Before Joe McKinney boarded a flight to Brighton, England for the Bram Stoker Award ceremony, he discussed with WOAI’s Berit Mason, his novel Quarantined and how he discovered he wanted to pursue writing. McKinney is also a Gemini Ink faculty member, he’s slated to teach the workshop Writing Modern Horror on Saturday, April 10. Spots are still available for his workshop, sign up today before it’s too late.

Click here to listen to the interview with WOAI’s Berit Mason and Joe McKinney: Joe McKinney interview

Joe McKinney is a jack of all trades. By day he’s a homicide detective for the San Antonio Police Department and by night he’s penning horror tales. McKinney is the author of Dead City (Kensington Publishing Corp., 2006) and Quarantined (Lachesis Publishing, 2009). He has more than 30 horror, crime, and science fiction short stories published, and has received extensive professional training in disaster mitigation, forensics, and homicide investigation techniques. His upcoming novels include Apocalypse of the Dead, The Zombie King, Inheritance (all forthcoming from Kensington), and Lost Girl of the Lake (Bad Moon Books).

McKinney will also conduct the class, Writing Modern Horror on Saturday, April 10. In the class, participants will  reexamine their characters through in-class writing exercises and by the end of the day, the skeleton of a story will have some real meat on it.

Gemini Ink intern Melinda Gonzalez interviewed McKinney and discussed how he realized he wanted to become a writer, and what frightful projects he’s been working on.

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