N.R. Wolfman (he/she) is an indigenous, queer indie horror author from Colorado who loves to tell her stories to anyone willing to listen.
She travels worldwide speaking about creative writing and horror’s connection to psychology when she’s not working on her latest manuscript.
You can often find her curled up in her college’s student union with a cup of coffee and some lunch sketching out her newest manuscript ideas.
Author Links:
Twitter: @nr_wolfman
Slasher: @nr_wolfman
Instagram: @nr_wolfman
Threads: @nr_wolfman
Website: thewolfmanfiles.substack.com
Let’s talk about your debut novel, kill-or-be-killed YA folk horror The Woods. What inspired this idea, and the evil known as the Hydren?
When I was younger, I spent a lot of time during the summer at my grandma’s house which is close to the Ouachita Mountains. This area holds a lot of stories similar to those in the Appalachian mountain range due to its isolation and its connection to the indigenous tribes in Oklahoma, so I grew up hearing all these tales about the area.
Now, my grandma had a massive forest on her property that my family and I used to play in growing up. The forest itself was extremely thick, you were vulnerable on all sides and you could never see what was coming at you. You’d hear sounds, but couldn’t pinpoint where they were, and if someone got lost, good luck finding them.
When I first wrote The Woods, I was 13 and my English final was to write a short story that we’d be working on for the next two to three weeks. We got assigned the project before Thanksgiving break and during that break, I was down at my grandma’s house and kept seeing the forest behind it which made me think, what would happen if there was something out there? Hence, The Woods was born, I spent multiple hours each day investing myself in this story and by the time three weeks were up, I had an 150-page manuscript.
The Hydren itself was born from a nightmare. I kept having dreams of this two-headed beast chasing me and stalking me, so I decided what better place to put it than the manuscript I was working on.
The Hydren itself was originally supposed to have multiple heads and be more like a Hydra, the name Hydren itself is a combination of the words Hydra and demon.
During editing, however, I got really invested in Stranger Things and I’d just seen Alien, so I started modifying the design. The Hydren itself went through so many changes. It went from an otherworldly eldritch being to a goat that was corrupted via demonic sacrifice to the hell guardian we know and love now. However, you can still see elements of the goat-like design in the art I have up of him with the horns, the floppy ears, the hooved hands, etc.
You published The Woods when you were only 16, which is a great achievement! Do you think that if you wrote this story now, there would be many changes? What might those be?
I did recently release a second edition of The Woods that slightly modified it, but it wasn’t changed significantly. I did add a few new possession/psychological scenes, but these were just minor insertions.
If I could fully rewrite it, I might age it up a bit more to kind of a new adult level because I feel like there could’ve been a bit more done if the characters were 17-18.
I’d probably add a lot more swear words and I know that can kind of be a controversial statement, but if you saw a bloody eldritch abomination in front of your face waiting to eat you, I bet you’d say a few choice words.
I feel like I’d also want to elaborate more on Lexi’s relationship in the past with Ebony because I feel like that was something that I kind of glossed over and if I had elaborated that, the reader impact would’ve been significantly stronger when it came to her possession.
What are the main themes in The Woods, and how does the world, settings, characters and genre help you to convey them?
There are so many themes that are subtly included or just straight-up stated. The Woods’ primary themes focus on grief and loss since the loss of Amara is the primary plot point and I think horror itself has to be a staple of grief or loss.
I’ve created this hypothesis called the Fearamid Hypothesis that all horror media has to contain themes of grief, loss, and trauma even if not directly stated. We’re still in the process of running research on it, but it seems that all main characters in any horror media format suffer from grief, loss, and trauma that’s based around those two other themes.
I have some other subtle themes in the book including the negative result of police corruption, how police cases and traumatic loss strain family ties, and the idea of how internalized and subtle external homophobia impacts queer people.
Each of my characters also alongside the story has their own personal struggles they’re going through alongside the main plot which kind of talk about those other themes. Michael is trying to play hero and hiding parts of himself that he views are a part of a negative past even though they impact him currently.
Chris is dealing with an unsafe home situation and external homophobia being directed at him.
Tyler struggles with his internalized homophobia and being viewed as weak when he’s not that way.
Journey is trying to help in any way, but feels trapped in the city of Hecate and is worried about her own family.
Lexi is dealing with the loss of her sister and her relationships straining with her other family members over the loss.
There’s just a lot of subtle themes that are mentioned that you can find scattered throughout the book.
Tell us about your characters – which character did you find easiest to get under the skin of, and which was the hardest to write?
When it came to the easiest character to write, Lexi and Michael were pretty simple. The Woods will be a series as implied by the end of the book, so I liked the idea of subtly introducing Lexi and Michael as the kind of main characters that are going to slowly be fleshed out compared to Chris and Tyler who were kind of fleshed out more in the beginning.
Now as for the hardest characters, the crown has to go to Ebony and the Hydren.
Ebony and the Hydren have a very close relationship and because of that, they have to overlap in a sense. You have to note the Hydren’s powers and abilities along with Ebony’s own and the constraints of those powers when it comes to a human vessel.
The Hydren itself also has two forms in a sense because of this. Not only does it have the sentient, human vessel that is limited with power yet intelligent, but also its animalistic, physical vessel that hunts like a predator yet is still humanoid.
However, if I had to pick a favorite character to write, it has to go to Chris. Chris is the character I view as most like myself with his punk style, his queerness, his hobbies, and his horribly timed jokes. It was so easy to write his dialogue and background because it felt like I was writing myself in a sense, so anything you see from Chris came completely naturally.
As a queer and neurodivergent author yourself, do you find yourself more drawn to writing queer and ND characters, and is this always a conscious part of character development or something that comes in naturally and organically as you develop them?
When I write my characters as queer and neurodivergent, they come naturally. I have this weird thing where in my mind, I can vividly see myself having a conversation with these characters I made. I see their speech patterns, their interests, and it kind of comes naturally, like they develop their own personality in a sense.
I’ve also been told my characters are kind of neurodivergent coded when I didn’t intend for them to be that way because sometimes, like with Chris, I have characters that take after my personality. I will never queerbait my audience though and that is my promise.
Share some reader responses to The Woods – what has been your favourite so far?
I’ve had some really fun reader responses over the years.
I had a woman in her 50s approach me as a teenager and tell me that The Woods made her sleep with the lights on for three days because her house was near a forest, so she thought the Hydren was coming for her.
When I was in Toronto for Fan Expo Canada, and I’m so sad I never got to talk to the person, a few of my family members were in line to get seats for my dad at my panel and this lady was gushing about how much she loved my work. I didn’t get to talk to her though and I still regret that, so if she sees this, please know that made my week.
Someone told me that The Woods was one of their top reads for 2024 as well and I couldn’t get over it for a week. That night I was so excited, I went out and got celebratory boba because I was so proud.
There’s been a few times that I’ve happy cried during my career with my writing.
I’ve received well wishes for my future in the horror industry from a few notable people, but I had a reader once that made me cry after a panel.
So, I always stay after my panels for a bit (around 5-10 minutes) to clean up and talk to folks in case they’re too shy to ask a question in front of everyone or they want their book signed. This day, I was going through a personal situation prior to the panel and I was cleaning up to head out for the day when this mom approached me with her kids. Her kid had my book and she told me that her kid read my work and that inspired them to be a writer. I spent around five minutes talking to them, but when that was over, I went out to see my grandma who was waiting on me to finish up and head out for the day. I got into the car and I just started bawling from joy, I didn’t think I’d ever get to that point in my career where someone was inspired to create because of me. That’s why I love doing interviews so much because I feel like if I share my story, more people will feel inspired to create and write. Everyone has a story inside of them, it just takes you to publish it.
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