What’s that dark spot on the wall?Ink was written by Akis Linardos and first published in Maul Magazine in September 2022. Sadly, Maul Magazine is defunct. Then I bought the story and reprinted it in my Cursed & Creepy anthology.Check out Cursed & CreepyIn a cove of a Greek island, Akis was born a sane infant but has since then grown to enter the chaotic world of adults--a choice he deeply regrets. His stories delve both into epic worlds and ones of extreme darkness. Find him at Apex, Dread Machine, Flame Tree, and numerous anthologies. https://linktr.ee/akislinardosPete Lead is our voice actor, and you can learn more about this incredible start-up genius here. He’s also writes compelling short stories. I bought one from him as well, called Review of Bondi Beach by Henry the Shark.https://petelead.com/Tuck yourself in and turn the lights down for this short horror story…Akis and I at World Fantasy Con..Akis Linardos is one of my short story writing friends and we’ve been tackling the markets together. Self-labeled “Author, Scientist, 33% Human,” he has a unique approach and has attempted some very cool experiments. I finally met him IRL at World Fantasy Con this October and he was just as intriguing as expected. He has managed to get many miles out of his story Ink. Let’s learn a bit more about this growing concern in the spec world.AF: What was your inspiration for InkAL: There is this game called Bendy and the Ink Machine—a horror of cartoon characters coming alive to haunt their creator. Besides that, I had a leaking ceiling in the toilet at the time of writing this in Barcelona. So Ink must have emerged from the thought: “What if it was leaking because my upstairs neighbors were doing something FUCKED?”AF: I bought this story for my Cursed & Creepy anthology, but I wasn’t your first sale. Tell us about your tales many homes.AL: This one was actually my very first “pro-pay” sale. It was bought by Maul Magazine back in 2022, and since then has also been features in Tales to Terrify podcast.AF: When did you first decide that you wanted to become a writer? Describe your journey to this point.AL: It was in 2019 that I first started writing. Before that I had dabbled with drawing, piano, and guitar, but nothing scratched that itch quite like storytelling did so I followed that much more passionately. It was a lot of self-learning with internet resources, then I found editors within the community that helped me understand the industry better (primarily Alex Woodroe, Avra Margariti, and Rebecca Treasure). What put me on the map initially was my Apex sale at 2022, then my writing momentum picked up wildly with an average of 2.3k words daily in 2023 and a wild number of submissions as well. It was a bit of a manic period following months of major depression, so I guess I turned a dark time into a powerful boost for growth!AF: Who are your influences?AL: A lot of the primary influences are actually not writers but mostly manga artists Junji Ito, Kentaro Miura, Hayao Miyazaki, Hajime Isayama, and video game designers such as Hidetaka Miyazaki. I do have some literary works to mention though, especially dystopian novels such as 1984 and Brave New World, and also the Song of Ice and Fire, and Name of the Wind. Finally, there’s the Greek mythology and ancient Greek writers that I was familiar with from a young age. I think you can see my affinity for mythology in a lot of my work, including Ink.AF: You recently released a Cosmic Horror Chapbook. Tell us about it. How did you market it? Have you made many sales?AL: Yes! Crooked Gods! I pitched it around social media and made a teaser trailer about it with royalty-free images! Not many sales at all!Check out Crooked Gods hereAF: You've found incredible success in the short story world. What are your secrets?AL:* I don’t judge my work.* I don’t rewrite after something is done never mind what personal rejection might say. Better use that time and that feedback to inform my writing of the next.* I keep submitting everything, everywhere, all the time. (and all at once but we don’t talk about that)AF Do you have any advice/tips for writers who wish to make sales to pro-speculative markets?AL: Understand the mathematics of the submission system. 100 rejections are not a reflection of your work, but a statistical inevitability. Which in turn means you have to submit like a damn monster.You don’t have to write every day, but it is definitely a good idea to set at least one period (could be 3 or 6 months) where you do write over 1000 every day. This would show you that you have the capacity to do it, it will improve your confidence as a writer.To make the former possible and to also improve your confidence, you must shut down the critical voice of your brain. Once you stop judging what you write at the moment of writing it, you will write much faster and have more fun with it. You will also be taken down unlikely paths and make surprising...
