Latex Valentine

Once again Horror Addicts, lets give a warm welcome to our Horrificly amazing Wicked Women Writer Heather Roulo. As you probably know this is the third time for me to interview H.E. so this interview won’t be as long as the first two. But I was able to get new information for all you Roulo Addicts out there.

“Every time I’m on Horror Addicts, it’s to create something new. I write because I love to do it, but crafting and selling my stories, uncertain whether they will ever reach people, wears me down. Being on Horror Addicts, and delivering something without constrained requirements but intended for an audience with specific tastes reminds me how thrilling it is to experiment and hope it blows people away.”

This time around Heather’s theme for episode 56 is Valentine’s. The story she had prepared for the episode is entitled Stripping the Zipper. “[The story] won’t remind you of anything else I’ve written. Writing it was uncomfortable—sometimes even a desperate struggled to get it right, but I achieved something hot, sexy, and horrible. I may never write like that again, but this is the audience that can appreciate the risks I took. It’s always great to be on Horror Addicts, and I love any excuse to work with Emerian Rich. I’ll keep coming back as long as she and the Addicts will have me.”

For those of you wanting to know more about Stripping the Zipper here’s a sneak-peek. “Stripping the Zipper is the tale of an everyday woman who submerges herself in a world of latex and hidden obsessions only to discover that once she sees beyond prescribed normality even she isn’t what she thought. In this story, you don’t blink at the behind-the-scenes of a fetish show. It doesn’t feel alien because it shouldn’t. But her issues go way beyond that.”

And if that doesn’t have you dying to hear the story, this will: “After a bunch of versions, the ending finally exploded. My test readers were stunned, and I turned one non-horror reader’s stomach, so I was happy. For the audio recording, I didn’t even add music. It’s just the heroine’s voice—and I got that when I realized that the women who do the makeup tutorials on youtube have the same breathy, hesitant way of speaking. Nothing else could fit so perfectly. Story titles flummox me. I can brainstorm a dozen and not know which is best. This story started out as Valentine in Vinyl, but she doesn’t wear vinyl just latex. I liked Ripping the Latex Bandage, as if her dress were a band-aid, but ultimately Stripping the Zipper had sex appeal and for me, her zipper is pivotal.”

Valentine’s Day as we all know is the holiday of love. So to write a horror story built around the holiday, I was curious how H.E. feels about the day…She said that “[she] thinks it’s a great excuse; an excuse to go out, an excuse to stay in, an excuse find someone, or the reason you choose to stay home. Make it what you want it to be.” Roulo also added, “[she loves] dancing, so that’s what [she plans] to do. Nothing’s ever bad if you can go dancing.”

While chatting with Heather, she mentioned to me, that she was thrilled with the overall results of the Wicked Women Writers challenge (that she headed). “The ladies delivered! Listening to the different stories showed me how varied these women and their styles could be. I tried to be as impartial as possible, but I can’t deny being thrilled when the final tally came in for Rhonda R Carpenter. She’s my Podioracket.com partner and we support each other. We joke that we’ll have to have an all-stars in a few seasons so that we can put it to the test! Rhonda will run next year’s contest, and I think she has big plans.”

An All-Star challenge huh? A great idea in my opinion, the competition would be fierce and the stories enthralling. What do you think about having an All-Stars challenge in a few seasons?

Roulo fans be on the lookout: “The next Podioracket Presents anthology is in the works. [They are] currently accepting stories from Podiobooks.com authors that take place in their book’s world. It’s called Podioracket Presents-Glimpses. [H.E.] be writing a short story to accompany my book Fractured Horizon. The anthology will be podcast and available as an ebook.”

Heather is also “selling short stories, including a vampire one that would work for Horror Addicts if I hadn’t written Stripping the Zipper. Maybe they’ll get a chance to check it out somewhere else soon. And [she is] also finishing up a medieval fairy story for a romance anthology.”

For more information on Heather Roulo check out these sites:

http://www.twitter.com/@hroulo

http://www.fracturedhorizonnovel.com

http://www.podioracket.com