On November 26 & 27 we’re hosting our second-ever AugurCon, our virtual celebration of speculative literatures! We’re joined by over 45 amazing guests, including authors, poets, editors, and publishing professionals, to explore the intersections of the world we know—and the ones we dare to imagine.

We connected with A.C. Wise, author of the novels Hooked and Wendy, Darling, who is a panel host at this year’s AugurCon.

Get your ticket to attend her panel:

Horrific Imaginations: Mastering Fear & Tension
Sunday, November 27 at 4:30–5:30 PM EST / 1:30–2:30 PM PST

To see the full weekend program schedule, visit our website.

You’re on our Horrific Imaginations panel this year (hurray, horror!), and we’re wondering: if you could tell yourself anything about writing horror at the start of your career, what would it be? Warnings, encouragements?

I’ve always been drawn to horror as a reader and a writer. I don’t know that I have any specific advice or warnings to my past-self, but in terms of advice in general, I would definitely encourage people to write horror, no matter where they are in their careers, if it calls to them. The flip side of that would be, don’t write horror (or any other genre) just because you think it’s marketable, or in order to chase a trend. Write what you’re passionate about, whatever it is that keeps you writing and finishing stories. Don’t be afraid to experiment with different genres, styles, and voices, and find out what works best for you!

Speaking of early career: are there any up-and-coming writers (or, hey, other industry professionals) who you think are doing great work right now? Who would you love to see erupt overnight?

Ooh! There are so many folks at all stages of their careers writing amazing horror and I would love to see all of them gain wider recognition, because more people reading and loving horror is my jam! To name just a few, I would say: Suzan Palumbo, Clara Madrigano, David Demchuk, Ally Wilkes, P. Djeli Clarke, Gemma Files, Gwendolyn Kiste, Rivers Solomon, Rebecca Campbell, Naben Ruthnum, T. Kingfisher, Ian Muneshwar, Indapramit Das, Stephen Graham Jones. I could go on and on, but I’ll restrain myself.

In your novels Wendy, Darling and Hooked, you play with reinventing fairy tales. What drew you to retelling, and can you tell us a little bit about the power of iterative storytelling through time?

I love the idea of works being in conversation with each other, whether it’s literature, visual art, music, or heck, even scientific theories. That’s a lot of what appeals to me about re-imagined fairy tales and classics, seeing how various versions talk to each other.

Fairy tales in particular strike me as the perfect form for re-telling, not just because constant evolution, additions, and changes are baked into the oral tradition at their roots, but because they present us with archetypes and relatively simple messages, or sometimes merely strange, isolated occurrences, that leave so much room for us to ask what came before, what happened next, how did that come to be?

With Wendy, Darling and Hooked specifically, I felt there was so much darkness underneath the original story of Peter Pan, and I wanted to dig into that and bring it to the surface. Along with those horror elements begging to be excavated, I’ve always been interested in the what happens next question as it relates to portal fantasy stories. How do characters cope with being whisked away to a magical world then being dumped back into their mundane lives. What does that do to a person in the long term and how does it change them?

When you think about your career so far, what’s one of the moments that keeps you going? A career highlight, or a beautiful moment, an inspiring mentor, or something you’re just incredibly proud of? How has that impacted your journey?

That’s a really good question, and I’m not sure I have a really good answer. I guess a turning point moment might be completing Wendy, Darling, because it showed me I could indeed write something novel length when I was convinced it was too big and too scary and impossible!

Hear more from A.C. Wise: Get your ticket to AugurCon 2022

A.C. Wise is the author of the novels Hooked and Wendy, Darling, and the recent short story collection, The Ghost Sequences. Her work has won the Sunburst Award, and been a finalist for the Nebula, Stoker, World Fantasy, British Fantasy, Locus, Aurora, Ignyte, and Lambda Awards. She also reviews short fiction for Apex Magazine.

Join A.C. Wise at AugurCon! Our panel on Horrific Imaginations: Mastering Fear & Tension takes place on Sunday, November 27. Get your ticket to AugurCon 2022 now!