e're really happy to present this conversation with author John Urbancik. Another fantastic artist in this new group of horror writers making a stir.

Really Scary: Dark Fluidity is not your average author website in that you go beyond your own work and you use it to present other creators. Can you tell us a little bit about how Dark Fluidity got started and what you have planned for the site’s future?

John Urbancik: Dark Fluidity was born thousands and thousands of years ago, I’m sure. In its present form, it rose from my conflicting desires to edit a magazine and to do no such thing. It developed into what it is, a promotional website, over the course of a few years. I decided to showcase authors who had something upcoming, as well as artists and musicians. The primary goal of the site is to attract people who may have heard of this artist, or this author, and introduce them to others they may not know. And maybe get a taste for something or someone else they would otherwise have never seen. My plans to upgrade the Musicians section have gone slowly, but continue nonetheless and will soon include reviews of a wide range of musical styles.

Congratulations on joining the Jobs in Hell staff! That’s coming up in June? What will you be doing with them?

I’ll start by joining them in the pool. Seems that’s where our panel will be at World Horror 2002. After that, I think I’ll just write an article or two every month. Some of the staffers have a particular theme; others don’t. I’ll be one without. No telling what I might do or say.

Can you tell us a little bit about your upcoming Sins of Blood and Stone?

Gargoyles. Demons. Spanish Inquisition. What more can I say? It’s a story of redemption. There’s a guy who was once an Inquisitor and condemned hundreds of people to death. And then his lover. He couldn’t deal with it, killed himself, and now he’s a gargoyle. A woman walks in, looks just like his former lover, and he discovers he can move. I started writing it years ago, did a few different drafts, and an opportunity opened up with Catalyst Books (www.catalystpress.net). No one even knew they existed yet. So I’m their first novel. There’s also a collection and an anthology coming out, all three at World Horror in Chicago, April 2002. And I’m just thrilled.

On the website for “Sins of Blood and Stone,” you’ve run some of your ‘deleted scenes.’ That’s a really cool idea. Since that’s something folks usually associate with movies, what gave you the idea to do this with your book?

The idea just struck me. Out of no where. I think I was at work (that day job thing), when I just realized it ought to be a DVD-styled menu. I figured I could put up a Preview Book (instead of Play Movie), a thing on Cast and Crew, and a Deleted Scenes section. I loved the idea. I was gonna write a few up, make them up from scratch, and then I discovered a file where I actually had a few preludes I’d decided, somewhere along the way, to leave out.

Any worries that they might give too much away before the book is released?

Since the scenes were preludes, they would have been right at the beginning anyhow. I don’t think they really give away much of anything. Gives you a brief introduction to the characters, at least. And one of the Deleted Scenes is so far removed from the book anyhow...

Speaking of, when will Sins of Blood and Stone be out?

World Horror Con 2002, Chicago, April.

Another congratulations on your “A Game of Colors” making the preliminary ballot for Stoker Awards! How did you hear you’d made the prelim ballot?

Hearing was easy. It’s awarded by the Horror Writers Association, and I’m a member. It’s thrilling to be so highly considered to make it as far as the Preliminary Ballot...with luck, I’ll make it further, but there are some terrific stories on that ballot.

There’s been a lot of talk in the horror writing community about the need for awards. In your opinion, are these awards important for up and coming writers?

I think awards are a great ego boost. And I do think they might help gain some recognition for someone at my level--maybe a publisher might be a little more interested. Can’t say I really think too many people unfamiliar with the awards are going to be swayed by the words “Stoker Award Winner” on the cover of a novel. On the other hand, years before I’d published anything, and years before I joined the Horror Writers Association, I picked up a Nina Kiriki Hoffman book because it had won the Stoker for First Novel that year. So maybe they do work.

Which do you enjoy more, writing short stories or novel length work? Which would you advise new writers still cutting their teeth to emphasize on?

I definitely enjoy writing the novels more. Shorts are great snapshots, I think, and so I tend to be very brief with a lot of my short stories. One, two thousand seems to be common. But I think my longer shorts, the ones in the five and six thousand word range, have more depth. Comes with the room. And novels, well, they give you a chance to really explore another world--even if it’s this one. You don’t just get a look at the façade or a particular corner; you get into the dirt, the truth behind the so-called secrets. But it’s a lot easier to write shorts. The novels, when they grab you, they get their teeth into you. Don’t let go. Drag you as deep as they can until you pound your way through to the end. It’s immensely rewarding, but I think, when it’s done right, it’s also incredibly exhausting and ravaging. As to newer writers, I’d say go with whatever feels comfortable. For most people, writing a novel is a long-term commitment. I’ve spent as long as two years working on a first draft, and I’ve heard of people who have taken longer.

What’s your ideal writing environment?

I’ve got an imperfect office set up now. Not enough desk space. I use it all up with character sheets, market listings, index cards, scraps of paper and napkins and whatever else I can find when I’m caught unawares with a need to capture something in ink. Books everywhere. Behind me. In front of me. On both sides. Under my feet. I still haven’t completely unpacked the office. Set up my gargoyle (he watched me from behind a book he’s reading, and he was a gift right about the time I was finishing up the first draft of Sins of Blood and Stone), a few art things. Have the CD player near at hand, because I absolutely need music to write. And this, I think, is my ideal writing environment.

Do you have a favorite type of horror you’d rather write - supernatural, fantastic, psychological, more reality based, blend?

I’ll sometimes blend things, and I’d to limit myself to just one style or theme. But I do tend to work a lot with the supernatural, the mythical and sometimes the historical. I like to try to take things that, for anyone who knows, shouldn’t go together. Like in Sins, the Inquisition and gargoyles. And I deal with a lot of the fantastic, often things that are only sometimes horror related. Like fairies. Angels.

From a writer’s perspective, how is the horror publishing industry right now?

I might not be the best person to say, but I think things are going well. The New York City houses are increasing their horror lines. Leisure’s started doing hard covers. And the small press players are continuing to carve out their personal niches, building a good foundation for those of us who haven’t yet established ourselves to do so. I see only good things. Strange, that I write horror.

Can you tell us a little about Atlantis?

Lots. But I’d hate to say too much. It’s a topic on which I’ve done a lot of peripheral research over the years, and I wrote a novella about a couple of their gods (my Atlantean gods, yes) about two years ago. I liked it a lot, and thought it would develop into a series. That never happened. Instead, I took those 10,000 words and fleshed it out, continued the story, and brought the entire Atlantean pantheon into my most recent novel manuscript. I’m in the revision process right now, and hopefully everyone will soon be able to read my interpretation of the history and mythology of Atlantis--and why that story is being told in modern times.

What else is coming up for you?

Flesh & Blood Press will be releasing my first collection, Shadows, Legends & Secrets, at the World Horror Con--same day as my novel, in fact. Eight separate stories, mostly new, one involving the world of Colors and one involving the gods of Atlantis. I’ve got a few completed manuscripts sitting on an editor’s desk, and I’m hoping to be able to tell you soon that they’ve been sold and will be sitting on end displays at your local Barnes & Noble. I’ve got stories coming out in a bunch of anthologies in the next few months: Decadence, Random Acts of Weirdness, Dreaming of Angels, and Hastur Pussycat, Kill Kill! as examples. I’m working on a few other stories for particular markets, one finger crossed while the other bangs the keys, and I’m hoping to deliver a Colors novel to Yard Dog Press, the publishers of A Game of Colors, by the middle of September.