Four chats with Roberto Ciardiello, a featured author in the Antichrist literary contest, thanks to his short story Roma Diabolica. We find out more about the achievements, passions and projects of this promising writer.
A: Who is Roberto Ciardiello?
B: Roberto Ciardiello is a kid with Christ years, starting to watch out for carpenters, especially if they approach with a tape measure in hand. Then yes, he is also a modern Peter Pan, a dreamer and a realist at the same time. One day one, one day the other, one day the other ... like the (f)useful Roman alternate license plates.
A: How did your passion for writing come about?
B: Here, it's hard to say. I think the seed was planted during a morning in elementary school (I think in fourth or fifth grade), more than 20 years ago. I remember sitting behind the desk, between one thing and another I get an issue of Dylan Dog: Delirium in my hands. I start reading it, it grabs me right away, I ask to take it home. I remember after reading it, I almost couldn't sleep at night.
Years later I started reading Ken Shiro manga (never finished unfortunately) and collecting Dylan Dog. Following that, practically "just for the hell of it," I went into a bookstore and came out with a collection of short stories by Lovecraft, Poe, and others I can't remember (I can no longer find the book, by the way).
From reading to writing, the step was short.
A: Who were and who are your "masters" in the literary field?
B: If I say Stephen King I'm going to slip into the banal, right? Well, I say it anyway. With him I entered the world of novels instead of just staying in the world of vintage short stories, let's say. But it's not just King on my shelves. I have a big soft spot for James Ellroy (especially the Los Angeles quadrilogy), Don Wislow and Edward Bunker, noir and not at all horror narrators who helped shape me.
A: Among the literary newcomers in Italy, who are your favorite authors?
B: Well, the Italian undergrowth is teeming with good authors, you just have to know how to look. Often you can't find them on the shelves of bookstores, let alone in plain sight behind shiny display cases. There's a lot of penalization in Italy, the kind that makes you say if you don't have a name you're not going anywhere, but that's not the case.
Of good homegrown authors I can mention Ian Delacroix, Danilo Arona, the excellent Claudio Vergnani, Fabio Monteduro, Cristiana Astori, Giorgio Pirazzini, all with their own imprint. I certainly forget some of them, don't hold it against me.
A: You are the winner of Antichrist, DarkVeins' Christmas literary contest. Can you tell us about your experience?
B: And to think that I didn't even want to enter the contest....
I said to myself, "I horror with demonic backgrounds have never written any and I don't know how to write any, what am I going to do?" Then I reconsidered. The idea of being read by Federico Zampaglione, Alda Teodorani, Gordiano Lupi, and the administrators of the major Italian horror-noir sites tantalized me too much to let it go, so I thought, yes, I might as well try, what would it cost me?
It went well, and it was a double satisfaction for me, not only for the win itself, but also for the fact that I achieved it with a story that touches on a genre that I have never ventured into before.
A: Can you tell us about Roma Diabolica, the story that led to your victory? What inspired you to write it?
B: In Roma Diabolica I wanted to leave more space for the images than for the barely hinted at plot. I tried to create a world (or a picture or a situation) in which what was supposed to happen had already happened, I wanted to project the reader straight into the deed that had already happened, without having to stand there and say "it all began when..."
The average reader is not a fool; I think there is no need to feed him and spill the beans. His imagination would suffer. And there is nothing uglier and more bored than a reader with an unstimulated imagination.
A: An adjective that represents your story. If you had the chance to see Roma Diabolica transposed to film, which director would you like it to be directed by?
B: An adjective? I would say cinematic. One person complimented me by saying, "You were meticulous and stilted in your descriptions and imbued the narrative with pure evil, the smell of pestilence and flashes of hell on earth. It almost sounded like a Rob Zombie video."
I thank him.
And I also come to the second answer: as far as the director is concerned, I believe that, just because of what I wrote above, Rob Zombie might be the right person. I'm waiting for him-and in the meantime I keep dreaming.
A: Are music and film muses inspiring your writing vein?
B: Yes, very often. In retrospect I've realized that I've written very Tarantino-esque dialogue in the past. Just as many horror films have undoubtedly influenced certain scenes and passages.
I don't write while listening to music, though, or rather I don't listen to music while writing. The way I am, I would end up listening to a whole album while staring at the blank page on the pc. I kind of regret it, and I hope in the future to learn to disassociate my brain from my ears.
A: You are the winner of several literary awards, what do these wins mean to you?
B: Pure joy and many sacrifices paid off. I think if I were to get to win the millionth contest, the surprise and sense of well-being would be no less than the first time I saw my name at the top of the list. It's a good feeling.
A: Some of your works have been published, can you tell us about them?
B: Gladly!
"Days of War, Nights of Blood" was published in the collection "365 Short Stories about the End of the World," Delos Books. In this story, I imagined a post-countdown world in which the survivors live in a siege situation trying to resist and survive.
"Behind the Clown," a collection titled Nerinchiostro, released by Sogno editions, is basically a love story between a "normal" girl and a junkie with a passion for horror movies. Pennywise's latex mask is the centerpiece of the tale.
"In the Country," a collection entitled The Return of the Living Courts, published by the defunct Edizioni XII, is a very short black tale without the paranormal element, in which we find a young boy grappling with his master father.
"Oh, Poor Susanna...," released by publisher Wepub in The Little Anthology of Horrors, features a pair of young boys, brother and sister, who come across a woman around whom a macabre nursery rhyme of blood and death has been constructed. It is free to download from the publisher's website at the symbolic cost of a tweet or Facebook post.
The two very short stories "T. R. B." and "Nothing but the Truth" were published by LetteraturaHorror.it in the anthology "50 Splinters of Terror." The first is a black story that has Ted Bundy as its protagonist; the second features an angry old man and a puppet who pays dearly for all his lies (I think Collodi is still spinning in his grave). Free download here.
With "Projections of Death," I won the 2013 Skeleton Prize, given by the Skeleton.com portal. Here too, as in Roma Diabolica, I tried to throw the reader right into the middle of the story without too much preamble. You can read it here.
"Under Siege" won me the 2013 Horror T-shirt, also held by the Skeletons.com portal, very short stories, maximum 100 words. I rode the zombie wave and received home the T-shirt with the winning short story printed on it...which would be crazy cool if only it didn't stay a little wide for me! The link. And then there is "Roma Diabolica" .
A: How important is music to you and what are your favorite groups?
B: Music is part of my life. A few millennia ago I used to play bass in a band, we had our own rehearsal room, we did gigs around, etc... We did mainly 80s/90s hard rock. But everything ends sooner or later.
Di gruppi preferiti ne ho un po': mi piacciono molto gli AC/DC, i Motörhead, gli Skid Row, i Guns n’Roses, Jimi Hendrix, i Megadeth, il blues d’una volta. Come vedi sono di larghe vedute…
A: Do you love horror cinema? Can you name the directors you respect and the titles of the films you love?
B: Horror is my favorite genre in cinema, I practically grew up in it. How can we not remember summers spent watching Horror Night after Festivalbar? My favorite movie is Profondo Rosso, I would never get tired of watching it, but there are others that are very good. I really enjoyed The House of the Devil, by Rob Zombie, beautiful vintage cinematography and great soundtrack; The Shining, by Kubrick, visionary and cruel; the Halloween series; Friday the 13th; Lamberto Bava's Demons...
I will stop here otherwise I digress.
My favorite filmmakers are (and here I'm going to slip into the trivial as above with Stephen King) Dario Argento, Quentin Tarantino (okay, it's not horror) and John Carpenter. Lately I've been opening my doors to Asian cinema, but it's still early to talk about favorite directors. Let's just say that what I have seen of Miike I have enjoyed.
Young director Luigi Pastore (his "Come una Crisalide" is a good product in my opinion, a very successful low-budget film) and Federico Zampaglione (Shadow is excellent; Tulpa is good and Black duplex I have not seen) deserve a note of attention. I like to support homegrown horror that will hopefully regain the vigor it once had.
A: What music CD, DVD and book would you never part with?
B: If I had to choose only one per category I would say:
for CDs, Unplugged, by Alice in Chains (makes you travel in a dimension of your own);
for books, The Big Nothing, by James Ellroy (cruel noir set in postwar Los Angeles);
For DVDs: Profondo Rosso (and hidden in the Pulp Fiction case).
A: What do you think are the best film adaptations from literary works? Which ones are the worst?
B: Well, with The Shining Kubrick did a very good job, even if it deviates a bit from the book. Mysery didn't do too badly either.
Bad transpositions there are quite a few, for the simple fact that everything is uglier when it is transformed from the written word to film.
A: Which book would you like the film adaptation of?
B: "I pick meat flowers at night," by Giorgio Pirazzini, Las Vegas editions. Story about cannibalism and perverse human curiosity.
A: What do you have in mind for the future in the literary field?
B: I am trying to detoxify from short story contests, favoring a "solo" and longer project. I'll try, but I already know anyway that I'll give in to some contests again this year....
A: What do you think about this interview?
B: It's good. With focused, non-trivial questions. It's good to know that there are those who seek data visibility and space, those who waste time constructing questions, waiting for answers.
All of this is appreciable.
A: Greetings to our friends at DarkVeins!
B: Hello girls and boys (always women first, right?)!
A: Thank you Roberto!
