Welcome, Vaughn!

Vaughn A. Jackson is a Horror Writers Association-affiliated author, editor, and sometimes poet of dark speculative fiction. His work generally falls into one of three categories, Creatures, Kaiju, or Cosmic Horror, and often blends elements of fantasy, science fiction, and horror into one unholy abomination. His published novels include the Kaiju thrillers Up from the Deep and Deepspore: Death Below the Sea, as well as the cosmic horror novel Touched by Shadows, and now Southern Cross. He is also the co-editor of the diverse cosmic horror anthology Beyond the Bounds of Infinity. When not writing, he can usually be found hanging with his wife and pets, cracking jokes, and making sure H.P. Lovecraft turns over in his grave.

About Southern Cross

Ten years ago, Ezekiel escaped one evil, only to watch helplessly as an even more ancient evil in the form of a vampire ripped his wife from his grasp.

Ezekiel’s hunt began in the ashes of his former life.

Now, the Civil War burns through the American South, and Ezekiel cuts his own swath of destruction, battling man and monster alike. Two unlikely allies join him in his quest: Will, a member of the Union’s Ambulance Corp, and Kate, a young Confederate sympathizer. The jaded, world-weary hunter doesn’t know if his wife is alive or dead, just that revenge is a dish best served bloody red.

Interview with Vaughn A. Jackson

What is it about the Weird West genre that draws you to it? What are your favorite aspects or examples of this often-underappreciated genre?

God, I love a good gunslinger. Long coat, wide brim hat, twin revolvers. It’s just the epitome of cool for me. Idris Elba as Roland Deschain from the Dark Tower movie is pretty much the swagger I aspire to have in life. And as much as I love reading or watching (or writing) a proper shootout between hardened people, throw in some monsters and I’m sold. I mean, in the Weird West you can have a gunslinger, who also wields a sword, fighting space octopi while wrestling with the fact that his evil ancestor who appears as a floating talking demon skull is trying to possess him and…I should write that…anyway, the old west is a place where anything goes; more or less, there are no rules. Couple that with weird fiction’s form of “there are no rules” and you’re sure to have a hell of a great time.

What inspired you to write this story?

My wife loves to hear me admit that I was inspired to write this story because of Twilight. So I’ll start like that. Then I’ll explain. One of the characters in the aforementioned vampire book is Jasper, and Jasper—it turns out—is a vampire who fought for the Confederate Army during the Civil War. This is, as far as I was told having never read the books, never expanded on and just really used for character flavor. Turns out, after a bit of Googling, there are a whole bunch of heroic (or anti-heroic) Confederate vampires in media: Louis de Pointe du Lac, Bill Compton, and Damian Salvatore, to name a few. I guess you could say I took offense to this trope and decided to give the world some Confederates, people and vampires, that showed their true colors. It was also around this time that I learned I had a White ancestor named Seaborn Jasper Jackson who died fighting for the Confederate Army, so I just thought he’d love the fact that his Black great great great great (or however many greats) grandson wrote a story in which Confederates are rightfully blown away by shotguns. Spite is a hell of a motivator, ain’t it?

If you were living in the Weird West, what kind of character would you be?

Oh man. I’d love to sit back, cross my arms and say “gunslinger, for sure,” with a terse nod of my head to show that I mean it, but I’m pretty sure I’d be lying if I did that. I’m not sure I have the inner steel to face down every challenger who wants to come gunning—pun intended—for me. The more I think about it, I’d probably be an old western bartender. That way I’m still hanging around the gunslingers and the sheriffs and all the cool folks, but they aren’t gonna mess with me cause I control their booze. Don’t piss off the only alcohol in town, you know? Of course, I’d have myself a revolver or shotgun for if I needed it—this is the Weird West after all, anything from Billy the Kid to B’zarthe the Despoiler could walk in through my front door. So yeah, bartender with a shotgun, that’d be me in the Weird West, serving up good drink to all weary souls—no matter how they present.

Are there any other writing projects you’re working on?

I’m really bad at only working on one project at a time, so right now I have five in various states of disarray. I have a cosmic horror novella that focuses on exploring a characters mental health issues while forced to face things from behind him and his father’s realm of understanding. I have creature feature wrapped up in a ghost story set in Japan’s Aokigahara. My “Silent Hill but make it true cosmic horror” is the project I’m devoting the most time to at the moment. I just came up with and am sketching out some stories for a character to feature in a series of horror comedy occult detective stories. And I am in the planning stage for a sequel to Southern Cross, so we’ll see where that goes. Like I said, bad at focusing on a single thing. But they all get done eventually.

Favorite weird west movie/book/comic/etc. and why?

This is a tie, so bear with me. 

First, I have to go with the book that introduced me to the genre: Stephen King’s The Gunslinger. From the opening line, “The man in black fled across the desert, and the gunslinger followed,” I was hooked. Roland was cool, confident, tragic and just damn interesting. The world built out and got weirder, from magic and sixteen legged spiders, to Slow Mutants in an abandoned train station, it was just everything. High fantasy skinned in a shattered old west, and dipped in a radioactive, almost Mad Max vibe. Whenever i’m writing weird west, I find myself asking WWRD, What Would Roland Do? Even if it’s just to help me figure out what my characters wouldn’t do.

My immediate second thought goes to Garth Ennis’s Preacher. it’s a more modern take on the genre, and the main character is a Southern well…preacher. But damn if Jesse Custer doesn’t carry himself like a gunslinger. He wields the voice of God like any other man would wield a revolver, and it’s amazing to see how that helps him as much as how much it screws things up for him as well. Throw in an Irish vampire, a badass heroine and, later on, an undead gunslinger called The Saint of Killers, and you’ve got one gnarly story to watch unfold.

Anything else you’d like to add about writing or the Weird West (tips, etc.)?

This is gonna be a short one, because I think it encompasses everything I could and would say: There is no such thing as too weird. Whatever pops into your head, you can make it work. Just go for it!

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