“The scariest people in the world,” declares Nederland-based horror writer Josh Schlossberg, “are the ones who are like, ‘Everything is fine, all the time.’” He shudders. “You’re going to snap and murder me in my sleep, aren’t you?”
If we want the world to be a better place, Schlossberg says it’s essential to acknowledge the darkness dwelling inside each of us. Without doing so, he explains, we can never move toward the light.
“I believe in being honest about taking a look at things,” he says. “It’s like the concept of a vaccine or immunity: Get a little bit of the dirt in you, and you’re better able to kind of deal with how things are.”
Given that attitude, writing horror fiction is Schlossberg’s call for the rest of us to do a little self-improvement. This notion inspired the title and content of his most recent release, a collection of stories called Where the Shadows are Shown, released Sept. 30 via his own publishing imprint, Josh’s Worst Nightmare.
Schlossberg’s third book explores a full range of subgenres, from folk and noir to biological horror and everything in between. In “The Lemon Trees,” an alternative fertilizer encourages a horrific cross-pollination that ultimately produces a brood of citrus-based abominations. A spiritual medium’s apartment becomes infested with insects, rodents and much worse in “Drain.”
But Schlossberg refuses to take himself too seriously. For example, the cleverly titled “Long Strange R.I.P.” sees Jerry Garcia pay a visit to hell to recover the souls of the Grateful Dead’s many ill-fated keyboard players. “The Dungwich Horror (A Lovecraptian Tale),” in which a constipated man finds his bowels inhabited by a sentient, unearthly power, presents a dookified take on the cosmic supernatural.
“I wanted to touch as many bases as I could,” he says. “I wanted there to be a story for people who like gross, sick-out things, but at the same time, I wanted there to be a conventional ghost story. Most people are going to find one thing they resonate with. I have a whole bunch of flavors there.”
Deeper than obsessions
The thread that binds these tales together is Schlossberg’s darker-than-midnight creativity and his ability to create engaging yet deeply flawed protagonists. Overreaction in the face of perceived injustice is a revisited theme, and the characters with the best intentions are often surprised when they mutate into a monster more fearsome than any spook or villain they had hoped to confront.
“I find something that kind of bugs me in life, and that inspires the germ of a story,” he says. “Then I layer on something with a little deeper meaning than just my own obsessions.”
Despite his self-declared tendency to get annoyed, Schlossberg is community-minded. He is a founding member of the Denver Horror Collective (DHC), a group of writers and editors who lean toward the more macabre side of the spectrum. Started in 2017, the DHC has organized writer feedback groups, readings and performances, as well as seminars to share industry and publishing tips with emerging writers. The organization is always evolving.
“If there are people who are energized to move something forward, it happens, and if there aren’t, then that piece falls away.”
Front Range fright
One of the more recent aspects of the DHC is the organization’s role as a publishing house. The group has been actively preparing for the release of their fifth title, Frontiers of Fright: A Southwestern Horror Anthology. Edited by A.E. Santana, the compilation comes out on Halloween and features 18 tales from multiple authors, each of which is focused on some ominous or unnerving aspect of the Southwest region.
With a wealth of involved participants, there’s no shortage of dark tales to choose from. The collective boasts dozens of dues-paying members. Schlossberg insists that this concentration of interest and talent is because there’s something special about Colorado when it comes to horror. He has his theories about why.
“There are ideas that something in the Denver smog might have something to do with warping people’s brains, or the high altitude creates hypoxia, where you don’t get enough oxygen. So it could be low-level brain chemistry issues,” he jokes, then gets more serious. “Cultures are the product of landscapes, and I believe that’s what goes on in the horror community. The extremes in horror mirror the extremes in Colorado’s climate and topography.”
Schlossberg encourages readers to mine the local scene for hidden gems.
“You haven’t read your favorite author yet,” he says. “Make an effort to find new stuff. Venture out on your own. Check out some stuff that you might not know. Ignore the reviews for a change, and you might just find your new favorite book.”
Four books from the Denver Horror Collective to keep you up at night
Terror at 5280
“Terror at 5280 [features] Colorado authors writing horror about Colorado. We got a couple ringers in there, like Stephen Graham Jones, who was kind enough to submit an original story. We thought, ‘Why not have it be all local and tell the stories about this really cool state, which is one of the most dynamic states in the country?’” – Josh Schlossberg
The Jewish Book of Horror
“Most horror, whether you realize it or not, is Christian horror.That’s fine, but it can be a narrow thing, so The Jewish Book of Horror just brings it back a little more to source: demonology and stuff like that. The reception’s been great. It’s our most popular book.” – Josh Schlossberg
Not Buried Deep Enough
by Gary Robbe
“Gary Robbe had never had his stories published or compiled, but he’s been writing since the ’80s, so we collected those. He’s a solid veteran horror writer. Not Buried Deep Enough stands up there with collections by any of the best-known horror writers for covering all the bases of horror and being engaging in a literary way.”
Frontiers of Fright
“Frontiers of Fright focuses on the Southwest, which has such a distinct flavor and ties back again to Colorado. I can’t wait till it gets out there. Frankly, it’s one of our strongest, if not the strongest, anthology we’ve put out so far.”