Interview with award-winning horror author, Deborah Sheldon on Nightmare Reef

Interview with award-winning horror author, Deborah Sheldon on Nightmare Reef

 

by Robyn O’Sullivan

 

When I read Nightmare Reef, I could barely put it down. It’s a psychological, physical, emotional, gut-wrenching journey across the Pacific Ocean with the Wagner family, in a not-so-reliable boat. I enjoyed every rise and fall in this stormy narrative, and the outcome is completely satisfying. I couldn’t wait to catch up with the amazing author, Deborah Sheldon, to find out how this novel came together.

Nightmare Reef’s protagonist, Marique Wagner, has a fear of drowning that is palpable throughout the book. How were you able to relate this so realistically?

 

I have an intense fear of the ocean. Growing up, I rarely visited the beach and, when I did, restricted my ‘swimming’ to wading knee-deep because I was scared of unseen teeth, stingers, and tentacles. As a young woman backpacking around Europe in 1989, I endured a terrifying boat ride from Santorini to Crete. I picked a car ferry because of its bulk, figuring I was less likely to get seasick, but the Aegean Sea was so choppy I thought we were doomed. That’s when I discovered my fear of drowning inside a boat. I swore then (as now) to jump overboard to die. So, last year, when noodling around for the spark to generate a long-form project, I thought: why not explore my thalassophobia in a horror novel? That idea spawned Nightmare Reef.

 

What made you choose extinct sea creatures for the baddies in this book?

 

When I was a kid, I used to get a magazine called The Unexplained. It was a weekly booklet that you’d eventually bind together into a number of folders. The Unexplained detailed all sorts of bizarre and wonderful things, from Bigfoot to spontaneous human combustion to stigmata to crop circles and more. I would read every issue from front to back, over and over, thrilled by the weirdness of the world. That most of the topics have now been explained by science has made these memories bittersweet. Anyway, I loved the chapters about cryptids, the Loch Ness Monster in particular. The general consensus: the Loch Ness Monster was a plesiosaur. I’ve always had a soft spot in my cryptid heart for the plesiosaur, so that’s the beast I chose for Nightmare Reef. (Interestingly, during that 1989 backpacking trip I mentioned, I took a boat ride on Loch Ness. We got violently tossed around and, once again, I thought we were going to sink. So did the captain, which he confessed when we finally reached land. And no, I didn’t see Nessie.)

 

In Nightmare Reef, the detailed descriptions of life as a plesiosaur are intricate and intriguing. How did you find the research?

 

Research into the plesiosaur was fascinating. I’d had no idea, but there were 100 or more species with distinctly different sizes, shapes and diets. Since my story was taking place in the Pacific Ocean, I researched species particular to that region. I found one with a face that struck me as especially gruesome: a long snout with nostrils placed close to the eyeballs, like a moray eel. I wanted my plesiosaur to be a real animal, like a dolphin or whale, so I worked hard at creating a plausible biology including behaviour, socialisation, communication, sleep patterns, diet, threats, and so on. I did a similar thing with Man-Beast, my novella about Australia’s version of Bigfoot, where the yowie (or Yahoo-Devil-Devil) was a species as familiar as the kangaroo, dingo or koala. In Nightmare Reef, however, the world doesn’t know that a species of plesiosaur has survived their apparent extinction during the Cretaceous Period. The animals inhabit open oceans and dive into deeper waters when larger vessels, such as container ships, pass by. I had a lot of fun creating my plesiosaur pod. Yes, it was difficult and challenging, but still fun. How often does one get to create an entire species?

 

You’ve given your readers hands-on information about sailing. Are you a devotee of that activity yourself?

 

No, I didn’t have a clue about sailing. Oh wow, that was a steep learning curve! My research included a lot of reading, and many hours of YouTube videos and note-taking. Particularly helpful were the couple of manuals I bought on how to sail with young children. In Nightmare Reef, the youngest of the three Wagner children is a toddler, and the family has a little dog; having such vulnerable ‘crewmates’ makes this kind of sailing worlds apart from sailing with experienced boaties. I also noticed that different families have different ways of organising their lives onboard. That meant I had to devise the Wagner way of doing things on their yacht Nauti Buoy.

 

The tension in Nightmare Reef is evident between all the characters. I include the plesiosaurs and nature as well as the members of the Wagner family in that cast. What do you think is the most important ingredient for creating tension or suspense?

 

A pattern I’ve noticed in my long-form projects – including novels, novellas and novelettes – is that my stories take place over a limited period of time. I think it’s because a ticking clock gives any story an extra layer of suspense. The bulk of Nightmare Reef takes place over three days. (My zombie novel Body Farm Z starts and finishes within a matter of five hours, which is my quickest to date.) Horror stories are about pressure. Running out of time is a universally stressful situation that readers – no matter age, personality or lifestyle – can agree gets the adrenaline pumping. 

 

Marique is an uncertain creature, showing weakness and strength. Did you know you would tax her to breaking point? Did it matter to you whether or not she would be equal to the challenge?

 

I like to put my characters under pressure. Who evolves from coal into diamond? Who gets crushed into dust? And why? Reaction to adversity is one of my thematic preoccupations in fiction writing. I don’t have judgement, by the way. Any character who folds under pressure has my love and respect, as much as characters that rise to the challenge. Haven’t we all faltered now and then? Got beaten down? I don’t judge my ‘bad guys’ either, since they see themselves as the hero (or at least justified); letting them feel that way allows for three-dimensional character development. Overall, I think it’s important to have compassion for your characters as you’re writing them.

 

The complexity of your characters is thrilling, adding to the overall “bated breath” quality of your stories. I wonder how are you able to achieve this in every book?

 

I’m interested in exploring what it means to be human. I do that by ransacking my own experiences, memories and emotions for useful bits and pieces, infusing characters with aspects of myself. Walt Whitman’s quote “I am large, I contain multitudes” is relevant here. Digging around inside my mind, I find everything across a wide spectrum: timidity and aggression, confidence and self-loathing, bravery and cowardice, adoration and indifference, competence and ineptness, knowledge and ignorance, hopefulness and depression, all on a sliding scale. That said, I’m not an autobiographical writer. Not one of my characters is ‘me’ disguised by a name change; I’m far too private. In interviews, I don’t mind sharing a few anecdotes, but I’m not usually one for baring my soul.

 

You’ve published with Severed Press before. Did they like this story from the outset?

 

I’ve published five books with Severed Press, the most recent being the multi-award-nominated novel Cretaceous Canyon. In 2022, I pitched the idea for that novel to Severed Press, wondering if they might be interested, and they responded with a contract. Fabulous! The same happened for Nightmare Reef in 2024. Knowing that Nightmare Reef was already sold allowed me to relax and focus on the writing. Worrying about whether you’ll be able sell a project, especially a lengthy one like a novel, can corrode your faith and imaginative energy. I’m grateful to Severed Press for trusting me to deliver.

 

*****

 

NIGHTMARE REEF

 

BACK-COVER BLURB:

The ocean is vast. The danger is ancient. And nowhere is safe.

For the Wagner family, sailing across the Pacific was meant to be the adventure of a lifetime. But beneath their ageing yacht, Nauti Buoy, something stirs—something thought extinct for millions of years. 

Then the nightmare begins. Hunted by plesiosaurs—ferocious predators from a forgotten age—the Wagners are thrust into a relentless fight for survival.

From award-winning author Deborah Sheldon, Nightmare Reef is a harrowing tale of one family’s battle to the death against nature’s brutality.

 

NIGHTMARE REEF AMAZON PAGE:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0FPBSYP72

 

AUTHOR BIO:

Deborah Sheldon is an award-winning author and anthology editor from Melbourne, Australia. She writes novels, novellas, short stories and poems across the darker spectrum of horror, crime and noir. Her award-nominated titles include the novels Bodily Harm, Cretaceous Canyon, Body Farm Z, Contrition and Devil Dragon; the novellas Redhead Town and Thylacines; and the collections Figments and Fragments: Dark Stories and Liminal Spaces: Horror Stories.

Deb’s latest titles are The Broonie and Other Dark Poems, and the anthology Spawn 2: More Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies.

Her collection Perfect Little Stitches and Other Stories won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Collected Work’ Award, was shortlisted for an Aurealis Award and longlisted for a Bram Stoker. Deb’s short fiction has been published widely, translated, shortlisted for numerous awards, and included in various ‘best of’ anthologies.

She has won the Australian Shadows ‘Best Edited Work’ Award three times: for Midnight Echo 14, and for her anthologies Spawn: Weird Horror Tales About Pregnancy, Birth and Babies, and Killer Creatures Down Under: Horror Stories with Bite.

Deb’s other credits include TV scripts such as NEIGHBOURS, feature articles, non-fiction books, stage plays, award-nominated poetry, and award-winning medical writing.

Visit her at http://deborahsheldon.wordpress.com

 

DEBORAH SHELDON’S AMAZON AUTHOR PAGE:

https://www.amazon.com/stores/Deborah-Sheldon/author/B0035MWQ98