Chuck Tingle is a delight. His latest book, Camp Damascus, is ALSO a delight. A few years ago, I wrote a short essay about the excellent writing advice you could glean from his work and interviews, and I’m overjoyed to say that I recently had the opportunity to ask him some questions about his craft, Camp Damascus, and his future projects.
And while we are, sadly, at the end of the Tingle Takeover, I hope your brains, like mine, are now a CAPSLOCK wonderland filled with buckaroos and sentient jet-skis, and the enduring knowledge that LOVE IS REAL.
Because it is.
(This interview hasn’t been edited for clarity or length because it was so much fun we left it all in—but we did cut one question for spoilers. Enjoy!)
First things first: I LOVE THIS BOOK. I love Rose, and I love Saul, and I love how Rose goes on her journey, and how you’ve made room in the book for real horror, but also found hope and connection in the midst of it. Thank you for writing it! And thank you for taking the time to talk with me about it.
oh DANG this is so kind of you i appreciate it so much. Talkin’ on art is one of my favorite things ever so this is a real treat. thank you for your time as well i think these moments are so important to share between buds.
What does your usual writing day look like?
every day is writing day for old chuck, really just depends on HOW MUCH writing gets done but i shoot for between two thousand and four thousand words. usually wake up and go for a long trot up the hill, sometimes before sun even comes up. this is IDEA TIME and very important and in some ways you could say i get most of my writing done there even though there is no pen or pencil. then when i arrive home i just start writing until i feel like stopping but because of my hyperfocus way that is usually a lot of dang words.
Camp Damascus was written in this way. i would say it was about two or three months of composing whole story in my head on the morning walks and going over it until i understood every part and i could speak it aloud to a buckaroo over a campfire. then when all of that is set i sit down and start writing the words which usually only takes three or four weeks for first draft because by the time i start this part of the dang process the whole story is already finished in my head. it is like copying it from one page to another, but the first page is in mental realm and the second page is in physical realm.
How has it been working with a team of people after doing so much of your writing career independently?
well always had a team around to get me from place to place. it is difficult to just walk into buildings wearing a mask like i do so i have always had manager name of buckaroo Gino to keep me safe, and agent name of Dongwon, and Sam Rand to help with computers and sweet Barbara and all the rest. so for PROTECTION of secret identity i have always needed help if only just to not scare well meaning buds when i arrive somewhere in an unexpected outfit that covers my handsome face.
of course trot of NIGHTFIRE and TOR is even more buds helping out and honestly it has been so wonderful. i think it can be difficult to be on a team if you are constantly at odds, but everyone i work with understands my way and respects my sincerity, which i think is the biggest thing. it is always a red flag when chuck embarks on a project and i can tell the buds involved think i am joking, but from day one NIGHTFIRE and TOR buckaroos have been so wonderful.
How do you usually start a new project—with a character, an idea for a plot, a scene, or some other way? And did you find any particular challenges in writing a horror story rather than romance and erotica?
most of my influences are cinematic so i tend to see horror writing in SET PIECES which is more of a screenwriting way than a novelist way i think. but that is how i see them, and i will have dozens and dozens of images and moments and set pieces swirling around in my mind at any time with nowhere to go. then at the same time i have MESSAGES and ideas that i want to say, thoughts on a topic or something that is emotionally important for me to get off my dang chest. so i just let these two stacks of puzzle pieces swirl around for a while until suddenly i realize ‘DANG there is a match here. fate has a treat for me’. when the set piece and the message fold into each other that is the key moment that i know i can write a novel from this idea.
then chuck just starts thinking on ‘well what is the best way to lead to this moment? who are the characters that can offer the most symbolism of this message? who has the journey that will express how i feel?’
i think many authors are taught that message is kind of a side trot for writing novels, it is just something that comes along with everything else like a passenger, but for me the MESSAGE is usually in the drivers seat.
I promised myself I wouldn’t ask “Where do you get your ideas?” but I would like to know how you brainstorm the love interests in your Tinglers. Do you have a file of potential paramours that didn’t make the cut?
yes i have notepad on my phone that has dozens and dozens of tingler concepts and lovers and ideas. if i hear an interesting phrase or a bud makes a comment that i connect with i will jot it down, and then when it is time to write i can just go through these thoughts and find the one that connects with my feelings or that i have something to say about. so in many ways it is the same as with horror novel process only adding in handsome sentient racecar or a shirtless parasaurolophus.
What’s been the biggest surprise to you, as you’ve built your writing career?
i have so much hope and gratitude and reverence for this timeline and the buckaroos in it, so i would not say i am SURPRISED, but i am always pleased by way that my art has been accepted and cherished by so many. my erotica seems very ‘normal’ to me and my sensibilities but i also understand others find it outrageous, and for that reaction to gradually change from ‘this is outrageous and so bad it is good’ to just ‘this is outrageous and good’ has been very nice. i have seen a lot of the irony slip away when buckaroos talk about what i do and start accepting me with sincerity, which is very moving. makes me kind of choked up in my way just thinking about it.
Was there an author or book that inspired you to begin writing?
i don’t think i was inspired to write from reading because i have memories of writing long before i have memories of reading. this seems to be a trend because i still write much more than i read. but to answer your question i find my inspiration in other artforms, mostly film but also music and painters. two biggest inspirations would be David Byrne and Andy Kaufman
Did you read any horror novels, or watch any movies, specifically to prepare for Camp Damascus?
i have always loved horror but there was mental roadblock that i could not figure out how to get past. i knew the stories i wanted to write and what i wanted to talk about and what COMMUNITY i wanted to write for (my own) but didn’t know how to do this in a way that didn’t just add to the real world trauma that often comes with being part of a marginalized community, in this case the queer community. i wanted to build something that would be cathartic and uplifting but also function as a quality piece of HORROR in its own way. big part of chuck cracking this mental block was looking at way Jordan Peele tells his stories, so he is HUGE influence for chuck.
outside of that there are plenty of influences that i can see in Camp Damascus and in the way these supernatural elements are grounded in some internal logic. there are very specific rules and i think that is important to create tension because that way you can feel as though the frightening things have real consequences. it is not just an author trotting out ‘the scariest thing possible’, it all makes sense if you understand how to crack the code. i did not pick these influences on purpose but i think they come through me anyway. i think film name of Event Horizon was big touchstone and so was story name of Hellraiser.
How many drafts did you write for Camp Damascus? Were there any turns or alternate versions of the story that you decided to leave behind?
chuck turns the story over so many times in my head that the first draft is basically the MAIN DRAFT and the rest is just small bits of editing and moving around words. there was one scene that was rewritten but that was mostly just a change of location and a smaller amount of characters.
I love the Peter Pan motif! Could you talk a bit about that element of the book? And why that theme, particularly?
there are so many dang layers to Camp Damascus. there is the literal story, then the biblical story, then the fairytale story which is the Peter Pan motif that you have referenced. this is because huge theme of the book is using the same text as someone else but interpreting its way to suit your needs. so i thought ‘well lets make sure we can do that with the book itself. that seems like interesting art experiment’.
i try not to talk TOO much about all the little fairytale layer references but there are a LOT of connections if someone wanted to go through the book with a close eye. i think that is part of the fun so i have been trying to spread out which hidden gems i talk on depending on the interview. for this interview i would say consider that that the head pastor could be referencing a combination of TWO old characters and that his last name has a synonym with a lot of meaning. also there is a reason the SPECIFIC hand he uses to hold his gun is mentioned. but honestly there is just so much in the book to sift through, from the color of the chair Dr. Smith sits in to willows mug. there is a reason for almost EVERY detail in this way and i hope buckaroos have fun pulling it apart.
but to answer question, the reason Peter Pan was chosen over any other piece of folklore or fairytale is because i noticed way these specific versions of Evangelical Christianity often try to keep their children young forever. even when they are physically grown they are still infantilized in a way, because they are so sheltered from the real world under the guise of protection and care. this is literally what happens in Peter Pan but also in Camp Damascus, as most of the main characters are technically adults who kind of act like kids. even the tone of the book, especially at the start, is written to feel like an unsettling approximation of youth that is not really there.
I have a religion degree from a previous life path, and I was so excited by how you wove Rose’s Biblical knowledge into her everyday life and thought patterns. I’d love to hear about what sort of research you did on religious communities, and quote-unquote conversion camps. And how did you choose which Biblical passages to use?
i am agnostic and do not have a particularly deep religious trauma in MY OWN past, but there are buckaroos i am very close to who were deep in this world at one time. in my travels as a young buckaroo i had a handful of evangelical buds and even though this part of their trot kept us at arms length in some ways i was still pretty fascinated by the things they believed and the social dynamics they had. for instance in Camp Damascus there is scene that takes place at a root beer kegger and i remember trotting around at a few of those in real life. i also had buds who grew up in a cult and we have talked about these experiences a lot. so really the answer comes down to a lot of life experience traveling around but also being very curious and listening to stories. i think my curiosity in this way is very similar to rose.
as far as SPECIFIC PASSAGES of the bible that i selected, mostly they were just ones that fit the moment. some i knew of, some i looked up. but even more than the verses i really like how all the demons in Camp Damascus are actual demons mentioned in ancient text. there are a lot of fun details like this. for instance, old painting name of The Holy Family with The Mayfly which is mentioned briefly, is a real painting.
In your interview with Publisher’s Weekly, you talk about horror and humor being similar in the way that they cause instinctive rather than intellectual reactions in people. I think the way you use humor in Camp Damascus is fantastic. What makes you laugh?
the television show I Think You Should Leave
I thought some of the most horrific aspects of the book were how Rose’s family and community reacted to her autism. How did you develop her as a specifically autistic hero?
because my way as an autistic buckaroo has been nothing but a BLESSING on my life i used to not talk about it very much. i felt like this was not my place as there are many others who have a difficult time dealing with their autism and i did not want to crowd this spotlight, but eventually i realized that trotting on the spectrum is a life that features ALL KINDS OF WAYS AND EMOTIONS and a variety of stories need to be told. when i was first diagnosed i was EXCITED and this is because i already had heroes on the spectrum like David Byrne from talking heads. having examples of neurodivergent JOY was very important.
so now instead of avoiding talking about this way i think to myself ‘i’m gonna speak on my way and maybe a young buckaroo will be EXCITED about their autism because chuck tingle has proven love with his autistic trot’. i also think MOST of the buckaroos i write about are autistic in some way because they come from within my mind, so they go about their fictional world with a specific tone. in case of rose i thought ‘well i have a habit of letting my own autism seep into my characters sometimes i should maybe just SAY IT instead of imply it’ and by doing this i was hoping create a hero for neurodivergent buds.
when it comes to writing roses stims or the various expressions of her autism, those are all my exact behaviors and ways. her autism is exactly like mine from the cue cards before social events to the specific counting pattern on her fingers.
I found Rose and her mother’s walks together heartbreaking—simultaneously a loving, intimate tradition, and a chilling test. Could you talk a little bit about writing those scenes? And I’m not sure this is a question, but could you talk about the house that Rose’s mother loves?
yes i think the walks and the game they play is very important to showing how many evangelical folks in this position see the world. there is specific CARE to their game on the surface, and i think they believe their judgement IS a form of care, but it is also very dehumanizing.
Rose’s mother, Lisa, has a specific house in the woods that she likes to dream about living in because deep down i think she knows something is wrong with the community, and with her own actions, but she feels as though there’s nothing she can do about it. she is like rose in many ways, but while rose still has a choice, Lisa believes that choice was already made long ago and there is no turning back. the dang ship has sailed. so Lisa secretly yearns for another life but would never admit it.
And this also might not be a question, but I really appreciated how you balanced moments of terror with the idea that love is just as real as fear, and that friendship is as powerful as the negative forces in the world. Can you talk about how you kept that balance as you wrote?
i have peered across many timelines and every single one of them shares the same unifying truth, that love is real. so really love is the most powerful fuel you could ever draw from and i think it will permeate anything you choose to create, as long as you let it.
many buckaroos might see the genre of horror as a place where love shouldn’t enter the equation, but i disagree. love doesn’t just disappear in the darkness, it is still there washing through everything we do even in times of fear and strife. some might even say it is MOST important in these harrowing situations.
horror is not a celebration of death, it is a celebration of life, and therefore creation, and therefore love, so it makes sense these ideas would trot their way into the narrative.
What are you working on now?
i do not see a direct sequel to Camp Damascus happening any time soon, although i have a few ideas that are worth exploring. however Bury Your Gays and the horror stories that come after it all exist within the same tingleverse layers, so there are similar threads weaving through them. there are a few secret easter eggs mentioned in Camp Damascus that will tie into other future tingleverse horror stories, including Bury Your Gays. in the current draft of bury your gays the events of Camp Damascus are mentioned at least once.
What are your own favorite horror stories?
this changes too dang much to give a concrete answer, because i tend to like almost everything i watch or read. chuck would be a terrible reviewer because i can pretty much always find something to like. i CAN say that right now i am listening to audiobook of The Library Policeman by Stephen King and i like it very much
I always like to ask authors if they have book recommendations for our readers! Have you read any stand-out books this year?
yes The Nice House on the Lake which is graphic novel from James Tynion IV
Finally: what do you think are the best ways for us all to prove love in the world?
every moment grants you so much power through even the smallest actions. proving love can be a massive grand gesture, but to start i would say just look at the paths ahead of you and think ‘is there some way for me to make things even the tiniest bit better’. if you make a habit of choosing the path with a little bit more love, then the sky is the dang limit.
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