Today we’d like to introduce you to Craig Higgins
Hi Craig, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
My writing career as such began during the COVID crisis. Stuck at home with little to do beyond experimenting with ways to create the perfect peanut butter-and-chocolate quesadilla, I yearned for a way to express myself. That expression came in the form of developing ideas for YA science fiction and fantasy novels which explore both my personal history as a native of the American Deep South (the city of New Orleans being my hometown) with body-horror and brain-blasting comics concepts that are a big part of my first novel, ‘Artichoke Stars and Chicken Fried Shark’. It took a while to gel but now I’m hooked on writing and am committed to following through on my vision of what challenging and bold fiction should read, look, taste and breathe like.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
An author’s best writing is never smooth – I had to learn first of all how to craft a novel (I’m still figuring that part out) which meant a lot of woodshedding followed by exposing my work to other writers in the form of critique groups. It’s hard to be vulnerable in those situations because you have to be open to the idea that you may not know everything there is to know about what you’re doing, and then have the guts to make necessary changes to improve your work.
Working with an editor also proved a challenge – imagine having spent hundreds of hours perfecting your manuscript only to have one professional pick apart your efforts down to the most minute detail. But done right, that process resulted in a much better book than the one I started with. In the end, as a creator you have to ask yourself if what you’ve crafted is something someone else can read and draw something from. If you can’t, then maybe it’s time to go back to the drawing board.
Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
My first book is called ‘Artichoke Stars and Chicken Fried Shark’. It’s a YA novel set in early 1980s Mississippi Gulf Coast. The protagonist, a fifteen-year-old boy is an orphan who lives with his heavily-religious aunt and uncle; he’s an outsider unable to find his niche. But his whole world turns upside down when he finds an extraterrestrial lifeform on the beach. This occurs the same day the girl he has a crush on meets with a terrible accident. The confluence of these two events results in an alien invasion tale in which our hero must face his fears to save his world and the people he loves.
I think the book stands out in a number of ways: it has a unique title; respectfully covers a part of America that is often relegated to cartoonish stereotypes; and combines a number of tropes from horror novels, superhero comics, and 80’s-era action- and sci-fi films. If you ever wanted to read a book that starts with Stephen King, winds its way through Jack Kirby and then gets directed by John Carpenter, this is the tome for you.
Obviously, I’m biased. But I think it’s a heck of a read!
Are there any books, apps, podcasts or blogs that help you do your best?
I listen to a lot of ambient music on YouTube when I write – this helps me to tune out the world and get a good focus on. Creatively, I draw a lot of inspiration from the same guiding lights that blew my mind when I was a kid – Silver- and Bronze Age comic books; pulp fiction stories from Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard; and snippets of old films that have left a big impression over time.
Again, if I had to pick one singular influence on my writing it would have to be film director John Carpenter. I know that sounds counter-intuitive but Carpenter’s best stuff challenges the mind even as it occasionally makes the viewer sick to their stomach. Watch ‘The Thing’ or ‘Escape from New York’, and you have a pretty good idea of where my fiction is coming from.
Pricing:
- Artichoke Stars and Chicken Fried Shark (paperback): $20.95 on Amazon
- Artichoke Stars and Chicken Fried Shark (eBook): $6.95 on Amazon
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.craigehiggins.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cehigginsauthor/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/cehiggins.author/
- Twitter: https://x.com/CEHigginsAuthor
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/@cehiggins.author
Image Credits
Professional headshots and photography courtesy of Terje Riisnaes. All other photos by Craig E. Higgins.