Scarfing up Scares with Author L. X. Cain

I’m dragging one of my fave authors back to Twisted Tales From Tornado Alley today. Shout out a howdy-do to Lexa Cain. Not only does Lexa write awesome fiction, she’s a lounge singer living in Egypt who loves horror. How cool is that? Fan-boys unite! Lexa’s got a bunch of awesome short stories out now and I wanted to hit her up (not too hard!) about them.

Lexa, first of all, after my gushtastic introduction, can I use you as a Femme Fatale in a future book?

Sure. Anything for you. *wink-wink, nudge-nudge* (Gotta play up that Femme Fatale side.)

Let’s start with my favorite of your trilogy of terror, The Inter-Galactic Gourmet. Yak a little bit about it.

Well, there’s an average, number-crunching cubicle worker—only she’s not—who meets a lost little boy—only he’s not. One thing there is though, is an alien invasion, which doesn’t go well for Earthlings or invaders.

Everyone loves a good cannibalistic, sci-fi story now and again (or should). But I really appreciated the irreverently dark humor involved. Right up my alley. Do your tastes in writing and reading run to the unhealthy? Should we be worried?

You should always be worried.

After reading your excellent first novel, Soul Cutter, we found out a few things that scare Lexa, the author (snakes, spiders, drowning, dark caves, heights, the works). So what about The Inter-Galactic Gourmet scares you more? Cannibalistic aliens or public transportation?

Public Transportation. The opening scene is taken directly from my experiences on the NY subway system when I used to live there. And what Cynthia, the main character, does, is something I always wanted to do but didn’t have the guts or the strength. Nice to live vicariously through my characters!

The cover reminds me of cheesy sci-fi flicks from the ‘50’s. An inspiration?

Those old sci-fi flicks are hilarious! Even the newer “Mars Attacks” has the same sort of tongue-in-cheek humor, and I tried to capture that aspect of my story with the cover.

We’re moving onto Biggun. Everyone’s got a zombie tale in them, something I believe (and wanna trend: #everyone’s zombietale or something). I wrote mine (Shameless plug: Zombie Rapture). This ‘un, Biggun, is yours. And it’s a winner. I gotta say the title fooled me; the “Biggun” in question wasn’t what I thought it’d turn out to be. What’s the truth behind “Biggun?”

When there are so many zombie tales out there, it’s hard to come up with something interesting, something original for the reader. But I try to make sure all of my works are unique, and the twist in Biggun just came to me. I’ve never seen anyone else do it, either.

I think the nature of zombie tales is one of despair, here especially. I don’t want to give anything away, but the ending in particular is downbeat, hearkening back to George Romero’s original Night of the Living Dead, the zombie king of all entertainment. I really loved what you did with your zombiepocalypse in such a few pages. Any chances of a full-length zombie tale by Lexa?

Despite the fact that zombies are super popular, what with “The Walking Dead” and all, I prefer to write original monsters. No zombie novel in my future.

Okay, quick zombie throwdown survey:

*How do you like your zombies? Running or shambling? Sentient or dumber than lawn furniture?

Old is gold. I like them shambling and stupid.

*If you woke up in bed next to a zombie, what would you say?

Could you hit the “snooze” please? Just ten more minutes…

*Who would kill more zombies? Jason Statham, Donald Trump’s stupidity or the music of Slim Whitman?

That one’s too close to call!

Sorry. Back to real questions. In Biggun, the main character is a mother, determined to protect her “little ‘un.” Nothing’ll deter her, certainly not zombies. Where’d the inspiration for this character come from?

I figured in a real zombie apocalypse, the hardest hit would be the “average” people in rural areas. So my main character is an old-fashioned stay-at-home mom who has a baby and goes to church socials—until she’s forced to kill the nice little ladies of the quilting circle because they’ve become bloodthirsty zombies.

Finally, let’s talk The Mission. Readers, imagine Stephen King twisting an adolescent Tremors. Bam.  I love coming of age tales, particularly when monsters are involved! Every boy should grow up with at least one serious monster incident.  I kinda wonder where your enthusiasm for all things spooky comes from, Lexa. Not being sexist, of course, but let’s talk skullduggery…

It’s very unusual for me to write a male main character, but the idea of sneaking out to a “forbidden” place just to see what’s there seemed more boy than girl. Thus Cody was born. 

I love your prose, Lexa, very nice, bordering on poetic at times, especially strange when considering the morbid subject matter. What’s up with that? Intentionally turning horror on its side? Or just damn lucky you’re a good writer, no matter what the genre?

I believe any book should be as well-written as the author can make it no matter what the genre. And I’m not a good writer—but I’m a very good reviser. lol

In The Mission, I think, the landscape’s pretty much the main character. All about the ambiance and setting. Again, it reads like you’re writing from experience. So, how does a singing writer living in Egypt know how to write about the dry lands of Texas? 

 
I’ve never been in the American West, but who hasn’t seen hundreds of westerns with John Wayne and the like? I think a writer can write about anywhere they can imagine, they don’t have to have actually been there.

I’ve had the pleasure of reading most of Lexa’s work-in-progress, Bloodwalker. Tell the folks about this absolutely awesome book. I can’t wait for readers to discover this creeptacular circus epic.

I think the most exciting thing about Bloodwalker is that it’s about a clown that creeps out at night from the circus and steals away little children. Since the circus travels around Eastern Europe, and there are children missing from different towns, no one’s figured out that the culprit lives in the circus yet—except one man, and he’s determined to find the killer.

So you have a scary clown, from a creepy circus, who’s killing kids. What more could you want in a horror novel?

Perhaps a heroine whose job is to prepare dead bodies and who knows all the ins and outs of evacuating bowels and sewing eyes shut. She’s a Bloodwalker. Someone’s murdering other Bloodwalkers—and she’s next.

  

Thanks so much for having me on your blog, Stuart!  

Readers can find me at:

Lexa's Blog: http://lexacain.blogspot.com/
Lexa on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lexa.cain.1

SOUL CUTTER on:

AMAZON: http://www.amazon.com/Soul-Cutter-Lexa-Cain-ebook/dp/B00H2WCTMQ/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1386174417&sr=1-1
AMAZON UK: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Soul-Cutter-Lexa-Cain-ebook/dp/B00H2WCTMQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1391908250&sr=8-1&keywords=soul+cutter
MUSEITUP: https://museituppublishing.com/bookstore/index.php/coming-soon/december-2013/soul-cutter-detail KOBO: http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Soul-Cutter/book-V13qW0XkP06WAy9yl1bvAw/page1.html SMASHWORDS: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/372641 BARNES&NOBLE: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/soul-cutter-lexa-cain/1117299045?ean=2940045359245

LX Cain on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/lx.cain

LX Cain on Twitter: https://twitter.com/LXCain

Biggun, The Mission, and The Inter-Galactic Gourmet on:

Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/lxcain