We recently connected with Catlyn Ladd and have shared our conversation below.

Catlyn, looking forward to hearing all of your stories today. If you could go back in time do you wish you had started your creative career sooner or later?

I have wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember. I wrote all the time as a kid and young adult and even tried submitting some stuff. I minored in creative writing in undergrad and didn’t get much positive reinforcement. So I shifted my attention to academia, earning my PhD and tenure. While working first on a master’s thesis and then on a doctoral dissertation, I managed to finish two fiction manuscripts simultaneously. After getting my Ph.D. I found a home for my narrative nonfiction book that chronicled by five years of working in strip clubs during college. That inspired me and I started writing fiction again. But I still didn’t have luck publishing and every rejection shook my confidence. Than I realized something important: the two piece of fiction I managed to place appeared in horror magazines. About four years ago, I embraced being a horror writer and started exclusively submitting to horror markets. I saw almost immediate success and have now published over a dozen short stories and a novel with more on the horizon.

In retrospect, I wish I’d accepted myself as a horror writer a long time ago. I’d be a lot further along now. But I also have a career I love and a Ph.D. after my name so it’s all worked out!

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

I publish predominantly horror fiction that is lyrical and commercial in nature. Comps for my novel, As Those Above Fall, are Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Anne Rice, True Blood, and the like. I also have over a dozen short stories in publication, with themes centering on grief, ethical ambiguity, religion, and the existential nature of being human. I write what I want to read: sophisticated, thematic horror for adults.

Looking back, are there any resources you wish you knew about earlier in your creative journey?

The best resource I have found is COMMUNITY. It took me a long time to realize that there are genre writer’s groups where everyone is writing in the same area. Part of my success is attributed to joining a writer’s group. The members write in a number of different subgenres but they’re all related to horror: gothic, psychological, paranormal, etc., and they provide focused feedback coming from a place of understanding what I’m trying to do. Their input makes me a better writer.

On a related note, I also discovered professional organizations related to my genre of writing: I joined the Horror Writer’s Association and became active in my local chapter. This is a great, supportive community that shares resources and leads, offers experienced advice, and a great community of lovely people. We call ourselves the “Halloween people,” and we are all happy horror fans in love with the same films, books, and shows. It’s so inspiring!

We’d love to hear a story of resilience from your journey.

Creatives face a lot of rejection. A realistic goal is having 10% of what we submit accepted for publication. That means, every time I send a piece out, it stands a 90% chance of getting rejected. We have to develop a thick skin! I know that there are lots of artists, musicians, and writers out there who never share their work for fear of rejection. And then there are mediocre creatives who see widespread commercial success! It definitely helps if you have talent but that’s less than half of the equation. The rest is persistence: finding your market and sending out a ton of stuff.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.catlynladd.com
• Instagram: EclecticAcademic
• Facebook: @catlynladd
• Youtube: @eclecticacademic7890
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