Get to know Julie Travis, the author behind the extremely creepy “Cruor Garland” in this month’s episode, WILD!
1. What inspired "Cruor Garland?"
The story was partly based on real events – Cotehele House is a medieval/Tudor house in south-east Cornwall that’s now managed by the National Trust. Every year they dry thousands of flowers and use them to make a huge garland to hang in the main hall for the Christmas season. I just took it a stage or two further.
2. How do you connect with the theme of WILD?
The ritualistic elements of the volunteers creating the garland feels to me that it’s an offering of some kind, as are many folk customs worldwide, of course. The garland features on the local news every year, and it’s a magnificent thing. It has always looked to me like a giant snake or serpent, and the fact that it’s made out of flowers gives it an obvious connection to the land/nature. And nature can be dark and brutal.
3. Your piece walks a remarkable line between mundanity and horror, and develops tension brilliantly in the lead-up to the final bloody finale. How did you develop those themes?
I believe that we all walk a line between the everyday and the magickal – horror can be found in the most mundane situation and I’ve had supernatural and psychic experiences all my life, so it’s something I’m always aware of. I’ve been told that my stories are cinematic, which is a fair comment and probably comes from all the films I watched when I was younger. I should stress here that I’ve never seen writing fiction as a stepping stone to making a film, though.
4. How did you get into horror? What do you enjoy in the genre? What scares you?
I grew up during the 1970s and was just always obsessed with horror and cryptozoology. The house I grew up in was haunted, so it’s no surprise that horror etc became a lifelong obsession. But ‘strange events’ were a big part of the culture at that time – reports of Bigfoot, the Loch Ness Monster, hauntings and UFOs were everywhere. As a form of entertainment Hammer Horror films were regularly on tv and my parents had anthologies of horror short stories. Many of these were the classics – Poe, M R James etc – which I loved but they were distanced from my life, as they involved rich people living in huge mansions. Once Clive Barker came along, using contemporary settings and ordinary people, it reignited my interest (which had been tempered somewhat by some of the horror films of the 1980s that appeared to be quite misogynistic. J G Ballard’s work fascinated me as it involved protagonists with bizarre mindsets and obsessions. What scares me? Probably lack of imagination, empathy, compassion, more than anything else.
5. What’s your writing process like?
It’s not very structured. I’m inspired to a great extent by my dreams – I’ve always had vivid, powerful dreams and nightmares – and I make notes about them, or I’ll write down an idea that can come from a saying or a comment someone makes. My intention is to make it a magickal process, in that what I’m writing can become transformative, for myself, the reader, or for the story itself. The Cruor Garland is a good example: I finished the story and left it on a chair in a corner of the room. Over several months I felt that what I’d written was actually taking place within the pages of the manuscript and that I’d simply transcribed real events: that corner of the room certainly appeared to be busy, as if something was going on there. After a year it had developed so much that it was time to send it out into the world. That sounds more ordered than I actually am, but it’s how I would hope to approach all my stories. Publication is no longer high on my agenda, although I’m always very happy when it happens.
6. How does identity play a role in your writing?
It’s essential, and one of the reasons I began writing, as I wasn’t seeing anyone like me in what I was reading. Again, Clive Barker played a great role in this, as his female characters were three-dimensional and strong. Even before he came out he was a huge influence. Those who have been marginalised (certainly in the West) often come to the fore in my stories, because I’m also an outsider in several ways. I’ve been asked if this is just me ‘ticking boxes’ as if it’s about having a checklist of worthy/PC essentials, which of course it isn’t as I’m just reflecting my own life and experiences as part of ‘other’ communities, but that comment makes it very clear how few gay voices are heard, because so many straight, white people will find it jarring to have a protagonist who isn’t from their world. This may well mean that less people will read my (or any other gay writer’s) work than would if I ignored who I was, but I don’t see the point of writing dishonest stories.
7. What role do you think horror plays in the LGBTQ community?
I’ve been mulling this one over and I’m not sure how much of a role horror does play, but I think it’s mainly a matter of looking at life from a different angle. We all have our own horror stories, of course, which are going to be different to those of the straight world, but perhaps it’s just a matter of having different monsters although there’s some themes that are universal – we’re all frightened, or at least wary of death, we all struggle with loss.
8. What’s next for you, creatively?
A book is being published/available from next week about the art and life of a dear, departed friend – Ian Johnstone – which I was commissioned to write some fiction and non-fiction for. It pushed me very far out of my comfort zone, and of course it was emotionally difficult to write, but it was a great honour to be asked. I’m also the co-founder of an LGBT events company called Dead Unicorn Ventures, which put on an event in my home town, Penzance during the summer, and seeks to bring together the gay community here, which has nowhere to go or meet up. DUV has also published issue one of our zine, Dykes Ink, which has received very positive feedback, and we (myself and co-founder Cat Astley) have free rein to do whatever we want with it. As far as fiction goes, I’ve nearly finished the first draft of a new story, A Cure For The Common Cold, and I have another story, Sky-Eyes, that I need to work on as soon as it’s feasible. I’ve been doing some gardening at a local community farm, and it’s very healthy for me to be interacting a bit more with people and be growing wild flowers etc. I’ve long since learned that if you can push one door open, many others will follow, so the future is full of possibilities.
9. Any great horror recommendations?
I don’t read half as much fiction as I used to, as I find it difficult to concentrate, so I’m somewhat out of the loop as far as writers are concerned. But another thing about being a child during the 1970s was that the UK created some amazing horror/sf children’s dramas, which have stood the test of time, such as Children Of The Stones and The Changes, so I’d recommend checking them out. Otherwise, I think I should be asking you for horror recommendations! Although I’m lucky enough to be friends with a few fellow writers, some of whom write horror and I’ve been deeply impressed with what I’ve read of theirs, so check out Priya Sharma, Georgina Bruce, Rosanne Rabinowitz and Lynda Rucker.