Tag: Hellraiser

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Wesley Southard

megHan

Meghan: Hi Wesley! Welcome BACK to Meghan’s Haunted House of Books. It’s always a pleasure having you on. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Wesley: I think I like the fact that, for at least one month out of the year, most people get into the “horror spirit” to watch cool movies and decorate and celebrate with little kids. As someone who kind of lives Halloween most of the year, it’s fun to see others join in.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Wesley: Unfortunately. My wife can sneak up on me pretty easily and get me fairly often. Can’t say I’m a fan of it.

Meghan: What is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen and why?

Wesley: The Descent. Claustrophobia is a real bitch for me and that film hits all those nasty little buttons.

Meghan: Which horror movie murder did you find the most disturbing?

Wesley: Uncle Frank from Hellraiser. When he’s torn apart by all the hooks and chains at the end, it’s pretty unsettling, even though it cuts away pretty quickly.

Meghan: Is there a horror movie you refused to watch because the commercials scared you too much?

Wesley: Not that I can think of. I remember trailers for The Evil Dead remake were pretty wild and freaky. It’s a shame the film didn’t live up to the hype.

Meghan: If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?

Wesley: I guess any Romero zombie film. At least I’d have a fighting chance of getting away pretty easily.

Meghan: If you were stuck as the protagonist in any horror movie, which would you choose?

Wesley: Maybe Ethan Hawke in Daybreakers. I think being a vampire and then reverting back to human would be a very interesting experience.

Meghan: What is your all-time favorite scary monster or creature of the night?

Wesley: I’ve always been a big fan of vampires.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Wesley: I don’t really have one, but now that I’m a father, I’m hoping I can create some with my son.

Meghan: What is your favorite horror or Halloween-themed song?

Wesley: There’s a song in a Pinkfong and Baby Shark’s Space Adventure Netflix film called “Those Dry Bones” that I find to be particularly catchy.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Wesley: Wrath James White‘s The Resurrectionist. I find the idea of someone being able to kill you and then bring you back to life with zero memory of that happening to you incredibly gnarly.

Meghan: What is the creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?

Wesley: Agreed with the voices. If they were real or in my head, that’s up to you.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Wesley: DB Cooper

Meghan: What is the spookiest ghost story that you have ever heard?

Wesley: The Gray Lady, a ghost who haunts a library back home in Indiana.

Meghan: In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?

Wesley: Aluminum baseball bat. Don’t need a reload, won’t break, and a couple of swings will do the trick.

Meghan: Okay, Wesley. Let’s have some fun —

Would you rather get bitten by a vampire or a werewolf? Vampire bite.

Would you rather fight a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion? Zombie apocalypse.

Would you rather drink zombie juice or eat dead bodies from the graveyard? Neither?

Would you rather stay at the Poltergeist house or the Amityville house for a week? Poltergeist House, that way I can slide across the floors.

Would you rather chew on a bitter melon with chilies or maggot-infested cheese? Mmmm, squirmy cheese.

Would you rather drink from a witch’s cauldron or lick cotton candy made of spider webs? No thanks to the spiders.

Boo-graphy: Wesley Southard is the two-time Splatterpunk Award-Winning and Imadjinn Award-Winning author of The Betrayed, Closing Costs, One for the Road, Resisting Madness, Slaves to Gravity, Cruel Summer, Where the Devil Waits, The Final Gate, Try Again, and They Mostly Come at Night, as well as numerous short stories in various markets. Several of his works have also been translated into Italian and Spanish. He is a graduate of the Atlanta Institute of Music and he currently lives in South Central Pennsylvania with his wife and son.

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Cruel Summer — Melissa Braun is a broken woman. Only wanting what’s best for her family, she’s willing to do whatever it takes to mend her fractured relationship with her abusive boyfriend. In a last ditch effort, she hopes the sun and sand of a much-needed Florida vacation will bring them closer together.
Patrick Braun is a demoralized kid. Quiet and sullen, he only wants his mother to see her boyfriend’s crippling torment. After years of silence, he refuses to stand by and let the abuse continue to tear them apart.

Hoyt Rainey is a vile man. Unable to keep his hands to himself, he finally takes his anger one step too far. Only this time, he finds himself on the receiving end of his own punishment. Down and down he goes, plunging deeper into the dark blue abyss of the sea.

Melissa and Patrick finally believe they are safe, the trouble now behind them for good. They are wrong.

Gods never really stay dead-they only lie in wait. And when a beast as old as time discovers Hoyt…he, too, won’t stay gone for long.

The nights grow darker, the water flows colder, and the cruelty of summer lives on.

They Come Mostly at Night — A high class restaurant where the food brings out the worst in its patrons…

A man whose mind won’t stay inside his own body…

A mother and daughter’s trip to a zoo full of dead animals…

An Italian immigrant’s idea of the American Dream ripped from his grasp…

A mysterious woman’s unquenchable hunger for negative energy…

Darkness looms ahead in these eleven short stories from the Splatterpunk Award and Imadjinn Award-Winning author Wesley Southard.

Keep the lights on. It’s a long time before sunrise.

Resisting Madness — What drives a man mad?

Maybe it’s the death of a loved one…or the petrifying fear of hands around your throat…the dread of rejection…or maybe it’s the black, soulless eyes of a child that shatters your sanity…

Within these pages, delirium reigns supreme. You’ll discover how far a prisoner will go to be with his dying wife, and what lurks between the walls of that Louisiana jailhouse to keep him there. You’ll find out how deep a man can cut himself to dig out the past. You’ll meet a college professor whose fear of flying might be the least of his worries. And you’ll learn how a sister’s love for sweet treats can reunite a broken family…whether they want it or not.

Aliens and lot lizards…disembodied lips…the voice of God Himself…

Thirteen stories and a brand new novella from horror author Wesley Southard.

Within these pages, we all go a little mad…

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Joe Scipione

megHan

Meghan: Hi, Joe. Welcome to Meghan’s HAUNTED House of Horror. This is your first time here so thank you from all of us for taking time out of your schedule to join in our frivolities. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Joe: Even though I’m a horror writer, Halloween has always been more about dressing up in a funny way as opposed to being scary. The last few years, my daughter has decided that my family should dress up in themed costumes for Halloween. A few years ago we were all characters from the show Phineas & Ferb, last year we were Winnie the Pooh characters (I was Winnie the Pooh of course—I do a pretty mean Winnie the Pooh impression) and this year we will be doing Curious George characters. My son, who is going to be 16 even plays along every year so recently that has been a lot of fun.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Joe: Not really. Things that scare me the most are real life things as opposed to books and movies. If I was going to say one thing scares me the most it is something happening to my family. I do like when books, movies or TV shows make me feel uncomfortable and that’s the feeling I go for when I write something. If I make someone feel uncomfortable, or if they are cheering for the hero (Or hoping something terrible happens to the villain) in one of my stories then I think I’ve accomplished what I set out to do.

Meghan: What is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen and why?

Joe: After saying movies don’t usually scare me, I will saw Jaws is probably the movie that sticks with me the most. I grew up in Massachusetts and spent many summers on Cape Cod. Jaws was filmed on Martha’s Vineyard which is just off Cape Cod and there is always that little thought in the back of your head when you’re in the ocean there when you think a shark could come up and rip you in half. That is certainly and uncomfortable feeling I was talking about earlier.

Meghan: Which horror movie murder did you find the most disturbing?

Joe: I could go with Jaws again, but another of my favorite horror movies is Hellraiser. The death of Frank at the end when he has the hooks attached to him and they are pulling him in all different directions and stretching his face out always stuck with me as particularly brutal.

Meghan: Is there a horror movie you refused to watch because the commercials scared you too much?

Joe: No. I was actually never a big horror movie fan when I was younger (though I’ve always read a ton of horror) so I find that now that I’m older I’m trying to go back and see the horror movies of the 80’s and 90’s that I never saw.

Meghan: If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?

Joe: I’d have to go with Beetlejuice here. If I was going to be stuck in a scary movie, at least this way I’d be entertained at the same time. Also, who wouldn’t want to be a ghost?

Meghan: If you were stuck as the protagonist in any horror movie, which would you choose?

Joe: Defintely Danny Torrance from The Shining. Obviously there would be some trauma I’d have to work though, but at least I know I’d survive and then I’d have this incredible superpower for the rest of my life.

Meghan: What is your all-time favorite scary monster or creature of the night?

Joe: One of my favorite books of all time is It by Stephen King. I love the cast of characters and the fact that we get to see them as children and as adults. Pennywise has long been my favorite monster in movies or in books. What could be better than an evil clown with cosmic powers beyond anything most people would be able to comprehend?

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Joe: As I mentioned before, it’s a newer tradition, but themed family costumes has become my favorite thing about Halloween.

Meghan: What is your favorite horror or Halloween-themed song?

Joe: Its not necessarily Halloween-themed, but there is a song by Aerosmith called Voodoo, Medicine Man and it always gave off some creepy vibes for me. I listen to that song a lot when I’m trying to get in the mood to write a certain type of scene. The song is dark and starts off slow but builds to a loud, fast-paced ending that I always loved. The intro to the song was creepy as hell too.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Joe: I always have the same answer to this question and it’s a fairly newer book. The Cabin At the End of the World by Paul Tremblay is always going to be at the top of my list for questions like this. I can’t put my finger on one specific thing about the book that cause this to happen, but I read it in two days and the night after I started reading it, I couldn’t sleep. I kept falling asleep and waking up thinking about that book. The premise was great and the characters were so well written I think it just stuck with me like only a few other books have ever been able to do.

Meghan: What is the creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?

Joe: I wasn’t alone, but I was driving home from high school late one night for some reason. I was with a friend and we had to drive by a church in my hometown, which is directly across the street from the town common. It was probably around 7 or 8 at night, it was dark and cold out. Ass we drove by, I looked over into the common and there was a kid—maybe 6 years old—kneeling in the middle of the grass just staring up at the church. There was no one else around. I was so freaked out I made my friend turn around to see if the kid needed help. We hadn’t gone that far and when we got back the kid was gone. We would have been able to see him if he’d got up and left, he just disappeared. That creeped me out for a long time—still does.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Joe: I don’t know if this counts as an unsolved mystery or not, but the existence of life on other planets is fascinating to me and it always has been. The more we learn about just how large space is and how much stuff is out there, the more likely it becomes that there is other intelligent life somewhere on one of those planets. I hope in my life time we get some definitive proof of life outside of our little planet. Even if we do, it will continue to fascinate me. Of course, there might already be definitive proof that the public just doesn’t know about. 😊

Meghan: What is the spookiest ghost story that you have ever heard?

Joe: I can’t think of a specific one, but any ghost story that is based in reality I find so interesting. Just like I want aliens to be a real thing, I would love if there was some way to prove that ghosts exist.

Meghan: In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?

Joe: I don’t think I’d be able to kill all the zombies in a zombie apocalypse, so give me a good bomb shelter with plenty of food and water and plenty of books and I think I’ll be ok for a while.

Meghan: Okay, let’s have some fun… Would you rather get bitten by a vampire or a werewolf?

Joe: Vampire, 100%. Who wouldn’t want to be a vampire?

Meghan: Would you rather fight a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion?

Joe: Alien invasion. Put me right up front.

Meghan: Would you rather drink zombie juice or eat dead bodies from the graveyard?

Joe: I hate putting gross things in my mouth, even the thought of it makes me gag a little. That said, I could drink zombie juice like a shot and I’d have to chew up the dead body before I ate it, so give me those zombie juice shots all day.

Meghan: Would you rather stay at the Poltergeist house or the Amityville house for a week?

Joe: Poltergeist house.

Meghan: Would you rather chew on a bitter melon with chilies or maggot-infested cheese?

Joe: I love spicy foods so I’ll take the melon with chilies.

Meghan: Would you rather drink from a witch’s cauldron or lick cotton candy made of spider webs?

Joe: That’s a though one, but I don’t know what that witch is going to try to do to me, might turn me into a rat or something, so I’ll take the spider web cotton candy.

Boo-graphy: Joe Scipione lives in the suburbs of Chicago with his wife and two kids. He is the author of Perhaps She Will Die, Zoo: Eight Tales of Animal Horror, and Decay. His novellas, The Life & Times of Edward Morgan and Justice, are due out in 2023 from D&T Publishing. He is also a Senior Contributor at HorrorBound.net. When he’s not reading or writing, you can usually find him cheering on one of the Boston sports teams or walking around the lakes near his home.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Paul Flewitt

megHan

Meghan: Hi, Paul. Welcome back to Meghan’s HAUNTED House of Books and thank you for being a part of this year’s Halloween Extravaganza. Interesting fact for you: I was looking at post views for all of my Halloween celebrations over the years and I found that YOUR Clive Barker Retrospective in 2019 (Pt 1, Pt 2, Pt 3, Pt 4, Pt 5, Pt 6) has the most views of all GUEST BLOG POSTS in the history of me being a book blogger. Which I find super awesome. I should add that to the trivia next year!! What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Paul: I love getting together with the kids and getting dressed up. For my family and friends, Halloween is a big event. We have friends who have an annual, themed party, so the costumes and themes are planned for months in advance. We’ve done everything from Historic Villains, to Rocky Horror, to Scary Fairytales. It’s a hell of a lot of fun. I absolutely love it. The chance to just get together with my family and friends, have fun and revel in the darkness is amazing. It’s also the one night of the year where I’m not the weirdo, so that’s cool too.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Paul: Not really. Real life scares me far more than anything in books or in movies. For me, horror and Halloween is an escape from all of that crap we see in the news and, largely, have very little control over.

Meghan: What is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen and why?

Paul: Not so much scary, but one I vowed never to watch again was Salo. That movie works on several different levels. It’s disgusting for one thing, but is also very loosely based on true events. There were portions of that movie which made me feel physically sick. It’s certainly one you only ever need to watch once. If you watch horror movies for fun, that one certainly isn’t a good time.

Meghan: Which horror movie murder did you find the most disturbing?

Paul: Again, none really. Personally, I find the deaths in movies like American History X or The Shawshank Redemption to be far more disturbing because they’re there with a point and hit close to home. In horror, they’re mostly set pieces to get from one place to another. They’re like the finishing move in a wrestling match. From that standpoint, I appreciate how well they’re done than actually become disturbed by them.

That said, I think the way they rendered the second death of Georgie Denbrough in the first new It movie was really well done. That was pretty heartbreaking actually, and both the young actors really dug deep for that one.

Meghan: Is there a horror movie you refused to watch because the commercials scared you too much?

Paul: Nah, the only movies I really refused to watch are ones which just look too silly to even be funny. I’m talking about stuff like the Sharknado films, which I just can’t even approach. They have their audience, I’m sure, but I’m not among them.

I will admit though, I had to stop watching The Handmaid’s Tale after a while. That series just cut closer and closer to the bone after a while, and it started making me inordinately angry as I saw governments seemingly taking it as an instruction manual. I really enjoyed the series, but I just had to walk away from it for a while. And really, that has to be a compliment to the writers and actors.

Meghan: If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?

Paul: Would I want that? Really? I mean, if I had to choose one then it’d probably be the Scream franchise, because the antagonist is crap at his job and I’d have half a chance at survival.

Meghan: If you were stuck as the protagonist in any horror movie, which would you choose?

Paul: Again, why would I want that? Writers tend to enjoy torturing their protagonists, so why would you want to be in that position? Nah, this is one time I will advocate for being the protagonist in some sort of comedy.

Meghan: What is your all-time favorite scary monster or creature of the night?

Paul: Everyone who knows me (you included) knows the answer to this one. It’s Pinhead, from the Hellraiser movies. There’s a grace and elegance about that character, especially in the first two or three films. I appreciate that his appearances are used sparingly, and that his speeches are few and far between. He doesn’t say much, but when he does speak there’s usually a profundity in his statements which are breathtaking. That’s something I feel they got wrong as the franchise moved on and away from Barker’s original vision, and he quickly became a cheesy parody of what he was meant to be. Still, we have those first two or three movies.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Paul: Well, maybe not an official tradition, but the costume parties at my friends’ house is always the highlight. And, if they don’t happen for whatever reason, then it’s sitting down for a classic movie marathon with the kids, or just reading a good horror story.

Meghan: What is your favorite horror or Halloween-themed song?

Paul: I’m a big lover of horror movie soundtracks, so the first Hellraiser score is on pretty heavy rotation in my house. That, and the Phillip Glass piano music from Candyman. That’s something that Barker always got in his movies – a great score.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Paul: A very little-loved Barker novel called Mister B. Gone. As I’ve already said, I don’t really get scared or disturbed by books and movies, but that one I had to put down for a while. There are parts of the book where it’s like it’s talking directly to you. Now, I read it when my daughter was first born, so I wasn’t getting a lot of sleep at the time. So, reading it at the dead of night, with your wife snoring softly beside you, and the book starts threatening your family and describing their deaths. Yeah, that got to me at that point.

Meghan: What is the creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?

Paul: My wife says I’m a psychic black hole, so creepy things don’t really happen around me. I’ve walked into supposedly haunted places with people who are attuned to that kind of thing, and they say pretty much the same. So, I’ve never experienced anything which couldn’t be explained. It’s quite the disappointment really.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Paul: There are a few, and many of them offer inspiration for stories. Particularly though, Jack the Ripper is probably the main one. I do love anything to do with ghost ships, which I find absolutely fascinating.

Meghan: What is the spookiest ghost story that you have ever heard?

Paul: A lot of the stories by MR James, which I’ve just re-read. He really was a master of dark atmosphere, and reading his stuff on a dark night is truly creepy.

Meghan: In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?

Paul: Anyone with a dodgy leg… and my wife. Seriously, hear me out a moment.

So, if you’re being chased by a zombie horde, you’re going to want someone slower than you are, right? It buys you time to get away, so why not keep a person with a dodgy leg around?

And my wife because we recently went to an axe throwing centre and found that she has something of a natural talent for throwing pointy objects at things. So, she is definitely a weapon of choice in any situation.

Meghan: Okay, let’s have some fun… Would you rather get bitten by a vampire or a werewolf?

Paul: A vampire. That would be erotic as hell.

Meghan: Would you rather fight a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion?

Paul: Tough one. Are we talking traditional, slow zombies, or new style fast ones? If its traditional ones, then I’m taking them bastards all day long.

Meghan: Would you rather drink zombie juice or eat dead bodies from the graveyard?

Paul: Erm… neither sound particularly appetizing. Can I just stick with a JD, or a nice glass of red wine please?

Meghan: Would you rather stay at the Poltergeist house or the Amityville house for a week?

Paul: Oooh, neither of those, because we have our own version of that here in the UK. I’d stay there in a heartbeat, and take my pad and pen with me.

Meghan: Would you rather chew on a bitter melon with chilies or maggot-infested cheese?

Paul: Well, there’s a lot of protein in them maggots, you know?

Meghan: Would you rather drink from a witch’s cauldron or lick cotton candy made of spider webs?

Paul: Did you say cotton candy? I do like me some cotton candy …

Boo-graphy: Paul Flewitt is a horror and dark fantasy writer from Sheffield, UK, where he lives with his wife and two children.

Paul began publishing in 2012, beginning with the flash fiction story, Smoke, for OzHorrorCon’s Book of the Tribes anthology. He went on to pen further short stories, including Paradise Park, Climbing Out, Apartment 16c and Always Beneath.

In 2012, he also published his first novel, Poor Jeffrey, which was received to much critical acclaim.

His novelette, Defeating the Black Worm, was released in 2021, through Demain Publishing.

Paul cites writers such as Clive Barker, Stephen King, James Herbert, and JRR Tolkien as inspirations on his own writing.

Paul continues to write, contributing to Matt Shaw’s The Many Deaths of Edgar Allan Poe anthology in 2020 with The Last Horror of Dear Eddie. He also began releasing free short stories and fanfiction on his Wattpad account for fun.

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AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Jeff Parsons

megHan

Meghan: Hey, Jeff. I decided to wait and have your day as the last one in this year’s Halloween Extravaganza, so it’s been a wait, but I’m glad you’re here today. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Jeff: I loved taking my young girls out for Trick or Treating. The fresh mystery of experiencing this unique adventure through their eyes, well, it reminded me of my youth. It was a joy dressing up in costumes, visiting stranger’s Halloween-bedecked houses, and asking for candy.

[Spoiler alert] Nowadays, I like watching the interesting variety of movies that come out on television during the Halloween season. I’ll sometimes also deep dive into my personal stock of scary movies.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Jeff: As you know, I like watching scary movies, but along with that, I like splurging on a accompanying buffet of finger food, ice cream, and candy. Essentially anything contraband that violates common sense, my diet, and long-term health. Just sayin’, this includes chicken wings and home-made candy apples.

I haven’t done this yet, but I think going to haunted house events would be fun. I appreciate great acting and stage work.

Meghan: If Halloween is your favorite holiday (or even second favorite holiday), why?

Jeff: As a child, Halloween was second best, right behind Arbor Day Eve. Just joking, we didn’t worship trees. Much. The idea of getting Halloween candy was mind blowing for a kid. I’d run from house to house, carrying a shopping bag in each hand, nearing exhaustion but determined (can’t stop now). When I made it home, my loot was cross-examined by a board of family experts (hmmm, that large candy bar looks unsafe, we’d better eat it for you). After that, I was free to gorge myself silly into a weeks-long sugar frenzy.

Meghan: What are you superstitious about?

Jeff: Black cats, ladders, step on a crack, nope, nope, nope, no superstition.

I really don’t think I’m superstitious about anything, but I’m very interested in seemingly unconnected patterns in the way things turn out. There are too many coincidences beyond direct cause and effect. It’s almost as if we’re tapped into a greater connectivity, aren’t fully aware of it, but it keeps reminding us from time to time. Resorting to a thermodynamics explanation, our planet is essentially a closed system, so everything affects everything else in various degrees of effect.

Meghan: What/who is your favorite horror monster or villain?

Jeff: I think Clive Barker’s Hellraiser Cenobites are interesting. They were once ordinary people. Turned into demons, their real selves were trapped inside, undoubtedly in a state of perpetual torment. Kind of like working in a dead-end job? All this happened because they were insatiably curious about something best left alone. How often does the voice in our head warn us about things like that for no real discernable reason? Maybe we should listen to it more? Ya know, like, take a pass on solving extradimensional puzzle boxes?

Dexter on Showtime is fascinating. He protects the innocent by killing evil murderers. Despite being a monster, lacking in many emotions, he does care about people in his own way, and he’s shocked at the depth of evil in this world. Essentially, he’s dealing with a great chasm of emptiness inside him. When he was young, he was troubled about feeling nothing. This apparently can be just as bad as feeling too much. That is the path he has chosen – seeking a way to be emotionally connected to others.

Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?

Jeff: The original unsolved case – Jack the Ripper. The killer terrorized the dark alleys of Victorian England, wielding medical instruments with great precision… crazy, dangerous, and unstoppable. It was the modern genesis of pure, unspeakable evil. What sickness would drive someone to do that?

Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?

Jeff: This is more like a rural legend – the Night Hag – this scares me the most. The legend is part of my Newfoundland heritage. Hearing about it firsthand made it personal to me. Imagine a creature that attacks you when you’re most vulnerable: asleep, paralyzed, and helpless, but aware of everything happening to you.

Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?

Jeff: I don’t idolize serial killers. I’m fairly sure they don’t idolize me either. Well, maybe they could idolize my lifestyle, thinking, “Wow, I wish I could be boring too, maybe if I cut back on the killing, get myself into a good 12-step program.” But, all that said, I do find serial killers to be interesting. Evolution probably required sociopaths who could be fearless and unemotional. Good for dealing with sabre tooth tigers, telemarketers, and such.

For me, the most intriguing serial killer is John Wayne Gacy. He was an upstanding citizen in his community, yet he held such a horrible secret life. It’s frightening to know that we live alongside so many crazy people. Googled it – guesstimates ranged from 1 in 7 to 1 in 100 sociopaths amongst us. It’s quite likely you passed by one when you were at work, out and about, shopping, walking the dog… Hmm, might be a good idea to try your best to get along with people lest you anger the wrong one.

Meghan: How old were you when you saw your first horror movie? How old were you when you read your first horror book?

Jeff: First movie: Wizard of Oz. That’s uncut street-grade horror for a 5 year old. Flying monkeys. Haunted forest. Wicked Witch. Shiver.

When I was about 9, I started reading horror comics, but it took me until 13ish before I read my first horror book. To date myself, it was a short story anthology edited by Karl Edward Wagner. The pace of the stories was slower back then. That allowed for a bigger buildup of suspense that didn’t seem rushed or artificial. All the better to intrigue me…

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Jeff: City Infernal by Edward Lee. To actually experience what hell would be like is as disturbing as it is interesting. It’s like watching a slow train wreck – you can’t pull your eyes away from the overwhelming tragedy.

For cosmic level horror, most H.P. Lovecraft stories give me a lasting chill.

Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?

Jeff: The Exorcist. I’m spiritual, so anything intensely supernatural can have a lasting effect on me. I do watch many supernatural movies, sometimes out of curiosity or a face-my-fears kind of challenge.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?

Jeff: I never did this, but they have realistic skull faced masks now. Sold by King Trends. When going Trick or Treating, I’d wear a simple, black hooded cloak for simplicity, and keep my face hidden until greeting someone (then, the full skull face reveal). Of course, not in front of kids – don’t want to traumatize anyone.

Remember the clown frenzy a few years ago? Online, it almost appeared to be a supernatural manifestation. Think about this… If something evil wanted to appear to be harmless, a silly clown outfit would do the trick. Fodder for nightmares.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?

Jeff: Disney’s Haunted Mansion CD of sound bytes. It brings back fond memories of Disneyland. For truly scary, the classical Night On Bald Mountain by Mussorgsky is thought provoking.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween candy or treat? What is your most disappointing?

Jeff: White chocolate covered Reeses are the bomb. The worst comes from the past – wax bottle candy, liquid sugar-fueled shots, instant manic energy with a subsequent crash and burn quicker than a paralyzed falcon falling from the sky.

Meghan: Thanks again for stopping by. Before you go, what are your go-to Halloween movies?

Jeff:
Evil Dead, old and new
The Thing, old and new
Poltergeist
The Aliens series
The Witch
Sleepy Hollow
Hellraiser
Demon Knight

Family movies:
Hocus Pocus
The Addams Family series
The Haunted Mansion

Boo-graphy:
In addition to his two short story books, The Captivating Flames of Madness and Algorithm of Nightmares, Jeff Parsons is published in The Horror Zine, The Horror Zine’s Book of Ghost Stories, Aphelion Webzine, Year’s Best Hardcore Horror Volume 4, Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine, Chilling Ghost Short Stories, Dystopia Utopia Short Stories, Wax & Wane: A Coven of Witch Tales, Thinking Through Our Fingers, The Moving Finger Writes, Golden Prose & Poetry, Our Dance With Words, The Voices Within, Fireburst: The Inner Circle Writers’ Group, Second Flash Fiction Anthology 2018, SNM Horror Magazine, and Bonded by Blood IV/ V.

The Captivating Flames of Madness —
This book’s title comes from the reality that – like a moth to the flame – we’re all just one event, mishap, or decision away from things that could change our lives forever.

What would you do if fate led you astray into a grim world where you encountered vengeful ghosts, homicidal maniacs, ancient gods, apocalyptic nightmares, dark magic, deadly space aliens, and more?

If you dare, why not find out?

Read for yourself the twenty-two gloriously provocative tales that dwell within this book – but be warned, some of my dear readers have experienced lasting nightmares…

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Sephera Giron

megHan

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!