1.- Could you introduce yourself to Jamreads’ readers?
Hello! I’m Angela Slatter, also writing as A.G. Slatter for the gothic fantasies. I’ve written 7 novels, 12 short story collections, 4 novellas and over 200 short stories. I also did a Hellboy comic collaboration with Mike Mignola, called Castle Full of Blackbirds.

2.- How did you start writing?
I was always a big reader and dreamed about being a writer for a long time, but didn’t think it would be something I’d be able to do. But eventually I decided that it was the thing I wanted to do in life more than anything else, so I started writing and studying writing, and my first pieces were published, which encouraged me to keep going.

3.- Most of your fantasy works are in the shared universe of Sourdough. Could you tell about the inspirations that brought this universe to life?
I’m fascinated by fairy and folktales, myths and legends and history and religion, so all of those things feed into what I write. I’ve taken ideas about magic from fairy and folktales and fed them into this world so that magic is real here, no one questions it. The same with myths and legends, I take things like gods having an influence in the world and not being very benign. And I use elements of history and religion to help ground it all in a sort of recognisable reality - like the way witches have been persecuted. So in these stories you’ll find families that do deals with mer creatures, witches who can use fire to defend themselves, people who turn into wolves when they want, and my version of vampires, the Leech Lords.

4.- We could say that among your main four novels in the Sourdough universe, there’s a shared element: a strong and well-developed feminine main character. Why would you say you took this choice while writing?
Well, traditionally fairy and folktales have often been told by women - mothers, nurses, grandmothers - so for me these tales are very much women’s stories. They’re often a means of warning other women about dangers (like Bluebeard, etc), hints about how to get through life, etc. And they’re also very adaptable tales across time, so I often feel like the old stories I read are still relevant and speaking to me across time, they bear the traces of previous storytellers and I feel I’m part of a long chain. I hope that my stories will go on to others in the same way. 
As for why I chose a female protagonist: well, I am female and these are the sorts of stories I’d have liked to read when I was growing up. I hope that readers can find hope and strength in them, even when the stories are very dark. My main characters always come through. 

5.- The Crimson Road is your latest novel. How did the idea for this book appear? Did it evolve much on revisions?
I wrote a short story as part of a collection in 2014, it’s called “The Night Stair” and it was set in a part of the Sourdough world where there were vampires ruling over the human population. There were characters in there (and also in other stories in The Bitterwood Bible) that I wanted to explore further. When I got the idea for Violet and her story, I thought it would be a great opportunity to weave some of that initial worldbuilding in. Violet was always this interesting voice in my head - part of the inspiration was also thinking about families and how oldest children are often put in charge of younger siblings, and how unfair that could be. So that was one of the impulses behind the novel, exploring that phenomenon.

6.- Particularly, I feel we can see on the Crimson Road a big component around overcoming grief and trauma, through the eyes of different characters. Did you find challenging writing it?
It’s always a challenge to put yourself into the headspace of a character who’d suffered a lot of trauma, and there’s always a big concern for me about accurately depicting that on the page. It can be really hard doing research in some areas as well. Equally, I’m also very interested in showing ways of surviving trauma and healing and going on with life. All of my heroines are scarred by their lives but they are survivors who refuse to give up. 

7.- You will publish the Cold House this October; how did you find switching gears from writing fantasy to a more horror oriented approach?
I’ve been flipping back and forth between the two ever since I first started writing. I like contemporary horror as well as gothic fantasy/horror, and even my contemporary horror has elements based in fairy and folktales.

8.- Would you give any advice to an aspiring author?
Read widely and learn your craft. Reading other people’s published work will help you develop and hone your own voice - you’ll work out what you do and don’t like as a reader, and you’ll see where your stories can fit in. Develop a thick skin because not everyone will like your writing - but also learn to recognise when feedback is actually helpful and constructive. And if you’re really in love with writing, you’ll keep doing it.

9.- What can we expect from A.G. Slatter in the future?
After The Cold House, there’ll be another Sourdough world novel, A Forest Darkly, about a witch in the woods who’s running from her dark past. Then children start to go missing from a nearby village, and something starts hunting the witch too. After that, I’ll be finishing another contemporary horror novella called Fitcher’s Birds.