Maurice Broaddus is a writer, convention creator and host, and now, editor. His new anthology Dark Faith, co-edited with Jerry Gordon, is due out in May from Apex Publications. Maurice took a few moments on publication eve to talk with us about art, faith, and editing.
BG: Before we get into your role as editor on the new anthology Dark Faith, introduce yourself to us as a writer. What got you into writing, and why horror?
MB: Hi, my name’s Maurice Broaddus and I’m a writer. (Hello, Maurice).
I’ve been writing as long as I can remember and only inadvertently found myself writing horror. My Sunday School teacher in fourth grade was probably my first nudge in that direction, as he was a closet horror and comic book fan (and in that church, you had to be in the closet if you were into “that demonic stuff”). And in high school, my A.P. English teacher encouraged me to read Edgar Allen Poe and explore my writing. I was pretty much locked in from there.
As we speak, I am working on the third novel of my Knights of Breton Court trilogy, King’s War. The series is a (dark) urban fantasy that re-tells the legend of King Arthur in modern day Indianapolis against the backdrop of homeless teenagers, gang members, and the drug trade. Book one, King Maker, has already been released in the U.K. and will be bowing here in the states in September.
I read an interesting tidbit on your website, where you said that seeing the movie Pulp Fiction made you dig out all your stories and rewrite them after you'd given up. Tell us a little bit about that - what was it about that movie (which, by the way, is one of my all-time favorites) that lit a fire underneath you?
Quentin Tarantino gets a lot of run for his stylized dialogue (and deservedly so). But he also has that Elmore Leonard-esque quality of creating memorable characters so fully realized that you feel you know them after spending only a few minutes with them. Imbuing them with little quirks that reveal so much about them. THEN throw in his “you never know what’s coming next” brand of plotting and storytelling, and you have a creative force that makes me jealous. I ended up seeing that movie three times while it was in the theaters.
Another thing I find interesting is the way your personal spirituality plays such a big part in who you are as a writer - something that seems unusual considering you write horror primarily. How do those two parts of your identity fuel each other?
I believe that we are all created in God’s image. And I think it goes underappreciated that God created. I see my writing as taking on that “aspect of God’s character”, creating art for art’s sake. And on the flip side, I work through a lot of issues of my faith through my stories. The inhumanity of man, the nature of evil, even some nagging theological points that stick under my “spiritual skin” that I can best explore in story. Some of my best stories start with me asking a “spiritual” question.
Has your work as a horror author ever caused problems among your spiritual contemporaries? Or vice versa?
Yes.
I suppose you want more than that?
A lot of folks/churches don’t know what to do with me. Their idea of Christian artists typically mean something “safe”: paint pictures fit for the church lobby or write devotionals or something like that. They don’t know how to engage artists as artists. On the flip side, many artists feel like they can only do that brand of art in order to fit in at church. Since fitting in has never been a priority of mine, I’ve just left that baggage on the side. So I write novels that you won’t find in Christian book stores, stories that won’t appear in any devotional any time soon, and host conventions that include guests that too many folks turn their back on.
Okay, on to Dark Faith. Tell us about the central theme of the anthology, and how it all came together.
It was a matter of the obvious dawning on us. We simply thought it would be a great idea, considering all of the great folks we’d had at my convention, Mo*Con, over the years, to do an anthology revolving around them. The theme was easy as we were focused on the themes presented at Mo*Con: spirituality, race, gender, love, art, and this year sex. As the project grew, and we settled on a title, the theme focused more on the faith aspects of Mo*Con. Though some of the other themes blend in with some of the stories, especially considering how we approached the idea of faith (faith in ourselves, faith in love, faith in magic, faith in relationships, etc.).
I won't ask you to pick favorites, but were there contributions that you received that just went above and beyond what you expected?
Absolutely. It’s easy to point to Jennifer Pelland’s “Ghosts of New York” and Brian Keene’s “I Sing a New Song” or Nick Mamatas’ “The Last Words of Dutch Schultz Jesus Christ” and Lavie Tidhar’s “To the Jerusalem Crater”. But I also loved the quieter stuff, Lucien Soulban’s “The Choir” or “Different from Other Nights” by Eliyanna Kaiser (who is getting her first publishing credit with Dark Faith!).
What was different for you acting as an editor here instead of an author? Have you edited anthologies before? Will you again?
This was my first time editing an anthology. Unlike writing, where I know what it is I want to present to an audience, with editing, I still have that vision of what I want to see, but now others have to essentially either read my mind or match wavelengths with me somehow to fit my vision. That, and frankly, some of these folks flat out write way better than I ever will. (Catherynne M. Valente says what?)
Can we look forward to a Dark Faith II?
If things go as planned, let’s just say that no one should be shocked if they see a call for submissions for a Dark Faith II (though I’ve already been told that I can’t call it Darker Faith: Electric Boogaloo).
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