A Conversation with Coy Hall

meet a time traveler

One of the perks of being a writer is that you get in touch with other writers. You read their stuff, they read yours, it’s like a planet-wide book club. And you discover great books and brilliant authors. The first Coy Hall story I read was in issue #3 of Guilty Crime Magazine (January 2022): Tibet has a Book of the Dead, too – it was funny, cheeky, and beautifully written. I loved the period feel and the historical references. Coy had me at hieroglyphs. And the story narrator was the kind of con man/thief/crook I tend to fall for. I mean, the guy blows the scheme (or appears to) because he can’t resist showing off his vast culture!

I then stumbled on a collection of horror short stories A Pantheon of Thieves, where Coy displays an extraordinary range. There’s a historical WWI story, a semi-fairy tale, science fiction, monsters … the writing is richly gothic, wildly “out there”. Under the spell, I read The Promise of Plague Wolves (17^th century Austria, the occult, a mysterious plague), Grimoire of the Four Impostors (17^th century Europe, fantastic, witchcraft), The Hangman Feeds the Jackal (late 18^th century American West, a troubled gunslinger), and A Séance for Wicked King Death (1956 Cincinnati, scam artists, crime, classic noir). Magnificent storytelling with compelling characters and a complete immersion in the period, in both language and setting, down to the finest details.

When he doesn’t pen amazing stories, Coy Hall is a historian, teaching courses about medieval and early modern Europe. Imagine being one of his students … I can’t sneak into one of his classes, but I can have a conversation with him.

Our chat started with history, teaching it, and doing research:

Coy Hall: My main issue with historical research is that some topics are so overdone that the books grow redundant. There are thousands--no exaggeration--of books about George Washington, but there are, as far as I know, zero books about the Yellow Creek Massacre (1774). The Gnadenhutten Massacre (1782) is an important event in the American Revolution, yet I know of only one book about that. Alexander the Great is another figure with mass appeal. I took a class in graduate school about Alexander, and we read sixteen books about him, one each week. We read the five books written closer to his life in ancient times, and then eleven modern books, all of which were based on the five ancient books! How much more can be said about Alexander? And yet there will be more books, and all of them will be based on those five ancient books. I don't understand why some historical figures are marketable while others are not. My favorite class to teach is Medieval Europe. I can go on about that all day.

M.E.: You take the reader to the 17^th century in The Promise of Plague Wolves and the mid-fifties in A Séance for Wicked King Death. What made you choose these periods?

C.H.: When I first began writing, I was writing contemporary stories. My stories had cell phones. I had a revelation at one point, and I thought, “You immerse yourself in these historical periods. Why not tell the same type of story in the 1600s? That could set you apart.” When I did that, an entire world of ideas opened up to me. The plots and titles rolled out. It was like cracking a code. I began letting the era generate the stories. The tensions and fears of the time period are unique. That guided me. The 17^th century is my favorite to write about because the people of that time had one foot in the Middle Ages and one foot in the modern world. There's push and pull tension that I like to explore. Grimoire of the Four Impostors is also set in the 1600s. I plan to write a lot more about that time. With A Séance for Wicked King Death, I wanted something more modern but still distant. I set the story in the 1950s for a basic reason: I like reading 1950s crime fiction. I like the texture of that world, but not like I do with the 17^th century. There's no escapism in the 1950s. The 17^th century might as well be another planet.

M.E.: In both Promise and Séance, you create two strong characters that are screaming for another walk on stage. Royce Pembrook from Séance will be back in a new book later this year, and I’m looking forward to it, he’s a lot of fun to be around, but what about Dorin Toth from Promise? I can see him investigating unnatural phenomena all over 17^th century Europe.

C.H.: I have big plans for Dorin Toth. He's a character I first introduced in Grimoire of the Four Impostors with the story “The Nightshade Garden.” He then appeared in The Fiends in the Furrows III, an anthology of folk horror. The Promise of Plague Wolves is his first novel. With a character like Toth, an occult detective, there’s no shortage of possible tales. I want to do more short stories. I envision a book of collected tales one day. I want to do more novels, too. Tentative title for the next Dorin Toth novel is The Vile Saint, and it’ll take him to the France of Louis XIV in the late 1680s.

M.E.: That’s two series you would run side by side. A lot of work. 

C.H.: There's comfort in sustaining multiple series. I always have something waiting on me. I like to write new things, try different things and not repeat myself, but those series are there when I want to return. I have Royce Pembrook waiting for a 1970s novel (and short stories of his time on the carnival circuit in the 40s). Dorin Toth waiting on the border of France. And Elijah Valero (from The Hangman Feeds the Jackal) waiting for his next novel. I plan to gather the Valero short stories within the next couple years and release that volume. He has twelve stories dating back to his first appearance in Big Pulp in 2010.

M.E.: Talking about The Hangman Feeds the Jackal, animals play significant parts in the story. Elijah Valero wouldn’t get involved in the events without the horse, Maureen, and the dog, Sophia. And dogs are big characters in The Promise of Plague Wolves. Vinegar Tom, the greyhound, and the big Pyrenees pretty much save everybody.

C.H.: Inclusion of animals is intentional. I want them to play a big role from the start. How a character treats animals is important to me. It says something fundamental about them. Just like it does in real life. It's shorthand for empathy, generosity, altruism, depth of feeling. One interaction with a pet can tell you many things, so I like it as a device. The character-pet relationship is most pronounced in the Dorin Toth stories. His greyhound, Vinegar Tom, is a vital feature of those tales. You get to know Toth a bit through the dog. You get to know the dog through Toth. And now, Toth has a second companion, a Pyrenees named Basina. There's a duality theme there: human and animal. I enjoyed playing with that in The Promise of Plague Wolves. When you read the novel, you're confronted with dichotomies, a number of vivid contrasts. The city of Graz juxtaposed with the village of Drunstall in Styria. Civilized versus uncivilized. Educated versus uneducated. Modern versus medieval. Occultism versus science. And the wild wolf versus the domesticated dog. Those are the final sections of the book, in fact. The Art of the Wolf. The Art of the Dog.

M.E.: With all the projects brewing, what is the next book on the horizon and when can we expect it?

C.H.: A few projects releasing this year. I’ll have my first anthology as an editor releasing April 8. It’s called Death’s Other Kingdom: Horror Tales of World War I. My next novel, Colossus with a Poison Tongue, will be out this summer. It’s a mix of occultism, science fiction, and horror. And then I’ll have another Royce Pembrook crime novel releasing from Shotgun Honey in November. This one is called The Switchblade Svengali, and it’s set in 1968 Phoenix.

M.E.: I love your titles! Thank you, Coy. It’s been a pleasure talking to you.

You can listen to Coy Hall talk about A Séance for Wicked King Death on The House of Mystery podcast. Find more about his books and stories at www.coyhall.com.

Happy reading!

(picture: Duncan and Coy)