxAM, Cinderella, Black Sabbath, Ozzy Osbourne… I think you get the idea.

I am also a huge fan of older 70’s music of Elton John, I love Billy Joel, Paul Simon, I’m a massive fan of Alice Cooper.

Rock n roll is my life (mixes in with the horror pretty good too, especially particularly gory scenes)

Can you give us your links for our readers?

FACEBOOK:   @davemccluskeyauthor

                          @ Dammagedcomics

TWITTER:       @DammagedPro

                          @DEMcCluskey1

INSTAGRAM: @dammagedproductions 

https://www.dammaged.com (still under construction)

What’s your background in horror?

OK, so when I was a kid, I had two older sister (I still do). They slept in the same room, I was in the box room, next to theirs. They delighted in knocking on my walls and whispering to me in the middle of the night, telling me they were Tinkerbell, and if I wasn’t a good boy she would tell Fr Christmas and I wouldn’t get anything for Christmas. That petrified me… and also set me up for a lifetime of (hopefully) scaring people.

I was reading to my daughter a good few years ago, it was Christmas Eve, and I was reading The Night Before Christmas… She was asleep by the time I finished (boring voice, even on Christmas Eve I could bore the kids to sleep). I got out of the bed and thought to myself I could do that… So I did. I wrote a short rhyming tale called The Good Behaviour Act, about what happens if you get on Santa’s naughty list, and it took off from there. I wrote and produced Interesting Tymes, a horror anthology for children.

I was also a massive Stephen King and James Herbert fan growing up (I was a nerdy kid), and always wanted to write a scary book that would scare the pants off people, but I never knew how to go about it… so one day, I JFDI (Just f****ng did it, not to be mixed up with JEDI), and produced The Twelve, my best seller. That is getting great reviews on Amazon and Goodreads.

What’s your favourite movie? And horror movie?

Fave movie is It’s a Wonderful Life (Christmas is a reoccurring theme with me), it make my eyes sting ever single year.

Favourite horror is The Blair Witch Project (only the first one, the others don’t exit for me). I love this because you have to think about it. It’s not your usual The Conjuring, Blumhouse blurg, with rubbish storylines, terrible acting, and boring jump scares. This is horror, this is being lost in a hostile environment, with the possibility of either psychotic locals, or supernatural elements pursuing you… Horror at its best!

What are your future projects?

More books (I’ve listed some project further up, but there are more ideas fleshed out in note form on my phone). Films (In The Mood for Murder is hopefully in the process of being picked up). Audio books.

I’m probably going to focus less on the comics and the graphic novels as they are too expensive to produce, and also a tougher sell than they used to be, but I do love them, so who knows?

Thank you!!