Interview With Author Sergio Lourenço
Tell us about yourself and how many books you have written.
I’m a writer drawn to the darker edges of fantasy, where folklore, horror, and the uncanny overlap. For years I’ve been creating worlds and characters through short stories and worldbuilding challenges on World Anvil, which helped me find my voice and sharpen my craft. Blood for Quiet Hollow is my first published book, and with it I’ve finally taken the step from sharing fragments online to building a lasting body of work. It’s the beginning of a cycle of novellas and, eventually, full novels set in the world of Erydon.
What is the name of your latest book and what inspired it?
My latest (and debut) book is Blood for Quiet Hollow. The story grew out of my love for folk horror, the sense that villages, traditions, and landscapes can hold ancient curses and secrets. It’s also inspired by my ongoing worldbuilding project, which explores Arenicos, a rogue mage who wanders into places where bargains and curses still linger.
Do you have any unusual writing habits?
I tend to think in fragments of images or lines before I know the whole story. Sometimes it’s just one unsettling scene, a child born without breath, a bell that rings with no hand upon it, and the rest of the tale grows outward from there. I also find myself writing in “cycles” rather than single disconnected stories, returning to characters and themes until they reveal more of themselves.
What authors, or books have influenced you?
Writers like Thomas Ligotti, Caitlín R. Kiernan, H. P. Lovecraft, and Nathan Ballingrud have deeply shaped my sense of horror, especially the way the strange and the cosmic can live in the quiet corners of everyday life. On the fantasy side, authors like Michael Moorcock, Robert E. Howard, Brandon Sanderson, and George R. R. Martin showed me how flawed, complex characters and vast mythologies can anchor even the most fantastical worlds. Folk tales and myth have also been a constant influence, with their sense of inevitability and haunting repetition
What are you working on now?
I’m outlining the next novella in Arenicos’s arc, exploring a different side of his legend. Where Blood for Quiet Hollow was about curses and debts, this one will put him against power and ambition in a very different setting.
What is your best method or website when it comes to promoting your books?
So far, World Anvil has been where I share my work with people who love worldbuilding, and Amazon’s free promotion days have been a good way to get my debut novella into readers’ hands. I’ve also started connecting with horror and dark fantasy communities to spread the word.
Do you have any advice for new authors?
Don’t wait for the perfect moment to start; it never comes. Write the story that won’t leave your head, finish it, and let it exist outside your computer. Even a small piece published or shared is worth more than a dozen unfinished drafts. Draft freely the first time, put everything you want on the page, and then go back to the beginning with the knowledge of where the story is heading. The second pass is where the real shape of the story emerges.
What is the best advice you have ever heard?
That the first draft doesn’t need to be good; it just needs to exist. You can’t fix a blank page, but you can always shape words once they’re on paper.
What are you reading now?
Right now I’m revisiting Songs of a Dead Dreamer by Thomas Ligotti, alongside some folk horror anthologies. I like to keep a balance between classics of weird fiction and newer indie authors to stay inspired.
What’s next for you as a writer?
My goal is to keep building a cycle of novellas around Arenicos before moving on to full-length novels set in the world of Erydon. Each story adds another layer to the mythos, and I want readers to see the bigger picture unfold step by step.
If you were going to be stranded on a desert island and allowed to take 3 or 4 books with you what books would you bring?
The Book of the New Sun by Gene Wolfe
Songs of a Dead Dreamer and Grimscribe by Thomas Ligotti
The Witcher: Last Wish by Andrzej Sapkowski
The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (because folk tales never run out of strange paths.)
Author Websites and Profiles
Sergio Lourenço Amazon Profile
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