Author Interview: Taylor J. Thompson

Father Dirt is out now!

Mar 17, 2025

Today we’ve got an author interview with Taylor J. Thompson. His new novel, Father Dirt, is a historical gothic horror set in rural Australia in the 1900s.

Father Dirt has
✞ lots dirt & mud
✞ a creepy child
✞ hauntings from the past
✞ set in the 1900s
✞ based in rural Australia

Rural Australia, 1900. Five years have passed since the slope gave out and the dirt fell, but the body of Matthew Faulds has yet to be exhumed.

Mary Faulds, twenty-four years old and five years widowed, struggles to move past the loss of her husband while managing the farm left to her and raising the couple's only child, a bright five-year-old named Lilith.

Mary's problems worsen when, from atop the mountain of dirt that took Matthew from them, Lilith claims she can speak to her lost father from beyond the grave. As Lilith begins delivering sermons in her father's name, Mary's grip on the farm, her family, and her sanity wane. Plagued by disturbing omens, bodily horrors, and the rise of a dirt worshipping cult, she must fight and suffer with all she has to try and find peace for her lost love and a future for their child.

Father Dirt is a Gothic Horror/Suspense novel that explores grief, greed, faith, and the dangers of groupthink.

Thank you to Taylor for taking the time to do this interview with us!

When did you first come up with the idea for Father Dirt?

About two years ago. It started from a really weird place, my partner and I were scrolling through Netflix one night looking for something to watch when she suggested watching a show she’d seen and loved in the past, Anne with an E; a wholesome and sometimes very sad coming of age period drama. I loved the show and desperately wanted to write something set in that world, in that time period, but with a horror twist. Around the same time I’d gotten the name Father Dirt stuck in my head, heavily inspired by the similarly titled Michael Shea short story Momma Durtt. That name mixed with the Anne with an E setting and suddenly the whole story came to me, it was very chaotic, I couldn’t write it all down fast enough. Apart from a few additions pretty much the entire plot came to me in the span of a couple of minutes.

Ooh, multi-level inspiration. Sounds like the timing worked out well.

Do you have a favourite line you'd like to share?

I spent a lot of time re-writing, especially the opening chapter. I went through at least a dozen opening lines before landing on one that felt right and because of that I really like the first line, “Five years had passed since the slope gave out and the dirt fell, but the body of Matthew Faulds had yet to be exhumed.”

That’s a pretty powerful first line. It’s very to-the-point, while also leaving the reader with questions.

Have you always wanted to be an author? What inspired you to start?

I always wanted to write, but it wasn’t until probably my senior year of high school, maybe the year after that I decided it was novels and short stories. Before that I’d been interested in all sorts of things, comics, animation, filmmaking, theatre. I went through a bunch of interests but the consistent part of all of it was that I wanted to write the things I was making. Towards the end of high school, in a short time frame, I read Dracula, and a bunch of Lovecraft and early Stephen King. I think ultimately that’s what pushed me into novels.

That’s quite a range of interests! I think many of us can relate to that.

How long have you been writing?

Over a decade, but I’ve only really buckled down and taken it seriously for the last three years or so. Before that there were long periods where I wrote very little if at all. It wasn’t until a random short story I published online got a little traction that I started to really focus and feel like I could be successful at this.

Oh, nice! It’s always fun when something you weren’t expecting to get attention does like that.

How much does your own life influence your work?

It varies pretty wildly from project to project, but there’s always something in there. For Father Dirt the biggest influence, without giving too much away, would be the child character preaching and playing from the top of a giant dirt pile. I grew up in rural Australia (also where the book is set) during a time when my hometown was undergoing a good deal of expansion. Lots of construction sites around and lots of random dirt piles that me, my brother, and our friends would play on. That image of a child atop a mountain of dirt is one of the most significant in the book and ended up being so important to the novel that it became the scene chosen for the cover.

That sounds pretty fun. Dirt piles can become so many things.

If you could recommend one book aside from your own, what would it be?

Dracula. I struggle to pick one book as my favourite but whenever asked Dracula always seems to be what I end up saying. It’s a masterwork of Gothic fiction. Beautifully written, uniquely told, incredibly re-readable, terrifying and thought provoking. For something that is nearly 130 years old it feels very timely/timeless. It’s about as close to perfect as you could ask for and was massively influential in me becoming an author.

I really should get around to reading that one. It’s on my shelf, so that’s a start, at least!

What advice would you give to other writers? Is there anything you wish someone had told you?

For newer writers it would be to just keep writing and don’t worry too much about the quality of your work, if you’re anything like me you’ll write a lot of trash, don’t compare your stuff to anyone else, just keep going and you’ll get better.

Also learn to enjoy editing more. I used to hate rewriting and editing and now it’s the part I look forward to the most. It’s shocking how much spending some serious time revising your work can improve it.

Absolutely! Sometimes you’ve gotta push through the trash to find a little treasure.

Anything else you would like to add?

Cheers for having me, and if anyone is interested in Gothic Horror or weird Australian fiction check out Father Dirt.

Thanks so much to Taylor for joining us today, and for answering our questions! It’s been great to have you here and learn more about your book!

About the Author

Taylor J. Thompson is an Australian horror and weird fiction author. A lover of punk rock, football, and rum. He currently resides in Australia with his partner and their two cats.

Content Warnings
✘ death
✘ minor gaslighting between characters

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