MEMENTO MORI INK’S AUTHOR SPOTLIGHT: IAN GIELEN

Savannah interviews one of our Australian horror peers, Ian Gielen for this week’s Author Spotlight!

One of my favorite Aussies, and all around people, is emerging author Ian Gielen. I had the pleasure of doing his cover for his debut, Saving Tommy, and reading his upcoming novel, Unholy Blood. Sit down and meet Ian, and you’ll love his kind soul just as much as I do.

Q: What do you want readers to know about you as an author?

I write for fun, that’s the first thing. As a voracious consumer of horror in all its forms, I always had a yearning for paths that I wish either film or books had taken but opted not to. So, when I started writing, that was my aim. To write what I wanted to see happen in stories. I’m also going to be exploring more genres and different writing styles to both keep myself interested and expand my skills. Basically, you never know what’s going to come next from me. Even I don’t know what path I’m going down until I’m halfway down it at times.

Q: What inspired you to start writing? When did you start?

I’ve been interested in writing since high school. Ever since my skills started developing at that point, I envisioned writing a book someday. But then life happened, time passed, and it got pushed to the backburner. So far back I didn’t think I’d ever do it. I even stopped reading for over fifteen years. Then COVID happened, and I found myself wanting to journey back into the world of reading. I started joining Facebook groups, and that was when I found Books of Horror. I lost myself down a rabbit hole, and my empty bookshelf soon found itself full. After reading so many fantastic horror books from talented indie authors, I started to think maybe I could give it a shot. Then I saw an open call for the Books of Horror Community Anthology Volume 4 and I decided to give it a go. To my surprise, I made it in. Since then, I haven’t looked back.

Q: What works do you currently have available (solo and anthologies)?

Horror Novella:

Saving Tommy

Anthologies:

Devour the Rich (Published by Above the Rain Collective)

Cryptid Codex (Published by Crimson Cult Media)

Warning: Wicked Web (Published by Crimson Cult Media)

Invasion of the Saucer-Men from Mars! (Published by Specul8 Publishing)

Books of Horror Community Anthology Vol 4 Part 1 (Published by Books of Horror)

Petting Boo! (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Christmas of the Dead: Krampus Kountry (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Apocalyptales: Judgement Day (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Flash of the UnDead (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Flash of the Dead: Requiem (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Femme Fatale Flashes (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Masks of Sanity: The Monster Within (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Children of the Dead: Lost Lullabies (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Halloweenthology: Trick-Or-Treat (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Flash of the Dead: Halloween ’24 (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Halloweenthology: Friar’s Lantern (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Blink of an Eye (Published by CultureCult Magazine & Press)

Merry Creepsmas: The Green Book (Published by Wicked Shadow Press)

Cooks of Horror

Sleeve of Hearts

Coming Soon:

Echoes of the Damned (Collection)

Mother of Mine (Novel)

Unholy Blood (Releases 8/1)

Q: What was your gateway into horror?

I started off with horror movies at a far younger age than I should have. If I remember rightly, it was when my parents were off on an outing one night and my grandfather was looking after me. We made a trip down to the video store where I happily browsed the horror section, not knowing what I was in for, and decided to take advantage of the 5 for $10 weekly deal they had going on. At that time, I think was 8.

When we got home and put on a movie, my grandfather nodded off on the couch while I was absorbed by the gore happening on the screen. It was the old 1980 movie, Alligator. I was scared and terrified, but more importantly, I was excited and exhilarated. From that point on, I was hooked.

Q: What are your favorite subgenres of horror?

Creature feature, sci-fi horror, underground horror and sea horror. I love the exploration of the unknown and what could be lurking in places we haven’t explored fully yet.

Q: If you didn’t write horror, what other genre do you think you’d be in?

Probably epic fantasy. I’ve always loved the Forgotten Realms and Dragonlance book worlds and loved the weird and wonderful creatures that inhabited those worlds. One day I may even venture into the fantasy world myself with my writing.

Q: What are some authors (traditional or indie) that have inspired you or helped you along your journey?

After discovering horror through movies, I consumed horror books with the most popular authors at that time. Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Richard Laymon, Peter Straub, and James Herbert. Since restarting my reading journey after joining Books of Horror, I’ve discovered so many talents and made many friends along the way that have helped. I’ve been inspired by fantastic Australian authors such as Mark Towse, Tory Favro, David-Jack Fletcher, Alan Baxter and Zachary Ashford. Not to mention the amazing group of writers and friends who I’m involved with in the Chaos Scribes group. You all know who you are, and I’m eternally grateful for your support and friendship.

Q: What’s on your TBR? Anything coming out soon that you’re looking forward to?

My TBR list is seriously nearing almost 4,000 books, so I’m going to need to live forever to read them all but by that point there’ll be more I want to read, so I can’t win. I’m pretty much interested in every horror book announced, and it would be a disservice to mention one over any other.

Q: What are you working on now?

I have just finished the first draft of my second horror novel, “Mother of Mine”. It is in a different style than my previous books, more of a dread-inducing, atmospheric horror. That one is scheduled to go to my editor in October. While I give that space to breathe before I start refining it, I am working on putting the final touches on a story collection, which was finished last year. After that, I have plans to write a short story or two before I begin my next novel, which will be a slasher.

Q: Where can readers follow you and find your books?

I don’t currently have a website or mailing list, but that will be changing at some point in the future. At the moment, the best place to find me is on Facebook. My author profile is “Ian Gielen – Author”.

I also have a TikTok account @ian.gielen.author.

Savannah R. Fischer is the permanently exhausted pigeon in charge of two well-loved chaos gremlins. When not with her family, she can usually be found in her cave, wrapped in an oversized blanket and dreaming of spinach puffs. She wants to show her gremlins that they can do hard things, even when it’s scary, like pulling the wrong lever and ending up in a pit of alligators. No llamas were harmed in the making of her works of horror.