1. What can you tell us about your experience as a writer?
For most of my career, I’ve been writing up blurbs for sportscasters to read on air. I also write news reports for regional news syndicates. That doesn’t require a lot of creative writing, but it has to be quick, clever, and hopefully entertaining. I tried to use those three things in “Horror Clown.”
2. Have you always written horror?
My first book, “The Man Book,” was created based on a lot of the trivia that makes up sports announcing. It came from years of digging up information like “The batter is 0 for three against this pitcher in away games, so you know he’s got to be desperate to break that slump!” That book did really well for St. Martin’s Press, but it was definitely a humor and factoid book. Although I’ve always adored horror movies, I had never written horror until coming up with the character of “the Clown.”
3. What inspired you to write The New Adventures of Horror Clown: The Life and Good Times of a Serial Killer?
I met this guy in Tennessee who was planning on working with the FBI to expose sports gambling at small colleges, not major universities. He wanted to talk to me about his story, which was sort of interesting, but nothing I would report on. We’re sitting in a diner, and out of nowhere he started rambling about doing part-time work for organized crime. Some of it involved kidnapping and torture. To conceal his identity during these very illegal jobs, he always kept a clown makeup kit in his car. He told me he took the kit from a professional clown who was in over his head with gambling debts.
Before we could have additional discussions, the informant disappeared. I don’t know if the FBI thing worked out or if he went into hiding. But his stories of how seriously he took this nasty contract work inspired me to write a book about a clown who delights in killing with a ruthless precision.
4. Some of the stories in Horror Clown are brutal. Were you ever unsure about whether or not the more extreme stories would be acceptable to readers?
I’ve read enough extreme horror to know that there is almost nothing that is off limits (except children and pets). So I stress almost. I think that Horror Clown gives enough background in his stories, and the reason behind each of his murders, that readers will say “Yeah, I can see why he did that. I might have done that, too.”
5. Was there anything in particular that inspired your ideas for these stories?
Outside of the informant I mentioned above, a few stories had real people as inspiration. A work friend I had who cheated me out of rent was the antagonist in “Business As Usual,” the guy who used to drive his motorcycle around my neighborhood while me and the neighbors were trying to sleep is in “The Loud And Whining Road”, and the Human Resources person who wouldn’t help me get employee benefits I was entitled to is in “Inhuman Resources.” Those people all meet a fitting end in Horror Clown.
6. Which one of the stories is your favorite and why?
Although I really had a blast with each story, I have to say the one titled “Making A House A Home” is my favorite. The twist at the end shocks me every time I read it—and I wrote it!
7. What kind of feedback have you gotten from readers of the book?
So far, people like the fact that the horror pushes some limits, but is told with a healthy dose of sarcasm. It’s not about being funny, but it certainly is fun. So I’ve been told.
8. Do you plan to write more stories featuring your Horror Clown character?
I do. I’m not sure what they will be, but I’m thinking that the clown takes his horror show on the road.
9. What are you working on right now?
Real life takes up a lot of my life, as I know it does for most authors. I’m trying to craft new stories for Horror Clown one at a time, since each one is a self-contained story, like a mini-movie. And I would certainly love for him to have his own movie!
10. Where can readers find out more about you and your books online?
I’m on Facebook
And on X
And this link will get you to my Amazon page.
ABOUT OTTO:
Otto DeFay is a freelance writer who spends most of his life on the road, staying in semi-decent hotels, meeting strange people, and researching bizarre stories. His first book, The Man Book, was published by St. Martin’s Press to widespread acclaim. His first novel, The New Adventures Of Horror Clown—The Life And Good Times Of A Serial Killer, is based on an informant he met in a diner in Franklin, Tennessee.
The New Adventures of Horror Clown is available in print and electronic format on Amazon.