The Clown Prince of Horror: Inside Jeff Strand’s Creative World

Delve into the mind of a writer who turns unsettling ideas into captivating stories with equal parts humor and horror.

Jeff Strand has built a reputation as one of America’s premier voices in comedic horror. Nicknamed "The Clown Prince of Horror," he blends dark humor and sparse, punchy prose to create stories that simultaneously terrify and amuse. Since his first short story sale in 1996, Strand has published numerous novels, short stories, screenplays, and comedy sketches, including works for both adult and young adult audiences. He’s been nominated for the Bram Stoker Award five times, winning in 2022 for his novella Twentieth Anniversary Screening. With influences ranging from Douglas Adams to Richard Laymon, his genre-spanning tales continue to charm and unsettle readers.

Where are you from? What is your background?

I’m currently living in Chattanooga, Tennessee, after a few years in Atlanta, Georgia, and over twenty years in Tampa, Florida. Backing up even further, a year in Arizona, eight years in Ohio, and fifteen years in Alaska. So, for a while I was moving to warmer and warmer places, but now I’m going in the opposite direction.

What inspired you to become a writer?

I’ve wanted to be a writer for literally as far back as I can remember. And I’m using the old meaning of “literally” that means “literally” instead of “figuratively.” It was just in my DNA.

What inspired the story Mr. Twitcher’s Miracle Baby-Chopping Machine?

It came from the idea of people being extremely proud of obvious moral stances. When our hero comes to the gradual realization that the factory where he works is doing bad things by chopping up babies all day, for no particular reason, he considers himself a hero and an inspiration for believing that this is wrong.

Have you had any problems with censorship of any kind? An editor asking for changes because they were offended?

Not really. My work, though gleefully messed up, doesn’t usually push the boundaries that would offend a horror editor, and I’m not trying to sell something like “Clyde the Necrophile” to The New Yorker. The editor of my upcoming novel It Watches in the Dark asked me to pull back in a few spots…but it’s a middle-grade novel. I knew not to have buckets of blood flying everywhere, but some non-gory moments were too sinister. The requests were totally reasonable for a book that’s being marketed to kids.

Who are some of the writers, artists, or performers who inspire you?

My inspiration in my early years came from people like Dave Barry, Douglas Adams, and Richard Laymon. Today, with my “promising young newcomer” days long behind me, my inspiration comes from people like Stephen King, who are still cranking out the books without slowing down!

What advice can you give to new writers?

There’s nothing wrong with “practice” books. Previously, the gatekeepers would’ve kept you out until your work reached a publishable level, but now you can have a book up on Amazon the same day you finish it. I have thousands of pages of unpublished work from when I was learning to write. You don’t have to take it that far, but writing entire novels that never see the light of day should be part of the process.

How do you feel about the current state of genre fiction?

It’s great! The ease of self-publishing has created a lot of breakout stars who almost certainly wouldn’t get a chance in traditional publishing. You can write whatever you want, and though a lot of it disappears into a black hole of obscurity, plenty of unique and exciting voices are being read.

Do you think your environment, past areas you’ve lived in, has an effect on your writing?

I’m praised for my dialogue, pacing, ability to craft an action sequence, etc., but nobody has ever said, “Wow, the location in Jeff Strand’s latest novel is like a character itself!” With occasional exceptions like Autumn Bleeds Into Winter, which is set in Fairbanks, Alaska, in 1979, with some details taken from my youth, the answer to your question is “Not really.”

What inspired your novel Pressure and the novelette The Tipping Point?

Pressure came from the idea “What if you saved the life of a serial killer, and he was really grateful?” If you’ve read Pressure, you may be thinking, “Huh? That’s not what it’s about.” I took that premise, wrote about 100 pages of a novel, decided it wasn’t working, but I liked the dynamic between the two main characters. So I reworked the story.

The Tipping Point was my contribution to the “normal people turn into killers” genre, but instead of becoming purely animalistic, I wanted them to enjoy what they were doing.