Tell us a bit more about you and where you’re from.
Amanda: I’ve lived most of my life in Texas, between living and working in DFW and going to school in San Antonio. I’ve done all kinds of work over the years, from communications to data analysis. Right now I’m between regular employment, so I’m working as a gig shopper.
What inspired your winning story? Why did that particular theme resonate with you?
Amanda: I have family in Arkansas with land in the Ozarks, and they have a place on their property called the Devil’s Bathtub. I’ve been looking a reason to use it in a story for years. I kind of did in the third Thorns book, Bluebirds, but this really showcased the setting.
I’d also always wanted to write one of those stories where a guy meets a beautiful supernatural creature in the woods and assumes that it simply existing means it’s luring him, which is a brother story to the guy meeting a beautiful supernatural creature in the woods and, when it is luring him, never questions why such a beautiful creature wants to have sex with him. Let’s get some blood flow up to the larger brain, silly people.
When, and why, did you start writing?
Amanda: A teacher encouraged me in elementary school, second grade. I’m sure she regretted it when it made me insufferable during writing assignments, but I never looked back. Around fifth grade, I started trying to write novels. When I was seventeen, I wrote my first, what I eventually reworked into Nocturne. So I’ve been writing seriously with an eye toward publication for over twenty years now.
What’s your favourite aspect of writing horror?
Amanda: I love dark fiction because I’m a coward at heart. I’m a nervous Nellie, anxious by nature, so horror is my way of looking into the faces of things that scare me and dealing with them with some distance—my own brand of exposure therapy. There’s also some shadow work there, because it forces me to not just look straight at terrible things around me, but also inside.
What’s the best thing about being a writer?
Amanda: The way my brain lights up when I expand a concept into a story, when I write a good line or paragraph, when I finish a story, when I edit it into something beautiful and complete… There’s nothing like the work of writing. It makes me sad that some people want to skip the writing work simply to claim that they ‘have written.’
Who are some of your favourite authors?
Amanda: R.L. Stine got me started and Stephen King hammered the nails of horror into my flesh, but I also love Seanan McGuire/Mira Grant, Cherie Priest, Chuck Wendig, Grady Hendrix, Barbara Kingsolver, Elizabeth Kostova, and N.K. Jemisin.
Anything special on your ‘to read’ list for this year?
Amanda: I have some Chuck Wendig books in my TBR pile, and I’m looking forward to Delilah Dawson’s The Violence and Stephen King’s The Institute. I’m also looking forward to reading debut novels from indie authors Emma E. Murray and Mae Murray.
How do you make time to write, and how do you utilize that time.
Amanda: For the last two years, I’ve been on sabbatical, and then unemployed, so I had plenty of time to write. The election stole a lot of wind from my writing sails, and now that I’m working flexible hours, I do my writing work in the mornings and on my day off. I just do what I can.
Anything about you most folks don’t know? Perhaps a hidden talent or hobby.
Amanda: I have a double-jointed pointer finger on my right hand. I can wiggle it like it’s doing the worm dance move.
What can readers expect from you in the future? Where do you see your career heading in the next five years?
Amanda: I’m hoping to self-publish my seasonal horror poetry collection A Nightmare for All Seasons next month. I have some novels and novellas in my trunk that I would like to put out eventually, but I’m also on sub with a few. My grimy gloryhole novelette “Glory to God” comes out Halloween through A Coup of Owls. While my muse is overwhelmed by the state of the world, I can’t quite anticipate what the future holds, but as I said earlier, I just do what I can.
Where can folks find you online?
Amanda: You can find me on Bluesky (amandamblake.bsky.social) and Threads (amanda_mblake), and I post weekly updates at my website, amandamblake.com.