PHOTO: Gordon Bonnet, author and creator of imaginative speculative fiction, photographed in his rural New York home where he writes, gardens, and plays music.
Exploring Myth Horror Gothic And Apocalyptic Narratives
Gordon Bonnet blends science, folklore, and the paranormal into evocative narratives, exploring how ordinary people confront extraordinary truths while grounding his stories in emotional realism, authenticity, and enduring human hope.
Gordon Bonnet has been telling stories for as long as he can remember, weaving together imagination, intellect, and curiosity into narratives that bridge the gap between the everyday and the extraordinary. With a lifelong fascination for the paranormal and an equally strong grounding in science, language, and history, his work emerges from that fertile tension where scepticism meets wonder. His writing is less about seeking easy answers and more about exploring the deep and unsettling questions of what lies beyond our perception.
His novels span genres—horror, gothic, mythic, and apocalyptic—yet share a unifying thread: the ordinary person confronted with the extraordinary. Whether in Descent into Ulthoa, with its Lovecraftian echoes, or in the hauntingly Cajun-infused The Communion of Shadows, Bonnet asks not only what dangers lurk in hidden places, but how human beings—flawed, hopeful, resilient—respond when confronted with truths too immense to ignore.
There is also a profound humanity at the heart of his work. In the Arc of the Oracles series, where visions of collapse and ruin might overwhelm, Bonnet insists on hope: the possibility that love and loyalty can withstand despair. Even in landscapes of decay, his characters seek light, and in their persistence lies a reflection of our own most enduring struggles.
Beyond the page, Bonnet is a musician, a gardener, a potter, and the voice behind the long-running blog Skeptophilia, where science and critical thought hold court. Yet it is perhaps through fiction that he most vividly bridges the rational and the mysterious, offering stories that unsettle even as they affirm the resilience of the human spirit.
Your Motina Books standalone novel Descent Into Ulthoa explores mythic horror in remote settings. How did you meld folklore with science-led characters to ground the supernatural in that environment?
Descent into Ulthoa is influenced by American horror writer H. P. Lovecraft. It looks the themes of conspiracy, small-town life, and family “skeletons in the closet,” against the backdrop of cosmic horror. It’s grounded by the setting and characters being ordinary—a typical northeastern small town and a main character and his son who are practical, well-educated men with a background in science. What would people like that do if confronted with irrefutable evidence of a terrifying and deadly secret going back centuries?
The Communion of Shadows features Cajun ghost tales and period dialogue. How did your Louisiana upbringing influence the gothic atmosphere and the inclusion of authentic Cajun language?
My mother’s family is of 100% Cajun origin, and I fondly recall when I was young hearing stories from my uncle, of the Loup-Garou, the Feu Follet, the Lutin, and other scary denizens of the bayou country. I’ve tried to blend those with believable, sympathetic characters, whose real triumphs and tragedies will grab the reader’s heart. Because of this I think Communion might be my most emotionally affecting story.
Little Bustard Books re-released Lock & Key in 2023. How does this revised edition differ in tone or structure from earlier versions, and what prompted those changes?
Lock & Key is my second book to be published, so between its initial publication and re-release, I went through many cycles of editing and critiquing. I was fortunate to work with excellent editors, whose sharp eyes and wise advice helped me to grow as a writer. I learned a lot from those experiences, and prior to re-release I fixed those “rookie mistakes” by polishing and tightening the story considerably.
Your Arc of the Oracles opener In the Midst of Lions introduces a new mythic series. What inspired this series concept and how does it depart from your earlier standalone thrillers?
Of all of my novels, In the Midst of Lions had the longest gestation. I wrote the first draft of the story over forty years ago, when I was a college undergraduate. I realized even at the time that what I’d written wasn’t very good, but the core idea—a young man caught up in the collapse of civilization—stuck with me. I knew I wanted to revisit it. Eventually I took the idea up again, and added the Oracles who are central to the entire trilogy—people who, Cassandra-like, can see a devastating future, but who are largely not believed—and wrote what is my most modern-politics-relevant story. There are parts that seem scarily prescient, but it bears keeping in mind that the bulk of the story was written before the recent events in the United States started.
Later in that series The Chains of Orion blends post-apocalyptic elements with paranormal themes. How do you balance hope and decay in such speculative settings?
Even though Arc of the Oracles is post-apocalyptic, there is a deep thread of hope running through the whole thing. A belief that humanity is redeemable through love, loyalty, and friendship, and those are stronger than hatred, greed, and bigotry. The end of Chains is a paean to hope, something we desperately need right now. The character of MarigKastella, who has lost so much and yet remains staunchly on the side of love, refusing to despair, represents the best of humanity.
Between Motina and Little Bustard publications, you’ve tackled horror, gothic, mythic and apocalyptic genres. How do you maintain a signature voice across these diverse narrative landscapes?
All authors have themes they keep coming back to, and one of mine that unites even some of my most thematically-different stories is, “what do ordinary people do when confronted with extraordinary circumstances?” I’ve been a diehard skeptic most of my adult life; my training is in science, and I try to base my understanding of the world on evidence and logic. As a result, I’ve tended to disbelieve most claims of the paranormal. So what would someone like me do, if I ran into unarguable proof of the supernatural? How would it change me? Would I stubbornly maintain my disbelief? Run away? Collapse in panic? Or… change my mind? These kinds of questions have always fascinated me.
As someone who self-publishes in addition to working with Motina and Little Bustard, what creative freedoms or challenges have most shaped your recent works published under your own imprint?
I haven’t let working with publishers stifle my creative voice. I’ve been lucky that the ones I’ve been with have given me free rein, but additionally, I’m not the sort who “writes to the trends.” I doubt I could write a story effectively that I couldn’t tell with my own voice, from my own heart.
What advice would you give aspiring authors hoping to combine speculative, mythic or supernatural elements with emotional realism, based on your evolving experience?
The same advice I’d give authors writing in any genre. Write, lots. Like with any skill, if you keep at it, you’ll improve. Read, lots. You’ll learn by seeing what others have done—even if it’s a book you didn’t like, figuring out why you didn’t like it will inform your work. Create realistic characters with flaws as well as virtues, and get to know them. Learn not only what they look like, but how they speak, move, smile, what makes them laugh, what makes them cry. As far as genre-specific advice, speculative fiction and stories with supernatural elements work when the reader buys into the magical aspects of the story, when they’re woven seamlessly into the plot, and not appended as a deus ex machina. Know the rules of the world you’ve created, and stick to them. Learn from some of the best writers in the genre, people like Haruki Murakami, Joan Aiken, Christopher Moore, Octavia Butler, Charles Williams, and Ursula LeGuin. Take a close look at how they do it, then let that guide your unique voice in speaking the stories you create.
