On this month's Special Page:

Owl Goingback discusses his Lifetime Achievement Award

IN THE "SPECIAL PAGE" ARCHIVES:

Paul Tremblay
Joe R. Lansdale
Ramsey Campbell
John McLoughlin
Ray Garton
Jonathan Maberry

Owl Goingback Talks to The Horror Zine

The Horror Writers Association recently announced me as one of the two winners for this year’s Lifetime Achievement Award (the other recipient is Thomas Ligotti). The award is given annually to individuals whose work has substantially influenced the horror and dark fantasy genre.

Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to win a Lifetime Achievement Award. I actually thought the email informing me of my selection was a practical joke. I read it four times before finally believing it was real!

It was a long journey getting here, though. I’ve been writing professionally for over thirty years. I put a lot of myself into the stories I write. I love writing horror because it gives me great pleasure to scare someone! If they sleep with the light on after reading one of my works, I feel I’ve done my job. There is nothing more satisfying than having a reader say they enjoyed your story, or, in the case of a horror writer, having someone say your story scared the hell out of them.

I grew up an only child in the rural Midwest. I would probably have gone stark raving mad of boredom, especially during the harsh winter months, if I hadn’t been kept entertained by horror fiction and Famous Monsters of Filmland magazine. I owe a lot to Poe, Lovecraft, Bradbury, Forry Ackerman, and many modern scribes of dark fiction for helping me keep my sanity during those years, and I wanted to give something back to the genre by writing horror fiction of my own. I am deeply honored that the Horror Writers Association has named me a Lifetime Achievement Award winner, and eternally thankful that my works of fiction are being read and enjoyed by at least a few people.

The editor of The Horror Zine asked me if I have any advice for new writers. The best bit of advice I can give is to never give up. Being a writer is not for the faint-hearted, or the easily discouraged. It’s a career filled with frustrations, setbacks, late nights spent hoping for the perfect paragraph or phase, and the madness of approaching deadlines. But if you can keep your butt in the chair, continue putting words on paper, then one day you will reap the rewards for your efforts.

About Owl Goingback

Owl Goingback has been writing professionally for over thirty years, and is the author of numerous novels, children’s book, screenplays, magazine articles, and short stories. He is a Bram Stoker Award Winner, a Nebula Award Nominee, and a Storytelling World Awards Honor Recipient. His books include Crota (Bram Stoker Award Winner), Darker Than Night (Stoker Award Nominee), Evil Whispers, Breed, Shaman Moon, Eagle Feathers, and The Gift. Owl’s short story collection Tribal Screams was published as a limited run in 2016, and recently republished to a much larger audience. The Coffee Shop of Horrors created an Owl Goingback’s Tribal Screams roasted chestnut flavored coffee to tie-in with the collection. Owl was also one of eight writers chosen for DC Entertainment’s 2016 Talent Development Workshop, and recently added comic book writer to his professional resume. His newest novel, Coyote Rage, was published in 2019.

In addition to writing under his own name, Owl has ghostwritten for Hollywood celebrities—including a science fiction novel for a multiple Emmy Award winning actor. Owl also served in the United States Air Force, owned a restaurant/lounge, and worked as a cemetery caretaker.