🎙️ H.C. Ricci — An interview with the author of NO SOLICITORS
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Do you have any desire to live out in the middle of nowhere?
I think it’s no secret that the idea of solitude in nature possesses a strong romantic appeal. There’s a reason that the Wanderer above the Sea of Fog has been used as a bookcover for some of the most seminal works of the nineteenth century, including both Frankenstein and Thus Spoke Zarathustra. Wilderness and desolation provide scope for the uncanny and otherwise unimaginable to occur. They also serve as romantic backdrops for adventure stories and useful literary devices for exploring the depths of a character’s psyche. From Heart of Darkness to The Mountains of Madness, and from The Shining to The Lighthouse, remote wildernesses allow us to ponder our place in the broader universe while also examining the human condition.
I myself have spent many glorious afternoons wandering through lonely hillsides or exploring empty coastline, and many weekends driving down desert roads into the remote badlands of Baja. And like a lot of people, the idea of becoming a hermit and disappearing into a far away wilderness serves as a sort of escapist fantasy, a psychological safe place whenever I feel overwhelmed with responsibility or bored by the drudgery of daily life.
What is it exactly the King in Yellow is trying to achieve?
It’s an essentially unknowable mystery, because to learn who the King in Yellow is and what he wants involves loosening your grip on sanity so much that you lose yourself entirely. To understand the cosmos through his perspective, you have to first let go of everything you think you know, casting away all pretensions of personhood. In the words of Rust Cohle from Nic Pizzolatto’s True Detective, “All you love, all you hate, all your memories, all your pain, it was all the same thing. It was all the same dream.”
The true horror of the King in Yellow is the possibility of dogma-shattering revelations rendering our entire understanding of the universe completely meaningless, leaving us face to face with naked nihilism. He embodies a sort of existential dread that humanity has been wrestling with for centuries.
One of the great terrors of weird fiction is the possibility of confronting an intelligence so much greater than our own that their motives are unknowable. It would be like an amoeba trying to guess at our desires and motivations.
How many times has this story been rejected by other markets?
Just once actually.
What’s a great short story you’ve read recently?
I recently came across a lit RPG short story on Dream Theory Media that I really liked by Michael M. Jones. It’s called “Training Day in the Blackdeep Dungeon” and you should definitely check it out.
What book are you reading right now?
The Color of Magic by Terry Pratchett. It’s my first introduction to the Discworld series, and while it took me a second to find my footing, I absolutely adore Pratchett’s sense of humor and the logical insanity that governs his world.
Do you have anything else you’d like to share?
My story “Furthest Ilion” is now available in the Harvey Duckman anthology Knot On Tree, Fire On Stone: Curse On Axe and Bloody Thrones. A fun spin on the Homeric question, it’s about hope in a dark age.
I’m also excited to share that my story “The Wrath of Florida Man & the Quest for Interdimensional Hot Sauce” will appear in foofaraw’s printed anthology in the fall. I feel like every story I write feels like the best story I’ve written while I’m at work creating. It’s only after some time passes—after you set it down and start something new—that you can actually look at it at a distance and assess the merit of your own writing. I’ve written several stories since then and still rank it as one of my best, so I’m unbelievably excited to finally see it in print.
Also, on a completely different note, I started a Substack for work that deals with all things culinary which you should also check out: https://chefworks.substack.com/