Featured Interview With Kevin Doherty
Tell us a little about yourself. Where were you raised? Where do you live now?
I’m from and still live in Winnipeg, Manitoba in Canada with my wife of 23 years, 3 kids and a cat named Sue. Winnipeg’s a prairie town smack-dab in the middle of North America. We’re a smaller city but have a thriving and very active art community. Our Fringe Theater Festival is the second largest in all of Canada. Our winters a snowy and cold, summers are bright and hot, Autumn’s are beautiful and Christmas is very pretty here. We love our professional ice hockey and Canadian Football teams too.
At what age did you realize your fascination with books? When did you start writing?
I didn’t exactly have a fascination with books, it was more a fascination with storytelling in general via any medium. Film was my first draw to storytelling, so I began to write scripts. When stories that I wanted to tell were too big to film, I wrote short stories. This was back when I was around eleven or twelve after “Star Wars” touched my life.
Who are your favorite authors to read? What is your favorite genre to read. Who Inspires you in your writings?
Hmmmm…I don’t really have a favorite author. I suppose, because I am such a massive fan of the “Twilight Zone,” I’d have to say Ray Bradbury or Richard Matheson. I also admire Rod Serling tremendously. His work definitely inspires me; the messages in all of his stories, how fast he worked and just how vast his imagination was. He was very intelligent. As for my favorite genre to read, that is, hands-down, horror.
Tell us a little about your latest book?
My book is a memoir about the time when I became, what is now known as, a “Monster Kid.”
My horrorholicism began back when I was 10 years old. The “Famous Monsters of Filmland” magazine was responsible. The frightening black and white photos of monstrosities, ghouls, and freaks contained within its pages fascinated me and I was hooked.
My life as a young horror fanatic in 1979 was particularly interesting. I had one quest back then. OK, maybe two. One was to acquire a Pressman “Movie & T.V. Horror Make-up Kit” from the local novelty shop so that I could win a best-costume contest at a Halloween party where the first prize was a perm. Two, to win the affections of a really cute girl in my class who really dug guys with Afros. Well, buying something for twenty bucks when earning an allowance of seventy-five cents every two weeks was an impossible task, so I had to come up with different ways of raising the money in time for October. I came up with all sorts of get-rich-quick schemes and what an adventure it was. So much so that I felt it was worth sharing by documenting my experiences in a book.
Culled from the yellowed pages of the diaries I kept back then (dozens and dozens of Hilroy notebooks) I have assembled a novelization of my chronicles of the time when horror took over my life!
Connect with the Author on their Websites and Social media profiles