PopHorror Let's Get Scared
One of the best things about writing for PopHorror is getting the opportunity to chat with some of my favorite authors. Deliah S. Dawson’s 2023 book, Bloom, is in my top 10 of the last year. I loved it so much that when I was offered a copy of her new book, Guillotine, I didn’t even hesitate. I didn’t care what it was about because I knew it was going to be bitchin. And it was pretty bitchin.
The Menu meets Ready or Not in this dark tale of opulent luxury and shocking violence from the New York Times bestselling author of Bloom.
To celebrate the release of her new book, I chatted with Delilah about the inspiration behind the story, her creative process, what she’s currently reading, and more!
PopHorror: I loved your new book, Guillotine. And then Bloom. This is a beautiful book and so good.
Delilah S. Dawson: Oh, I’m so glad!
PopHorror: Let’s talk about Guillotine. What sparked the idea for the story?
Delilah S. Dawson: I sometimes read Buzzfeed when I’m going to sleep and there was an article about a mega yacht that carried the other smaller yachts on it. It looks like a Surinam toad with babies stuck on it and it was people talking about the ultra-wealthy and the things we don’t know about how rich they are, that they have yachts to carry their yachts. I was like, oh I hate that so much. My Facebook is full of people with GoFundMes for their medical issues and these people are like, “You know what I need? A yacht to hold all of my baby yachts!” And then I was like, what if we punish those people in print?
PopHorror: That is awesome! Was there anything that you were adamant about keeping in the final draft, no matter what?
Delilah S. Dawson: Well, I’m pretty open to editorial advice. I never want to be one of those authors who can’t be told no. I always take everything pretty seriously, but I don’t recall there being any big issues with this one. They liked the first draft I sent and there weren’t a ton of changes in this one or in Bloom. I think maybe something about the novella format where it’s kind of smaller and a more compacted story, and so you’re not expecting as many intricate subplots. It’s also not like I’m building a romance or anything like that. It just pretty quickly gets into what it is. The main issues I would usually see in a bigger edit that would make me concerned don’t necessarily apply when I’m working in that 40-50,000-word area. But if they’d said something like, “Please don’t kill anybody!”, I would have been like, “No, let’s!”
PopHorror: That’s good to hear because both books are pretty brutal, with Guillotine being a bit more violent.
Delilah S. Dawson: You know what they did do? They requested the trigger warnings for Guillotine. They sent over, “These are the content or trigger warnings that we have identified. What do you think?” And I was like, “That’s fine, but can I frame that in my own words?” Because I found these things to be more cathartic. The things that I would find triggering are things that happened off page in the past, and the things that are happening right now, I don’t find as disturbing, so I appreciate that they let me take their trigger warnings and put my own spin on it to make it more of a, “They’re going to get what they deserve! You can count on me.”
In this book, bad people get what they deserve, and they deserve what they get. There are many unsettling deaths, which I found quite cathartic to write. My publisher identified the following trigger warnings: Gore, graphic depictions of injury, sexual assault (off-page), incest (off-page), forced pregnancy (off-page), rape (off-page), abortion (off-page). While I have never been in a position similar to Dez, I lived through childhood sexual assault, domestic violence, stalking, and rape. While I write about these topics, I do so through the lens of a survivor’s rage. I have also been locked in a toy chest, and I will hold that grudge until I die. If you’re still in, I sincerely hope you enjoy my little murder book. I very much enjoyed writing it.
PopHorror: What is your creative process when you’re starting a new book?
Delilah S. Dawson: Well, I get the idea and noodle around with it. I can’t start writing until I’ve at least done some of the scaffolding of the outline. I don’t do 40 page outlines or anything but I need to know who the main character is, what their strengths and weaknesses and flaws are, what they’re character arc is going to be, and then the instigating factor that kicks off the book – the main conflict, the climax, the ending. I have to know all of those things so I know which direction to take things and where I’m aiming for. But I also have the ritual where my favorite part is when I try to wait as long as possible to write. It’s like giving birth. I want to labor at home as long as possible and slide into the hospital with that baby coming out. I try to make myself wait as long as possible to write and then I open the Word document and choose some strange font and write the title and my name, and get the formatting done. That’s always a very satisfying feeling and then saving it and being like, okay, it exists! The blank canvas there and now I just have to put everything I know onto the page.
PopHorror: Seeing your name on something like that, I can only imagine what that feels like, especially when seeing the final product.
Delilah S. Dawson: At the beginning I just feel like a dork and an imposter. “Oh, by Delilah S. Dawson? Okay, whatever!” Because I still can’t believe that I can write a book most of the time. But then when the book actually shows up and I’m holding it, I’m like, oh my god.
PopHorror: My introduction to your work was Bloom. I found it randomly in a Facebook horror book group. The buzz about it is strong. It is talked about often and it’s always very positive. When I heard that you had a new one coming out and I got an email about it, I was like, I need this now. Please and thank you.
Delilah S. Dawson: Yay! I’m so glad. You know I have another one coming out in October, right? Did you know that?
PopHorror: No, I did not!
Delilah S. Dawson: It’s a chunkier one. This one is out with Del Rey, with Penguin Random House. It Will Only Hurt for a Moment. It’s more of a gothic, ghosty, thrillery, but it is a horror book.
PopHorror: Oh! I am excited!
Delilah S. Dawson: October 22.
PopHorror: Right after my birthday too.
Delilah S. Dawson: Oh, when is your birthday?
PopHorror: October 20.
Delilah S. Dawson: Oh, mine’s the 21st!
PopHorror: Oh wow! Great birthday present for you! Between Bloom and Guillotine, who was your favorite character to write?
Delilah S. Dawson: That’s a tough one. It was probably writing the kind of Ash/Ro dynamic in Bloom. Bloom came about because my teen daughter fell in love with Hannibal, as we all did, and was like, “Why are all of the hot serial killers dudes?” And I was like, well statistics but also like, “I’ll just write that book for you.” I had wanted for a long time to write a kind of Hannibal-esque serial killer who uses every part of the body but not in masculine ways to shock and provoke fear but to do honor to it because everything can be broken down and used for something else. The big challenge there was writing a main character that would fall in love with that person but not be too stupid to live because I as a reader cannot stand it when you’re reading a book and you’re like, “Oh my god, these are so many red flags! Don’t do that you dummy!” So every step of the way I had to think, how do you take an intelligent person and make them ignore the red flags? Which was a really fun challenge. Dez was fun too, in Guillotine, but there the trick was crafting a character who is tenacious and will do anything to survive, which part of that often makes a character unlikable in the beginning and some people have said that about Dez. I had to show this character would do anything to make her dreams happen because otherwise you end up with a character who’s just going to give up.
PopHorror: With Dez, yes, she was a little bit of a pushover at the beginning. A little bit unlikable because she didn’t even like the guy but she really wanted to meet his mother. She ended up doing what she needed to do and didn’t care how it affected her future or how it affected what she was wanting. She had to do it to survive. I like that. I think it showed strength in her, which I really like strong female characters.
Delilah S. Dawson: I’m 30 books into my career now, and with each book I try to set challenges. It’s really satisfying to take a character that people dislike at the beginning and make them root for that character by the end. It’s a real thrill you can get as a writer, so I think I carried along a little bit of that as well.
PopHorror: If both Bloom and Guillotine were to be made into movies, who would you want to be cast as your main characters?
Delilah S. Dawson: Oh, man. That’s a tough one. For Bloom, I see Ro as kind of like Florence Pugh and Ash as Anya Taylor-Joy. When I was imagining Desirée, I actually thought of her as a lot like Freddie Lounds from Hannibal, that actress. I think the hard thing there, for it to work, she has to be small, like a very petite short person, and so many of our actors are very tall, willowy people. You want her to seem powerless so I think that would be the challenge, just finding an actress that is diminutive and maybe doesn’t look strong that can pull it off.
PopHorror: I like those choices! What are you currently reading?
Delilah S. Dawson: I’ve been working on a very big edit on a book and so I have not been reading as much as I would like. Incidents Around the House by Josh Malerman was the most recent one I finished that wasn’t related to research. Which I loved, big fan of Josh Malerman. The Sweet Blue Distance by Sara Donati. Nothing but the Bones by Brian Panowich. And then I’ve also been on kind of a romance kick, so I’ve been reading a lot of witchy romance like Witches Get Stuff Done by Molly Harper.
PopHorror: I haven’t read any of those, but I’ll look them up! One last question for you today. What is your favorite scary movie?
Delilah S. Dawson: Oh, my favorite scary movie… That’s like who’s your favorite child. Gosh, that’s so hard. Just to sit down and put on TV and enjoy it, probably Jennifer’s Body. I love the campy horror, Jawbreaker, Heathers, that kind of era. Any movie that starts with the phrase, “Hell is a teenage girl,” you’ve got me.
Thank you so much to Delilah for taking the time to chat with us. Bloom, Guillotine, and It Will Only Hurt for a Moment are out now!
