Kyla Ward has been short-listed for Ditmars and Aurealis Awards for the stories ‘Kijin Tea’ and ‘The Bat’s Boudoir’. Her short stories have been published in venues which include Shadowed Realms, Agog!, Borderlands, Scary Kisses and Passing Strange – and her poetry has appeared in Bloodsongs and Abbadon. She is also co-author of Prismatic, under the name of Edwina Grey, which won the Aurealis Award in 2006 for Best Horror Novel.
She is also co-owner of Tabula Rasa and the convenor of the Horror Stream of AussieCon 4 and here she answers some random questions.
1. Which line do you most regret writing?
I cut it almost immediately, but preserved it as a Dreadful Warning. “But it was not blank; it lay open on a vague phosphorescence. Darkles passed her in clouds, between violet fulgurations as they walked into it and through.”
2. From whence did the idea for “Cursebreaker: the Welsh Widow and the Wandering Wooer” come?
The seed was quite possibly an Amicus anthology entitled “Tales From The Crypt”. I was thoroughly traumatised at a tender age and things like that have to be dealt with eventually.
3. Wonder Woman -v- Jane Austen: discuss.
For that, I can only point you towards “Jane Austen’s Fight Club”. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r2PM0om2El8
4. When do you know a story is finished?
When it appears in print I generally accept it.
5. Donuts or danish?
Gluten free?