Micro-Interviews with Shiver Horror Authors Jeremy Megargee, Sarah Jane Huntington, and Emily Reinhardt

Interview with Author Jeremy Megargee

Jeremy Megargee

1. What was the inspiration for your story?

I’ve always been fascinated by the concept of an old school prison chain gang, and the idea began to stir in my head about what might happen if you were lucky enough to be opportunistic and escape, but the person you’re chained to is a total nutjob. I explore that theme with “Men or Moles”…and I incorporated that dynamic into these two very different individuals being forcibly isolated together during a blizzard.

2. Have you ever had a chilling experience in the cold?

I can’t pinpoint a specific scenario, but for me, the worst part of the cold is the wind. When it’s so bitter out and the wind becomes knife-like, you almost feel like you’re being stabbed numerous times, this invisible blade cutting right through your clothes and slicing down to the marrow of your bones.

I can’t pinpoint a specific scenario, but for me, the worst part of the cold is the wind. When it’s so bitter out and the wind becomes knife-like, you almost feel like you’re being stabbed numerous times, this invisible blade cutting right through your clothes and slicing down to the marrow of your bones.

3. The Abominable Snowman is hunting you. How do you defeat it?

I’m gonna use a flamethrower. I’ll roast him alive and survive the harsh winter chewing on juicy Abominable Snowman meat.

4. Where can people find you online?

I’m most active on Instagram

Interview with Author Sarah Jane Huntington

1. What was your inspiration: The inspiration for my story Snow woman came from Japanese folklore. There are not many stories about her and I wanted to bring her into modern times. She was my Grandads favorite Yokai and mine also. I like situations where survival seems impossible. I hoped to make the reader wonder what they would do in such a situation.

2. Would you rather spend Christmas in Antarctica with RJ MacReady (The Thing) or spend the winter with Jack Torrance at the Overlook Hotel (The Shinning) and why?

I'd absolutely choose RJ MacReady. The Thing is my favorite movie and I love the whole concept. It may also mean that I'd be able to get my hands on a flamethrower too.

3. What is your favorite winter activity? Favorite winter activity is walking. I like making fresh prints in the snow. My dog loves it too. He has doggy snow boots so we walk happily for lots of miles.

3. I'm only on Twitter

Interview with Author Emily Reinhardt

1. What inspired your story? It was a passing thought, really. The chain of them that we all have in our minds just led me to thinking about shows like Ghost Whisperer, and the idea sort of materialized from there.

2. Do you have any spooky chilling stories? When I was a girl scout, the group of us were on a camping trip where they filmed the footage for the Blair Witch Project, because it's a state park that was near where we lived. It was an unnaturally cold fall, or maybe just getting into the winter season, and we were all huddled together in the tent for warmth. Before any of us had even fallen asleep, we started hearing this creepy, mournful-sounding moaning in the distance, like an animal lowing. It kept on for most of the night, and we never found out what it was. The scary stories I told them, using it as background flavor, didn't help anyone sleep, either.

   3. Would you rather spend Christmas in Antarctica with RJ MacReady (The Thing) or spend the winter with Jack Torrance at the Overlook Hotel (The Shinning) and why? If we're going by where I think I stand a better chance of survival, I guess I'd rather spend the winter with Jack Torrance. A form-stealing monster seems like a lot for me to handle. I'm much more well-versed in ghosts. If, instead, we're talking about which character/story I prefer more, that's a much more difficult question.

   4. Where can people find you online? Aside from my attempted blogs and such, which are relics of a bygone era, I'd suggest checking me out on Instagram, where I go by uniquelyportable.

Mirco-Interviews for Shiver Anthology Authors Lillah Lawson, Mason McDonald, and Alex Ebenstein

Horror Author Lillah Lawson

1. What was the inspiration for your story?

Several years ago, my husband (then boyfriend) and I moved into this very old, huge farmhouse just outside of Athens, GA. The landlord told us the day we signed the lease that it was haunted, and went onto say that a previous tenant had been a practicing witch and that we mind find some interesting things on the property. Needless to say, we had some very, very strange, spooky and cool experiences in that house! Spirits were felt, ghosts were seen (and heard), and we found a huge, elaborate pagan altar out in the woods!

2 Have you ever had a chilling experience in the cold?

I'm not sure why, but most of the spooky/supernatural experiences I've had in my life all seemed to occur in the cold months. There has to be something to that...

I've had a few different ghostly experiences in various places and they were all in the winter time! I currently live in "the holler" and we're in a secluded spot up a hill, in front of a huge expanse of forest that leads to a creek. Some of the critters and otherworldly sounds we hear at night will chill your blood!

3. Would you rather spend Christmas in Antarctica with RJ MacReady (The Thing) or spend the winter with Jack Torrance at the Overlook Hotel (The Shining) and why?

Lillah Lawson

I'm sure I'm utterly predictable, but I'm going with ol' Jackie Torrance. Stephen King is my favorite "modern" author and I'd give my eyeteeth to visit the Overlook Hotel. I'd like to think I could match him drink for drink and best him at his own game. If nothing else, I'd be helping Dick Hallorran with whatever he might need. He's my favorite character! True story: I have a horror-movie themed bathroom and we have bathmats that match the carpet from the Overlook.

4. Where can people find you online?

All the usual places: Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and Goodreads,. You can also find me at lillahlawson.com.

Horror Author Mason McDonald

1. What was your inspiration for your story?

Honestly, and this is probably a lame answer, I don't usually start with an idea in mind for a project. Every time I try to write something with an idea in mind, a goal if you will, it stalls on me. Every finished piece of work I have ever done, this story included, was done simply by me sitting down and writing the first sentence that comes to mind, and going from there. I take pantsing to whole new level, I think. I will say that Lake Namara is named after the late Michelle McNamara. I was reading her excellent book I'LL BE GONE IN THE DARK and wanted to include her name somehow.

2. Do you have any chilling winter stories of your own?

My first time driving in a winter storm was at night as a teenager in 2014 coming home from my shift at Walmart(fastest turkey slinger in any meat department this side of Montreal). Over 2 meters of snow in spots, zero visibility, and nothing but your hopes and prayers to get you home safely. At one point either myself or the driver of a snow plow had veered into the wrong lane and for three or four of the most terrifying moments of my life, I was playing chicken with a snowplow. Needless to say, I survived. But man, did I ever almost not.

3. Do you have a favorite hot drink you like on a cold nigiht?

My favourite hot beverage to drink while reading a cold themed book is an Irish coffee, heavy on the accent, hold the coffee. Twitter is the only place I'm active, @Mas0nMcD0nald.

4. Where can people find you online?

Twitter is the only place I'm active

Horror Author Alex Ebenstein

1. What was the inspiration for your story? (No spoilers!)

The Lost Lake Massacre is based on a true story! Okay…so maybe not quite. But I do have a group of friends from high school that are like brothers, and every winter we go up to my family cottage on Lost Lake with the sole purpose of catching up and finishing a keg of beer. So yeah, every character in the story is based on that group, including me…

2. Have you ever had a chilling experience in the cold?

Alex Ebenstein

I’ve never seen any monsters out in the cold, but one time in high school me and a few friends went to Lake Michigan (in the town near the cottage mentioned above) and decided to walk out onto the pier. Problem was, a Michigan winter of ice and snow had piled up several feet high, leaving a 1-2 foot wide path to walk on, with a drop-off on one side and a steep slope on the other. At one spot my friend slipped and nearly slid down into the icy waters below, with little chance of easy rescue. It was a heck of an experience, but incredibly stupid and dangerous.

 3. What is your favorite winter activity?

I’ve lived my whole life in Michigan (and there’s a good chance I’ll spend the rest of it here, too) so you’d probably think I enjoy doing something outside in the winter. Well, I don’t, and I hate winter. My idea of a fun winter activity is literally anything I can do inside my warm house knowing I don’t have anywhere to go and don’t have to risk my life driving on treacherous roads (It’s possible I live in the wrong state). 

4. Where can people find you online?

I spend a silly amount of time on Twitter – come say hi. I also have a website that could use a little more love – www.alexebenstein.com

Micro-Interviews for Shiver Horror Authors

Michael Tichy Interview

1. What was the inspiration for your story?

I have family roots in Hungary and am drawn to its history and mythology. A lot of the latter seems to have been erased by the church and political forces. I look for little pieces where I can find them and maybe on some level I wanted to reclaim some of the pre-Christian paganism in this story.

2. Have you ever had a chilling experience in the cold?

Two winters ago I stayed in an off the grid cabin for an even colder than average Imbolc (February 1-2). It was spooky but I wouldn’t say chilling exactly. I did some ritual magic that marked my serious commitment to this creative path. The only spirits in attendance were definitely on the guest list.

Michael Tichy

3. What's your favorite hot beverage to sip while reading a cold-themed book?

I don’t drink a lot of hot beverages. But I’ll make you a White Russian that I guarantee will warm your blood.

4. Where can people find you online?

mettamike.wordpress.com is my blog where I post my book reviews and such. Twitter

Mark Wheaton Interview

1. A few years back, I was at a sled dog training facility in Alaska where I listened to several wild tales of real-life trail dangers from mushers who’d competed in the Iditarod and Yukon Gold races, from drift ice to bull moose to the unexplained. I’ve always enjoyed writing stories from the points of view of non-anthropomorphized animals, so it seemed like a natural fit to write a tale that took place in this real-life setting centered around the very capable lead dog of a sled team.

2. I once flew up to a small logging town around Prince George, British Columbia in the dead of winter. Flying miles and miles over endless, snow-covered spruce forests in a tiny, easily tossed plane with the knowledge that if you even survive a crash, you’re hundreds of miles from any kind of rescue was chilling, sure, but also exhilarating (death by wolf...or hypothermia?!). With temperatures well below freezing even in the middle of the day, I’ve never been anywhere so cold before or since.

Mark Wheaton

3. My favorite winter activity is hitting a blizzard-struck Prospect Park in Brooklyn with my kids. They don’t believe in, say, Santa Claus or his reindeer, but they do believe in gigantic fire-breathing ice dragons. Naturally and for years, whenever there’s a big snow in New York, we’ve gone off looking for evidence to bolster this belief. Fallen trees? Must be the landing spot of a flying dragon. A long gash in the slush that to an uninformed observer look like tire tracks? Made by a dragon dragging its scaly tail. A chunk of ice in an unusual shape? Perhaps an ice dragon’s cast-off claw or scale. Suspiciously bald spots in the snow? Evidence of a tremendous fire battle between these monstrosities or, perhaps, a pair of wyverns happily warming each other up on a cold winter’s day when no humans are around.

4. Online I’m at https://www.twitter.com/Mark_Wheaton or https://www.Mark-Wheaton.com

Ian Bain Interview

Ian Bain

1. The catalyst for my story in Shiver ("In the Empty, Snowy Field") is a snowmobile crash way out in the bush. This was a pretty easy idea for me, as growing up I'd gotten ATVs and friends' snow mobiles (we just call them "sleds") stuck way out in the forest. As a kid, my anxiety would always kick in and I'd start asking myself am I ever going to get back home? Am I going to freeze to death out here? What will happen to me if I return home without the sled? Snowmobile accidents are also, sadly, extremely common in our neck of the woods; we can't go a winter without multiple fatal crashes. I can't say much else without spoiling the story, but I really wanted to play with the mental effect the cold can have on our minds.

2. Would you rather spend Christmas in Antarctica with RJ MacReady (The Thing) or spend the winter with Jack Torrance at the Overlook Hotel (The Shinning) and why?
As much as The Thing is my all-time favourite movie, I'll take winter at the Overlook. I've never found Jack Torrance to be all that frightening; I think I could take him in a fight.

3: You can find me on Twitter at @bainwrites and my sporadically-updated website ianabain.wordpress.com

Micro-Interviews for Shiver Horror Authors Ziaul Moid Khan, Jessie Small, and Sam Sumpter

 Interview with Horror Author Ziaul Moid Khan, Jessie Small, and Sam Sumpter

Q.1. What was the inspiration for your story (The Two Bio Lab Skeletons)?

Ziaul Moid Khan

Ans. I was deputed on the invigilation duty during a home board examination in the academic institution I serve as an English instructor. It was a biology laboratory, situated in the basement of the school, where I spotted two human skeletons and suddenly conceived an inspiration to work on this project. So I — at once — took a blank supplementary sheet and began to scribble down the outlines of this work, simultaneously titling it. As the last bell rang and the exam of the students got over, the first draft of The Two Bio Lab Skeletons was finished. 

Q. 2. Have you ever had a chilling experience in the cold?

Ans. Yes. I must be eight or ten years old when I first read the Hindi translation of Bram Stoker’s mammoth work, Dracula. It was a winter night. I was in my blanket with a kerosene lamp beside me. And I was reading about the three witches, who were trying to suck Jonathan Harker’s blood. I was scared to my bones as I read the text and it was literally a chilling experience. I had to put down the novel to read it the next day, for I feared to read on at that moment.

Q. 3. The Abominable Snowman is hunting you. How do you defeat it?

Ans. By promising it that I would like to write its story and tell it to the whole world. It would definitely like this idea and befriend with me, for everyone and everything is virtuous deep down the heart. I agree with Selma Lagerlöf’s point of view that the essential goodness in a human being can be awakened through love and understanding. This could be true with a snowman too, I opine. Death comes only once in life, so why to be fearful of it, by the way. Moreover I try to win people and not to defeat them. And a snowman is after all—a snow(man).

Q. 4.  Where can people find you online?

 Ans. Here and Here and Here too.

Interview with Horror Author Jessie Small

 Question: What was the inspiration for your story?

In the before times, I had been feeling a little homesick for Nebraska. A friend took me out for coffee and shopping. At one point in the day we found ourselves in a metaphysical supply store. I was picking out some incense and found a small white rabbit hiding on the shelf. It didn’t have a price tag so I set it back down and moved on. By the time I made it to the cashwrap, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. So I went back to find it and asked if it was for sale. The owner asked me why I wanted this particular rabbit (I hadn't noticed it at first but there were a bunch decorating the store). I told her it reminded me of home. She wrapped it up and gave it to me. I wrote the first draft of Bad Bunnies that night.

Question: Have you ever had a chilling experience in the cold?

I grew up in an old farmhouse so the only heat source was a wood burning stove. It was right next to the front door, which was perfect because when you came inside it warmed you up immediately. Even better, the floor in that room was all tile and brick, so if the wood stove was roaring hot the floors would retain heat. I remember my family coming home late one night after our school Christmas concert. It had been snowing and blowing for a few hours. The wood stove was ripping hot so I peeled off my boots and winter clothes to warm up next to it. About a foot away from the stove, the size of a dinner plate, there was this spot that was freezing cold. Everywhere around that spot was warm to the touch. No one had been in the house for hours, nothing had been sitting there prior, it was just this ice cold spot on the floor next to the stove. After a few moments it was just as warm as the rest of the floor.

Question: Would you rather spend Christmas in Antarctica with RJ MacReady (The Thing) or spend the winter with Jack Torrance at the Overlook Hotel (The Shinning) and why?

Antarctica, for sure. Christmas in solitude even with MacReady, no problem. The Overlook has too many doors and surprises behind them.

QuestionWhere can people find you online?

You can find me on Instagram and Twitter

interview with horror author Sam Sumpter

 What was the inspiration for your story? 

Sam Sumpter

In December 2019, I was driving by myself from Seattle to my family’s cabin in rural Idaho. The drive takes you over a couple mountain passes then into this big high valley. The last part of the drive is off the main highway, using straight dirt roads that cut through flat farm and ranch land. Something about the mountains and the atmosphere often holds clouds down over that flat valley land, over the cows and things. That December, there was the usual couple feet of snow on the ground around the highway, but the road itself was clear and there hadn’t been much falling snow during the drive. It was starting to get dark by the time I got into the valley, and it started really snowing. When I turned off the main highway onto the backroads, it almost instantly got SUPER foggy. I couldn’t remember ever seeing such dense white fog in the winter — whiteouts from snow, yes, but not fog. Between the fog, snow, and setting sun, I couldn’t see more than a car-length or two in front of me, it really felt like driving through a dream in the spookiest and best way. That single stretch of road was such a Big Vibe that it really stuck with me, and when I was writing The Pass, I started out knowing I wanted to end up there. 

Have you ever had a chilling experience in the cold? 

Honestly, so many. I grew up in Colorado, Nebraska, and Idaho, so I have a lot of cold weather and remote places to choose from, and I’m also a deeply anxious person with an imagination directly tuned into a vast library of worst case scenarios. A lot of the chilling experiences I can think of are times I (stupidly) drove through very bad weather on poorly-traveled windy roads. One non-driving experience is actually the tail end of the foggy drive that inspired The Pass. At the time, I was working on finishing grad school, and had been making next to zero progress on my dissertation while working full time, so I decided to spend a week holed up alone in the mountains to try and finish writing a chapter. I went with just my dog, who is a very confident but ultimately 0% intimidating elderly french bulldog. I joked with people before I left that either my dissertation was going to kill me, or an axe-murderer-slash-monster would, but I didn’t actually expect to be scared by being alone. 

When I got in it was fully dark out. The cabin has one main room with a porch that wraps all the way around it, and the curtains on the windows are impossible to completely close. I couldn’t stop imagining that a variety of murderers were standing on the porch peeking through the curtains. To try to relax before going to sleep, I was watching TV on the couch with my dog sitting next to me. Normally she’s really chill and sleepy. But the little jerk (who I love) kept randomly perking up on high alert and barking directly at the door like she’d heard something on the porch. I had a miserable time falling asleep, and in the middle of the night there was this loud crashing noise right outside the wall behind my head — exactly the kind of noise you would expect a league of murderers to make while breaking into an isolated cabin. (In the morning I realized it was a big drift of snow falling off the roof.)

What's your favorite hot beverage to sip while reading a cold-themed book?

My go-to is rye whiskey + lemon ginger tea + a lil honey. 

Where can people find you online? 

Twitter (which I dislike and rarely use)

Website: samsumpter.com 

Horror Author Azzurra Nox #Interview

Azzurra Nox Interview

1.      Congratulations on your success as a multi-published author! Let’s talk a little about your books. Cut Here is about a sixteen-year old named Lena Martin whose mom dies in a hit and run. What inspired this book? 

Horror Author Azzurra Nox

The concept of  CUT HERE, all began with a dream I had in the summer of 2008. It wasn’t really a dream, but more of a nightmare. It was Christmas time in Catania, Sicily and a girl sees a book on display at a bookstore kiosk entitled CUT HERE. The book’s cover had a bloody line across a faceless person’s neck, bleeding the title. Shortly after, sounds of sirens invade the dream, and as the girl rushes to the sounds, she sees a trail of blood on the asphalt and a mink coat on the ground. Everything is red. Flash forward to me seeing the same girl again, but this time she’s in a bookstore, holding a copy of the book, CUT HERE, waiting for it to be autographed by a Japanese author. But the girl is in danger, and so she runs away. I soon wake up with a sense of dread. I usually don’t often write down my dreams, but that time I did cause it left me with a haunting feeling. At the time I didn’t know if I’d ever use that dream for a short story, poem, or novel. It sat there gathering virtual dust on my computer for three years before I decided to re-read that dream, one night in January of 2011. Soon, that dream would become Lena Martin’s tortured past.

2.      Your book Doll Parts is a collection of three short stories. Which is your favorite and why?

My favourite short story from that collection is, “Scared of Girls,” it's one I wrote while I was in college. It explores homophobia and gender identity and poses the question, Do we fall in love with a person or a gender and what happens when your soulmate doesn't conform to a specific gender identity? Even after all these years, the social topics that the short story explores are very timely. Plus, that short story is set in Catania, Sicily where I was born so that's another reason why that story in particular has a special place in my heart. Plus the two protagonists, Marzio and Viola are just characters that I really cared about a lot. They ultimately were very passionate and kind.

 3.      Bleed Like Me is a book of poetry “for the broken”. How autobiographical is this piece?

They say that there's a piece of the author in every book they write, and to some extent it's true. However, Bleed Like Me is the most autobiographical one of the bunch. 96% of the poems in the collection were written between the ages of 13-20. That age bracket is when you react most emotionally to life. A broken heart as a teen is the end of the world. As you grow older, one begins to see things with more hindsight and realize that many of the people you put up on pedestals and adored at that age, were only bringing out toxic elements in yourself.

4.      I consider myself a feminist horror author, but that term has different meanings to various people. Do you consider yourself a feminist horror author, and if so why?

I do consider myself a feminist horror author, even if I have dabbled in other genres throughout the years. But if I am writing horror, I rather have the female be strong than simply be the victim. And sometimes, women are also the villains in my stories, cause to make women appear as only the hapless victim or final girl is kind of saying women can only fit in those two spots. That's why I really love books like Audition, where in the novel it's the woman who is far more twisted than the men who peg her as sweet and docile, could ever imagine her to be.

5.      Where did your love of horror come from?

It started at a very young age. Probably around two years old. I think my dad noticed that I had a flair for watching horror movies and so would always have me watch them (he always told me I shouldn't be afraid as it was all “Hollywood” so I never had nightmares over the movies I viewed). So horror has pretty much been a part of my life since I can remember. Which the earliest memory I have of watching horror is seeing Elvira presenting the horror movie of the week.

6.      When you’re not writing horror, what are you up to?

Writing DOES take up a lot of my time, because when I'm not writing fiction, I'm writing blog posts for my lifestyle blog that I update twice a week. But, when I'm not doing that, I pretty much live at the theatre where I'll check out any new horror, thriller, or drama films, plus I love to dance, read, and I'll admit that I have a skincare and cosmetic obsession so I'm always looking for new products to try out.

7.      What is one tip you wish you knew about writing and the publishing world before you got started?

The biggest tip I can give aspiring writers is to read, read, read, and read some more, especially read the genre that you're planning to write about! My reading background is very classical, meaning I grew up reading a lot of Shakespeare and Dickens, which is awesome, but as a teen when I was writing short stories rereading them now, I know they have more of a Victorian feeling to them, which wouldn't have been terrible if the stories were taking place in Victorian England and NOT in contemporary time! As far as the publishing world goes, I think it would've been helpful to have known how important marketing yourself was going to be. Many novice writers have this idea that writing the book and having it appear in bookstores or online stores is enough. That it's going to sell itself or that your publisher will roll out tons of money to promote you and send you off on a book tour around the nation. And all of those things are wrong, cause sure, authors like Stephen King will get that sort of support because he's popular, but for a newbie you have to do a lot of the legwork to get noticed.

8.      What is next for you? Anything in the works?

My newest anthology that I edited, Strange Girls: Women in Horror Anthology will be out on February 18 during Women in Horror Month. It's a collection of short stories featuring many talented women authors that explore the meaning of what it means to be a strange girl. So the collection features stories about vampires, selkies, succubus, mermaids, and creepy dolls just to get an idea of what you may find.

9.      Where can people find you online?

Twitter, Instagram, Website, Blog, Goodreads

CHECK OUT STRANGE GIRLS: WOMEN IN HORROR ANTHOLOGY HERE

 PURCHASE CUT HERE NOW