Lucy A. McLaren

Lucy: Hello Gary! Thanks so much for joining us at Introverted Indies. I’m looking forward to getting to know you and your writing. So, to get things started, can you tell us a bit about yourself?

Gary: My name is Gary Kruse, I write horror and dark thriller novels and short stories. I live with my family on the Essex/London border in the U.K. and write around my day job in the construction industry. 

I’ve been writing off and on since 1997, when I was inspired to pick up the pen after watching The Craft and wondering what would happen if the coven from the film met the vampires from The Lost Boys. 

L: That’s great, Gary. So tell us about your books—what’s your latest release? 

G: My latest release is book 3 of the Dark England series. Set on the Norfolk Broads (like its sister story, Bleak Waters) it’s a supernatural thriller called Ruins. The story centres around Marie Knight, a young woman on the cusp of adulthood who, in a vain attempt to fix the relationship with her mother, ends up on a cramped boat being stalked by the living and haunted by the dead while trying to uncover the truth behind two unsolved mysteries. 

Oh, and there’s a killer on the boat too! 

L: That sounds like a very tense premise! So, you mentioned that Ruins is book 3 of the Dark England series. Can you tell us more about the inspiration behind the series? What spurred you on to write the first book? 

G: So the first book, Badlands was inspired by the North Cornwall coastline, specifically the area around St. Agnes. The title came from the name that the original surf crews gave to the surf breaks around St. Agnes. 

Cornwall has a long history of smuggling and a slightly shorter history of being a surf hotspot in the UK, so I wanted to marry both of those ideas together.

Originally, Badlands was meant to be a one off, but when I started writing the next book, Bleak Waters, the characters in that book referenced the events in Badlands, so I’ve kept a causal link going between all three books now. 

Having said that, the further into series I’ve got, the more explicit the link has become and I’m currently working on the fourth and final book on the sequence, which brings everything together. 

L: That all sounds really fascinating, I love the real-life inspiration you’ve taken from Cornwall’s history. It seems as though the books naturally linked together as you wrote them. Would you say that readers can dip into any book, or that it’s best to start with Badlands and read in order of publication?     

G: All the books are a written as standalone stories, so readers can start anywhere in the series. If they are read in order of publication then hopefully the reader will spot the casual links between them, but it’s not essential and even where the earlier books are more directly referenced, I keep it spoiler free.

L: Ah, that’s awesome! Good to know. So what can you tell us about your journey to publishing your books? Did you always intend to self-publish when you started writing? 

G: I started writing in 1997 and self-publishing back then was pretty much impossible unless you had a ton of money and good connections in the industry to get your books into shops, so I originally went down the trad publishing route. 

Badlands and Bleak Waters were both originally published by an indie press, Darkstroke, but when Darkstroke closed, I got the rights back to both books.

I’d already self-published a collection of short horror stories called The Mistress of The Crows, so I decided to go fully indie and self-publish both books and Ruins, which I was writing at that time. 

Badlands was re-released in April 2025, Bleak Waters in July and then I released Ruins on Halloween.

L: Oh, yes, I can imagine the self-publishing route was a completely different scene in the ‘90s! How did you find that original experience of publishing Badlands and Bleak Waters with a small press? Is it something you’d do again? 

G: Darkstroke were great to work with, the whole editing and design process was smooth, and the books they produced were high quality, but the best thing they did was build a network of authors that supported each other with advice and tips and sometimes just moral support. 

It was a sad time when they closed but I’m still in touch with a lot of their authors today, so the community has carried on. Having said that, I like the freedom that being an indie author brings, and while I’d never say never, right now I’m fully focused on progressing as an indie author and don’t have any plans to approach small presses again as it stands. 

L: Ah that sounds great. I think as authors having a network of fellow authors to lean on for support and advice is really invaluable. It’s certainly a totally different experience self-publishing and I can understand wanting to embrace the freedom that comes with that. You’ve obviously got a lot of experience as an author now. What would you say you’re proudest of in terms of your accomplishments? 

G: I think I’m proudest of the fact that I’ve kept going, kept writing in the face of rejections, or publisher closures or having my work stolen by pirate sites and then by AI firms (which happened with Badlands and Bleak Waters). There’s so many knock backs and challenges, but through it all, I’ve just kept writing and was long as I enjoy and love the actual process of writing, I’ll keep going, even if no-one ever read my books again. 

L: Ugh, the AI and piracy is so disheartening, isn’t it? It’s sadly a fact of being a writer and putting your writing out in the world that it *will* be stolen, whether by people pirating it or by AI firms who have stolen the work of thousands of authors. The way I see it, if you love writing and are telling stories you enjoy, that’s all you can ask for!

You mentioned earlier that you’re working on the fourth and final book in your Dark England series. What can you tell us about that? 

G: So, Dark England book 4 will take the story back to Cornwall. The working title is Raven’s Revenge, and we pick up Willow’s story seven years after the events of Badlands and two years after Ruins. (For context, Badlands is set in summer 2019, Bleak Waters in winter 2022 and Ruins in spring 2024). 

Willow is struggling with survivors’ guilt after the events of Badlands, but she’s trying to build a new life for herself in St. Agnes. Then her mother goes missing on the same day that Willow finds a dead raven inside the pub where she works and lives, and for Willow this can only mean one thing; Raven is back and hell-bent on revenge. The book explores themes of guilt, survival and identity and brings all three of the series protagonists (Willow, Lily from Bleak Waters & Marie from Ruins) together for one final mystery… with the twist at end of course! 

I’ve done one draft so far, currently processing beta feedback ahead of work on edits, which I’ll start when I finish my current project, The Crooked Path. 

L: It sounds as though Raven’s Revenge will really pull the books (and characters) together nicely! You mentioned another project – The Crooked Path. Is that separate to the Dark England series? What can you tell us about it? 

G: The Crooked Path is completely separate from the Dark England books. 

Whereas the Dark England books bridge the crime and horror genres, The Crooked Path is a full on witches/vampires/pagan horror novel.

Its book one of a series called The Witches of Essex which will focus on a family of natural witches as they learn to embrace their magical heritage (some reluctantly, others enthusiastically) while facing the horrifying monsters (demonic and human) that challenge them. 

I’ve currently got two books planned in this series. I’m hoping to get The Crooked Path released in late autumn/winter 2026, with the second book to follow probably early 2028. 

L: Oh nice, so a shift in genre for you with The Witches of Essex. I’m from Essex so my interest is VERY piqued! What was the inspiration behind the story for you?  

G: The first “book” I ever wrote, back in ‘97, was inspired by the question, what if the coven from The Craft met the vampires from The Lost Boys?

In early 2023, as I was finishing the final edits for Bleak Waters, I started thinking about my next book. 

Bleak Waters had upped the horror stakes, and I thought I would be fun to fully dive into the genre again and revisit the idea of The Craft vs The Lost Boys, but with 25+ years of writing and experience behind me.

I threw in some locations local to me that have spooky vibes (for example, the Weald Forest in Brentwood and a couple of buildings that were in ruins at the time in my neighbourhood), plus a heavy mix of witchcraft/occult research and some Eastern European vampire lore to create something that took the idea of witches vs vampires and turned into something dark and epic.

L: Ooh fun! Love the sound of that, Gary. 

Okay, so to wrap up the interview, please could you share your top piece of writing advice for anyone seeking to set out on their author journey? 

G: The first ever how-to-write guide I bought opened with a quote which went something along the lines of “There are three rules to writing a novel, but no-one knows what they are?”

After almost thirty years of writing, I’ve come up with my own three rules that I stick by and that have really helped me grow as a writer;

1 – Finish what you start.

2 – Edit what you finish. 

3 – Submit/publish and start something new. 

For me, there’s tons writing advice and a lot of it is contradictory based on personal preference, but I think if you stick to those three rules, you will see results. 

L: Perfect, thanks Gary. That’s great advice! It’s been lovely chatting with you about your writing journey. 

Buy Gary’s books here:

https://mybook.to/Dark-England – The Dark England Series

https://mybook.to/MOTC – Mistress of The Crows