6-30-2026 Latham's Last Words: Pride Month Interviews: Rowland Bercy Jr.

It's Pride Month and I've gathered some interviews with some amazing LGBTQIA+ authors which I will be posting throughout the month.

Rowland is one of my favorite people in the world. He has a beautiful smile and gives some of the best hugs. And I swear he's a vampire because he hasn't aged a day since I've known him!

Tell us a little about yourself.

I’m originally from New Orleans, Louisiana, but these days I call Houston, Texas home. I’m 55 years old, but I still feel like a kid at heart. I do my best to keep up with the young-ins, right up until I do something that reminds my body we’re not all on the same page anymore, lol…

I’ve always been a bit of a daredevil and will try just about anything once. I love to travel, and one of the best experiences of my life was working as a flight attendant for an international airline. Getting paid to see the world was a pretty sweet deal.

My obsession with horror started early. Some of my favorite childhood memories are of going to Peaches Records with my mom, dad, and sister to rent movies like From Beyond, The Thing, Don’t Be Afraid of the Dark, Re-Animator, The Fly, and Evil Dead. Looking back, those weekends probably explain a lot about me. They’re also some of my most treasured memories of my mom.

The jump from horror movies to horror books was an easy one, and before long, that led me to writing horror myself. Becoming an author of extreme horror and splatterpunk feels less like a choice and more like destiny. Honestly, after a childhood filled with killer monsters, body horror, and possessed cabins, I probably never stood a chance.

How important do you think queer representation in horror is?

I think queer representation in horror is incredibly important, but not because every story needs a queer character checked off some tokenism list. It’s important because queer people exist, and we’ve always existed. We love, fear, struggle, survive, and sometimes make horrendously bad decisions just like everyone else.

Growing up, I rarely saw characters I could relate to. If there was a queer character, they were often the victim or the joke. Things have gotten better over the years, but there’s still plenty of room for growth. Seeing queer characters take center stage matters, and it’s one of the reasons you’ll often find queer characters featured in my stories. More often than not, they’re not just part of the narrative, they’re the ones driving the story.

All that aside, I also don’t think every queer character needs to be a symbol or carry the weight of community on their shoulders. Sometimes I just want to see a queer character as an exotic Mami Wata (mermaid), conducting questionable science experiments with mutated parasites, tongue wrestling for prized tonsil stones, animating vintage toys with their mother’s grimoire, and generally making terrible life choices. And for once, it would be nice if they survived long enough for readers to enjoy the consequences of their actions instead of ending up as another body count.

Tell us about your most recent release, or an upcoming release.

My most recent release is The Mami Wata of Mermentau River, and honestly, it’s one of my favorite stories I’ve written to date. I’ve always been obsessed with mermaids, and I love weaving historical facts and locations from my home state of Louisiana into my stories. Being able to combine those two passions into one book was a dream come true.

I’ll also be releasing B.I.R.D.S, my reimagining of Hitchcock’s classic, as both an e-book and, more importantly, a fully dramatized audiobook. And when I say fully dramatized, I mean background music, sound effects, the whole nine yards. I LOVE my audiobooks! It’s the closest thing I can do to bring my stories to life for listeners, at least until one or more of my books gets turned into a movie. A guy can dream, right? 😉…

What character you've created is your favorite and why?

I think my favorite character is probably Binuwe from The Mami Wata of Mermentau River. She’s a complex character with an engaging, multi-layered story, and on top of that, she’s an absolute badass. She’s strong but compassionate, determined but flexible. If I’m being honest, Binuwe is basically me in Mami Wata form.

That said, I’m also completely obsessed with Jacob from Dr. Parasite. He’s unpredictable, a little chaotic, but beneath all the madness, he just wants to be loved and understood. Jacob is also me, just with fewer filters, worse impulse control, and a handful of homicidal tendencies.

Where can readers find your books?

You can find most of my books on Amazon or on my website www.rbjhorror.com.

Where can readers follow you on Social Media? 

You can find me on Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok by searching for Rowland Bercy Jr. On Facebook, definitely include the “Jr.” My dad, Rowland Bercy Sr., has a habit of making Facebook accounts and then forgetting the passwords. Last I checked, I think he had about four accounts floating around out there, lol…