Alex Lane, Blood Point - Author Interview

Thank you to Alex Lane for the ARC copy! Buy the book on his website HERE.

Read my review of the book here.

Blood Point Synopsis:

Widowed Josh plans a birthday trip to Ireland with his daughter Holly and friends. But luxury soon turns to terror as a dark secret emerges from the mysterious Kinnitty Pyramid.

Josh must team up with an unlikely ally to save Holly, facing a final showdown with a vengeful spirit that hungers for power. Even if they succeed, a grim choice awaits – a life forever changed or a sacrifice beyond imagining.

Blood Point is a chilling blend of folk horror and family drama that will haunt you long after the final page.

Author Interview:

1. How did you approach blending horror with folklore in Blood Point? Were there elements you had to be mindful of to ensure respect for cultural traditions? 

   
   

I wanted to capture some of the ancient oral history that’s captured in Irish folklore, especially that faeries aren’t cheeky little spirits, they’re the descendants of a powerful race tricked into the Otherworld by the first Men to arrive in Ireland. Powerful, scary, alien creatures. 

At the same time, I didn’t want to be bound by the fairly modern lore that a ban-shee — literally, a female faerie — is just the harbinger of death in a family. Norig has agency, a desire for vengeance that’s deep in her blood, and a desperation driven by millennia of imprisonment and injustice. 

2. Blood Point explores unsettling themes—what was the most challenging aspect of crafting such a psychologically intense story? 

   
   

As a widower, I dug into my own experience of grief for Josh and Holly, and drew on some of the other widows I’ve encountered on my journey. It’s always tempting to give your protagonists a happy ending — but horror stories aren’t cosy!  

You have to be willing to hurt your characters and place them in situations where they do bad things because they feel there are no other options. Even when they do the right thing, they suffer, and no victory comes without a terrible price. Your favourite characters are destined for the worst endings. 

3. If Blood Point were adapted into a film or series, who would you love to see involved, whether actors, directors, or screenwriters? 

   
   

I don’t know how they’d adapt Blood Point into a film without dumping the historical narrative, but a series could really show how some of the characters are supposed to be the same person, at least in spirit. Dream writer/director…maybe I could get Danny Boyle and Alex Garland back together? They’re not afraid of horror or the fantastic, and their stories always have a kinetic pace. 

Now the cast — this was a rabbit hole — can I have Martin Freeman for Josh and Florence Hunt for Holly? Eva Birthistle (Bad Sisters) could be an interesting Meabh and Siobhán Cullen (Bodkin) would bring a dry wit to Cora. If we’re dream casting, I’ll have Tom Hiddleston as a mercurial Black Thomas Bernard and Katie McGrath would make a bewitching Norig. 

4. Blood Point unfolds as a supernatural horror rooted in Irish folklore. How did you structure the novel to balance suspense, mythology, and character-driven tension? 

   
   

My first draft followed the contemporary tourists, and their personal dramas dominated the first act. Other than Holly’s dreams, it only hinted at the deep history while focusing on the mounting tension between the friends. The final draft gave much more depth to Cora — the local policewoman — and her witchy ancestors who encountered the banshee in the 19th century. It felt like a much more satisfying story that delivers a double bill of mythology and suspense that pays off in the present day. 

5. The novel builds tension through eerie folklore and psychological horror. Were there any plot twists that surprised even you while you were writing? 

   
   

Bobby was constantly being sleazier than I expected, and I had to dial him back to being someone that the others would want as a friend. A couple of deaths felt inevitable but still turned out in more surprising and unpleasant ways than I’d imagined in my outline, but I don’t want to give away any spoilers. I didn’t expect that Black Thomas would be so much FUN to write — he’s like that mad uncle who says what he’s thinking. 

A few beta readers asked if there was any way that one major character could have survived their final scene. Again, no spoilers, but it would be fun to explore their possible future in a short story for my newsletter. I didn’t write it as an escape, but they could end up anywhere in time or space. 

6. The local policewoman, Cora, who is descended from witches, plays a crucial role. How does her heritage shape her approach to the unfolding horror? What was your reason for her character, specifically, particularly being law enforcement, being the historical link? 

   
   

Irish folklore is going through a revival, but it’s also been Disneyfied, especially around Samhain (Halloween). If you read the old folk tales, those spirits had teeth, and it was only recently that they became more playful than malevolent.  

Cora’s ancestors represent a kind of folk spirituality, or green witchcraft, that survived for a long time in rural communities. As I researched the story, I got a sense that as the Catholic Church rose in power in the last 200 years, it suppressed many of those folk traditions which had survived centuries of occupation. Cora’s family have abandoned their legacy and all that’s left is a dusty old book. 

I wanted Cora to go through a journey of reconnection, both to the knowledge and power of her ancestors, and to the awful responsibilities that they had carried for generations. Law enforcement, particularly being just a local Gard, was a handy way for her to get dragged into the unfolding events, but it also sets her modern duties against the demands of her heritage as a witch. 

7. How did you develop the idea for the characters to tell their stories both through diary entries and video logs? Was it your intention to create a horror-documentary style atmosphere? 

   
   

The diaries were a development of the style I used in Blood River, my first book, where the framing narrator pieces together the story and discovers what’s happened to his missing friends at the same time as the reader. The challenge is making it believable that they’d be keeping diaries as the tension and pace ramp up, and finding media that suit each character. 

8. Within one of Holly’s dreams, she reflects on the common feeling that women often feel like two women in one body. I certainly understand the sentiment; women are often expected to play many roles and wear many hats. How did it feel as a man writing about such topics? Did you consult women in your life for research? 

   
   

I didn’t interview anyone directly, but I try to pay attention to the ways that men and women talk and write about themselves, and how that changes as we go through different stages in life. It’s one of the reasons why writers should read outside of our genres and read non-fiction, to encounter other voices and the minds behind them. Most of all it comes down to imagination and empathy, trying to walk in someone else’s shoes as you work through the scene, and responding as them, not as yourself. It throws me out of a story when characters behave inauthentically because that’s the way the writer needs them to go, a cardinal sin that I try to avoid. 

9. How do you approach writing dialogue with different accents? Many novels struggle to avoid forced or gimmicky dialects, yet your approach feels incredibly authentic. 

   
   

The accents were a real struggle, because I knew how I wanted them to sound but I struggled to write Irish English because I’m not born to it. My worst nightmare was writing some horrible, cliched “Oirish“ accent, so I was conservative in my drafts. 

I have a notion that Irish English is British English laid forcibly on top of the Irish language as the English sought to erase it. Irish isn’t structured like English, or like any common European language, so Irish English has these peculiar rhythms and forms that make English people go on about how lyrical and quirky the Irish sound. On top of that, dialect tells other Irish people where you’re from, sometimes down to the exact village, even if they can’t hear your accent.  

The solution, it turns out, was technology. Large language models can’t write, but they are good at language, so I put my sections of my work through an AI and asked it to give me Cork Irish, Dublin Irish or Midlands Irish. The results were often over the top, but my partner, who’s Irish, helped me to pick phrases that worked and dial it back from a caricature. I integrated those with my own work to create something that hopefully captured authentic voices. 

I don’t want to get into the whole AI debate, but I’ve blogged about it plenty. It’s a Pandora’s Box that was built by very clever, cynical and dishonest people, but you can’t close the box and the tools are very effective. I wouldn’t write raw text with an AI, but not using these tools at all feels like a Pyrrhic victory, at best. 

10. One of my favourite lines is when Cora wonders whether Marguerite was truly possessed by a demon or simply mad, adding that being a woman at the time was enough to drive anyone to madness! This line stayed with me. It echoes the long history of women being accused of witchcraft or possession simply for having knowledge of healing herbs or, heaven forbid, a mind of their own. Your storytelling reveals such a deep understanding of the era. Was this an area you were already passionate about, or did writing Blood Point lead you to explore it more deeply? 

    
    

There are numerous historical accounts where the fear of witchcraft has been used as a tool of patriarchal control, and those dynamics are interesting because they’re reflected in modern myths and propaganda about gender, sexuality and race. I read a lot about Irish history and found a guy at the University of Galway, Niall Ó Ciosáin, who gave me some great advice and reading suggestions. 

Ireland’s a place where positive folk traditions persisted into the modern era, and there’s a great resource called Duchas.ie. They collected oral history from the early 20th century, just after independence, and digitised it into this incredible archive that you can search by location and keywords. Also, the National Leprechaun Museum in Dublin is a fantastic museum of Irish folk storytelling, and again they were so happy to help. I gave them a little cameo as thanks! 

With those beliefs came a dark side, fears that could be abused through accusations of witchcraft and changelings, almost always directed against women. I love the research phase of a new project and probably waste a lot of time going down rabbit holes, but it was impossible to ignore these stories and I hope they’ve added colour to the world I created. 

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Book release date: June 23nd 2025

Book Review: here