Richard Thomas is a Mundelein-based author of, as he describes it, “maximalist speculative fiction—mostly fantasy, science fiction, and horror.” With more than 175 published stories to his credit, he’s been a finalist for the Bram Stoker, Shirley Jackson, and Thriller Awards. Thomas has also made a career as an editor and teacher, and his latest novel Incarnate—well-described as “contemporary arctic horror,” though that's only part of the story—came out in September. I asked him about his new novel Incarnate and what he’s been up to since I last spoke with him.
I've interviewed you before about your writing. How has it evolved since then?
In the last five years a few things have happened in my writing. I’ve always been a maximalist, but I’ve leaned into the new-weird vs. neo-noir. The main difference being that neo-noir tends to be based in realism, and the new-weird (a mixture of Lovecraft and Barker) has more of an uncanny feeling. Add to that more hopepunk—a measure of hope and love at the center of my stories, instead of death and violence—and you have my last collection, Spontaneous Human Combustion and Incarnate, my latest novel.
Has it become harder to write stuff scarier than real life?
It definitely is difficult when life is stranger, darker, and more screwed up than fiction. I think that’s part of what pushed me into hopepunk. I can remember writing horror during and after COVID, and with life so bleak, I just couldn’t be so dark, so bleak, with my work. Not that the horror didn’t win, not that there wasn’t violence or visceral horror, but I made sure the trip was worth it. That might manifest in a more positive ending, or a hopeful message, or justice served.
Your latest book, Incarnate, is a unique kind of horror story. How would you describe it?
It was originally inspired by a few things. The short story “Familiars” by Micaela Morrissette showed how emotions could manifest in forms—that’s where the title for the book came from. Incarnate, to me, means “made flesh.” When you add that to a sin eater, you see how his absolution of those who have died, turns into the birth of creatures—from a cute little bunny rabbit to a horrifying monster (see the cover of the book). It’s also set in a mixture of Alaska and the arctic—where there are long passages of darkness and night—some 60 to 90 days. What grows and evolves in the dark? The isolation and cold can be deadly, so the nature and brutal elements—that’s the fourth character in the book, the tapestry upon which I hang the three main characters: Sebastian Pana, the sin eater; the Mother Monster, in a desert wasteland; and Kallik, a young Inuit boy. I wanted this book to be immersive, hypnotic, maximalist—so it definitely gets weird, but there is a lot of common human emotions woven into this dangerous landscape: hope, love, loss, fear, betrayal, justice, etc. It was inspired, and has been compared to The Thing, The Terror, The Giver, The Only Good Indians, and The Fisherman. So you can see the classic horror elements paired with cosmic horror as well as rural, native cultures.
Looking over your oeuvre, is there a character you still love or have fond memories of creating and bringing to life?
Oh, what an interesting question. I think the two characters that fill up most of my novelette, “Ring of Fire,” the last story in my collection—are characters that fascinate me. Without spoiling it, the protagonist is part of something larger than himself, an experiment, that can lead to a spontaneous human evolution, and his love interest—well, she’s not quite what she seems, as well. I just remember the ending be a bit of surprise to me, and the lingering emotions there something that I still think about—that we can do better, that mankind can be less violent, that man can evolve. It’s a story I revisit often, some of the scenes inspired by the eco-horror of Jeff VanderMeer’s Annihilation, a book I just love.
What's next for you?
Well, we’ll see what happens with Incarnate—that’s taking up a lot of my time right now. Got my first-ever review in The New York Times, a bucket list item, calling it, “a must-read book for fans of strange, surreal horror.” I would be thrilled if it could be a finalist for the Bram Stoker and/or Shirley Jackson awards, but there are so many great novels out this year, it’ll be tough. Beyond that, I’m working on short fiction, new work coming out this year and in 2025. And then I need to find my next novel. I’ve been working on this idea about vibrations, a kind of new age horror novel, but it’s eluding me for now. So, keep an eye out for my work: “Naomi Ascends” in the And One Day We Will Die: Strange Stories Inspired by the Music of Neutral Milk Hotel anthology, and “Sunk” in The Off-Season: An Anthology of Coastal New Weird anthology, as well as a new story for Three-Lobed Burning Eye.
Incarnate is available at bookstores and through the Podium Entertainment website.
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