Carrie Harris is a geek of all trades and proud of it. She’s an experienced author of tie-in fiction, former tabletop game executive and published game designer who lives in Utah. I got the chance to chat with her about her story, 'Honor Among Thieves' in the new Arkham Horror anthology collection Secrets In Scarlet.
Were you a fan of Lovecraft or the Arkham Horror games before coming to work on the books, and if so how did you get into it?
Oh, yes. Both, really. I went through a serious horror phase when I was a teenager, and I read everything I could get my hands on, including Lovecraft. Bits of it have stuck with me over the years, and I ended up writing a humorous Lovecraftian novel a few years back called Elder God Dance Squad. On holidays, my loved ones often get me Cthulhu figurines and t-shirts. I’m also a big gamer—I still work in the gaming industry on occasion—and for a while there, I think I had every Lovecraft game ever made. So I’d already played Arkham Horror before coming to this story. It all adds up to the fact that when the opportunity came round to pitch for this anthology, I knew it was a perfect opportunity for me!
This is your first time writing an Arkham Horror title, having previously written stories set in the Marvel Universe. What was it like making that jump into the Arham Horror stuff, and did you bring across any of the things you liked to do in your Marvel stories?
I’ve written in quite a lot of different licences, although I’m most known for my Marvel world. Some of them take a bit more work to get your feet under you, and others just seem to fit quite naturally. As a huge Marvel and Lovecraft fan, I’d say those two licenses have been easier for me, just because I know quite a lot about them before I even started work. It’s also tremendous fun to get a peek behind the scenes, although sometimes it’s so hard to keep everything a secret, because I’m so excited about what’s coming up! I think if I bring that love to my licensed works, whether they’re Arkham Horror, Marvel, or something else, I’ve done my job.
Your story focuses on the Varela sisters, who I found to be really great. I loved how they planned their heist and their different methods for stealing the target item. Did you go into the story knowing that one of them was going to die, or did that develop as you made it, and was it a hard thing to do?
I love them too. I have twins, and I’ve always shied away from writing them, because I really dislike that trope where one is good and one is evil. So I wanted to show twins who are both badasses in their own right. But because of the source material, I knew they had to be separated at some point, and it had to be fairly permanent. I didn’t exactly know how I was going to do that when I started outlining, and when it all came together, I wrote that bit with a rock in the pit of my stomach. That’s how you know you’re doing it right, I guess?
Your story seems to show that there are some decent people in the Red Coterie, and that they’re not as villainous as they first appeared earlier in the book. Where do you think the group sits on a scale of good or evil, and do you think the more morally ambiguous characters are more interesting to write?
I think my story, and the Coterie characters who appear in it, support the argument that there’s a lot of variety in the group. You can’t judge one member by the actions of another, and many of them seem to have their own agenda. I do like shades of grey more than straight black and white, because I think it’s more realistic. Unless you’re going for camp, in which case I am all for ridiculous exaggeration!
To me, the really interesting thing about my story is that it’s about a new Coterie member, at the moment that they join. So what would that character look like after some time spent in that group and with that company? I’d love to see them later on, when they’ve got their feet underneath them, and see whether they’ve been able to hold on to some kind of moral compass.
And now, if my editor is reading this, she’s shaking her head, because she knows what this means. Another wild pitch from Carrie!
There’s a lot of pre-exisitng lore in the Arkham Horror series, and your story definitely adds to that in new and interesting ways. Is it ever daunting to go into an established property like this to create new stories and new characters?
Absolutely. Every time. I know what it’s like to love a licensed world and to go into a new book or movie or whatever based on it and be disappointed. I want to avoid that if at all possible. But there’s also the reality that we can love things for different reasons. In Arkham Horror, I love the feeling of discovery and adventure as you play the game. You’re never stuck in that awkward situation as a player where you know something the character doesn’t, and you have to pretend you don’t know it. You’re also never sitting around and twiddling your thumbs while you wait for something to happen. Something is always happening!
So my story focuses on those things. If you love the game because of the exotic and immersive locales, or the minutiae of investigation, I touch on them, but I don’t dig as deep. So while I try to include them all to some degree, I also have to understand that my preferences aren’t the same as other people. That’s definitely daunting.
Your writing for the Marvel seems to deal with personal connections, such as the friendship between Triage and Tempus, and with the forging of a team in Witches Unleashed. And this story focused on sisters. Are relationships important in your writing?
Yes, they certainly are. I love exploring the real lives of extraordinary characters. When you take off the costume, or sit down after a long day of fighting eldritch beings from the great beyond, what is your life like? What do you do with your time? Who do you care about? And relationships are a huge part of that. So a lot of my books explore relationships and also trauma. Because after seeing the things that the characters in both the Marvel and Arkham Horror universe see? There’s going to be trauma.
I really loved to read about Rosa, the La Chica Roja, and was a little sad that our time with her was as short as it was. Is she a character that you’d be willing to come back to in the future? And can you tell us about any upcoming projects of yours we should keep an eye out for?
I did pretty much come up with a pitch for her while I was answering these questions, so yes, I’d love to revisit her someday! I’ve got a bunch more short stories coming out in the near future, as well as some books and a bit of game work that I’m dying to talk about but can’t, or ninjas will come down from my ceiling and carry me away. So I’m afraid I have to leave this answer a bit vague for now, but I hope to announce things soon!
Thanks so much for having me!
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