Today’s episode features a short story read by the author, Robert E. Stahl.

Hungry Waters was originally published as the winner in the November (Halloween) 2024 issue of Flame Tree’s Flash Fiction Newsletter Contest

https://www.flametreepress.com/newsletters/flame-tree-fiction-newsletter-november-2024-monster-masquerade/

Robert E. Stahl recently released his first collection of short stories!

We chat about the publishing process, the world of short (and long) story writing, horror movies, and meander down other ghoulish paths of creation.

Learn how he made an award-winning short horror film, “Trick” for $2000!

You can even watch it free, here.

I provide most of my insights and interviews for free, but there are goodies for those who join a paid tier.

Put on your swimsuit, and grab a tin foil hat. We’re going swimming in some dangerous waters.

An interview with Robert E. Stahl

Horror author and movie producer

AF: You're a full-time writer?

RES: Oh, literally, like all day long.

AF: That's hilarious. You must really love writing to then sit down and spend your extra hours back at the keyboard.

RES: Oh, must I? Yes, I do. Sometimes the challenge is after a full day at work to find that urge to come home and do more writing. But that is why I'm here. I think that's why God put me on Earth is to write. So it's a blessing that I have that problem.

AF: “Hungry Waters” won the Flame Tree flash fiction prompt, didn't it?

RES: It did win. I submitted that for an open call that was called Monsters and Masquerade. It’s about a killer wave pool that's actually an alien in disguise and it's eating people. So yeah, I was happy to have that one picked up by Flame Tree. Super excited. That was my second win. Back-to-back in two months with Flame Tree. Which is an anomaly that I think rarely happens. And I've sent stories into Flame Tree since then and have not had them picked up. So my streak is officially over.

AF: So let's talk about your collection. What made you choose a more traditional route versus indie?

RES: Probably ever since I was a kid, I wanted to connect with a publisher. That was the white whale I'd built in my head of what I wanted for myself. I think a publisher can also give you a little gravitas when it comes to marketing—a little extra boost. They’re also a source that vets the stories. So they're curated.

AF: So let’s talk about the incredibly visceral art you chose – or they chose – for it.

RES: That is all me, girlfriend.

AF: You have lovely teeth, and those teeth are pretty horrific.

RES: You have to read the collection to understand why I chose teeth for the cover, but I was looking at some of the covers that JournalStone has done in the past. They do a great job with covers, but I wanted something a little different—something that would stand out, just being simple, a graphic and scary. So I landed on this idea of the teeth.

AF: Have there been many pre-orders or how are sales so far?

RES: I'm trying not to look at sales so far. It's only been on sale for about 10 days. So I'm trying not to just bog myself down with all that stuff. I'll check eventually, but right now I'm not really worried about it.

AF: Let's talk about the movie making... tell me how that happened.

RES: Sure. So I'd always been interested in filmmaking and I love movies and I love to write. About five years ago I started playing around with screenplays—just turning some of my own stories into screenplays just to see what it felt like. And then I got wind of a local film competition. It's in Dallas and for beginners. So, basically it's a competition where they give you a certain amount of time to make a movie. For example, three months. A short film that’s less than 10 minutes. So I started networking with some people that I met there, and all of a sudden I had a script. Then I had a director and a team. So the group of us just busted our butts. And in three months came up with a short film called Trick. We entered the competition, and to everyone's surprise, including mine—we won first place.

AF: What sort of budget do you look at to make these kinds of movies?

RES: Every little thing you do costs money. So you have (hopefully) some kind of funding. I funded a lot of it myself. I did a little GoFundMe and a lot of people contributed there also. And then I had some people donate their time—like some of the talent. The crew just donated their time to make this movie.

I was lucky enough to find people that had a passion for film and we connected and shared the same passion and they were willing to do that with me. You always go over budget. It's really hard to manage all of that stuff.

AF: So how much did Trick cost, if you don't mind me asking?

RES: Trick was probably less than $2000.

AF: What’s your next big writing goal?

RES: Just to keep moving forward and taking on new things. I'm currently working on a comic book script. That's my goal for this month. I hope to do novels and novellas probably by the end of the year, and to keep writing short stories. I probably have enough to fill out half of a collection. So I just need about 12 or 15 more.

AF: What is the next thing I can see from Robert?

RES: I'm working on that comic book script. I'm studying them. I have an idea that I'm going to develop and there's an open call that ends on the last day of this month, and I'm going to send it in and see how I do.

AF: Any last words of advice for authors chasing this dream?

RES: They say that no writing is wasted writing—that we learn through everything we do. I think sometimes when the world gets to us, we just have to remember thatthere's something in us that really loves to do this thing no matter which aspect it is. And we just have to keep our nose to the grindstone and keep hoping for the best – learning and getting better.

If you’d like to read the anthology I published and featured Robert in, here it is!

Treats is a Halloween-themed tale with some serious creep factor.

https://books2read.com/CursedandCreepy

Thank you for listening/reading!!