Meghan: Hi, Sephera. Welcome to our annual Halloween Extravaganza, where we see how much Christmas we can take over with Halloween Halloween Halloween, which seems only right since Christmas does take over Halloween each year. Let’s get started: What is your favorite part of Halloween?
Sephera: I enjoy walking the streets on Halloween night and enjoying the decorations, the darkness, the children laughing with nervous delight in their costumes, and the electrical feel of the night when the veil between the worlds is thin.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?
Sephera: I enjoy seeing people dress in costumes.
Meghan: If Halloween is your favorite holiday (or even second favorite holiday), why?
Sephera: I love the excitement of people, even regular people who you don’t think like to have fun, considering what to wear and how they dress up. I love dressing up, I love how people are excited about being frightened, and I love to see all the imagination going into people’s costumes and decorations.
Meghan: What are you superstitious about?
Sephera: I’ve grown out of my superstitions, but I’ll still toss some salt over my shoulder if I spill any and I won’t walk under ladders.
Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?
Sephera: It changes all the time. Right now, I’m prone to enjoying Kylo Ren, Loki, and Dandy Mott.
Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?
Sephera: I suspect most would say for me that it’s the Lizzie Borden case since I’ve stayed overnight at her place several times, but I’m very intrigued by Jack the Ripper and even wrote about him in my novel Flesh Failure (which is part of Experiments in Terror on the SCREAM app). With Lizzie Borden, I’m 99% sure she committed the murder of her parents, so I don’t consider it unsolved. I’m also still wondering what happened to Flight MH370.
Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?
Sephera: These days, I’m not scared of any urban legends.
Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?
Sephera: I don’t have one as they are all horrific, despicable people.
Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie? How old were you when you read your first horror book?
Sephera: I don’t know how old I was or what I would consider horror. Some movies and TV shows freaked me out like Disney movies. The violence of the original Planet of the Apes franchise when I watched it in the theatre upset me greatly. Fairy tales were the original horror gateway drug for me. Stories such as original The Goose Girl, Cinderella, One Eye, Two Eyes, and Three Eyes, and many others terrified and upset me.
Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?
Sephera: When I was very young, I read the book Beautiful Joe which is not a horror novel but it’s gruesome and horrific and it upset me greatly. The horror novel that unsettled me for life (there are many) was The Shining. Stephen King was the new kid on the block back then and I was the perfect age as a teenager to be scared to death reading that book. I’ve never enjoyed a book so much before or since.
Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?
Sephera: When I was a kid, I walked into the room when my parents were watching some movie about a haunted voodoo doll statue thing, and they told me to leave. So I was terrified that thing would show up in my room. Also, there was a movie that I believe is called The Crawling Hand that I was watching on a Saturday afternoon Sir Graves Ghastly TV matinee. We could only get that channel sometimes, depending on which way the wind was blowing and how you positioned the antenna. An astronaut blew up in space and his hand was crawling around killing people, like jumping out of closets and stuff. The cable went out and I never saw the end of the movie, to this day, and was terrified for years of random crawling hands/arms that might suddenly appear on the top closet shelf to jump out at me and strangle me and so on. Years later, Frankenstein: The True Story also had a crawling arm/hand which continued the motif for my terror and I had to keep closing my eyes when they’d show it.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?
Sephera: Thriller
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?
Sephera: I love candy corn, those molasses kisses and Reese’s peanut butter cups. As a kid, I never ate chips so I hated getting those bags of chips with three chips in them.
Meghan: Thanks for stopping by today, Sephera. This was great fun getting to know you. Before you go, what are your go-to Halloween movies and books?
Sephera:
Movies:
Rosemary’s Baby
Poltergeist
Hellraiser
Books:
The Shining
Carrie
Boo-graphy:
Sèphera Girón is a horror novelist and screenwriter in Toronto. She has over twenty traditionally published books with more on the way. During the pandemic, she has reconnected with her screenwriting roots and has been working on several films and TV shows with hope of them being produced one day.
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Newest releases are on the brand new SCREAM: Chills and Thrills app. Three books that were previously published by Samhain Horror are now on SCREAM packaged as: A Penny Saved and Experiments in Terror. Read the first few chapters on the app for free.
See me recount a scary real life haunted house experience:
A Penny Saved —
Cora hoards pennies, and why not? Pennies have been obsolete in Canada for years so to find one is rare. Unfortunately, Cora’s obsession has conjured a demon who requires payment for the deals he can make for her. Cora rises up through the business world, as promised, but at what price? There’s a special place in hell for some people, and Cora’s spot has been reserved.
Experiments in Terror —
The secrets of life…and death! For centuries scientists have sought the secrets of life itself. However, these experiments have often gone very, very wrong. Gathered together in this volume for the first time are two novellas by Sephera Giron that show exactly how terrifying these attempts can be.
In Captured Souls, Dr. Miriam Frederick is determined to create the perfect human specimen-and the perfect lover-with decidedly unexpected results.
And in Flesh Failure, a young woman pulls herself out of a shallow grave to roam the foggy streets of Jack the Ripper’s London, desperate to find answers…and what she needs to remain alive!
Meghan's House of Books 