Writing the Weird: Stephanie Rabig on Horror, Westerns, and Dark Fantasy

How a love for monsters, folklore, and genre mashups fuels some of the most compelling weird fiction today.

Stephanie Rabig, an author with a knack for weaving captivating narratives through genres, is known for her diverse repertory that spans from fantasy and romance, to her cherished love for horror. With a deep-rooted fascination for mythology and fairy tales, she infuses her works with elements of enchantment and intrigue.

Where are you from and when did you first start writing?

Born in Chicago, lived in Kansas for most of my life (though I wish I could visit Chicago more often; I could live in the Natural History Museum!) and I started writing when I was about ten or so. The first stories I remember writing were basically half-page ripoffs of Fredric Brown’s short stories.

You seem to write in several far removed genres under the same name? (example: horror, romance, fantasy) What is your take on pseudonyms?

I get why some authors use them, but I like to keep everything under my own name partly because I just *know* I would promote a book under the wrong pseudonym otherwise.

You write all manner of horror genres, is there one that you feel is your “home genre”..

Creature features. Writing Playing Possum was so much fun, and that was partly because that book brings the same feeling to me as sitting down with some snacks to watch an absolutely ridiculous SyFy Original. Whether they’re silly or terrifying, creature features are perfect to me.

What drew you to the weird west genre?

I’ve loved Westerns since I was a kid, same with horror, and when I discovered that people were mixing the two it was basically chocolate and peanut butter. They dovetail so well– the isolation of a classic Old West small town brings to mind the cabin-in-the-woods trope; the gunslinger who survives the whole movie/book can easily be a Final Girl…

What kind of research goes into writing a weird west story?

For On Stolen Land I grabbed a *ton* of books. Diaries by people who’d lived in that time period in the Colorado/Kansas area; Jim Beckwourth’s autobiography; stories about William Bent and Bent’s Fort; general history/timelines for the 1860s; Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee (esp. the section about the Sand Creek Massacre); Civil War amputation techniques; vocabulary and typical daily lifestyles; and I also read the court transcripts of John Chivington’s trial.

When writing, do you find yourself pulling heavily from your own life, or do you find yourself trying to escape it and write something completely different?

A little bit of both. I don’t base any characters entirely on myself and I don’t use a lot of experiences from my own life in my novels, but I will put in snippets here and there if it works for the story and the character. For instance, Ada from On Stolen Land is an Irish immigrant like my great-grandparents, and she also has anxiety (even if it had a different name at the time).

I read in your bio that you grew up an avid reader. Was the transition for avid reader to writer a seamless one, or did it have more obstacles than expected?

It was seamless thanks to my parents, who always encouraged my weird stories (even if they occasionally got me in trouble at school).

Did writing weird western feel comforting due to its obscure nature, or did you feel pressure from aficionados of the weird west genre?

I make it a policy to not read reviews of my work unless I’m specifically tagged in it, so I don’t really feel pressure from the aficionados– I’m my own worst critic, so I get enough pressure from myself. Every time I put out a book, especially if it’s something that deals a lot with actual history, I want it to be the best thing I’m capable of making in that moment. (I do want to note that the aficionados I’ve met so far have been enthusiastic and wonderful about welcoming a new writer in!)

Can you share any insights into your creative process? How do you develop your characters and plotlines?

I found out about Scrivener several years ago when they had a sale for people who finished NaNoWriMo, and it’s been a lifesaver for the way that I work. By the time I actually start on a book, I have anywhere between 50-100 pages of notes, so getting everything organized on virtual notecards and moving scenes around depending on new ideas is super convenient. Once I’ve got a vague idea of characters and a general idea of what’s going to happen in the book, I’ll make a list of scenes and then actually start the writing itself.

You collaborate with Angie Bee on occasion. What does collaboration look like for you? Both working on the same book? The same file? One pass then the other? There seems to be a lot of ways that collaboration can be accomplished?

The books that I work on with Angie tend to have sprawling casts; in the pirate fantasy series Sink or Swim we each have about 8-10 characters we write for. We talk to each other about main plot points we want to happen in the book, and then we’ll write individual scenes for our characters, or trade a file back and forth if need be, and then everything gets spliced together and each one of us takes a pass editing it so by the time the book’s published, it’s pretty well in one ‘voice’.

Are there any particular authors or works within the weird western genre that have inspired or influenced your writing?

All the love for Joe Lansdale! I also picked up a trilogy of Weird West short stories—Straight Outta Tombstone; Straight Outta Deadwood; Straight Outta Dodge City—and those are so much fun. I’ve also got a bunch of weird west books in my wish list, or on my shelf and just haven’t read them yet. The one flaw with writing is that it can cut into your reading time. 😄

Do you have any advice for aspiring writers interested in exploring the weird western genre?

Curiosity! There’s so much history, so many stories, that we never learned in school. Just start looking around at what people have been through, what they’ve accomplished.

What are you working on next?

I’m currently working on a Prohibition-era Dracula novel, and after that I have a superyacht massacre comedy/horror in the works, and also a sequel to On Stolen Land!