Our next author, as long as he takes part in our annual Halloween Extravaganzas, will always be on November 1st. Why? Because today is his birthday – and what better way to celebrate than to have him on to share more about the awesomeness that is he.
Meghan: Hey, Mike!! Welcome back! It’s always a pleasure to have you on the blog. Thanks for stopping by. Now that all the niceties are out of the way, let’s get started. What is your favorite part of Halloween?
Mike: It is different in Texas, less a spectacle, but that may be because I have gotten old and lost the joy. As a kid it was the cool autumn air, the threat of snow lingering, and of course, my birthday being the next day. Most kids just get candy, bit I got paraded to relatives’ houses and showered with gifts as well in my scratchy plastic Spiderman costume.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?
Mike: I grew up poor, so we didn’t do pumpkins or decorations. Halloween was always a rush to get ready and then stomp through the leaves as my parents sat smoking in the rusted red Chevy Nova down the block. I try to read one horror book in October, time permitting. I am lame. I don’t do holidays.
Meghan: If Halloween is your favorite holiday (or even second favorite holiday), why?
Mike: It would definitely be my favorite because I am a child of Autumn. The pressure isn’t there like other holidays to scrabble together a meal or buy gifts. An excuse to dress up and get wasted.
Meghan: What are you superstitious about?
Mike: So much. My anxiety is fierce. I don’t know if I am superstitious, or just so used to things going badly. I toss salt over my shoulder and avoid going under ladders. But I love black kitties and go out of my way be in one’s path.
Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?
Mike: I like it when man is the villain. Dr. Decker from Nightbreed. Hannibal Lecter. Though I have a great affection for the Universal Monsters, the tragedy of them resonates.
Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?
Mike: Black Dahlia or Jack the Ripper.
Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?
Mike: Any of them with a siren luring men to their doom. I know just how much of a hopeless romantic I am, and that I would for sure heed the call.
Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?
Mike: HH Holmes. He built a murder house in the middle of the World’s Fair.
Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie? How old were you when you read your first horror book?
Mike: First movie was The Hand with Sir Michael Caine. I was so young. Every shadow was that effing hand scurrying in the darkness for weeks after. First book was a collection of Poe in first grade. It didn’t scare me, but it opened my eyes to a whole new world.
Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?
Mike: The first half of Heart Shaped Box, when it was still a ghost story. It went to crap when he over explained everything and it turned into one of his dad’s books. But that first half was amazing.
Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?
Mike: I grew up with Faces of Death, so nothing really affected me after. I think The Autopsy of Jane Doe might have scared me the most.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?
Mike: One year I got a zoot suit and that was pretty awesome.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?
Mike: I don’t know really. I guess anything by the Misfits.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?
Mike: I like sour fruity candy. Anything else is just gross.
Meghan: This has been great fun, as usual. Before you go, what are your go-to Halloween movies?
Mike: Halloween 1 and 2 (original) are the best.
Boo-graphy:
M Ennenbach. Poet. Author. Member of Cerberus. Mike has four collections of poetry, two chapbooks, a collection of shorts, a Splatter Western, the debut by Cerberus, and thirty some anthology appearances in his three years of writing. He writes a lot of horror, but depressing and absurd literature is his sweet spot. He writes on his blog on a daily basis, mostly poetry with a smattering of fiction and news. He works with Eleanor Merry at Macabre Ladies Publishing, and they have exciting things on the horizon.
(un)poetic —
Unscaled highs, perilous lows; this is a journey filled with both. A free form dance in the form of poetry; tended with loving care that drips sorrow. Darkness tinged with hope, forged in the fires of life. Of the sea, of the stars, of the night air as the sun breaks on the horizon. A desperate love, in the guise of loving desperation.
(un)poetic is anything but.
No rules. Just pure expression poured on the page with shaking hands and envisioned through tear-filled eyes. This is different, this is new. Raw. This is poetry, here and now.
(un)fettered —
to soar free of inhibition. a collection of poetry that skims the surface of fathomless emotion, leaving waves across the placid sea. m ennenbach plumbs these ripples in search of connection. sometimes the only answer is to tear down everything and examine it in its basest form. (un)fettered.
(un)requited —
unwanted. unfulfilled. unworthy. in the moment you offer every bit of yourself, mind body and soul, only to find you were not enough. broken hearted and alone. (un)requited.
Meghan's Haunted House of Books 