Nico Bell 9/11/23 Nico Bell 9/11/23

Interview with Author Michael Tyree

Interview with Michael Tyree

1. Thank you so much for joining me! Let’s talk a little bit about The Pale Horse, your short story collection. For those just learning about your work, can you tell us a little about this project?

The Pale Horse, my second collection, is made up of two novellas and four novelettes. It’s based on the mythology of The Reaper, and the deconstruction of death. Some stories have characters who meet an unfortunate end, but rather than pearly gates or brimstone, they are offered another chance as vengeful avatars. Other stories have you question the weight of taking a life. In Necessity, a young man is car jacked on his way home and forced to drive to a remote location. He makes a split-second decision that will change his life forever, whatever is left of it. A Glimpse of the Last Hours, the last novella, dissects the barrier between the living world and whatever mirrors that. It’s a surreal head trip, and the first story to begin tackling my universe’s mythology. TPH has some gruesome moments, but I leaned harder into the grief horror and social commentary with this one. I tell people, if they want to be emotionally wrecked, this is the one for them.

2. Out of the six stories, do you have a favorite?

My favorite in The Pale Horse is Cherrywood Hearts. That was the most difficult story to write, but I feel like it was worth the heartache. I’m happy with the ending. Sometimes stories end and I feel like I could have done more, but not this time. People messaged my after they read it, saying it gave them nightmares, brought them to tears, even rethought what they would do if they lost a loved one. My editor told me, even though he had already been through that story twice before, the third read through still gave him anxiety. As story tellers, all we could hope for is to get the desired emotional response from a complete stranger. It’s a rewarding feeling when it does happen.

3. Were any of the stories particularly challenging to write?

Going back to the previous question, the hardest story to write was Cherrywood Hearts. For starters, this story is pulled from a deeply personal event that I didn’t speak about often. A little over ten years ag, my wife had a miscarriage, on Valentine’s Day, as if it couldn’t be worse. If you take out the witches, golems, tree sex, and the fact that we’re both still alive, Cherrywood Hearts is the story of what happened to my wife and me.

Just like with any important, and difficult topic, I wanted to write a story about infertility in order to maybe spark some of those difficult conversations. But the problem I had was tip toeing around such a sensitive subject. I wanted to be respectful, but honest. My hang ups about the subject made me scrap and rewrite this story until I had worked through close to 5 different versions. Originally, I thought it would be shitty to tackle the subject head on from my wife’s point of view, not sure if I could speak for her. I planned on telling the story from my experience in the situation and how that loss affected me. But I put a stop to that. I got cold feet and figured even though I’m trying to be honest, it’ll probably come off as mansplaining PCOS and ectopic pregnancy, despite my sincerity. The original draft had Sandra die and Damon struggling to live without her. I thought it might be kinda cheap to write about infertility and kill the one woman within the first ten pages.

The next few versions were closer to the final story. Damon would die first, or Sandra does not die at all. I had an ending reminiscent of Midsommar, where Sandra inadvertently joined this Stepford Wives cult within Zelda’s support group. But I squashed that one when I realized Sandra was way too smart to pack up everything and move to the suburbs with all the sketchy white women. I had a version where the witch takes the form of a young twenty something and seduces Damon before later sacrificing him in the same “life for life” ritual. The first problem I had with that version came about once I really fleshed out Damon as a character. I’ve killed a lot of horrible people in my stories and some not so horrible. Either way, I usually don’t put much after thought into them. But Damon felt different as a character. Not only did it feel like “he” wrote his own dialogue, but he dictated his own moral fiber. When I started hashing out scenes with him running around on Sandra with the witch, under spell or no spell, it never felt right. It almost felt like a character assassination. Even in the final version of the story, during the car crash scene, I actually felt remorse for that character, which is weird for me.

4. What are the themes of this collection and why did you gravitate towards them?

The main theme is centered around The Reaper, literally, figuratively, and philosophically. The title story, The Pale Horse is straight and to the point with the personification of Death as someone disarming, who convinces the main character to let her walls down for a time, just so they can have a conversation on life. In Cherrywood Hearts, the protagonist loses everything but her own life. In her grieving, she learns how to figuratively live with the dead through the memories she clings to. In Survivor’s Guilt, the protagonist lives with the actual dead, as he carries the collateral damage of his past. Imagine an ex-politician/war criminal, suffering from something similar to Mary Winchester’s curse.

I wanted to put the ideas of living and dying, coexisting with the dead, as well as carrying the weight of grief under a new lens, and hopefully through that, break down some cultural norms.

5. Where can readers find you online?

Folks can find me at the usual haunts. I’m on Twitter (or whatever they’re calling it these days) as @MSTyree1 and Instagram @Michael_Tyree13.

Nico Bell 8/28/23 Nico Bell 8/28/23

Interview with Author Tiffany Morris

Interview with Tiffany Morris

1. First, congrats on the upcoming publication of your Stoker eligible novella Green Fuse Burning! For readers just discovering this book, can you tell us a little about it?
Wela’lin- thank you, Nico! Green Fuse Burning is a swampcore ecohorror novella about a queer Mi’kmaw artist who goes on a retreat at a remote pond and confronts natural and supernatural threats. The story is structured around the paintings she’s done while on the retreat and we get to see how weird and gory the art gets as her time there progresses.

2. What sparked the premise for this novella?
Our mass culture is very death-denying, and I really wanted to write something that interrogates what that means and how it shows up in the world. I was also developing this idea around grief and swamps. I think that swampcore – while not a full-fledged aesthetic movement just yet – could be a rich field for examining the forces of life and death. Wetlands, including swamps, ponds, et al. are disregarded, but vital – they’re where still waters drain toxins and sustain ancient, primordial ecology. Uncovering and embracing those mysteries is a fascinating antidote to capitalism’s false ideas of eternity – I’m thinking Ice Age bogs versus the half-life of plastics in a landfill.

3. Where there any scenes that were more emotionally taxing to write than others?

Oh gosh, so many – while Rita is not me, we share some of the same trauma experiences, so every flashback scene was difficult. Making up a person where you are both the architect of their misery and someone who empathizes with it in the very process of inflicting it is a wild emotional experience.

4. You also have a horror poetry collection out entitled Elegies of Rotting Stars. Do the writing techniques applied to poetry cross over to your prose, and if so, how? For example, do you find it easier to write descriptive lyrical prose?

Definitely – my writing across genres and mediums tends to be image-heavy and metaphorical, with less emphasis on plot than theme and atmosphere. Writing fiction can be hard for me in this way; I want to be true to my style but leave some room for my reader to breathe. I don’t feel compelled to do that in poetry, as the space is shorter and the expectations for storytelling are different. Mi’kmaw language reclamation is present in both, as well – the process of reclaiming the language and feeling my way through the different ideas that it can express is so important to me.

5. Do you have a favorite short story that has been published?

I’m partial to this flash story that was published in Dose of Dread! The Corpse of Hours – Dread Stone Press. Some new stories and other favorites that are not online will be in my collection coming out from Nictitating Books in 2024!

6. Where can readers find you online?

I’m sticking it out on twitter for the moment - @tiffmorris. Same name on bluesky! Cryptidsarecute on Instagram. Also my website: tiffmorris.com. Wela’lin!

Nico Bell 8/24/23 Nico Bell 8/24/23

Interview with Horror Author Chris DiLeo

Interview with Chris DiLeo

1. First, congratulations on your Stoker eligible book The Hands of Onan! For those just discovering this story, can you share with us what it is about?

The Hands of Onan is about a writer tasked with rescuing his friend from an all-male masturbation cult. To do this, he must confront his own addiction to onanistic pleasures.

2. What was the inspiration behind this story?

Few things terrify me more than religious fanaticism. I’d explored the dangers of cults previously in the book Children of Fire, which is about an ex-detective who must save a child from fire-wielding zealots. Almost as a parody, I thought up the most outlandish and ridiculous cult I could imagine: masturbation worshippers. Much to my delight and horror, I found actual biblical passages to support my imaginary cult. Check out The Book of Genesis (if you dare!).

3. Was there any scene in this book that was challenging to write?

There were many times while writing the climatic (pun intended) sequence at the end when Mike confronts the supernatural power behind this cult when I wondered if it was too gross and repulsive and then I dared to be even more disgusting.

4. What would you say is your writing “brand?” What type of horror do you write?

I write stories that are visceral, emotional, engaging, and even thought-provoking.

5. Where can readers find you online?

I’m everywhere as @authordileo

Nico Bell 8/18/23 Nico Bell 8/18/23

Interview with Author Lillah Lawson

1. First, congratulations on your upcoming Stoker eligible book Tomorrow and Tomorrow, co-written with Lauren Emily Whalen! Could you tell us a little about the book?

Thank you! Tomorrow & Tomorrow is a gender-flipped, dark contemporary adaptation of Shakespeare’s Macbeth, set in the Athens, GA music scene! It has all the things you expect from Macbeth – ghosts, witches, prophecies, and plenty of murder most foul – but it also has lots of band drama, beautiful locales (both in North Georgia and Scotland!), a badass heroine or two, and if I say so myself, a truly terrifying villain.

Lauren and I are both massive Joan Jett fans, and we knew we wanted her and The Runaways to be the unofficial muse(s) of this book. So, it’s very feminist, very rock n’ roll, but without sacrificing any of that dark, psychological horror of Shakespeare’s play. It turns out that the story of a Mad King full of hubris and drunk with power leant itself very well to an adaptation about a small-town band trying to break into the scene. It’s all about networking and backstabbing – basically power, and what people will do to get it. Anyone who has been part of a local arts scene will be able to see the parallels!

I know there’s been discourse about the term “cozy horror”, but I think our book applies. It’s scary as hell, but it’s got a comforting quality to it, and dare I say, it’s really fun. I’m so proud of this book and I hope people love it.

2. How did you and Lauren Emily Whalen end up teaming together on this project?

Lauren and I have been friends for over ten years, and we’ve been on this writing/publishing journey together for most of it. Our writing careers have followed similar ebbs and flows and we’re both fans of each other’s work. We’d been talking about writing something together forever, but pretty much only in the abstract; just sort of daydreaming. But during COVID, we found ourselves talking a lot over increasingly lengthy voice messages and just started bouncing ideas back and forth for a book. Lauren has done a number of Shakespeare retellings, and she’s excellent at them. I’ve always been a “bard bitch”, but I never had the guts to try an adaptation. Finally, I was just like, “What if…what if you did Macbeth? And I helped?” I knew I could bring the darkness! We talked about it for months and ended up with this amazing plot and characters, and had the whole thing mapped out before we ever set pen to paper. So when we finally sat down to write it, it came out of both of us so easily. It was one of the most enjoyable and easy experiences I’ve ever had writing a book. We enjoyed the process so much we’ve talked a bit about doing a second book together, but that’s all under wraps for now!

3. Since Tomorrow and Tomorrow is about an all-female rock band, did you develop a playlist as inspiration for this book? If not, what songs or bands would be a part of this book if it had a soundtrack?

Oh, yes. I make extensive playlists for every book of mine; I start them long before I ever begin writing, and I’ll listen to them for weeks to get in the right headspace. I think Lauren does something similar. One of the first things we started doing was making a playlist, and since we’re both such music nerds (with somewhat different tastes), it was a very, very long playlist – well over a hundred songs. We recently cut the playlist way back (let me tell you, that was agonizing for me) to make an “official” playlist, which we’ll be releasing during our Hype Week in October at Sword & Silk Books (our publisher). So stay tuned for that!

The playlist is a secret ‘till then, but I can tell you it’s a perfect blend of goth, classic rock and pop that’s dreamy and dreary and a little bit spooky. Obviously there’s Joan Jett, and some Athens locals like Tears for the Dying and Lera Lynn. And as with anything I do, Ghost and Queens of the Stone Age are involved. And you can trust Lauren to bring the Taylor Swift! Something for everyone!

Lately I’ve been on an indie/outlaw country kick and I’ve been daydreaming hardcore about Joan Jett doing a song with someone like Lera Lynn or Tyler Childers for the soundtrack. I’m just sitting over here manifesting!

4. In addition to Tomorrow and Tomorrow, you also have a short story eligible for the Stokers called “Oblong Objects in the Mirror (are Closer Than They Appear)” which was published in the anthology Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic by Cosmic Horror Monthly (May, 2023). What inspired this story?

If I’m being honest, I was nervous submitting this story, and I assumed that it wouldn’t make it through the slush pile. It’s a deeply personal story, probably the most personal one I’ve ever written, and it skates on the borders of horror. The experiences described within are definitely horrific, but they are told in an abstract, fuzzy-memory style that’s full of symbolism and a lot of self-loathing prose. It’s basically sitting inside the mind of someone who has been utterly broken as they try to put themselves back together again.

I’ve written versions of the story many times over the years, adding pieces of poems and going back to edit certain parts. I used to think that PTSD and trauma, once worked through, were just gone; all better. But one thing I discovered during a particularly low period during the pandemic is that PTSD and trauma don’t just disappear when you “do the work”. Yes, you get better, but healing is not a linear process. My favorite book is The Great Gatsby (I know, I know) and the last line of the last page – boats against the current, borne back ceaselessly to the past – always makes me cry. It’s been my favorite since I was a teenager, but I never applied it to my own life until recently. Healing from trauma is a two steps forward, one steps back sort of situation. You get better, you have a setback. It’s a lifelong journey, and some days you just feel like Humpty Dumpty, fallen off the wall and shattered, your yolks running out all over the place. Messing up somebody’s floor, a total embarrassing inconvenience. So yeah, it’s a story about the messy, cracked-egg parts of healing, and how it isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. A lot of it is terrible, horrific. Not pretty at all. And that’s okay.

Woof. I feel like I got way too heavy there. Everybody have a sip of iced coffee! Anyway, I have to thank the excellent Jolie Toomajan for accepting the story and including it in the wonderful anthology Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic, published by Cosmic Horror Monthly, proceeds of which go to The Chicago Abortion Fund. Jolie was also kind enough to blurb Tomorrow & Tomorrow! I can’t thank her enough. And I strongly encourage everyone to grab a copy of Aseptic and Faintly Sadistic. Not only does it benefit a wonderful cause, but every single story in the anthology is incredible – not a dud in the bunch.

5. Where can people find you online?

You can reach me in the usual social media places – I’m on Instagram, Twitter (I refuse to call it “X”), for now anyway, Threads, BlueSky and Facebook, all under the handle @ LillahLawson. I’m also on Goodreads! I do have a website, but I’m woefully bad about updating it. Still, if you’d like to give it a visit, it’s lillahlawson.com.

Nico Bell 7/1/22 Nico Bell 7/1/22

Interview with Horror Author Nat Cassidy

Nat Cassidy Interview

1. Congratulations on the upcoming release of your book Mary: An Awakening of Terror! Without giving away spoilers, could you please tell us a bit about the premise?

Thank you! I'm so excited for people to get to read this weird-ass book! Let's see, a spoiler-free recap of the premise …

Mary Mudgett is about to turn 50 and she's feeling incredibly unsettled. In life, in her own skin. It's not just the hot flashes or the restless sleep or the body aches … it's the voices in her head urging her to do awful things, and the increasingly terrifying visions of decomposing corpses she sees on the street and in the mirror. Her symptoms are all dismissed as textbook menopause, but she's unconvinced there's not something really wrong. When she's fired from her job in New York City, she decides to accept a job from her abusive aunt back in her old hometown (a tiny desert town in the deserts of Arizona), thinking it'll be a good opportunity to reconnect with herself, her past, and maybe get to the root of what's happening.

But when she arrives, the visions get even worse, the voices get even louder, the urges get even stronger ... and she soon learns the horrifying history of this town and what often happened to women just like her ...

Mary's about to discover how she fits into all this. But that's when the real horror begins.

2. What was your inspiration for this book?

I go into this in depth in the Foreword/Afterword of the book, so I'll try not to repeat myself too much for those who want to read them. Basically, I first wrote a version of this book when I was 13 and its major inspiration then was that I wanted to write an homage to Stephen King's Carrie. I'm a lifelong King obsessive and Carrie is one of my very favorites. (The title of my book rhymes with Carrie quite purposefully.) I knew pretty much nothing about menopause other than the fact that it existed and was a sort of second puberty, but I loved how Carrie tied this universal, biological rite of passage to a scary story, and so I wanted to do something similar with menopause. I became intrigued by the idea of what Carrie might be like if it took place in middle-age instead of High School. What would it have been like for Carrie White to have lived so many decades feeling invisible and neglected and abused? And what if she didn't have any special powers like telekinesis? What if she was just a normal person, like, say, my mom (who would have been in her mid-40s at the time and who was nowhere near as introverted as the character of Mary, but who'd had far more than her share of unfairness thrown at her)?

There was another book that I was also really into, The Parasite by Ramsey Campbell, which is very metaphysical, all about astral projection and metempsychosis and stuff like that, and that's where I got the idea to explore reincarnation. With those elements, the premise for Mary was born.

I revisited the story a few times as an adult, and it was then that I realized there was richer thematic ground than I could've appreciated as a teenager. There was an opportunity to explore more about how society treats women of a certain age, how menopause is still treated as a weirdly taboo subject, how the bullying Carrie White experienced becomes less overt but more insidious. My original attempt at this book had all these ingredients already—the ideas of cycles (both physical and social), of serial killers and the inheritance of violent patriarchy, etc—but now I felt mature enough to see the threads and actually tie them together in ways they deserved. Hopefully I did it some justice.

Oh! And also, J-horror and gialli. Those were big influences on the actual execution of the book as it exists now. I should mention that, too, because, well, how a book is told is just as important as what a book is trying to say, isn't it?

3. You write the female voice extremely well! It’s so refreshing to have a woman protagonist, turning fifty, who is experiencing the symptoms of menopause…Honestly, when I picked up this book, I didn’t pay much attention to who the author was. I selected it because of the description and cover art. Halfway through, I remember thinking, “Wow, this woman can write!” I was surprised to discover that it was written by a man! How did you research this POV? Did you have women beta readers or critique partners help with the voice?

That means the world to me to hear. Women have been the primary influence of my life. I was raised by a single mom (who herself came from a family of three daughters, and the only children my mom's sisters had were all daughters, as well). With a few exceptions, almost all of my closest friends at every stage of my life have been female. I've just always felt much more comfortable around women than I do men, and honestly, most of the protagonists I write tend to be female or nonbinary.

But obviously, with Mary, the story is about something very specific that's outside of my lived experience as a person without a uterus, so I was incredibly lucky to work with a brilliant array of women—from my editor, Jen Gunnells, to a number of beta readers from all sorts of backgrounds and at multiple steps of the drafting process—just to make sure what I was writing sounded authentic and respectful. I also read several books and watched countless videos on the experience(s) of perimenopause. I feel like that's the least you can do if you're going to write about something that's not yours. (And, of course, Mary is narrated from one particular POV but I tried to acknowledge in the Afterword that not every woman goes through menopause and not everyone who goes through menopause is a woman. Just wanted to have that said since I'm running my mouth off about women and menopause so much here!)

4. I’ll admit it. This book legitimately scared me in the most deliciously terrorizing way! What book or movie have you seen recently that scared you?

Yessss. Writing horror is so weird—sometimes you just know when something you're writing is going to be scary, but a lot of the times, you get so desensitized during the revision process that you start to forget how certain moments will actually affect readers. It reminds me of when you're rehearsing a comedy for the stage—after a while, you're so into the mechanics of everything that you kinda forget you're doing a comedy until you finally put it up in front of an audience.

Mary was definitely like that. I was so caught up in making sure the internal logic made sense and that Mary was a complete character that it's incredibly gratifying now to be reminded that, oh yeah, scary shit happens in this book!

As for stuff I've read or seen … Because I'm part of the Nightfire family, I've been incredibly lucky to read the other books that are under the same imprint. Books like Just Like Mother, Sundial, Black Tide, Manhunt, Dead Silence (I haven't read Echo yet but I loved Hex so much that I know I'm gonna love that, too)—it's the honor of my life to be included among them. If you haven't read the other Nightfire titles yet, you're in for a treat; they're each terrifying and brilliant in their own specific ways.

Some other recent reads (or rereads in some cases) I loved include Sarah Langan's Good Neighbors, Rachel Harrison's The Return, Michael Seidlinger's Anybody Home?, Eric LaRocca's We Can Never Leave This Place, Gus Moreno's This Thing Between Us, Richard Chizmar's Chasing the Bogeyman, Jonathan Janz's The Siren and the Specter. Horror is having such a moment right now, it's almost infuriating. There's just so many good books to read.

Plus, I'm so looking forward to reading your Beyond the Creek, Nico! I've got a copy on my Kindle just itching to be cracked open!

My answer's probably getting too long to get into the stuff I've watched lately, too, but I watch a ton of horror movies and TV. If I were to randomly pick one thing that got under my skin recently, I'd say … Koji Shiraishi's Occult from 2009. I just watched that for the first time a few months ago and it's insane.

5. In addition to writing books, you’re also a screenwriter and actor. How is writing a script different than the experience of writing a novel?

Less and less different the more I write novels, actually!

I actually didn't start writing scripts until I was in my 20s, but for the past 15 years or so, that was pretty much all I wrote. Plays, screenplays, teleplays, you name it. So the bulk of my mature, professional writing career has been scriptwriting. It's how I approach breaking stories, outlining, shaping, etc. I try to make sure scenes are vivid and necessary, that information is relayed through interaction, and, more than anything, that the characters are interesting enough that someone would want to play them.

When I decided to get back into writing novels (which I'd spent my childhood doing), at first I was really excited that I'd have all these new tools to play with—access to characters' inner thoughts, an ability to really set scenes and indulge in descriptions and backstory and digressions, etc. However, I pretty quickly realized those are all traps! You still want to keep your novel lean and mean and propulsive, just as any script! Even though a novel writer has access to more tools, the principles are the same. Keep it grounded in physical action, try to have each scene contribute something new, and try to create a sense of escalation with as little redundancy or wheel spinning as possible.

The biggest difference between script writing and novel writing, I'd say, is that a script is a means to something final (ie, a production, a film, whatever) while a novel is the end result itself. So, with scripts, you need to leave more space for collaborators. Your focus is on the characters, the dialogue, the physical action—but, unless it affects something in those departments, you don't have to worry about, say, the costumes, the lighting, the camera movements, and so on. When you're writing a novel, you're ALL of those things. You're the director, you're the actor, you're the gaffer, you're the costumer, you're the caterer, you're in charge of stunts.

But, ultimately, the goal of any writing is the same: keep the audience wanting to move to the next sentence. The methodology and the rules are different depending on the medium, but it's like how music theory is the same no matter what instrument you're playing.

(I will say, though, there's one other big difference between script writing and novel writing that I definitely miss whenever I'm working on a book: when you write a script you can just hand a draft over to some actors and have them read it outloud in front of you over the course of an hour or two, to see if it's working. You get to make a little event out of it, with cheese and snacks and wine. With novels, you have to sit alone, in quiet, and read your own damn work over and over and over again! It's downright brutal sometimes.)

6. If Mary: An Awakening of Terror was every made into a movie, who would you want to play the lead?

I am so embarrassed I don't have an answer ready to go for this! I mean, I'm an actor and director—I should've cast this in my head down to the background actors already, right?

I will say when I made a little mood board during the drafting process, I used Nicole Kidman's character from the movie Destroyer as one of the stand-ins for Mary. There was a haunted, exhausted quality to that face that I really responded to. But the most important aspects of the character that an actor would need to play are that she's capable of both great meekness and great rage, and that even at her most withdrawn she's still got a sense of humor.

7. What is one writing tip you would give to writers trying to break into traditional publishing?

Write about werewolves. It works every time.

No. Just write. And read. Write write write. And read read read. Write write write write. And—you get it.

No one's path into traditional publishing is the same—my own was long and circuitous and strange and happened because I wrote a lot of plays which happened because I was frustrated with my career as an actor—but the only constants I know of are that you have to love writing and you have to love reading. Writing only happens when you write, and reading makes you a better writer (also, if trad publishing is your goal, reading also helps keep you up to date about the business side of things: who's publishing what, etc. It's win win!).

Also, one bonus tip: take the pressure off of yourself as far as time or age or anything like that goes. Don't get caught up in the Word Count Wars on social media. I wrote the bulk of Mary during quarantine while taking care of two elderly pets that required constant care and only allowed me 4 hours of sleep a night. I usually only got to work for a couple hours in the early morning, before the sun came up, and most of the time I was so exhausted I barely wrote anything and fell asleep at my desk. I'm not saying this as a way to be like, "Don't complain! No excuses!" Instead, I just mean that, even if you don't feel like you have the time to write (or, fuck that language, even if you straight up DON'T have the time to write), just give yourself space to write even a dozen words a day. A sentence. It'll all add up, I promise—the most important thing is to try to do it as regularly as you can and remember that no one can tell your stories but you. I complained in an answer a few thousand words earlier that writing a novel means you have to play ALL the parts … but that's really the beauty of it, too.

8. Where can readers find out more about you?

Contact your local police department and—

Wait. I have a website. Use that instead. Natcassidy.com

Or find me on Twitter if you want to see me shout about things that make me angry: @natcassidy

Or find me on Instagram, where I'm less active now that both of my pets have sadly passed away and I no longer have a reason to share photos of just how weird they were, but I'm sure we'll be getting some new critters again at some point: @catnassidy

Oh! And after several years away, I finally gave in and reactivated my Facebook profile so I could set up an author page: @NatCassidyAuthor.

Nico Bell 5/27/22 Nico Bell 5/27/22

Interview with Writer and Horror Podcaster Julie Saunders

Julie Saunders Interview

Julie Saunders

1. Thank you so much for joining me! For those who don’t know you, could you please introduce yourself?

Sure! I’m a bisexual former Mormon who was raised in the woods in Oregon (well, more or less). I grew up on a small farm in rural Oregon, went to Utah to study Acting and Playwriting, then spent a few years in denial working as a Human Resources rep in the San Francisco Bay Area. For the last six years or so, I’ve been living in Los Angeles and writing just about every kind of story that has ghosts, monsters, or aliens in it. I have two dogs, two cats, one spouse, and an irrational fear of moths.

2. In three words, how would you describe your podcast Believer?

X-Files, extra sarcasm

3. What inspired you to start this podcast?

Well, I first got into audio drama podcasts back in 2015, when I binged all of Limetown while driving back and forth between San Francisco and LA. I quickly fell in love with the medium as a whole. It didn’t occur to me to make my own, though, until a few years ago when the Austin Film Festival held their first Podcast Script Competition. I repurposed a TV pilot script idea I’d had, went to the festival, and learned a lot.

Once I realized that I could actually make my own production, without anyone else’s input or permission, I played around with a few ideas. I wanted the show to be something that I loved; a way to say, “If I could make anything in the world, I would make this.” And there was this character that just wouldn’t leave me alone. She was a paranormal problem-solver. She didn’t believe in ghosts, but she did believe that your perception shapes your reality, so manipulating someone else’s beliefs was often the best way to help them.

Looking back, I realize how much of this came about as I was formally breaking away from the religion I was raised with, and how much of Lara’s worldview captured my attempts to find a new line between what I believed was true, what I believed was useful, and how I wanted to live my life. But at the time, I just thought, “I can’t stop thinking about this character, and how much I want to challenge her over and over again.”

4. How did you go about finding the perfect voice actors?

I put together a casting notice with short bios of each character and audition sides for actors to read, then posted it on my show’s website. I shared that as widely as I could, mostly relying on online podcasting and voice acting networks that I knew about. The actors I found were a mix of complete strangers who found that notice, and people I knew or who were friends of friends.

For example, Camille and Jake were basically written for my next door neighbors at the time, Sara Gorsky and Jason Markoff. I’d met Alli Slice, the writer of Elaine’s Cooking for the Soul, and I loved Rosa Delgado’s performance on that show, so I asked if Alli could put me in touch. I saw two of the other actors at a staged reading for another script, chased them down after the show was over, and invited them to audition.

For season two I’m hoping to cast an even wider net, as I think casting mostly from my own social networks means I end up with a less diverse cast than I might otherwise find.

5. For those looking to start a fiction podcast, what tips would you give them?

Put your passion first. If you go into independent podcasting looking for a business opportunity, you’ll burn yourself out. So don’t focus on what’s been market-tested or what seems the most impressive and original. Instead, look for the idea that you love so much you’re willing to live with it for months at a time, with or without a reward at the end.

Also, network with other writers. Look for other producer/writers on whatever social network you’re on (I’m mostly on Twitter), reply to their posts, follow each other, send messages. There are some really great Discord communities as well - CastJunkie was vital for me in the beginning. For the most part, indie fiction podcasters are some of the nicest and most helpful people in the entire world. A lot of us work alone much of the time, so we love hearing from other people and helping them out.

And listen to fiction podcasts! There’s a bit of a meme in the community these days about production companies who show up claiming to have invented a new genre of show that’s been around for years. Learn what’s out there, think about what you like and don’t like or what you’d borrow and what you’d change about each show. That alone will give you such a great advantage.

6. Since the podcast is all about the paranormal…have you ever seen a ghost? If not, what would you do if you did encounter a spirit?

I have not seen a ghost, though I know people who claim to have interacted with dead relatives in various forms. But there’s a bit of old Mormon folklore that says the best way to test a spirit is to offer to shake its hand. An angel who’s been resurrected can return your handshake. An angel who hasn’t been born yet will decline to shake your hand. And an evil spirit pretending to be an angel will try to shake your hand, but be unable to because God hasn’t given it a body. So I have a feeling that if I saw a ghost, my first instinct would be to try to shake its hand.

7. Besides your own, what are your favorite spooky podcasts to listen to?

There are so many great ones! Lately I’ve been catching up on Hi Nay, Desperado, and The Silt Verses. As far as all-time favorites, though, The Magnus Archives, The Black Tapes, Archive 81, and Old Gods of Appalachia are all giants of the genre for good reasons. Mabel is surreal queer horror-romance that seeps into your bones and doesn’t let you go. Unwell, Call of the Void, and Parkdale Haunt all have casts of characters I just love to hang out with. And I have a special love for frozen isolation horror like The White Vault, Station Blue, and Tartarus. Stepping outside the indie world, BBC Sounds has a fantastic slate of horror audio - my favorites from them so far are The Lovecraft Investigations and The Harrowing.

8. Where can readers find you?

I’m on Twitter and occasionally Instagram . I love to connect with other creators and help each other out, so feel free to reach out - or just tweet at me for podcast recommendations. Believer: A Paranormal Mystery is available on every major podcast platform, online at http://www.believerpodcast.com, and on most social networks as @believerpod.

Nico Bell 5/20/22 Nico Bell 5/20/22

Interview with Horror Author Madeleine Swann

Madeleine Swann Interview

1. Thank you so much for joining me! For those who don’t know you, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a bit about your writing?

I’m Madeleine Swann and I write weird and strange things. Sometimes they’re funny and sometimes they’re a bit nauseating. Nicholas Day described my stuff as malicious whimsy and I think that’s the best description I’ve ever heard.

2. How would you define bizzarro horror?

It’s almost impossible to define, in my opinion, so I prefer to say I write weird. It’s not exactly “weird fiction,” it’s just weird. I’m reclaiming weird.

3. Let’s talk a bit about your short story collection The Sharp End of the Rainbow. What inspired this work?

It’s a collection of short stories, some previously published and some new. All of my fears, worries and things I find funny are in here, and I like how it shows a progression in my writing. I feel like I’m starting to get the hang of letting a story unfold in its own time, particularly the nightmarish Victorian stories.

4. Do you have a favorite story from the collection?

That’s a really hard question, because some are on the creepy side and some are just daft, but I’ll always have a soft spot for How to make a Live Kitten Necklace

5. I had a blast playing your Choose Your Own Adventure game “Return of the Egg.” I’m guessing you were a fan of the book series when you were younger. Am I right? Where you a book lover as a child or did your passion for reading and writing come later in life?

Reading was one of my main pleasures as a child. I used to hide in the attic for hours reading and my family just left me to it ha! I’m sure it was nice for them to be able to get on with their day and know that I was quite safe.

I did go through a big Choose Your Own Adventure phase but I used to cheat and wouldn’t let go of the old page before checking out the new. We made sure that was impossible with this one, which might have turned people off! I’m really glad you enjoyed it, it really fried my brain. It’s a lot of work and planning, much more than I expected.

6. Who are some of your favorite authors?

I’ve been inspired a lot by Thomas Ligotti. Although he’s not someone I read for the joy of it often, his stuff always has a way of creeping in when I think of things. I also love Leonora Carrington and Dorothy Parker. I sometimes joke to my husband Bill that I’m a cross between the two although, to be honest, I’m not much like either.

7. What’s next for you? Any projects coming up that you’re able to talk about?

I’m putting everything into the book I’m currently working on. I don’t know if it’ll get anywhere, or if people will like it, but I feel like I’ll have told the story deep within me and be happy with it.

8. Where can readers find you?

I hang out a lot on twitter https://twitter.com/MadeleineSwann

And also there’s my YouTube https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6wDXC7R4gDR9ZGDX5De3Ew

And website http://madeleineswann.com

Nico Bell 5/16/22 Nico Bell 5/16/22

Interview with Horror and Dark Fantasy Writer and Poet Marsheila Rockwell

Marsheila Rockwell Interview

1. Thank you so much for joining me! For those who don’t know you, could you please introduce yourself and your writing?

Thanks for having me!

Boozhoo (hello) to everyone! My name is Marsheila (Marcy) Rockwell. I am an award-nominated tie-in author and poet, as well as the author of thirteen books. My work includes Marvel Untold: Sisters of Sorcery, SF/H thriller 7 SYKOS, and The Shard Axe series, set in the world of Dungeons & Dragons Online, as well as dozens of short stories, poems, and comic book scripts. I write primarily dark fantasy and horror, with the odd foray into science fiction and the Weird West.

I am also a disabled pediatric cancer and mental health awareness advocate and a reconnecting Chippewa/Métis. I live in the Valley of the Sun with my husband, three of our five children, two rescue kitties (one from hell), and far too many books (yes, there is such a thing, LOL).

2. Congratulations on your recent release Sisters of Sorcery from Marvel and Aconyte Books! Can you please tell us how this project came about?

Thank you so much! The process was pretty straightforward. I sent in a writing sample to Aconyte, they liked it, and they put me on their list to receive notifications about upcoming calls for novels. When I saw a call I was interested in, I sent in a few pitches, my editor picked some and asked for expanded pitches, and then we narrowed in on one and developed a detailed synopsis. Marvel approved it and it was off to the races! The whole process from first pitch to first draft took about a year.

3. Without giving away spoilers, what is the premise of Sisters of Sorcery?

The book centers on Clea, the Sorceress Supreme of the Dark Dimension and estranged wife of Dr. Strange. Her mother, the tyrannical Umar the Unrelenting and current ruler of said dim dimension, has obtained a supercharged new energy source that she intends to use to power a campaign of multidimensional conquest. Clea is the only one who can stop her, but she can’t do it alone, so she recruits some powerful witches from Earth to help her – some of which comic book fans may be familiar with, and some of which they probably won’t. Witchy girl power for the win!

4. In addition to writing stories, you also write poetry. Do you have a favorite poem that you’ve written?

It’s hard to pick a favorite, but one I’m most proud of is “Reservation Fairy Tales 101 – Final Exam,” which was published in Augur Magazine 4.1 and has been nominated for this year’s Science Fiction Poetry Association Rhysling Award. It’s a poem about the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women (#MMIWG2ST) epidemic, presented in the form of a multiple-choice test that’s intended to make the reader consider not only the issue itself, but the role they play in it.

5. When did your love for writing first begin?

I learned to read when I was three and books helped me through a rough childhood. They were an escape for me, and writing was a way to not only keep that escape hatch open for myself, but to help other people who might need one. The first story I remember writing was a 20-page Conan pastiche in sixth grade, complete with a talking cat and a princess in need of rescuing, but I’m sure I was opening doors to new worlds well before then.

6. Do you have a favorite book or comic?

I am in love with pretty much everything Guy Gavriel Kay has ever written. His Fionavar Tapestry trilogy is a longtime favorite (though I usually recommend folks start with Tigana, because it has everything I love about the FT trilogy, but in one book instead of three). As for comics, you can’t go wrong with anything Gail Simone has written (especially Wonder Woman).

7. What’s next for you? Any projects you can talk about?

I do a lot of tie-in work, so I’m under various non-disclosure agreements and can’t say much about forthcoming projects. But I am working on some more pitches for my editor, so hopefully one of those will get greenlit and I’ll have another book out in a year or so. I’m also involved in an exciting new anthology based on a fan favorite property, so that should be a lot of fun. And I’m always writing poetry and short stories, and hoping to get some time to work on an original novel when my contracted (i.e., paid) work allows.

8. Where can readers find you?

I have a website, a blog, a FB page, and am on Twitter way too much, LOL. I also have some local con appearances in the fall, pandemic gods willing; folks can keep up to date with that on my social media. Here are my links:

Website: https://marsheilarockwell.com/

Blog: https://mrockwell.dreamwidth.org/ (mirrored on my website)

FB: https://www.facebook.com/MarsheilaRockwellAuthor

Twitter: https://twitter.com/MarcyRockwell

Nico Bell 5/13/22 Nico Bell 5/13/22

Interview with Daniel Richardson, CEO of TPS Productions

Daniel Richardson, CEO of TPS Productions Interview

1. Thank you so much for joining me! For those who don’t know you, could you please introduce yourself?

Hello! My name is Daniel Richardson. I'm an underground filmmaker from Bedford, Indiana. And I'm the CEO of TPS Productions.

2. Congratulations on your short film “The Death of an Aristocratic Family!” Could you please tell us a bit about this film, without giving away spoilers?

Thank you! And, sure. "The Death of an Aristocratic Family" is about this detective who visits a particularly gruesome crime scene that just shakes him to his core. He starts questioning, not only if he still wants to be a cop, but if he even wants to live in a world where something so heinous could happen.

3. How long did it take, from conception to final edits, to produce this short?

Ha-ha, we're getting really good at producing shorts. It took us less than three weeks. This was initially supposed to be a part of the Monthly Movie Challenge. I saw their post and decided to give it a shot. We were currently waiting to resume production on our next feature-length film, so I thought this would be something fun to do while we were down.

4. Who is your dream director to collaborate with?

Well, in a dream scenario, it would have to be Queintin Tarantino. Like he would definitely be slumming it working with me, ha-ha, but that would be awesome. Maybe if he ever did another "Grindhouse" film, I could contribute one of the fake trailers.

5. What is your favorite horror movie?

The original "Halloween". It just doesn't get any better than that.

6. What tips can you give aspiring filmmakers?

My advice is to just do it. Don't wait for the perfect conditions. There's always a million reasons not to film and it's easy to get sidelined with those reasons. You want to make a movie? Go make your movie!

7. What’s next for you? Any projects you can talk about?

On the directing side of things, I have an anthology horror film entitled "The Copperville Chronicles", which will serve as a follow-up to our first film, "Unspeakable Acts". And then as a producer I will be working closely with Josh Chaney and Angel Lopez as they are each working on their own shorts.

8. Where can readers find you?

Facebook and Instagram are both under TPSProductions666. On Twitter: @TPSProductions7. And finally on YouTube at youtube.com/c/TPSProductions. This has been great! Thank you so much!

Check out the trailer for The Death of an Aristocratic Family below!

Nico Bell 4/26/22 Nico Bell 4/26/22

Interview with Horror Author Tim McGregor

Tim McGregor Interview

1. Thank you so much for joining me! For those who don’t know you, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work?

Thanks for hosting, Nico. I ‘m primarily a horror author that started self-publishing a while ago, and have had some success with my supernatural series, The Spookshow. The series has, bafflingly, grown to eleven books. Lately though, I’ve been drawn to the world of indie publishers who are pushing boundaries in the genre. Hearts Strange and Dreadful was published last year with Off Limits Press, to a very nice reception. This summer sees the release of my novella, Lure, published with Tenebrous Press, a scrappy new publisher that continues to impress with each publication. And yesterday, (how’s that for timing?) another novella was just announced by Cemetery Gates. Taboo in Four Colors will be part of the My Dark Library series curated by Mother Horror herself, Sadie Hartmann. I’m really excited about these two novellas, and grateful both have such fantastic publishers. April was supposed to see the release of Wasps in the Ice Cream, a coming-of-age horror novel, but that book is on hold after the publisher shut down. Back to square one on that project! I also worked briefly in film, penning the scripts to three feature films. These were straight-to-DVD genre fare, but a couple had bona fide stars like Michael Madsen and the late Luke Perry (yes, Archie’s dad!).

2. Congratulations on your upcoming novella Lure, available July 2022! Without giving away any spoilers, could you please tell us a bit about this story?

Thanks! Lure is a weird folk horror tale about a mermaid who comes to a remote fishing village to sing to the women, not the men, and lure them to her dark power. It’s part The Little Mermaid, part Jaws, and a whole lot of briny bloodshed.

3. If Lure were made into a movie, who would you cast as the protagonist?

Hmm... The protagonist is a 15-year-old boy whose world gets turned on its head. Maybe the banjo-playing kid from Deliverance? Remember him? Or maybe shake it up a little and cast Maizie Williams in the role?

4. Are you a “pantser” or a “plotter” when it comes to developing a story?

I’m a plotter by nature. I learned to write via screenplays and scripts are all about outlines. But I’ve been trying to break that habit recently by throwing out everything I know about story structure and trusting my gut. A quasi-pantser? Aspiring pantser?

5. When did you first realize you wanted to be an author?

Dunno. As a kid, I think, but it seemed impossible. It took a long time and I had to unlearn a lot of bullshit before I could even think of being an author.

6. What sparked your love of the horror genre?

Movies, definitely. Staying up late at night as a kid to watch horror movies with my dad. Everything from the classic Universal monsters to inappropriate Cronenberg flicks.

7. Who is your favorite author and why?

I don’t know if I have a favorite author. I can be a bit of magpie, flitting from one fave to the next. But there are a number of authors whose work I’ve come to admire and respect, like Catherine McCarthy, Eric LaRocca, Hailey Piper, and Laurel Hightower. Oh, and Christopher Buehlman. His medieval horror epic, Between Two Fires, melted my brain.

8. Is there anything else you’d like to mention before we wrap up?

Just to say thanks for the chat. Much appreciated.

9. Where can people find you online?

Mostly on Twitter, blathering away like an idiot at @TimMcGregor1. There’s also the obligatory author website, timmcgregorauthor.com. Cheers!

Nico Bell 4/22/22 Nico Bell 4/22/22

Interview with Valkyrie Loughcrewe

1. Thank you so much for joining me! For those who don’t know you, could you please introduce yourself and tell us a little about your work?

Well I've been making music and little short horror stuff on youtube under the name surgeryhead for a while, I also make tabletop RPGs and indie games, but this whole time I've also been writing horror fiction. Short stuff mostly, mostly self published- a couple of anthologies and various stories on my website (lordsofthevideowasteland.com) but I've been writing since I was a kid, and it's always been

horror. I don't know why, just has been! And finally with Crom Cruach I seem to have come out with something people reckon is worth printing, so that's exciting!

2. Congratulations on your upcoming release Crom Cruach! Without giving away any spoilers, could you please tell us a bit about this story?

Crom Cruach is about a near future Ireland after a communist revolution has changed everything. There's a series of murders in a small rural community, and a local church is burned down, and even weirder things start to happen. This sort of kicks off a satanic panic as certain townspeople who aren't so happy with the new order pin the blame on a small commune of queer pagans. It's got black gloved killers and a good bit of gore and some really weird supernatural elements. It's also written in a sort of poetic style, like I was trying to get the prose to convey this air of ancient mysticism hanging underneath everything- but at it's heart it's like a weird VHS slasher movie.

3. What inspired Crom Cruach?

Real life politics for one, the spectre of war that hangs over Ireland, all those unresolved political tensions. The spectre of church abuses. Post Colonial trauma. But I'm obsessed with telling real stories about real things through an extremely lurid genre lense, so it's all dressed up like some kind of Dario Argento/Lucio Fulci movie. The pacing and style of the prose as well was very inspired by abrasive experimental techno, especially the band schxchxchxchx, as well as black metal and doom metal- but don't let that put you off, it's just a bit lyrical and rhymy. It doesn't go full house of leaves or anything.

4. In addition to writing, you’re also a musician. How would you classify your music?

With Surgeryhead, I suppose you could all class it as "industrial". I started off doing synthwave/french electro inspired stuff but the metal/industrial edge was always there. I like to flit between electro, dark ambient, metal, EDM... All kinds of styles! I have a thrash metal project as well which I've been having a lot of fun with called Argento. I'm nearly finished the first full length album for that called First Comes Madness... Then Comes Death! Which I sort of released on bandcamp track by track- which was a super messy way to release an album that I won't be doing again.

5. Have you ever made a soundtrack to your own stories?

Oh yes, all my music is like a soundtrack to a story I haven't written yet!

6. Do you listen to music while you write? If so, which bands?

For Crom I listened to a lot of schxchxchxchx and other artists like that- Andy Stott was another one. I have another novella out to submission right now which was a lot of darksynth and Electric Wizard, and I literally just finished writing a novel just before I started this interview which was entirely fuelled by death/doom metal. That one's gonna be gnarly.

7. What sparked your love of the horror genre?

I honestly have no idea. I've always just liked monsters and gore and ghost stories! It's something I interrogated a lot in my early 20s and tried to develop a rationale and philosophy around why I like it so much, and that helped me hone my creative voice, but nowadays i'm just sort of like "I dunno, it's cool!"

8. Where can people find you online?

I am on twitter as @surgeryhead, bandcamp as surgeryhead.bandcamp.com for all my music and lordsofthevideowasteland.com for my fiction, I have some comics I want to upload there, and I need to set up that site to link to my music properly, but the fiction part of it works fine, haha... I can never seem to find a good time to really dedicate to website maintenance.

Nico Bell 1/28/21 Nico Bell 1/28/21

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

Interview with Author 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.

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

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.
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.

Nico Bell 1/21/21 Nico Bell 1/21/21

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?

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

Nico Bell 1/12/21 Nico Bell 1/12/21

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.

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

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

Nico Bell 1/7/21 Nico Bell 1/7/21

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?

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

Nico Bell 10/30/20 Nico Bell 10/30/20

Horror Author Tim Prasil #Interview

Tim Prasil Interview

1. Congratulations on your books Help for the Haunted and Guilt is a Ghost! Can you tell us a little about this series?

The Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mysteries series spotlights a journalist living in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Think of the muckrakers such as Nellie Bly, Upton Sinclair, Ida Tarbell, and Jacob Riis. On the one hand, Vera crusades against phony Spiritualist mediums, but on the other, she fully believes in ghosts. She explains this seeming contradiction by saying, “Ghosts are like cats. They’re real—but they hardly come when called.” One Spiritualist medium Vera defrauded was Lida Prášilová. The fake psychic agreed to share her professional secrets with the journalist, which led to a ghost hunt – which led to a deep friendship. Chronicling the ghostly investigations she shared with Vera over the years, Lida became a Dr. Watson to a very distinctive, quirky, and funny Sherlock Holmes.

2. When did your interest in the paranormal and dark fiction begin?

I think it was Friday nights when WGN, the Chicago TV station, aired its weekly “Creature Features” movies. Something about those old Universal Studios monsters sparked my interest. Oddly enough, my reading leaned toward – not Edgar Allan Poe and his type – but Nathaniel Hawthorne and authors who seasoned very relatable, very human stories with a dash of supernatural spice. I think this shows in the Vera Van Slyke stories, which read less like horror and more like mystery or even historical fiction.

3. Have you ever seen a ghost or been ghost hunting?

I volunteer at our local community theater, and it’s alleged to be haunted. (We’ve had ghost hunters investigate the place on a few occasions. Diagnosis: probably haunted.) Personally, I’ve heard my name whispered by a disembodied voice. I’ve caught a corner-of-the-eye glimpse of . . . someone . . . someone who turned out to not be there. Others have experienced similar phenomena there, too. Is it a ghost? I’m prefer to leave it at “wonder” rather than pin it down with “belief or disbelief.”

4. Let’s talk a little about writing. What would you say is your writing kryptonite?

I’ve heard other authors gripe about editing. I guess they love the early drafts, the initial creation process. I’m sort of the opposite. While I do enjoy that discovery stage—finding out where the story takes itself, often against my original plans—I see it as the most laborious and certainly the slowest. It’s like making clay from thin air, so maybe that’s my kryptonite. Once that clay exists, though, I especially relish molding and shaping and adding the fine details.

5. Who is your favorite author?

Do people really have a favorite author? I can’t say that I do. I lean toward authors who mix a touch of fantasy with otherwise very realistic, very human stories. Nathaniel Hawthorne, Shirley Jackson, and Ray Bradbury come to mind. Character and plot, I think, are equally important and even symbiotic. I shy away from authors who lean hard on just plot.

6. What’s next for you? Any projects you can discuss?

I’m halfway through the next Vera Van Slyke Ghostly Mystery! A major, never-ending project is my indy press, called Brom Bones Books. Along with the earlier Vera Van Slyke series, I’ve put out a collection of poetry (if you want to call it that) titled The Lost Limericks of Edgar Allan Poe along with a couple of non-fiction books about Victorian-era ghost chronicles. I also anthologize “forgotten” fiction, such as ghost stories, occult detective fiction, and right now I’m working on a book of tales about life on the Moon written from the rise of the telescope to the point when it was pretty much agreed that life can’t exist on Earth’s loveliest satellite.

7. Where can people find you online?

My main site, and I also try very hard to be funny on Facebook and Twitter. I’d be happy to read you a story on the YouTube channel for Brom Bones Books.

8. Last chance! Anything else you’d like to say?

Visit the For Fun and Edification wing of BromBonesBooks.com to walk down the Ghost Hunter Hall of Fame, stroll through the Chronological Bibliography of Early Occult Detectives, and giggle at Old Phantoms with New Captions.

Nico Bell 10/9/20 Nico Bell 10/9/20

Author Jason Tanamor #Interview

Jason Tanamor Interview

1. Congratulations on Vampires of Portlandia! Can you please tell readers a little about this book?

The novel is centered around Marcella Leones and her family of aswang vampires.

They flee the Philippines for Portland, Oregon for a peaceful life. In the book, the Philippine government is trying to rid the country of aswangs, to keep the country pure. So the vampires relocate to Portland, Oregon because the city reminds them of the little mountain town they’d left behind.

In Portland, Marcella raises her grandchildren under strict rules so humans will not expose them. Her only wish is to give them a peaceful life. Before she dies, she passes on the power to her eldest grandchild, Percival. He vows to uphold the rules set forth by Leones, allowing his family to roam freely without notice.

However, when the aswang covenant is broken, the murder rate in Portland rises drastically. The vampires don’t know who is behind the murders. Along with sensie Penelope Jane, Percival must find the truth.

It's then they discover that there are other breeds of aswangs—werebeasts, witches, ghouls, and viscera—who have been residing in Portland for years.

Readers can expect a fun, quirky, somewhat creepy, and epic read.

2. Can you tell us a little about the inspiration behind the term aswang within Filipino folklore?

Aswang in Filipino culture means shape shifter. There are five different breeds of aswangs—vampires, viscera, werebeasts, ghouls, and witches. In the Philippines, aswangs are like the boogieman. It’s a story that elders tell their children and grandchildren to scare them. I’d never heard of it growing up. One day, I was watching the TV show, “Grimm”, and one of the episodes revolved around aswangs. I’d called my father and he gave me the background, but I don’t think he believed the lore because he was very casual about his response. I slowly became fascinated with the subject.

3. You’ve written several stories including Drama Dolls, a dark comedy with the themes of grief and obsession, Anonymous, a raw story set in a prison with a character named Unknown, and Hello Fabulous!, a gay-friendly comedy. Do you have a “brand”, and if so, what would you define it as?

I don’t have a brand. I just write whatever I find interesting. I never thought I could do this for a living. I work a full-time job with the Department of Army, so I really just want to tell stories that I would want to read myself.

4. I poked around your website, and I was impressed by the amount of influential people you’ve interviewed. Who is your dream literary interview, dead or alive?

Mark Twain. When I started to fall in love with stories, especially literature, he was such a big influence on me. His books are classics, and he was able to incorporate a great sense of humor within his stories.

5. When did you first develop a love of writing?

When I was in college, I started writing a humor column for my university newspaper. I loved my little space in print, but even more so, I loved hearing and seeing the reaction from the students on campus. It was really the reactions that got me hooked, how you can make someone’s day, or impact someone just with words that really resonated with me.

6. What writing tips would you give to newbie writers?

My favorite quote is a lyric by Sheryl Crow. It’s off “Globe Sessions”.

“Making miracles is hard work; most people give up before they happen.”

Publishing is a tedious and slow process. In an era where everyone wants things done ASAP, beginning writers need to understand that publishing isn’t a fast process. A lot of people get frustrated or plain just give up.

Don’t.

If you can learn to write for yourself and because you love it, you’ll eventually see a reward.

7. What book(s) are you reading right now?

Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff.

8. What’s next for you? Any projects you can discuss?

I’m currently just doing press for Vampires of Portlandia. I have three completed novels and one completed novella that are out seeking homes.

9. Where can people find you online?

You can find me at www.tanamor.com, which has links to all my socials and information on all my books.

10. Last chance! Anything else you’d like to say?

Please give diverse books and underrepresented stories a chance. Publishing is taking a beating with the lack of diversity. Vampires of Portlandia doesn’t only introduce Filipino culture, it’s entertaining and humorous as well.

Nico Bell 10/2/20 Nico Bell 10/2/20

Horror Author and Poet Sara Tantlinger #AuthorInterview

Sara Tantlinger Interview

Sara Tantlinger is the Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes. She is a poetry editor for the Oddville Press, a graduate of Seton Hill’s MFA program, a member of the SFPA, and an active member of the HWA. Along with being a mentor for the HWA Mentorship Program, she is also a co-organizer for the HWA Pittsburgh Chapter. Her other books include Love for Slaughter, The Devil’s City, and To Be Devoured (nominated for the Bram Stoker Award in Long Fiction), and she edited the anthology Not All Monsters, out with Strangehouse Books. She embraces all things macabre and can be found lurking in graveyards or on Twitter @SaraTantlinger and at saratantlinger.com

1. Congratulations on your poetry collection Cradleland of Parasites! Can you please tell us a little about it?

Thank you so much! The collection draws most of its inspiration from the Black Death and other ancient plagues, and also from the rumors that have surrounded Plum Island (a federal research facility that has sparked controversy and conspiracy over the years). I started the collection last year before the current pandemic, so while the timing feels weird and spooky, I hope people will give the collection a chance. I love historical horror and meshing fact with speculation, so the poems play a lot with those blurred lines and with storytelling.

2. Without giving away spoilers, do you have a favorite poem from the collection?

One that I’m pretty fond of is titled “Princess Joan”. It’s based off the real story of Joan of England, a daughter of Edward III, who was betrothed to Peter of Castile. The Black Death hadn’t really made its mark in England when Joan travelled to Castile to be married, so she embarked on the journey with such a grand entourage and such a gorgeous wedding gown that I knew I needed to use those details to write a poem for her. She died so young, so unaware of the plague and how it would destroy her. I really wanted to write a poem for Princess Joan -- I had hoped to celebrate the details of her royalty, but the poem turned into a warning song, a plea for her to stay at home and not take the voyage that would end her young life. The plague spared no one, youth and royalty were no exception.

3. Congratulations on your Bram Stoker Award for The Devil’s Dreamland: Poetry Inspired by H.H. Holmes! Can you tell us a little about this book as well as how you celebrated your win?

Thank you so much! The Devil’s Dreamland really paved the way to show me how much I love historical horror. Researching Holmes is something I’ve talked about a lot, so in an effort not to repeat myself too much here, I will say that the book challenged me to do something entirely different than my first poetry collection, Love For Slaughter, and I am really humbled and grateful for the excellent responses The Devil’s Dreamland has received! I celebrated my Stoker win at StokerCon in Grand Rapids with some excellent friends and my publisher (and a few vodka cranberries). It was the absolute best night, and the whole experience was truly unforgettable.

4. When did your love of poetry develop?

It’s a bit of cliché answer, but reading Edgar Allan Poe in middle school was honestly my gateway into poetry, particularly dark poetry. Reading so much of his work inspired me to write, but my love for writing poetry developed the most while studying creative writing in college.

5. You were nominated for a Bram Stoker award for your novella To Be Devoured. Do you have a different research/writing process for developing poetry versus a novel?

I love research, so I am always utilizing it no matter what I write. When I studied literature in college, my favorite part of the process was always gathering my sources, engaging with critics, and using the research to make my essays stronger, so I’ve found that love carries over well into my fiction writing. With The Devil’s Dreamland and Cradleland of Parasites (both poetry collections), historical horror really captured my soul and dominated the process. With a current project I’m working on (prose), I’ve been doing more scientific research and doing my best to study entomology, so I think research is bound to follow me wherever I go.

For poetry, to borrow a phrase from the great Linda Addison, it comes more “organically.” It never feels forced, and I don’t have to create as strong of a plan or outline when I dive into poems as I do for prose -- but I am learning to enjoy outlining for novels/novellas more and more these days!

6. What are you currently reading?

I just finished Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia, which was an excellent work of literary horror. I think it would be such a strong book to teach in the classroom. I’m always reading way too many books at once, so right now I’m reading poetry (Cries to Kill the Corpse Flower by Ronald J. Murray) and Worst Laid Plans, an anthology of vacation horror edited by Samantha Kolesnik!

7. Let’s have a little fun. Would you rather watch the tape from The Ring or have to say ‘Candyman’ in front of a dark mirror?

Oh definitely Candyman. Children terrify me in general, especially vengeful ghost children, so living in The Ring is something I would not handle well.

8. What’s next for you? Any projects you can discuss?

I am currently working on some short stories and a very vague outline for my next novella! There’s always a lot going on behind the scenes, so I am hopeful I will have some new projects out before the year is over.

9. Where can people find you online?

My website and Twitter -- you can also find me on Instagram . My Amazon author profile has all my books listed here: https://www.amazon.com/Sara-Tantlinger/e/B06X6GBXZB

10. Last chance! Anything else you’d like to say?

To my fellow writers, embrace the writing community and support each other! Remember to celebrate the success of others and that anyone else’s success does not negate your own hard work.

Nico Bell 9/25/20 Nico Bell 9/25/20

Dark Fiction Author Mark Anthony Smith #Interview

Mark Anthony Smith Interview

1. Congratulations on your upcoming release Keep It Inside and other weird stories! Can you please tell us a little about this collection?

Hi Nico. Thank you. ’m really pleased to be here. Yes. ‘Keep it inside and other weird tales’ is my third book. It’s published by Red Cape publishing. Some of the stories have appeared in their ‘A – Z of Horror’ series. But there’s bags of new content too. I’ve reread them several times and they raise my eyebrows. I must have been in a very deep meditative state when I wrote them – or did I take hellish journeys? I’m not going to say much other than I can’t wait to unleash these terrors.

2. Without giving away spoilers, do you have a story from the collection?

There’s a few. In fact, they all show my dark side. Did I mention apophallation and method acting? Ouch! I’d love to see that as a film.

3. What would you say your “brand” is? In other words, do you consider yourself a specific type of writer or write for a specific niche?

Mmm! I’ve written poetry and ‘mainstream’ fictions. They’ve appeared in The Cabinet of Heed, Spelk, Nymphs, Penumbric Speculative Fiction magazine and many others (listed on my Amazon page). But a lot of them are dark. I like to start with something fairly mundane and every day then turn the world on its head – with lots of teeth.

4. When did you first know you wanted to be an author?

I loved Shaun Hutson, James Herbert and Clive Barker in the late ‘80’s. ‘The Rats' by Herbert made me sit up with pointy ears. I’d say reading ‘Black dogs' by Ian McEwan finally clinched it for me. Sparse, exact, relevant and beautiful. The sense of mounting menace…

5. Let’s talk a little about your poetry. What is the most challenging part of writing poems?

Gosh! Yes. There’s ‘Hearts of the matter’ and several reprinted poems in ‘Something Said’ (Wolven Moon). Poetry can come in a flash, of course. But that is rare. I love the meditation of writing. It’s a higher state. I think the hardest part is not losing the original vision. By this I mean allowing the piece to evolve but not becoming too distracting by flowery lyricism. Poetry is language made strange. But there has to be some sort of shape or completeness too. Not the whole world. Just the whole world through a focused lens.

6. Are any of your poems autobiographical?

I don’t think you can write without experience or feeling. So, some started with a feeling or thought but finally became universal. There’s are glints of my own life in several yet I didn’t want to blind the reader with anything too personal.

7. Do you have a favorite author or poet?

I have lots of favourites: Adam Nevill, Richard Laymon, P J Blakey-Novis, H P Lovecraft… I have to say Phillip Larkin as I come from Hull (he’s amazing) and…and I’ve definitely left someone out. I recommend ‘The A – Z of Horror’ Anthologies by Red Cape publishing and Demain’s ‘Short Sharp Shocks!’ series for sure.

8. What’s next for you? Any projects you can discuss?

I’m writing my fourth book. It’s a second book of Horror. I’m also writing short stories with a view to giving ‘Keep it inside…’ an ugly sister.

9. Where can people find you online?

My brand new website is: www.markanthonysmith.com . There’s links to YouTube etc. from there. You can find me on Twitter: @MarkAnthonySm16

10. Last chance! Anything else you’d like to say?

Yes. Thank you for having me. Check out free reads and amazing art on my website. Support Indie Authors, eat your greens and definitely “Keep it inside.”

Nico Bell 9/10/20 Nico Bell 9/10/20

Horror Author Thomas Gaffney #Interview

Thomas Gaffney Interview

1. Congratulations on the release of your award-winning book Stranger Things Have Happened! Can you tell us a little about this book?

TG: Thank you! It’s still weird to think about. It started off a vanity project, I had a few short stories (around 1500 words max) that I submitted to contests and anthologies but were rejected. I was really enjoying writing short stories at the time, so I wrote a few more and collected them together. I self-published Stranger Things Have Happened to get the stories (and my name) out there, and submitted it to any contest that came along. I was very fortunate Stranger Things Have Happened anything, honestly.

2. Without giving away any spoilers, do you have a favorite story from the collection and why?

TG: That would have to be FEEEEENIX or FRAXINUS AMERICANA. FEEEEENIX is a very personal story to me. It’s the first one of these short stories that I wrote, the two main characters are based on me and my wife, and my father was a firefighter (but, luckily, both my parents are still with us). FRAXINUS AMERICANA is the second story I wrote and the one I was most “in the zone” while writing. That one flowed from like I creating a new world, and it was the most I felt like a “real” writer.

3. How long, from conception to final edits, did it take you to write Stranger Things Have Happened?

TG: I’d say a full year to write all nine stories that appeared in the book, and probably another year to edit them all with the help of a writer’s club I belonged to when I worked for Barnes & Noble. Some stories, like FRAXINUS AMERICANA and EIGHT DAYS A WEEK came easier than others.

4. When did you first realize you wanted to be a writer?

TG: Growing up, I made my own comic books and Choose Your Own Adventure books for the neighborhood, but I never equated that to wanting to be a writer. I always assumed it was from my love of drawing. I stopped writing stuff until rereading Stephen King’s IT in my mid-thirties. It’s a masterpiece of 20th century storytelling, IMHO. After that, I sat down and said, “I want to tell stories.” And having grown up devouring horror novels (and King in particular), I knew exactly what genre I wanted to write.

5. What would you consider to be the hardest part of writing?

TG: Whew. I would have to say the monotony more than anything. I never had an issue coming up with ideas. Nor any problems with “killing my darlings” in the editing process. Yeah, I would hit some writer’s block, but I could usually transition to another chapter, or another project, until I got through it. The hardest thing for me is sitting at the same desk and working on the project for years on end. I have a completed novel in the middle of a third draft that I’ve been working on forever, and I had to put is away for a bit and work on something else, because working on that for 3 years straight finally got to me.

6. What changes would you like to see in the horror writing community over the next ten years?

TG: I’d like it to continue the path it’s on. More tension and less reliance on blood and guts. The best King books had their share of gore, which helped cement his reputation, but they also were adept at delving into the human psyche and that got overlooked by the death and gore. I want to see more diverse characters, and more of the everyday world where a tiny corner gets peeled away and underneath the bad day you’re having at work is a horror so unimaginable, it turns your hair white. And I do think the horror writing community is on the right path with that. The best horror stories, IMHO, are what would YOU do if you walked into your usual Starbucks and your regular barista was turned inside-out by a hell demon and begging for your help?

7. Is there anything you won’t write about?

TG: Off the top of my head, nothing is off-limits, per se, but I’m trying to make it a point not to put any romance into my stories. One, I’m probably terrible at writing it. And two, just because the story might put two strangers together to get out of a situation alive doesn’t mean they have to fall in love over the course of the book. A good portion of my stories have a female main character, and honestly, she doesn’t need a boyfriend or any man to help her save the day.

8. What’s next for you? Any projects you can discuss?

TG: I’m working on the first draft for a horror novel about haunted/cursed dice. I pitched the idea to one of my Creative Writing professors (who is a Bram Stoker nominated author) and he thinks it could potentially be purchased by a publisher. I wrote a short story about the same cursed dice for another Creative Writing class (it’s a sort-of prequel story) and it’s on a short list to be bought by an online magazine for their next anthology (fingers crossed). After that I’ll go back to the 3rd draft of a completed horror novel about a woman with unique eyesight and the creature that’s after her.

9. Where can people find you online?

TG: You can browse my website or find me on twitter where I’m most active. I’m also trying to use my Facebook and Instagram more often . Stranger Things Have Happened is available anywhere ebooks are, from Amazon to Apple to B&N to Kobo to Smashwords and Google.

10. Last chance! Anything else you’d like to say?

TG: If you want to be an author, stop making excuses. Believe me, I tried them all. But the writing bug never left me, and I found that any excuse is lame. I think my writing is junk, but I keep at it. The only way to get better is to practice by writing more. I work 40 hours a week, I simultaneously take online classes at Southern New Hampshire University, and I’m married and juggling home life as well – but I can always find time to write. Yeah, I wish I had more time, but there is always time if you want there to be time. Stop with the excuses.

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