Hello and welcome to this Track of Words Author Interview – or in this case Editor Interview – where today I’m talking to Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells about The Devourer Below, a new anthology of Arkham Horror short stories from Aconyte Books. Featuring eight stories from seven different authors, whether you’re an established Arkham Horror fan or taking your first steps into the IP, there’s plenty to enjoy in this anthology – and who better to talk more about it than the editor herself? It’s out now in all the usual formats, so you can check out this interview and then go straight ahead and buy your copy!
First of all, here’s the publisher’s synopsis to give you a very brief overview of the anthology:
Something monstrous has come to Arkham, Massachusetts. There have always been shadows here, but now a new hunger has risen from the depths and threatens those who dwell here. But there are heroes too – people who stand up and fight to stem the tide, even when it costs them everything. Explore eight shocking new tales of occult horror, captivating mystery, and existential fear – from a zealous new heroine to conniving cultists, bootleg whiskey to night terrors, and fiends that crawl from open graves. A nightmare has fallen across Arkham, and it will devour all.
Now though, let’s get straight on with the interview.
Track of Words: For anyone unfamiliar with Arkham Horror, could you give a quick overview of the setting and what you would personally say are the key things to know about it from a fiction perspective?
Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells: Arkham Horror is set in the fictional town of Arkham, Massachusetts in the 1920s and is inspired by the mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. It’s about the fight against monsters and eldritch beings, by our protagonists, some of whom know what’s out there and some of whom are very quickly coming to the realization that their world is not as it seems! They may be afraid, but they’re still going to pick up their gun (or other weapon of choice) and save the world. Unless of course they’re working for the monsters themselves…
ToW: With that in mind, how would you describe The Devourer Below?
CLW: The Devourer Below is a short story collection featuring some badass folks fighting against the darkness, some cultists of varying levels of willingness, some illicit liquor, a few shotgun shells and one very hungry eldritch being.
ToW: Were you a fan of Arkham Horror before you started working on Aconyte’s fiction range? Is there anything in particular that appeals to you about this setting?
CLW: I knew of Arkham Horror before I started working for Aconyte, but I hadn’t had the chance to play it. So in the very early days of Aconyte, Marc (our publisher), Nick (our publishing coordinator) and I sat down and played it through… we did horribly! Defeated by our own overconfidence just as much as the monsters.
But it was so much fun and got me hooked on the game, and it was a great way to get a feel for the world I was working with. And the fact that it appeals to my love of cults, gribbly, tentacled monsters and alternative history, combined with some amazing characters, is the best bonus.
I still suck at playing the board game though!
ToW: It seems like there are two slightly different subsets of Aconyte’s Arkham Horror range – one focusing more on pulp adventures and the other on cosmic horror. Where would you say The Devourer Below fits within the range?
CLW: The Devourer Below does have lots of horror and thriller elements within it, because of the theme we’ve chosen to focus around. But it still has some pulp adventure elements to it as well, especially because sometimes the only thing our protagonists can do is partake in an epic car chase, firing shotguns out the window!
ToW: I gather that each story in the anthology features a specific character from the game – I find this interesting because as someone who doesn’t play the game, but likes the setting, I wasn’t aware of that…but I still really enjoyed all of the stories. When commissioning stories and working with authors, how do you find that balance of making sure the anthology appeals to existing players/fans of the setting, but also works as a standalone for someone who doesn’t have all that extra context?
CLW: My first aim with anything I work on is: make the story amazing. That is always my number one goal. With tie-in fiction, we always want to make it accessible to readers who’ve never played the game (or interacted with the IP in any way) but still enjoyable to long-term fans, and telling a good story is a big part of that. We always view the IP as a real place, and the game interprets that world in one way, and we’re interpreting it in another. So for me that balance comes in making the IP, in this case Arkham, feel like a real place that people live in.
We always try and include context, to make sure that things are clear and understandable, but we don’t want to info-dump background information. We also look at the characters and think about what we know about them, how we can bring them to life, and how they might react to things, because the way characters react and respond to things, will give the reader more information about the world they’re interacting with.
It’s really important to me that new readers can dive in and enjoy the stories we’re creating, but that current fans can also enjoy seeing characters, places or world’s they love brought to life. It’s definitely a balance, but I hope it’s one we get right.
ToW: Could you tell us a bit about what the brief was, when you were approaching authors to contribute to this anthology? Did you have a very specific idea of what you wanted, or was it more general than that?
CLW: So we’d actually already been trying to put an Arkham anthology together that just wasn’t clicking when Katrina at FFG [Fantasy Flight Games] mentioned ‘The Night of the Zealot’ scenario that’s appearing in the Revised Core Set for the Arkham Horror Living Card Game, and it seemed like the perfect opportunity to play around with some topics and characters we hadn’t explored.
I actually worked with FFG to get a list of potential themes, characters, locations that could work as story prompts, as well as some reference material that authors might need. So when I did talk to authors we had a very specific idea of what we were looking for in terms of theme and approach. But while I provided them with guidelines and lore that they had to fit within, I did want to see what the authors came up with because I love seeing what authors create when just given simple prompts: this character, this location, this approach.
Turns out when you tell authors that you want a short story themed around ghouls, and give them some basic ideas to choose from, they get wonderfully creative! It’s one of my favourite things about anthologies because everyone always has different ideas.
ToW: One of the things I particularly enjoyed about this anthology was its unified theme – authors took their own approaches, but it felt nicely consistent. Does your editorial approach differ depending on whether an anthology has a single key theme or is intended as more of a broad overview?
CLW: Yes, but also no. My goal is always to help the authors tell good stories and to bring the world to life, and that never changes. But depending on the theme or approach, I will consider things like ‘how do these stories fit within that’. So if we’re looking at a broader overview, I’ll look at whether or not we’re getting that, or whether we might need to add more perspectives and variety. With a single theme, it’s more making sure that we’re not telling the same story repeatedly — that we’re still showing a broad perspective, but that it’s more focused on that theme. So for Devourer, we’ve got different types of perspective from our characters and different types of interaction with our Elder God and the ghouls. The editorial approach is still very similar, but it’s just narrowing the focus a little.
ToW: I thought it was interesting that two of the stories – Labyrinth and Sins of the Blood – formed a whole story between them. What was the thinking behind having a two-part story included, rather than eight separate stories?
CLW: It actually grew out of the initial pitching stage, when Thomas Parrott (the author in question) sent us two pitches that we really liked. There were already hints of possible links between them, so we asked Tom to go away and develop those links – fleshing them out into the dual stories. The initial ideas were really cool, and we liked the idea of showing Umôrdhoth and the cult appearing in other places across history. Plus it involved Greek mythology, something I really love, so I couldn’t resist including it.
ToW: What do you hope readers will get out of this by the time they’ve finished it?
CLW: I hope readers will have come with us on a fun, slightly horrifying adventure, and really want to go back to Arkham for more!
ToW: If someone enjoys The Devourer Below, where would you recommend they go next within Aconyte’s range of Arkham Horror fiction?
CLW: It depends what sort of thing readers are looking for! If you want a bit more cultish horror with mysteries, murder and words that will kill you, try Litany of Dreams (which you’ll find a sample for in the back of The Devourer Below). If you want some slow, creeping dread on the set of a silent horror film, with found family vibes, try Mask of Silver. If you’re in the mood for impressionist art, dark secrets, an unreliable narrator and a charming villain, try The Last Ritual. Or we have a badass occult thief with a gun in her purse and two tricks up her sleeve, a missing mummy and secret societies in Wrath of N’Kai.
You can start anywhere, so choose the one that takes your fancy and dive in.
ToW: Lastly, if you lived and worked in 1920s Arkham, what do you think you would be doing?
CLW: I quite fancy being a librarian, or maybe I’ll just edit books for that little publishing house that prints all those strange stories that sound ridiculously lurid and made up because they couldn’t possibly be real… could they?
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Charlotte Llewelyn-Wells is a bibliophile who took a wrong turn in the wardrobe and ended up as an editor – luckily it was the best choice she ever made. She’s a geek and fangirl with an addiction to unicorns, ice hockey and ice cream.
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Many thanks to Charlotte for taking the time to answer these questions and chat to me for the interview. I’ve read The Devourer Below already, and can confirm that it’s excellent (here’s my review) – so make sure you check out the links below and order your copy! The Devourer Below is available in ebook, paperback and audiobook formats.
See also: all of the other Arkham Horror-related reviews and author interviews on Track of Words.
The Devourer Below is out now from Aconyte Books – check out the links below to order* your copy:
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*If you buy anything using one of these links, I will receive a small affiliate commission – see here for more details.