C.R. Langille is a horror writer and all-around badass who lives just a few miles away from me outside Salt Lake City, Utah. We met when I joined the Utah chapter of the Horror Writers Association, which C.R. established in 2014. They have a passion for the genre that shows in their work and leaks out into other areas of their life, like running D&D campaigns with creepy twists (in which I’ve both been the lone survivor of a near-TPK encounter and the lone death in a fight against a mind flayer) and writing awesome reviews of horror books and movies on their blog.
C.R.’s writing covers the gamut from cosmic horror, dark urban fantasy, and general strangeness. If you’re into Lovecraftian monsters, indescribable terrors, characters who genuinely know their way around weapons and can handle themselves in a fight, and/or stories that will leave you feeling keenly unsettled, you NEED to be reading their books.
They give a lot of his time to promoting horror and helping other authors, so I wanted to return the favor a little bit by spotlighting them on The Wordy Nerd blog today. Without further ado, let’s do this thing!
Caryn: Hi, C.R.! Thanks for being on the blog today.
C.R. Langille: Thanks for having me! Long time listener, first-time caller. Eh…wait. Wrong thing. Thanks for realsies though, much appreciated.
Clearly you love the horror genre – books, movies, tabletop games. What was the tipping point in your life that turned you from a horror fanatic into a horror creator?
So I grew up inundated with horror. My mom and I used to watch those old-timey monster flicks on television, she’d take me to see horror movies when I was young, and I kept that love of horror as I grew up.
Around about sixth grade I really got into reading. I remember I picked up The Crystal Shard by R.A. Salvatore and devoured it. Soon after that, I started reading all sorts of fantasy books. I knew then I wanted to be an author. I even wrote a short fantasy novella in the 10th or 11th grade. Cheesy, cliche crap about a mercenary hired to protect a princess from assassins and such. I dread the day I ever find a copy of it laying around as I am sure it is complete poop.
Anywho… my joy for all things horror took over, and I shifted my focus from fantasy to horror books and got into the likes of King, Koontz, Bentley Little, H.P. Lovecraft, etc. In turn, my writing shifted and I began writing horror.
The crazy thing is, I think that fantasy from before is still in my DNA, so when I try and write longer horror stories, they start to take on fantasy elements. That’s what happened with Canyon Shadows. It started out as a straight-up horror novel, but it wasn’t too long before I was throwing magic, angels, demons, crazy battles, etc.
Several of your stories take place in the Utah Territory (“Horishi Tom,” “The Deep Timber”). What draws you to that particular time in our state’s history?
So a couple of reasons. I love the Old West and that timeframe. I love the idea of all these places dotting the landscape that are basically self-sufficient little islands of population where someone can make it on their own. The idea of the Old West has been romanticized in my brain (as I’m sure the actuality of the Old West was probably different). Plus, I love all the Western movies.
On top of all that, the Old West is a lush setting for horror. It blends together perfectly. For one, we have the theme of isolation. Even when someone is in a town, it’s not like they can call for the cavalry and have them show up quickly. A lot of times you had to wire for help and it may be days or weeks before any arrives if any arrives at all. Second, we don’t have all the crazy technology of the present day muddling things up. No cell phones, conveniences, cars, etc. Perfect for horror.
Many of the characters in your dark urban fantasy trilogy, The Dark Tyrant Series, have either a military or law background. How do you relatably write characters like these for readers who don’t have military or police experience?
It’s a tough thing to do. I mean, you’ve been around when I switch into military jargon with someone, it’s an entirely different language. And that language has tons of different dialects when you jump into what career field you worked in, or even worse, branches of service.
So when I write these things, I try to leave the jargon out, because it is only going to appeal or make sense to a small subset of readers. So I’ll use jargon sparingly, but sprinkle it in like a nice little spice, but then I’ll put something in context so the reader can ascertain what I’m talking about. I feel like those examples give the character an added depth of realism without making it too confusing.
The other thing I’ll try and do is try and bring the character’s military background alive with how they view and interact in the world. For example, let’s say a character is out for a walk and hears a helicopter in the distance. It might remind them of being deployed to Afghanistan because of the high prevalence of helicopters putting around over there.
What’s your process for writing action scenes, and how much of it involves acting things out with finger guns?
Action scenes are great. I loved the scenes in R.A. Salvatore’s Dark Elf books, so I try to use a similar style. That being said, I use ZERO finger guns. Not since the finger gun incident of 2004. I can still hear the screams… anyway, sorry.
Yeah, no finger guns. I do play it out in my head though. I’ll also research tactics and fighting methods prevalent with the people and time to add realism.
One thing I try to avoid is unrealistic fighting. I have a background in martial arts, grappling, and I used to be in the Society of Creative Anachronism and participated in the heavy armor combat a lot (I know it isn’t the same as actual bladed combat and the fighting methods differ).
What I’ve learned about participating in all that, is how important breathing is and staying relaxed during a fight. I also know what it feels like to have an adrenaline dump, and most importantly, I know what my body feels like after all the excitement fades. I try to put all that into my writing when it is relevant.
Clearly you can handle some s%*% on your own, but if you had to pick just one of your characters to help you get back to your family in an apocalyptic horror situation, which one would it be and why?
Great question, and pretty tough, as most of my characters are broken and not necessarily the greatest folks in the world. However, if I had to pick one, I would probably pick Thulisile from the book, Alpha Protocol. She is a major badass that has specialized training on how to deal with things that go bump in the night. On top of that, she is a witch and very powerful.
What’s the most #horrorlife thing about you? I know you go ghost hunting, you read tarot, and you spend a lot of time alone in the spooky woods so I feel like you’ve got some options here. 🙂
Hah, I definitely do all those things. Most of the time the woods are not too spooky. However, I do remember one time I was out there alone cooking some breakfast by the fire when it this noise that sounded like a cross between a banshee wail, coyote howl, and a child crying kicked up in the trees about 100 yards away. Not two seconds later about a dozen more joined that unholy chorus of the damned. Yeah, kind of unnerving.
That being said, I would say the most hashbrowns horrorlife thing about me would be that I founded and currently run the Utah Chapter of the Horror Writers Association. When I joined the HWA there wasn’t a local chapter, so I reached out to the HWA, figured out how to start one, and got one going.
Last question for today: if someone has gotten this far and wants to pick up one of your books to get a deeper peek into your psyche, which of your books should they start with?
If someone has made it this far, they deserve a virtual high-five, because I rambled a lot. But I would recommend they start off with Tales from the Storm Vol. 1. It’s a collection of my short stories and will give them a good idea of my style of writing and if they want to jump into something longer.
Thanks again for the opportunity to come into your virtual space and yak about books, reading, forest banshees, and military flashbacks. Stay spooky, and Roger sends his regards, achachachachachachachach!
Huge thanks to C.R. Langille for letting me interview them for my blog, and also for using the phrase “hashbrowns horror life” because that’s going to be stuck in my head for nine years.
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