Interview with Prolific British Australian Author: Isobel Blackthorn

Happy New Year, everyone! I’m proud to say that my first interview of 2019 is with prolific British Australian author, Isobel Blackthorn. One of my goals for the year is to read more books and learn more about authors who are killing it in horror/thriller genre, and Isobel is a master at the art of telling a good thrilling story.

It was a privilege to chat with her about how she got involved in writing, her first book, her current work, including Twerk, and more!

PopHorror – It’s great to talk with you, Isobel! I’ve done hundreds of interviews, but it’s rare when I get a chance to talk to a talented author. Can you tell the readers and I a bit about yourself, please?

Isobel Blackthorn – I am a British Australian living in the cool part of this vast continent, where the wild ocean slams the coast and the icy air blasts up from Antarctica. I have never been one for heat. I have lived on the dark side of reality, on the fringes, in underworlds of various kinds, and have accumulated a storehouse of experiences of that nature. Two things define me, I guess. One is my ongoing fixation with the Canary Islands, situated off the coast of Morocco in the North Atlantic. I used to live on one of those islands, and I am still coming to terms with why I left, getting on three decades ago. Some of my novels are set there. I figure if I keep writing about the place, I will eventually work the loss out of my system. The other thing that defines me is my affinity with the occult. Secret esoteric orders, ghosts, curses, divination and predictions, seances – the whole gamut of occultism finds its way into my writing.

PopHorror – Wow! You can tell you this isn’t your first rodeo. Even your responses are beautifully said! Have you always had the desire to write?

Isobel Blackthorn – I first felt the urge to write when I was eleven, and my teacher asked his class to write a story in the form of a booklet with text on one side and a picture on the other. I have no idea what I wrote or drew, but I think it was a bit dark and a bit original. My classmate and teacher’s pet got top marks for her story – some nonsense about a horse – penned in the neatest writing, with bold and colorful drawings that leaped off the page. I can still picture it and still feel my envy and resentment. My story was unique. Hers was derivative. Only, my writing was scruffy and my drawings bland. I think I got a B. Oh, the injustice!

A year later, I received my first real recognition when my teacher commended me for the use of the word ‘ominous’ in a short story I wrote. She asked me if I knew what the word meant. I did, and I was thrilled! Endorsement! After that, I aimed for originality in my writing and leaned towards all things gothic and dark.

PopHorror – That’s awesome that you knew even from a young age that you work was so unique. What was the first story you wrote in general, not just published?

Isobel Blackthorn – Decades of living slipped by after those two tender events. Decades of frustration and repressed creativity. The older I grew, the more explosive I felt. Sooner or later, I had to start taking this urge seriously. I started a story in the mid-1990s about a woman living alone on an isolated island, a woman with a dark past. That story still lives in me, and I am planning on re-visiting the original ideas in the next year or so. I didn’t embrace writing as a way of life and an identity until 2007 when I secured a job as PA to a high-powered literary agent and received my first real and wholehearted encouragement to write. She had me writing a memoir of the back-to-earth lifestyle I was living. Every Friday, she would ask me if I would be writing over the weekend. Every Monday, she wanted a progress report. She was from New York and was a publisher at W. W. Norton for decades, so you can imagine what a boost her support was for a woman whose creative impulse had been downtrodden by life.

PopHorror – I’m glad she inspired you to write, and I’m sure your readers feel the same, as I know many adore your work. What was the first book you ever published?

Isobel Blackthorn – A collection of short stories called All Because of You that was picked up by a small press in Australia in 2012. Those stories are semi-autobiographical. Three are set in women’s shelters. That gives you an idea of the battleground that was my life for many years. Enough said.

PopHorror – Interesting! I may just have to check those out! Out of all the books you’ve written, do you have a favorite so far?

Isobel Blackthorn – This question is like asking a parent who is their favorite child! I can hear them all now, jostling for position. Big breath. Okay, I can say The Cabin Sessions, which was an extraordinarily difficult book to write and one that felt like possession when I was composing the first draft. I ventured into the bowels of my being to write that book. It is a tale of unhealed wounds, revenge and spite, twisted minds and a weird Christian cult. What a mix! I had no idea how intense the story was until I proof-listened the audio version. A masterful narration by Kirsten Price, who brings my writing to life through her dramatization, showed me, at least, that the story belongs on a stage or in a film.

PopHorror – (laughs) Well, I had to ask! Now I really want to read that one. I’ll be making that a top priority. Your newest book release is called Twerk. Can you tell us what that one is about?

Isobel Blackthorn – Twerk is a noir thriller set in a Las Vegas strip club. The story is told from two points of view, Amber and Lana, both dancers. A local guy dies having a lap dance and Amber falls in lust for the paramedic in attendance. She goes off with him in his truck and five days later, Lana, a third-year law student, is on her next shift and wonders where Amber has got to, as well as the cause of Billy’s death. While Lana is busy being an amateur sleuth as the hours of that one night tick by, Amber tells the story of the intervening days. Her story is a rapid descent from steamy romance into horror, and builds, as you would expect, to a dramatic ending. Twerk provides a window in on the world of stripping and is a meditation on male sexuality.

PopHorror – Where’d you get the idea for this one? Any inspirations?

Isobel – Inspiration for Twerk came directly from my daughter, Vicky Aisha, who is one of Australia’s high profile strippers. She started dancing back in 2012, and for years, she would call me on her long drive home after a bone-crunching twelve hour shift to help her stay awake behind the wheel. She has so many stories, both of the club floor and behind the scenes in the changing room, and after being exposed, second-hand, to the reality of stripping, I decided to capture this in a novel. The paramedic idea came about because I was tutoring a student who was planning on becoming one, and his brother, also a student of mine, was studying law. Writers are scavengers like that.

PopHorror – When sitting down to write a new story, do you have any routines that you do or must do to help put you in the right mind set?

Isobel Blackthorn – I pace the floor a lot. I sit and stare at walls. I have to talk to someone, too. I need a sounding board. Someone who can shut up and listen – or pretend to – as I figure out the plot, the characters and their motives, the themes and how it is all going to tie together. My mom is great and takes an active role in the creation of new works. I’ve embraced a lot of her suggestions. I always write at home, either at my desk or on the sofa. I cannot write in cafes or on trains.

PopHorror – You’re known for your dark psychological thrillers, mysteries and contemporary fiction. Have you always loved those type of genres? Do you ever stray from those?

Isobel Blackthorn – I started out wanting to write literary fiction, but soon turned to those genres when I saw how difficult it was to find your place in that scene, which is often elitist and pretentious. Besides, I want to tell stories, not create works of art. I’ve always been a huge fan of thriller movies, the psychological kind. I am a big fan of Hitchcock, Tarantino, and the Coen Brothers, but I don’t just want to reel off the big names. I like all things noir.

I cannot see myself writing fantasy or science fiction, traditional romance or westerns, children’s or YA. I would be no good at any of them for various reasons and would rather not embarrass myself trying. Historical fiction, yes, but only fairly recent and arguably contemporary. For example, I am at work on a novel set during both World Wars.

We want to send a great big THANK YOU to Isobel Blackthorn for taking the time to chat with us. You can catch up with her at her website, Facebook page, Goodreads page, Twitter and Instagram.