The Dram Den #3: Rebecca Rowland
Rebecca Rowland chats about Unsettled Score, her new “mixtape” of arthouse horror stories
Welcome to another installment of The Dram Den, my interview series where I chat with some of horror’s best and brightest. For the third episode, I interviewed Rebecca Rowland, author of Eminence Front and the collection White Trash & Recycled Nightmares, which was a Shirley Jackson Award finalist for Best Collection. She also edited the Bram Stoker nominated anthology, American Cannibal.
We discuss her brand new short story collection, Unsettled Score, which is out on June 1st from Lethe Press. I loved reading this nasty collection of arthouse horror tales and I hope you do too. Rebecca was an absolute blast to chat with.
If you don’t want to miss future installments of The Dram Den, consider hitting that subscribe button. And now on to the interview with Rebecca Rowland!
M.M.: Where did the idea come from to release a collection of arthouse horror like a mixtape?
R.R.: My last collection, White Trash & Recycled Nightmares, contained stories inspired by snippets of dreams I had. I find that much of my inspiration comes from dreams or music, and this collection is made up of the latter. Also, as a Generation X-er, I grew up on mixtapes: making them, receiving them, exchanging them; so, I suppose making the collection like a mixtape is a bit of nostalgia for me, too.
M.M.: Many of the monsters contained within the pages of Unsettled Score are human monsters. What is it about the dark part of the human psyche that is so fascinating to write about? What was your favorite story to write in this collection?
R.R.: I find that much of the horror I write concerns real, tangible fears. It’s easy to rationalize that a vampire or a zombie isn’t going to break into your bedroom at night and kill you. Human frailty, however—loss of touch with reality, sociopathy, misogyny, etc—is very real and not able to be wished away. I write about what I’m afraid of: losing control of my body or my mind, finding out that the person I trust isn’t who they purport to be, and so on.
I don’t know if I have a favorite, per se, but I am prouder of some of the stories than others if only because of the amount of research I did for them. I like “Rock of Ages” a lot because it’s based on a living situation I had in college. Normally, I don’t create characters that are so close to real life people, but I contacted two of the roommates and told them what I was planning to do, and they were all in. The apartment and neighborhood (as well as the problematic drinking and cigarette smoking) are pretty true to our experience, but I promise: what happens in the story is not!
M.M.: If you were asked to do a “deluxe edition of the album,” what two songs would you want to write stories for to add to Unsettled Score?
R.R.: Like most collections, most of the stories in Unsettled Score are previously published, but I did not include every story I’ve written that was inspired by a song, so if I were to include pieces I left out, I might add “Lullaby,” based on the creepy “the spider man is having me for dinner” Cure song. It originally appeared in an issue of Sirens Call. The other story I might want to add is one that I never published titled “Ain’t No Sunshine” after the Bill Withers song. As far as a story I’ve yet to write? Maybe one inspired by a Nine Inch Nails tune!
M.M.: If you could sit down for a drink/beverage with any author, alive or dead, which author would it be and what would be your drink of choice?
R.R.: I was privileged enough to be Joyce Carol Oates’ escort for Stoker Con 2025, and I can tell you: she is a teetotaler. When I ordered a vodka tonic, she exclaimed, “You drink?” I told her that I did, and she wrinkled her nose at me! As far as who I’d like to drink with now, I’d say the late Dorothy Parker, and of course, our cocktails of choice would be martinis (though we’d keep it to a minimum as to not molest our hosts!).
M.M.: What are 1-2 books that you’d like to recommend to your readers?
R.R.: Oh my goodness! Only one or two?? That is a difficult choice. A few books I’ve read over the past year or so that I truly adored include Clay McLeod Chapman’s Wake Up and Open Your Eyes, Ronald Malfi’s Senseless, Agustina Bazterrica’s Tender is the Flesh, and Gwendolyn Kiste’s In These Gilded, Ghostly Hearts (last one is out this September). All of them are not just well-written but SO DAMN SMART: original in a way we don’t often see. They are a perfect assortment of what horror can be when it isn’t kept in a cage or forced to color inside the lines.
M.M.: Where would you recommend readers new to your work to start?
R.R.: I suppose it depends what they fancy. Perhaps Shagging the Boss (2022)? It’s a novelette, so not too long, not too short, and I think it encompasses the kind of horror I like to put out there. But no, I won’t give the narrator a name, so don’t ask!
M.M.: What’s next for you?
R.R.: I am touring for most of the summer and fall to promote Unsettled Score and Eminence Front. Sometimes I will be tabling or on a panel; sometimes I’ll just be skulking about. Either way, I hope people will say hello!
Huge thanks to Rebecca Rowland for chatting with me! You can find Rebecca at her website (https://rowlandbooks.com/) and on Instagram (Rebecca_Rowland_books). Please consider picking up Unsettled Score. It’s a wonderfully nasty collection of horror stories and I had a blast reading it.
I have more great interviews coming up soon so stay tuned. Thanks so much for reading!