Rhonda Jackson Garcia

Hello! Thank you so much for chatting with me today. I’m Rhonda Jackson Garcia and I write horror under the pen name R. J. Joseph. I’m a Shirley Jackson and Stoker Award™ nominated Texas based writer/speaker/editor. My creative and academic work examines the intersections of race, gender, and class in the horror genre and popular culture and I currently teach at Lone Star College as an English professor. My upcoming short story collection, My Monsters Ain’t like Yours, will be released this summer 2026 by Quill & Crow Publishing.

I have a huge, blended family that includes eleven young adult offspring, six super cute grandboys, and one demon hellbeast that masquerades as a dog.

What country do you live in?

The United States

What does your ideal writing set up look like?

My ideal writing set up includes fuzzy slippers and a blanket, snacks, and a background movie or television show. I also like to have my laptop and pen and notebook, with various piles of paper and/or books surrounding me. If there’s general pandemonium and noise happening in an adjacent room, that’s a plus. I can’t concentrate when it’s too quiet.

Do you plot or wing-it when it comes to planning out your books?

I went years thinking I was a pantser and was winging it in my writing—until I realized I’m actually a very detailed planner. The thing is, I do the planning in my head, so that process isn’t outwardly visible. I don’t start writing anything until I have the whole thing worked out. Of course, this means some stories and poems live inside my imagination for years until they’re ready for me to write them, but this process works for me.

What is the hardest part of writing for you & how do you combat that?

The hardest part of writing for me is keeping that internal editor off my shoulder while I’m drafting. That little infernal voice torments me sometimes and halts my progress because I start to second guess the story decisions I’ve made. I combat it by telling it, out loud for effect, to go away and hide in the corner until the revision stage. Then it’s allowed to come back out.

Other than “Don’t give up/keep going”, what piece of advice would you tell yourself when you were first starting out?

I always reassured myself that writing is what I’m meant to do. I can’t “not write”. And I’m good at it. When impostor syndrome plagues me, I acknowledge that if I wasn’t a good writer, then the editors and publishers who agree to work with me wouldn’t do that. I’m able to put a lot more faith in their decisions than my own confidence, sometimes.

Who is publishing your upcoming book(s) and how did you know they were the right fit for your story?

Quill & Crow Publishing is publishing my upcoming horror story collection, My Monsters Ain’t like Yours. I knew they were the right fit for this project because they were enthusiastic about the stories from the onset of submitting it to them. Working with their team showed me that every one of them was invested in presenting my book in the best ways possible.

How long did it take you to get your first publishing deal?

I’ve sold poems, short stories, and essays since 1993. When I shopped my first book length collection, I sent it to three publishers I thought would be a good fit. The one I chose to work with, The Seventh Terrace, responded within hours of receiving the manuscript. I was shortlisted and soon contracted. The book was published a year later. I know this is a dream situation and publishing doesn’t typically work that quickly—I was very honored it did so for me.

Recent / Upcoming release(s) & where we can get a copy:

I have stories in three upcoming anthologies. The first is an anthology of horror stories set in the bayou, Screams from the Bayou the next contains horror stories by female, Texan writers, Beneath the Bluebonnets. The last is an anthology of weird western stories by female authors, Women of the Weird West (published by Brigid’s Gate Press, but isn’t yet up for pre-order.)

Last, but definitely not least, my collection releases this summer from Quill & Crow Publishing.

My Monsters Ain’t Like Yours

What is your next big author goal moving forward?

My next big author goal is to get something optioned for screen. My agent, Natasha Mihell at The Rights Factory, is working really hard to help make that happen.

What other authors would you recommend?

I would recommend a few different authors, depending on the flavor of horror a reader likes. For psychological horror, L. Marie Wood is stellar.

For comedic horror, Marc Abbott, Steven Van Patten, or Ryan Bradley all do the comedy and the horror very well.

For an overall good time, you can’t go wrong with Brian Keene.

What cause/charity would you like to shout-out?

I’ like to shout out The Arc.