An Interview with Koji A. Dae
The author discusses Bulgaria, the new novella Mazi, and advice for storytellers
Koji A. Dae’s new novella Mazi is coming May 21, 2024 from Ghost Orchid Press
When Silvena and her boyfriend take a vacation at an isolated mountain villa in Bulgaria, she gets the unsettling sense she is being watched by the knots in the house’s wooden walls. Her boyfriend tries to distract her with their usual BDSM games, but Silvena’s hallucinations only worsen when she encounters a local woodcutter who takes an unusual interest in her. Could his presence be somehow linked to her delusions?
The debut novella from Koji A. Dae, author of Scars that Never Bled, Mazi is a seductive erotic horror tale inspired by the author's experiences using kink to deal with mental health issues and the bitter, sometimes isolating winter of the Balkan Mountains.
I was delighted to interview Koji A. Dae as the publication date for Mazi approaches. We discuss Bulgaria, erotic horror, advice for writers, and more.
I imagine many readers might like to know more about Bulgaria, where your novel Mazi is set. Is there anything you think might be helpful to know before they read the book?
When I was first learning the Bulgarian language, my tutor shared a Bulgarian creation myth. She said one day God decided to give away natural features to the various people of Earth. To one country, He gave beautiful lakes. To another He gave waterfalls. To another, trees. And another, mountains. But Bulgaria was late to the meeting (this is for different reasons, most usually because they were working in the fields). When Bulgaria showed up, everything had been given away. But God saw how hard the people worked, and called back all the other countries. He pinched off a piece of everything, given Bulgaria a small but beautiful and naturally diverse country.
This story has always struck me because the country really does have a bit of everything. Four seasons, mountains, planes, forests, a sea, some great lakes. I moved here in 2010 as a youth development volunteer, and one reason I stayed is the natural beauty — especially in the mountains. I live in Gabrovo, which is in the center of Bulgaria, in the Balkan Mountains. The villa in the story is based on the many villas in and around the small villages near my town. While they can be beautiful — it is not uncommon for bigger winter snowstorms to leave less traveled roads impassable for days and entire villages without electricity in the winter or water in the summer. It is that isolation that really drives this story. There's a certain magic and sense of possibility in pockets of wilderness.
It sounds as though Mazi features pareidolia as a plot point, as a character “gets the unsettling sense she is being watched by the knots in the house’s wooden walls.” I have spent time finding faces and figures in clouds, abstract patterns, etc., so this piqued my interest. Would you like to say a bit about this idea?
Absolutely. First of all, let me admit I didn't realize it had a name. So cool! I've always been pulled to silhouettes in marbling patterns on various types of tiles. Anytime I move to a new place (which has been often), one of the first things I do is find the "people" in my new home. While this may sound a little creepy, for me these shapes have never been something negative. More like something familiar and friendly that I can come home to every day.
In Mazi, Silvena and her boyfriend play at a form of make-believe exhibitionism, turning the knots in the wood to people. After they're done, Silvena can't stop seeing the faces, and these people are a lot more ominous than the friendly faces I create for myself.
I had a lot of fun writing the scenes with the faces. What started as a minor point in the story — meant to be a feature of one scene — quickly became a driving force in the book and a sort of character of their own. I think part of my interest stems from my face blindness — I have a very difficult time recognizing individual faces or seeing faces as a whole as opposed to separate lines and shapes. Because of this I am fascinated with facial expression and the idea of a single facial expression frozen in wood — unmoving, unchanging — is both comforting and exciting to me.
If readers wanted to sample your work by reading a few short stories, where would you have them start?
I have a couple of short stories recently released in anthologies that also draw on Bulgarian folklore.
“To Catch a Bannik” is available in Uncanny and Unearthly Tales . It is a lightly erotic tale that outlines a decades-long affair between a woman and the troll that lives in her bath house — a tricky, powerful creature she turns to as her marriage sours.
“Karakondzhul In Love” is available in Monster Lairs. It is the story of a karakondzhul — an evil spirit that spends the year gnawing on the roots of the tree of life, emerging from the belly of the earth for a week every year to lure humans to their death. This particularly karakondzul gets stuck on the surface one year, and in that time falls in love with a human girl.
Available for free online in Apex Magazine, “Shevitsa” is a very personal tale about a foreigner who decides to follow her husband to Bulgaria where she struggles with language, culture, and loneliness. She turns to classic embroidery to pass the time, but the old women of the town hold more secrets than she realizes.
You can always find a full list of my writing at my website: kojiadae.ink
Mazi is described as an “erotic horror tale.” I wonder what other erotic horror titles you might recommend that are similar to or different from Mazi.
Honestly, I'm just getting into erotic horror. We all have to start somewhere! I would say my first introduction of the slight blending was Clive Barker's The Hellbound Heart.
Blended more thickly with a good balance is the collection of short stories Les Petites Morts, edited by Evelyn Freeling.
I tend to be picky about my balance between erotic and horror, leaning a little more towards the horror side. If anyone has suggestions for me to read, I'd love to hear them!
What are you working on right now?
I am actually working on a second erotic horror novella that is about mental health and the extremes we will accept to feel alive. The story follows a clinically depressed woman who pays a serial killer to kill her but backs out at the last minute. The woman and serial killer form a precarious sensual relationship, but the serial killer is harboring secrets that may change the woman's life forever. Its working title is Hold My Heart.
What are some of the lessons you’ve learned about writing or publishing, promotion, etc., that you would like to share with readers of Noglesque?
My biggest piece of advice would be to stick with it. Both the craft of writing and the business of publishing take time to learn. I started seriously writing in 2017. I wrote several novels that were not picked up by agents and — although I was improving — I wasn't making any professional progress.
In 2019, I had the luck to join a great online writing group. I switched my focus to short stories and had the luck to spend 4-6 hours a day writing, editing, or critiquing. I really blossomed with short stories because I was able to explore more genres, try more things, and get more feedback than I could with novels.
In 2022 I had to return to work, which meant I could no longer dedicate myself to full time writing. Since then my writing has slowed and I've had fewer acceptances of short stories. However, the quality of my work has improved vastly since 2017, the acceptances that I am getting now are usually very meaningful for more — placing more personal work, and I finally have Mazi coming out this spring, and another book coming out next year.
This is to say that things started slow and with hundreds and, over the years, thousands of rejections. But when I least expected it, there was finally that break in the publishing industry.
So my advice (that worked for me):
Explore the short form thoroughly before starting on novels or novellas.
Find critique partners that challenge you but also support you.
Don't be afraid to explore other genres. (I started as a fantasy writer and now am a horror writer)
Don't expect things to happen overnight… going into publishing with a sense of entitlement ("I deserve to be published") leads to a lot of anger and resentment.
Definitely check out indie publishers and small presses. The niche nature of small presses can allow you to find an editor or publisher who really gets your vision and aligns with your values, making the publishing experience thrilling and worthwhile.
KOJI A. DAE is a queer, synesthetic American living long-term in Bulgaria with her husband, two kids, and a cat. She is enthralled by Eastern European mythology and, after ten years of soaking up the magic of the Balkan Mountains, she feels prepared to write about it. By day she works with a non-profit furthering Bulgaria education, and by night she reads, writes, and crochets. Her short fiction can be found in Clarkesworld Magazine, Apex Magazine and others, and she has a poetry collection called Scars that Never Bled: An Exploration of Frankenstein Through Poetry.
Thank you so much for being interviewed, Koji! I look forward to meading Mazi!
Usually, at the end of Noglesque, I let folks know what I’ve been up to, but as I just recently had an edition focusing on that, this time I wanted to let you know about an upcoming anthology from some friends and colleagues. I’ve read the three previous HOWL anthologies and look forward to reading and blurbing an advance copy of this one soon:
Howls from the Scene of the Crime: An Anthology of Crime Horror is crowdfunding through March 28! This fully illustrated anthology from Howl Society Press features 22 new short stories of transgressions and lawlessness laced in blood, secrets, and occult compulsions. It’s edited by Jessica Peter and Timaeus Bloom and features such authors as Christopher Buehlman, Gwendolyn Kiste, and Donyae Coles, as well as a foreword by Bram Stoker Award® winning crime horror author, Cynthia Pelayo. Back the Kickstarter or get all the information here.