Ronald Kelly: I was born and raised in the South – in central Tennessee – so my love of that region has always carried over into my novels and short stories. Meghan: How has your environment and upbringing colored your writing? That’s when it feels like walking a rocky road in your bare feet. The only time it seems like a curse is when you’re facing a deadline and you feel forced to write. So, yes, I’d definitely say the ability to write is a blessing. I never had any formal training – heck, I never even went to college – but listening to my mother and grandmother tell ghost stories and pass on family history during my childhood instilled in me a desire to carry on the tradition, albeit in the written form. I come from a long line of Southern storytellers, so it sort of came to me naturally. If you have a natural ability to take words and create memorable characters and build entire words from nothing more than your imagination, I believe you should embrace it and share it with others. Meghan: Is being a writer a gift or a curse? So, basically, my writing life and personal life are two separate sides of the same coin. My youngest, Bubba, desperately wants to read my books, but I won’t let him until he gets on into his teens (he’s eleven now). My wife has read a few of my less intense books in the past, but she’s more of an Amish Romance fan than the blood and gore type. The folks I grew up with, those I live around now and work with, they know that I’m a writer and know the kind of genre I write in, but they don’t make a big deal about it… and neither do I. Ronald Kelly: Well, to tell the truth, they don’t. Meghan: How do you feel about friends and close relatives reading your work? And I’m a devout Christian – the proverbial Southern Baptist – which seems downright odd, considering the sort of stuff I write. I work in the quality department for PPG one of the biggest paint companies on the globe. I’m a faithful husband (going on 29 years now) and papa to three wonderful young’uns. Ronald Kelly: I reckon you could say that I wear a lot of hats outside of the horror genre. More Sick Stuff is sort of like the bigger, nastier sibling of the original Sick Stuff. Thunderstorm put out a hardcover edition of More Sick Stuff a few months ago, the follow-up to my extreme horror collection, The Sick Stuff. I’ve been working with various publishers, mostly Thunderstorm Books, Sinister Grin Press, and Crossroad Press. I finally finished my Southern-fried zombie novel, The Buzzard Zone, after a long bout of writer’s block.
Ronald Kelly: I’ve been busy with one writing project or another. What’s been going on since we last spoke? It’s been awhile since we sat down together. Meghan: Hi, Ronald! Welcome back! And welcome to our new home, Meghan’s House of Books.
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