TLO Member Interview: Brendan Moody

TLO Member Interview: Brendan Moody
Conducted by Phillip Stecco


1) How did you first encounter the work of Thomas Ligotti?

I don't recall how I first heard of Ligotti, but I had already been curious to check out his work for a long time when I discovered that my college library had a copy of The Nightmare Factory. I read it all the way through, and was fascinated. A short time later I was lucky enough to find a copy of the Carroll & Graf paperback of Songs of a Dead Dreamer at a local used book store for $2.50. That was the kernel of what has become a large collection not only of Ligotti, but of many contemporary writers of horror and dark fiction.


2) What are some of your favorite works by Mr. Ligotti?

"The Christmas Eves of Aunt Elise," "The Sect of the Idiot," "Nethescurial," "Gas Station Carnivals," "Purity," all the corporate horror stories, and the vignettes "New Faces in the City" and "The Spectral Estate."


3) What other writers do you enjoy reading?

When it comes to dark fiction: Reggie Oliver, Caitlín R. Kiernan, Glen Hirshberg, Joyce Carol Oates, Stephen King, Robert Aickman, Steve Rasnic Tem.

More generally: A. S. Byatt, Kage Baker, Sarah Waters, Nancy Kress, George R. R. Martin, Charles Palliser.


4) Do you have any favorite singers or musicians?

I'm partial to 1960's folk and Irish folk, especially the Seekers, the Clancy Brothers and Tommy Makem, and the Wolfe Tones. I also like a lot of Broadway cast albums.


5) Do you have any favorite artists in the visual media?

I have almost no sense of visual aesthetics, so most visual art bores me, but I do find some of van Gogh's work evocative.


6) What are some of your favorite movies?

I don't watch many movies, but here are a few that (irrespective of quality) entertained me enough that I bought them on DVD: 9 to 5, Tootsie, Sister Act, Mrs. Doubtfire, Mean Girls, Dark City, Gosford Park, The Queen, The History Boys, and The Silence of the Lambs.


7) Do you watch television?

Yes. Mostly on DVD, since I've never bothered to get cable, but if there's something I really want to see I'll go to a relative's house to watch. The only current shows I'm at all attached to are "Doctor Who" and its spinoffs, "30 Rock," and "The Office."


8) What foods do you enjoy eating?

All the unhealthful ones. Peanut butter is a particular weakness, as are the "Mexican" meals you find in the frozen section of the grocery store. Though not at the same time.


9) Do you have any odd hobbies or collecting fetishes?

Much as I would like to come up with a quirky answer to this question, I can't come up with either a truth or an interesting lie.


10) What recreational activities do you enjoy?

I go on walks. And it's not quite recreation, but a fair amount of my free time is spent trying to produce some halfway-decent fiction.


11) What makes you laugh?

Random quirkiness and dark humor.


12) Life?

A miserable, capricious game, but the only game in town. Except for...


13) Death?

Which is coming anyway, so why rush it?


14) Work?

I should find some of that.


15) Do you have any interesting work anecdotes to relate?

Alas, no.


16) What is your earliest childhood memory?

My father picked me [up] from day care, and on going outside, I discovered that the front end of his car, an ugly light-brown model, was dented. He'd been in a fender bender or something. Not much of a memory, but it's what always comes to mind when I'm asked this question.


17) What is your fondest childhood memory?

I have so few childhood memories of any kind that I really can't come up with an answer. Most of my life prior to about age thirteen is a blur.


18) Who has been the most influential person in your life?

My mother, I suppose.


19) Do you have a special plan for this world?

Only insofar as "scraping by in any way I can" constitutes a special plan.


20) What else should we know about you?

I can sing a jaunty song that lists all the U. S. presidents in order from George Washington to Bill Clinton. Although I always seem to forget Rutherford B. Hayes...