Meghan: Hey, Tommy! Welcome to this year’s Halloween Extravaganza. What is your favorite part of Halloween?
Tommy: The history and mythology behind the Celtic cross-quarter holiday has always attracted me.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?
Tommy: I like to bury an apple in my backyard to remember those who have passed.
Meghan: If Halloween is your favorite holiday (or even second favorite holiday), why?
Tommy: I’m of Irish heritage and I identify more with this pagan holiday than with St. Patrick’s Day.
Meghan: What are you superstitious about?
Tommy: Omens. If I see something in a pattern of 3’s I get the heebie-jeebies.
Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?
Tommy: The werewolf, of course. My first favorite monster was Lon Chaney’ The Wolf Man.
Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?
Tommy: The Heidi Allen case in Upstate NY. I’m of the camp who doesn’t believe the men arrested for her murder were guilty, and that she was killed by drug dealers.
Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?
Tommy: Bigfoot. I thought I saw Bigfoot when I was a child (it was most likely a deer), and the neighborhood kids pulled a prank, and dressed up in a Planet of the Apes costume and pretended to be Bigfoot, which scared my mother.
Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?
Tommy: Jack The Ripper cos of the mystique around his identity.
Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie? How old were you when you read your first horror book?
Tommy: I’ve watched horror movies since I can recall, courtesy of Monster Movie Matinee on Saturday and Sundays. There was never that “Oh, I saw this then,” moment, but it was likely a King Kong or a Godzilla Kaiju movie.
I was 11 when I read Salem’s Lot. I bonded with Mark and saw it through his eyes. I didn’t understand much of the adult content, but when Mark was the focus, and even Ben, I found myself lost in the story.
Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?
Tommy: Pet Semetary. It scared me as a kid, seeing it through Ellie’s eyes. It scared me as a father, seeing it through Louis’s eyes. And it has scared me as a grandfather, seeing it through Judd’s eyes.
Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?
Tommy: The Last Man on Earth, when Vincent Price throws his dead baby daughter on a funeral pyre. I can’t shake this image from my head to this day.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?
Tommy: My Mark Post Planet of the Apes costume when I was 8.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?
Tommy: Type O Negative, Black No. 1
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?
Tommy: Candy Corn. Popcorn Balls.
Meghan: Thanks for stopping by tonight, Tommy. Before you go, what are your five go-to Halloween movies?
Tommy:
5. Pumpkinhead
4. Halloween III: Season of the Witch
3. Tales of Halloween
2. Halloween II
1. John Carpenter’s Halloween
Boo-graphy:
Thomas R Clark is a musician, writer, and podcast producer & engineer. He is the author of the 2021 Splatterpunk Award Nominated BELLA’S BOYS, GOOD BOY, and THE DEATH LIST – published through Stitched Smile Publications, and the forthcoming THE GOD PROVIDES, from St. Rooster Books. His short fiction collection, A BOOK OF LIGHT AND SHADOW is available through his personal imprint, Nightswan Press. Tom’s journalism has appeared in Rue Morgue, This Is Infamous, and House of Stitched Magazine. He lives in Central New York with his wife and a trio of Jack Russell terrier companions.
The God Provides —
The foothills of Upstate New York are alive with something terrifying. It hunts, it tempts, it traps, and there’s no escape. Thomas R Clark re-invents Irish Mythology and takes you on a bloody, emotional, and horrific journey back through time with the tale of the McEntire clan, and the devastating secrets they hold. The author of the Splatterpunk Awards nominated Bella’s Boys: A Tale of Cosmic Horror has crafted a story that’s part The Wicker Man and part Cycle of the Werewolf, but at the same time like nothing you’ve read before.
Meghan's House of Books 