Grab the Lapels: Congrats on the new novel, Crafting for Sinners, which was released into the world on October 7th. I bought it right away, and I was so intrigued to see that in your bio, you note that you are “an avid crafter.” For your previous novel, This Wretched Valley, your bio said you are “an avid rock climber” — a sport that takes the characters to the Kentucky wilds. I’m so used to reading about MFA programs, lit journal names, etc. How do you decide how to advertise who you are?
Jennifer Kiefer: In all honesty, the publisher does a lot of that. But I think in the case of these two books, it lends a bit of authenticity to the details of the books. I always do a ton of research anyway, but I have firsthand experience with both rock climbing and crafting.
GTL: I run a horror book club in Michigan, and I’ve noticed that my fellow horror readers are not horror movie fans. Conversely, when I was in a horror movie club, most people didn’t read horror because it scared them too much. Do you have any thoughts on this? I guess I assumed that horror writers would want to publish something cinematic to create visceral fear.
JK: That’s weird to me! All the horror readers I know also love horror movies.
GTL: Speaking of horror fans, you and your mom own and operate Butcher Cabin Books in Louisville, Kentucky. What is that like? Has Butcher Cabin become a sort of mecca for horror fans and authors alike?
JK: It is fun, but it’s also a lot of work! We have had a lot of people travel specifically to visit the store, which is both really cool and really terrifying! Our store is currently super small, so I’m always worried that people will be disappointed when they tell me that!
GTL: A lot of folks out there refuse to read horror. Some of them haunt this blog. Do you try to sell horror to the unconverted by recommending something “atmospheric,” “spooky,” or (and I hate this word) “literary,” or do you just leave them alone?
JK: We don’t really try to hard-sell to anyone who isn’t into horror. There’s bound to be something for everyone if people want to try it. I don’t know, sometimes things just aren’t for everyone! I don’t read in the romance genre, and I’m not sure there’s anything someone could do to persuade me to read it. And that’s ok! I’m very happy for people who love romance. But if someone wanted to broaden their horizons and try out a horror book, we can help you find something. Genre is really fuzzy — some books we sell are titles some people might not really think are horror, but they’re pretty adjacent.
GTL: Today is Halloween, so how do you plan to celebrate, if at all? I feel strange when I tell people I don’t dress up or go to parties because for me, I dabble with the spooky all year long with movies and books. But, I do know Halloween is a Huge Deal for most horror fans.
JK: I’ll be spending my Halloween flying to Baton Rouge for the Louisiana Book Festival. Hopefully I don’t encounter any monsters at 30,000 feet!
Grab the Lapels 
I’ve been trying to comment, rather than just haunting your blog, but it keeps telling me I must be logged in to comment, and although I’ve tried logging in to everything I can think of, the error message doesn’t change. Jeanne
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Thanks for letting me know. I was getting hundreds of spam messages per day that were actually getting through the spam message because the robots weren’t including an email address. By saying you must log in or have an email address, all the spam has stopped. I didn’t realize it might affect other people. I thought logging in just meant being logged into your WordPress account? Thanks for letting me know.
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I just turned off that feature, so we’ll see how it goes!
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That was a nice little interview. Will you be posting about the book itself sometime?
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Yes, I need to read it. I bought it, and it will be soon.
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This is a great interview, Melanie. I love your questions. This one though made me laugh “A lot of folks out there refuse to read horror. Some of them haunt this blog.” Haunt this blog!! Haha. Her answer was good. BTW if you see my Six degrees today you’ll see I have read the first Gothic (horror?) novel and a Shirley Jackson story.
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I’ll be sure to check out your post, Sue. I enjoy Shirley Jackson. People say how horror and humor are two sides of a coin, and I think Jackson epitomizes that. She used to write about being a mother for women’s magazines, and later the articles were published together into two books, both of which I’ve read.
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Oh thanks Melanie. I do think I’d enjoy some more Jackson.
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I always love to hear when authors also have bookstores. Although both career paths are tricky and often not very lucrative, it certainly does give authors a better perspective on what people are reading, and why. Which means I tend to like their books more – they are keeping us readers in mind! haha
I’m also shocked to hear that you’ve got readers who don’t read horror – your horror recommendations are always so good, and you’ve got lots of them 🙂
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Thanks for the compliment, Anne! I did convince Bill to pick up The Unmothers, though it is more mysterious than horror in my opinion. Don’t folks just absolutely don’t want to put a pinky toe in! I would hope that owning a bookstore would show authors what’s really popular, so that they can avoid doing that exact same thing. If I have to read about one more book, that has a haunted house that is really a giant metaphor for family turmoil, especially between mothers and daughters…. Sigh.
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haha true true, haunted houses are so often representations of relationships between people. I guess we should feel good about being in a house that isn’t haunted, maybe it means we’re more normal or accepting folks haha
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Nice interview! That’s weird that you’ve had lots of experience with people who like horror films but not books and vice versa. My co-worker is a horror queen and is a super fan of both mediums.
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I’m definitely into both. Horror movie fans who don’t like horror books tend to say that their imaginations are more powerful than the images on a screen. Horror book fans who don’t watch horror movies tend to say they don’t like to see the horror.
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Great interview! I also like when authors are involved in bookstores because it somehow seems to show their passion for the whole book business. I tend to agree with her that not every book is for every person but there is a book for everyone out there somewhere!
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You and I were recently writing back and forth about Sylvia Moreno Garcia, and she might be someone that people who aren’t into horror would enjoy. We were talking about how she is (unfortunately, in my opinion) marketed as horror.
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Right! I wonder what she thinks her books should be classified as!
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