Clay Vermulm is the author, with Tamara Kaye Sellman, of the new story collection Rain Shadows: Dark Tales from Washington State. They also host a related podcast.
Q: How did you and Tamara Kaye Sellman come up with the idea for your podcast, and how did the podcast lead to this story collection?
A: Tamara and I met in a critique group and have since collaborated across a number of different writing organizations, including the Seattle HWA (Horror Writers Association) and Cascade Writers.
Something we notice consistently as we work with other writers, especially new writers, is the difficulty of the early writing and editing process. So much of making a good story is finishing a bad first draft, but it's an all too common occurrence that people don't even get past that initial stage. So the podcast Beneath the Rain Shadow was born.
We wanted to create a podcast that gave a first-hand, in-depth look at the early writing, editing, and critiquing process while also motivating us to create consistent content, both audio and written.
Our goal was to show authors what the real culmination of a first draft and an effective critique can look like by sharing our early drafts (which are rarely seen by anyone but ourselves), critiquing them live on our show, and then later publishing this book with the stories fully edited, fleshed out, and rewritten.
That way, authors can see the value of finishing a story, giving it a real chance to exist in the world and grow into a fully realized narrative.
We're both fueled by deadlines and a desire to explore our home state of Washington through horror, so the idea to write one prompt-based story per month seemed like the perfect way to combine these ambitions and goals to ultimately co-create another new book release for the summer.
Q: The writer Brianna Malotke said of the book, “My favorite aspect of the collection is the variety of formatting throughout the book. From blog posts and letters to text messages and camera logs, the array of storytelling methods keeps you locked in.” What do you think of that description?
A: Brianna is an author we deeply respect, so any praise from her is profoundly appreciated. I'm glad that this aspect of the collection resonated with her.
One difficult part of the prompt process was consistently finding ways to keep the storytelling fresh and looking at new ways to subvert the tropes and expectations of our readers, especially since we were operating from prompts involving popular horror tropes.
Varying the formats, POVs, and narrative tense were just a few of the ways we sought to accomplish that, and hopefully, others will feel the same way Brianna does!
We're really proud of all the different ways we managed to convey a story in this collection. Our hope is that the wide range of formats and stylistic designs will create a unique experience within each new narrative.
Q: How did you decide on the order in which the stories would appear in the collection? Was it related to the order in which they appeared on the podcast?
A: We had quite a few discussions about the order of things. A couple of rules of thumb for putting a collection together are to put your favorite two stories first and last – i.e., get the audience hooked and send them home from the book satisfied, but wanting more of your work.
Though we didn't worry about the order stories were created through the podcast, we did want to maintain an even rotation between Tamara's stories and mine.
After deciding we were going to alternate the stories, we sought to make sure no overly-similar stories were right next to each other, as we have some overlap in the thematic elements and settings. When writing a regional horror collection, especially one set in Washington, there is bound to be some crossover.
We have lots of outdoor/isolation horror in this anthology. Tamara often writes from a feminist lens, so keep her couple of overtly feminist tales spread out, and I have a tendency towards inter-familial dramatic tension that we didn't want too close to each other.
Finally, we had a debate over the last story in the collection. My favorite story I wrote was "Faultline," and I wanted it to be last, but Tamara's favorite of mine was "Gåva."
Tamara's sentiment was echoed by a beta reader and our editor, coupled with the note of hope that "Gåva" leaves off on; we collectively agreed that it was the best story to end the collection with (instead of the decidedly bleak ending of "Faultline").
Q: What do you hope readers take away from the book?
A: We hope readers will be inspired to write their own stories from their own places. We hope they'll realize they can do it, no matter what their early drafts look like.
After all, you cannot fix anything that isn't on the page, but if you get a draft written, you can always improve upon it, hone it, and eventually create something you're proud of.
Finally, we hope these stories resonate with readers on their individual merits, not just by virtue of the unique project and format, but due to each thematic exploration and message therein. We have some stories we're very proud of in here that explore everything from love and family, grief and loss, adventure and risk to spirituality and political activism.
We hope that these stories give you something to take home with you, wherever you might be from, and if you're from Washington State, we hope it captures the essence of your home region as we intended.
Q: What are you working on now?
A: We are still very much in the promotional phase of Rain Shadows. As indie publishers, we have to do all of our PR, arrange our own book tour, set up all our selling and promotional accounts, and handle all of our own social media campaigns, so this book is still far from over, but having a finished product does free up plenty of creative time.
Personally, I have another book, Crevasse, releasing in June. It's a reprint of my rock climbing horror novella through Dark Forest Press (DFP) in Bellingham, Washington. Originally published in 2022, this novella is now part of a three-book deal with DFP, and I'm working on finishing book two of the trilogy!
Book two is currently titled Cairn and is due for release in December 2025.
I also host another podcast called Fermented Fiction, which has been steadily growing over the past couple of years. We're currently booking out for our fourth season, which will begin filming in September 2025.
Q: Anything else we should know?
A: If you're a reader, the best two ways to support your favorite indie creators is to pre-order and leave reviews! So if you like our work, please do both of those things!
If you're a writer, put your head down and finish that first draft! Make your peace with it sucking. All first drafts suck. You can always fix it once you're finished but you can't fix what's not on the page. Get out there and create, you've got this.
If you want to actively support us, follow along with our journey, or come catch us at a live event (we have several coming up with a Pacific Northwest book tour in the works and tons of HWA events on our calendars already); the best way to keep track of everything Beneath the Rain Shadow is at our website: https://www.rainshadowstories.com
--Interview with Deborah Kalb
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