Mats Strandberg, an award-winning writer of adult, YA and children’s fiction, was born in the small industrial town of Fagersta, in the middle of the Swedish forest; the place inspired Engelsfors, the setting for his internationally bestselling YA fantasy Engelfors Trilogy (with co-author Sara B. Elfgren). The Circle, Fire and The Key (UK: Cornerstone; US: Overlook Press), are published in 30 countries, and ABBA founder Benny Andersson has turned the first book, The Circle, into a hit movie. Blood Cruise, his fourth solo novel, is a top ten bestseller across Europe, with a movie version in development (read our review here). He recently took some time to answer questions from Paul Simpson…

What was the original inspiration for Blood Cruise? A particular image (such as the one on the cover of the blood drenched passageway)?

A friend celebrated his 40th birthday on a cruise, and I got lost in the long corridors looking for my cabin. (I might have had a few glasses too many.) And it creeped me out how much it reminded me of The Shining... And then I started thinking of the ship itself, being surrounded by a hostile element and seemingly eternal dark, and that reminded me of Alien… That’s where the idea for this novel started. It really sort of fell into place, all at once.

I also found it interesting how these ships are filled with people of all kinds, looking for so many different things. I could see how I could populate a novel with the dysfunctional family, the party girls, the lonely elderly woman… I stayed up all night writing notes in my phone. The next day, it all looked like a crazy person’s ramblings. But I still love the idea.

The day to day life of the boat and its personnel is very well evoked – how much did you need to alter things to fit the story, or is this very much how they are?

Actually, nothing at all, really. I did a ton of research, and I could notice some of my interviewees got very uncomfortable by certain questions (laughs). But when writing horror or fantasy, I think it’s important to be as convincing as possible. To really ground the story in a everyday setting that you make as believable as possible. That makes it so much easier for the reader to suspend disbelief when it comes to the actual monsters and stuff.

Most of the anecdotes about passengers’ crazy drunken behaviour are taken from my interviews. These ferries really are infamous in Sweden and Finland. I didn’t have to exaggerate at all. Rather the opposite. Some stories were just too outrageous.

You deal with one particular aspect of vampires that’s often brought up (why they’ve not multiplied and taken over) – was that something that had occurred to you before writing this, or was it something you came up with during the writing?

Yes, I wanted my spin on vampire mythology to make sense, so I came up with an explanation that fitted the story. I don’t know how original it is, but it worked. I really thought a lot about the teeth, how they worked, and I am especially proud with what I came up with in that area. All those nightmares about losing my teeth finally came to good use!

There feels like elements of disaster movies such as The Poseidon Adventure as well as the horror in this – were those a conscious influence on you?

Not that particular movie, but I thought a lot about Titanic, how life on a ship even today make class differences really obvious. And of course, Speed 2 was a huge inspiration…. (kidding!)

More generally, when did you know you wanted to become a writer or is it something that’s just been part of you as long as you can remember?

As long as I can remember. I just wish I would have dared to write horror and fantasy from the very start. I was afraid, I guess, to just be seen as someone trying to copy John Ajvide Lindqvist. As if only one Swedish horror writer at a time was allowed. Which I now realize was ridiculous, it’s not as if we only have one crime writer at a time… Also, I have gotten to know John since. He has always been supportive and generous to me, and I am happy to call him a friend now.

Do you plot everything out before you start writing, or are you more “seat of the pants” when writing the first draft?

I always try to have some idea of where I’m going with the story, and also do a thorough job of creating a “system” for how the supernatural elements work. As much as I love horror, a lot of stories tend to fall apart towards the end. It makes me feel more secure in my writing to at least have a vague sort of map of where I’m heading, while still having room for the story to surprise me with unexpected turns along the way.

I’m guessing from the way in which you depict the creatures that you prefer the more gore-filled versions than the “sparkly vampires” of Twilight etc. – what are your favourite vampire stories (in print or on screen)?

Yeah, I really hate Twilight, but that hate was inspiring too. I started writing this book when everyone was sick of vampires – this was during the end of the Twilight and True Blood and Vampire Diaries era. Everyone told me to not write about vampires since they were so over, but that was exactly what motivated me. I wondered what vampires themselves, once so respected and feared, would think about having been degraded to glittering, fangless, eternal high schoolers.

Some favourite vampire stories; Let the Right One In, Salem’s Lot, Carmilla, The Vampire Tapestry, 30 Days of Night, Blade 2, Interview With the Vampire.

There’s potential for a sequel – will these particular vampires return?

You never know… I haven’t got any plans, but there are some characters I wonder what happened to. Some are harder to let go of than others, for sure.

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Blood Cruise is out now from Jo Fletcher Books. Click here to order from Amazon.co.uk