An Unlikely Interview with Siobhan Gallagher

In the spirit of our issue of deliberately terrible fiction, we asked our authors some deliberately terrible questions. Luckily, they were kind enough to play along. Here’s what Siobhan Gallagher, author of Twisty had to say…

Where do you get your ideas?

Everywhere. Though for “Twisty” it’s the dissatisfaction of a poorly done twist (or many twists). I suppose an alternative title for this could’ve been, “Dean Koontz: Why the The Taking sucks!” But maybe that’s too extreme…or not extreme enough.

Have you written anything I’ve heard of?

Well I do have this one piece--

Nope, I haven’t heard of that. Have you considered writing more like Stephen King or J.K. Rowling? They seem to be pretty popular and rich, so maybe you should do that.

Why not do one better and write horrific tales of horror for children? Money maker right there!

I have a really great idea for a story about a cowboy and an astronaut who are best friends. It’s kind of like Toy Story, except set during the time of The Great Gatsby, only it takes place in the Lost City of Atlantis. Robert Redford would be perfect for the movie version. Why don’t you write it, and we can split the profit 50/50? Maybe 70/30 since I came up with the idea and that’s the hard part. What do you think?

Sure! And we’ll call it “Dr. Strangelove Rides Again”.

And on a slightly more serious note (but only slightly), given your story is gracing the fine pixilated pages of an issue of deliberately terrible fiction: Do you have any regrets?

My only regret is that I don’t have more tea. But really, if some sort of joy or entertainment value can be derived from a piece of fiction, is it still bad? …Well yeah, probably is--but at least it’s not boring! Boring fiction is the worse. Perhaps that’ll be the next year’s issue, Unlikely Boringness.

Siobhan Gallagher is a wannabe zombie slayer, currently residing in Arizona. Her fiction has appeared in several publications, including AE -- The Canadian Science Fiction Review, COSMOS Online, Abyss & Apex, and the Unidentified Funny Objects anthology. Occasionally, she does this weird thing called ‘blogging’ at: defconcanwrite.blogspot.com.