From a thrilling new voice in horror, Andy Marino, comes a haunting tale of a woman whose life begins to unravel after a home invasion. She’s told she killed the intruder. But she can’t remember, and no one believes her…
We chat with author Andy Marino about his new novel The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess, along with book recommendations, writing, and more!
Hi, Andy! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?
Hi! Thanks for having me. I’m a native (upstate) New Yorker. I lived half my life in NYC and recently moved back up to the Hudson Valley, mainly for easy access to haunted places, apple orchards, and Stewart’s. I’m a fairly serious distance runner, daily frisbee-thrower for an Australian Cattle Dog, erstwhile musician, and reader of anything I can get my hands on.
When did you first discover your love for writing?
Elementary school. In an anecdote I added to my first-ever bio, which now lives forever in various online places, I started writing an epic fantasy novel when I was eleven. I loved the idea of building an endless world with MAPS GALORE. I imagined a comprehensive a map inside the front cover, an auxiliary map that zoomed in on the relevant areas, and a map of the main city that got super granular, with streets and prominent architecture all nicely labelled. Anyway, the book was called The Runes of Illiarm, and it remains mercifully unfinished.
Quick lightning round! Tell us the first book you ever remember reading, the one that made you want to become an author, and one that you can’t stop thinking about!
The first book I remember being obsessed with was a children’s book called Bizzy Bones and Uncle Ezra. It’s about a mouse who’s scared of the wind, so his incredibly kind and emotionally intelligent uncle (also a mouse) works on a secret project to help him overcome this fear. Highly recommended. The Lord of the Rings made me daydream about becoming an author (see epic fantasy/map lust story above). I would say I think about China Mieville’s Perdido Street Station once a day, or at least every time I see a moth.
Your new novel, The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess, is out September 28th 2021! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
Unsettling, propulsive, queasy, sharp, surprising.
What can readers expect?
What appears, on the surface, to be a thriller that hinges on a home invasion spirals into a nightmare odyssey of addiction, body horror, betrayal, and…love?
Where did the inspiration for The Seven Visitations of Sydney Burgess come from?
A desire to write honestly and compassionately about addiction. At the same time, I’ve always felt connected (on both a personal and creative level) to the existential horror of the cycle of addiction and relapse. So, when I started the first draft, I paired these themes with an almost uncomfortably close first-person POV and hung it all on the bones of a thriller. It immediately felt like the book I’ve always wanted to write, and the story evolved from there.
Can you tell us about any challenges you faced while writing and how you were able to overcome them?
I’ve never really been a clockwork-type plotter, where everything falls into place thanks to a meticulous outline. I’ve always preferred to let the story unfold as the writing progresses. However, this novel adheres to some pretty twisty thriller mechanics, so I had to find new ways to hammer it into place. What helped was creating a rigorous framework, dividing the novel into seven visitation sections which are in turn divided into six chapters each.
Were there any favourite moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Turns out I really enjoy writing scenes set in bars.
What do you love about the horror genre?
It’s a breeding ground for infinite creative forms. Horror’s like a dark cloud that can float over any genre. 1970s Giallo films, classic monster movies, genre-bending monstrosities like House of Leaves—they’re all ostensibly horror, but seem like they come from entirely different universes. I love that horror can be as hyper-focused as an unsettling turn of phrase in a short story or as epic as a multi-part franchise.
What’s next for you?
Another horror novel coming out next year (also with Orbit/Redhook) that’s currently in the netherworld between first and second drafts. It’s about a sculptor forced to create an impossible masterpiece as the ransom for his kidnapped sister. I also have a novel for middle-grade readers coming out in December (and, I believe, a bit earlier if you’re a kid attending a Scholastic Book Fair) called Escape From Chernobyl.
Lastly, do you have any book recommendations for our readers?
It’s a great time to be a horror fan! If you like weird horror—and short stories—Brian Evenson’s A Collapse of Horses delivers all kinds of disquieting happenings. For novels, I would definitely recommend Stephen Graham Jones’s Mongrels, John Langan’s The Fisherman, and Kathe Koja’s The Cipher.
