I'm back into the Hyperspace and this week I have fellow Latine author, A.P. Thayer, whose horror novel Tapeworm is coming next August!

But before we dive into the conversation a reminder that my Substack is now deactivated (not deleted yet) and all my future posts will be posted using Beehiiv. I migrated all posts and you can see them on a nice webpage. Some things like alt texts were not properly migrated but they’ll be added in all future posts (like this one).

Tell me more about Tapeworm and what made you write it.

Tapeworm was a bit of a fever dream I started writing while at a writing retreat in Joshua Tree, where the story is set. I fell in love with the landscape and it kind of went from there. For a while, I simply called it the ‘horny desert vampire’ story. When I finished it, it was a novella. Around the same time, I got an agent, and when she asked if I had anything else, I shared this novella with her. I never thought it would really go anywhere because of length, so I was very surprised when Zando made the offer. Their #1 note was to make it full-length, and thus Tapeworm was born.

I enjoy vampire stories since I was a young boy, from the classical Bram Stoker adaptations, Marvel Comics’ Morbius, and Stephen King’s Salem’s Lot to the historical myths surrounding Vlad the Impaler, but also the most frowned-upon stuff like Dracula 2000 and Dracula: Dead and Loving It. Tell us a bit about your take on vampires in Tapeworm.

I love those vampire tales, too, but when I wanted to write about vampires here, I wanted to really explore what a vampire could be and move away from the western, white example of what a vampire is. So I took some of what I think are the greatest aspects of vampirism—unable to go out in sunlight, need to feed, charm/compulsion, transformation—and went down a wholly different path. Some readers dig it, others don’t, but I’m glad I was able to write in and around the vampiric space like this.

What is a piece of fiction that you think didn’t get enough attention?

There are so many indie works of fiction that I feel just do not get the eyes on them they should, but that’s the nature of indie! Pros and cons to every path. Top of the list for me is J.V. Gach’s Unholy. It got a killer cover and I wish there was a bigger budget to get the book out there.

Show me an illustration that you love and tell me why!

I am not sure if this counts, but it is Hieronymus Bosch’s The Garden of Earthly Delights. I saw it in a museum when I was a wee, wee lad and it made a huge impression on me. It’s so grotesque and weird and it was very different from what my little mind could comprehend.

Let us show the newer writers that they are not alone! Tell me something that made you feel bad (a rejection, an empty signing session, a very harsh critique) and how you got over it (or not).

I told myself I would not read reviews of my book. Alas, I have read every single one. There have been a handful of 1 star reviews and a DNF that, even after a decade of writing rejections, were tough reads for me. I’ve been trying to work through it by telling myself it isn’t personal and that I knew my book wasn’t for everyone. Unfortunately, I am still checking reviews and still feel that sting when I read those reviews.