Picking The Mind Of Mercedes M. Yardley

Hi, Mercedes! Thanks for doing this Q & A. Did you always want to be an author?

Thank you for having me. Oh, yes! Always. I always knew I wanted to write and tell stories. I was writing and entering contests in elementary school. I wanted to be an author and a rockstar. And, uh, I am an author. I still want to be a rockstar.

What were your favorite books as a child?

I was a huge fan of stealing my dad’s Stephen King books that he got from the library, so I had an early introduction to horror. I was always drawn to books that were either scary or poignant. I loved Watership Down. I loved thrillers. We had a pretty hard and fast “No rated R movies” rule in my house, but books were free game. I was allowed to read anything. I couldn’t watch Interview With a Vampire, but I could read the books. This makes no sense because books are often scarier than movies, but this weird rule worked to my benefit.

What hurdles have you faced as an author?

I’d say being a woman is the biggest hurdle. People say they don’t read women or female protagonists. People demand to know what my credentials are to write horror. Dude, I had a stranger stick a gun in my face at age twelve. I had a boss tell me my promotion was contingent on whether I slept with him. A school professor sexually harassed me until I dropped out of his classes and changed my minor. These are my credentials. So many women have similar credentials.

And time, of course. I have a family with three children who all need their mom. Writing takes a backseat whenever my family needs me. They come first, always.

I recently finished reading Little Dead Red. I was blown away, but I see I am late to the game, because that novella earned high praise, as well as the Bram Stoker Award for Long Fiction, back in 2015. How did that feel?

Oh, it was glorious! It felt so good! It was my very first nomination and I was so unprepared to win. I had no idea that was going to happen. Words of advice: if you’re nominated for something, write a short speech whether you think you’ll win or not. I got up there and was like, “I didn’t even write a speech!” I’m so grateful. Whenever I’m going through bad times as a writer, I can look at that award and think, “My peers think I wrote something of value.” It’s humbling and makes me so happy.

Can I borrow your Stoker Award sometime… just to see what it looks like on my shelf?

It will look gorgeous on your shelf! I have two, so you can borrow one until you win your own. But I’m warning you that it’s surprisingly heavy. You drop this lovely thing on your foot and you’ll be in a cast for eight weeks.

If forced to choose, who would you say is your strongest female character, and why?

This is an intriguing question! I just went through my female characters and they’re all strong in their own way, but also fragile, as well. They’re just like all of us. I guess I’d have to say Luna Masterson from Nameless: The Darkness Comes. She sees demons and everybody thinks she’s insane. She goes into some really dark, scary situations without the assurance she’s coming out, and she does it for love. She’s pretty tough, even when she breaks down.

Your bibliography is so intriguing, and I’m chomping at the bit to read another one since finishing Little Dead Red. What should I read next?

You are so insanely cool for saying that! Thank you! I think if you liked LDR, you might like Apocalyptic Montessa and Nuclear Lulu: A Tale of Atomic Love. It’s quite lovely and dark. It won the Stabby Award, and they gave me a great little dagger with my name carved on it. I have some stories that are lighter, but you also seem to be quite a dark thing. I love that.

Many people think female authors no longer face the challenges we did when Emily Bronte released Wuthering Heights under the pen name Ellis Bell for fear she’d never see it published if they knew her real gender. Unfortunately, women still face discrimination to this day. Have you ever felt like your body of work was dismissed by someone simply because you are a woman? If so, how did you deal with it?

Oh, man, I was in a rather…passionate…conversation about this very subject just today! My sweet husband advised me to take a step back and suggested I practice blow darts instead. No joke. I’ll tell you an experience I had just a few months ago.

A man I know in the real world, who is an aspiring writer, told me that he doesn’t read female authors or books with female protagonists. “Is that bad?” he said, in an “I’m so naughty” voice.

I almost lost my ever-loving mind. I went home so furious that I was shaking. Yes, it’s bad. It will stilt his writing. He’s depriving himself of reading great work. But it was insulting to me and the work I do. It’s insulting to all women. I lost a great amount of respect for him and can’t see him in the same light that I did before. He is less to me than he was before, and I don’t want to think less of anybody.

I deal with it by writing more. I champion other amazing writers. I make sure I’m reading and recommending diverse work. I can’t change his mind, but I can try to add important stories to the world.

People love to ask horror writers what scares them, but I would rather know what makes you fearless? What no longer scares you because you have conquered it?

This might go too deep, but I’ll be honest: I was always scared of losing my family. Losing children. I was pregnant with triplets and only one survived. One passed away early and the other lived for five hours. I held her during her last breaths. It was terrible and awful, but she was so sweet. The worst thing that could ever happen to me has happened, and I survived it. So, I can survive anything else, right? That’s the way I look at it. I, like everyone else, deal with some hard things, but I have a 100% survival rate for all of it. So do you. So does anyone reading this. We can do hard things.

What are your interests outside of reading and writing?

I like kickboxing and motorcycles and baking cookies. I love going to movies, and especially love bad disaster movies and creature features. I’m always playing a video game. I just finished Sally Face and now I’m playing Final Fantasy Origin: Stranger of Paradise. I have a red ukulele. I wish my husband wasn’t allergic to cats. These are some of my favorite things.

What do you plan to do next?

I’m working on a few different projects! A graphic novel and rewriting a novel for submission. Right now I’m working on a novella that has the same kind of dark, realistic feel of Little Dead Red. It’s also based on a Grimm Brother’s fairytale. They give such great structure. Thank you for asking!

Where can we find you on the web?

I’m on Facebook as Mercedes Murdock Yardley. I’m @mercedesmy on X, and my site is MercedesMYardley.com. I’m at Gamut Magazine. I’m around. Come say hi!

Thank you! These answers were outstanding! Honestly, one of the best interviews I’ve ever done. Happy Women In Horror Month, Mercedes!