Author Simon Warwick Beresford (Alice)

Author of Horror Poetry!

Tell me about what you write.

Poetry. Most of it rhymes. A lot of it has been narrative horror poetry. Poetry is apparently supposed to be about metaphors and hidden meanings but I focus more of rhythm, rhyme and shocking twists and graphic imagery!

Tell me about your latest release or what you have coming soon.

Right well let’s break this into separate questions. My latest release was ‘Poetry Herself’ which is the 5th “and final” book in my Poetry Is Twisted, Don’t Trust Her series, and that series is obviously poetry, mostly horror but you’ll find all sorts of stuff in those volumes. Poetry Herself revisits quite a few characters from the earlier books and tries to wrap up some ongoing narratives but it also has plenty of completely new stuff.

Find it HERE

What am I actively working on at the moment? Well a couple of books. One is primarily nonsense poetry, going for that kind of early Pink Floyd feel. The Syd Barrett era if you know your Floyd but yeah basically hippy shit. While not primarily aimed at children, it will be a lot more kid friendly than my other books.

The other book I’m currently actively (I say actively because there is other stuff too, more on the back burner) working on will be Book 6 of the Poetry Is Twisted, Don’t Trust Her series. A book that shouldn’t be because the 5th was supposed to be the finale but you know, I told the readers not to trust her! ;)

How long have you been writing and what inspired you to start?

It’s been a while since I’ve done an interview but they always ask this question. I was 10, we had to write a poem for school for Harvest Festival. I’d never written a poem before but I had read a lot of Dr. Seuss. The teacher obviously liked my poem because he chose to read it out to the entire class. And one of my classmates on hearing it, nearly wet herself with laughter. It was supposed to be a funny poem, so I took that as a positive. Maybe a me from an alternate universe was inspired by that moment to become a comedian but I was inspired to become a Poet. It’s like okay, this is something I have a talent for!

What has been the most difficult part of writing or publishing for you so far?

Self publishing your first book is hard because you don’t know what you’re doing!

But writing and publishing is easy compared to marketing. Dear Reader, please buy my books!

What is your writing and editing process like?

The start of poems always get the most editing, because whilst I’m still writing it, I’m reading the first stanza over and over. Writing a poem can take anywhere between 15 minutes to two weeks. Normally an hour maybe and I think, this is good and then I look at it again later and notice some changes I want to make and then I’ll change my mind about something and put it back how it was, and then I’ll notice something else and blah blah blah. Anyway so after let’s say two or three days the poem is done and I pretty much forget about it until the first draught of the whole book is done, and then I reread all the poems tweaking a bit here and there and then I reread again… There’s not usually too many changes during the editing stage because I guess I read each poem a lot during the writing stage but of course after publishing, I’ll notice a couple of errors that I need to change. Probably why I’m like the one Author who stealth publishes. I give it a week or two sitting on Amazon before I announce a new book is out, so that I can spot and correct those errors that due to Sod’s law only appear after publication.

What advice would you give to your younger self about writing?

I wouldn’t. Some of my poems are amongst the most valuable things in this World to me, and you change anything about who I was / am as a Writer and some / all of those poems cease to exist! They might be replaced by other great poems but it’s not the same. I’ve written what I’ve written and I could only do that by being exactly me, with all my faults and all the mistakes that I’ve made. So I wouldn’t undo any of it!

What are your go to writing snacks?

I don’t have snacks specifically for writing, that would be weird. Not that weird is a bad thing! Because of gluten intolerance I mostly avoid biscuits and cakes these days. So chocolate, crisps, sweets. I don’t feel like giving an unpaid endorsement to any big corp just now.

What are your favorite types of books to read and do you have an all time favorite author or book?

Horror, Fantasy and Poetry are the genres I read most often.

My favourite Poet is Emily Jane Brontë and my favourite of her poems is Loud Without The Wind Was Roaring. Though there are several versions of that poem and I am fussy as to which but yeah I’ve read all of her poems and her novel Wuthering Heights, which is also a great read, one of my absolute favourites!

My favourite horror writer is Richard Laymon and my favourite of his books is Endless Night. However I’ve not read his stuff in years. He was like perfect for when I was in my twenties and I’ll be 45 soon. So I guess I’m on the search for a new favourite Horror Author. Not Stephen King, I tried The Stand and not a fan.

In terms of Fantasy I’m mostly waiting on Kim Fedyk to finish her Crystal Throne series, and Anna J. Worthy to finish her Lost Scion series. So a Twitter (I refuse to call it X) #WritingCommunity shout-out to both of them!

Where can readers find you and your books?

Poetry Is Twisted, Don’t Trust Her (series) UK link: https://amazon.co.uk/dp/B08MQ9134T/

US link: https://amazon.com/dp/B08MQ9134T/

Ghost City FREE on Kindle in the UK https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B07MBFXRGS FREE on Kobo everywhere https://www.kobo.com/gb/en/ebook/ghost-city-9

Is there anything else you’d like to share with my newsletter audience?

You can find me on Twitter @AliceLBronte

and on Bluesky @alicelbronte.bsky.social

Thank you for taking the time to read this interview!

And thanks to Courtney for interviewing me, it’s been fun!