Tag: Psycho

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: C.R. Richards

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Meghan: It’s been a bit since you and I sat down last to talk. Welcome to this year’s Halloween Extravaganza. Thanks for stopping by. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

CRR: I love to read spooky stories year-round, but the special Halloween vibe takes “the scary” to a higher level. There is nothing like curling up under a blanket on a spooky October evening with a gripping ghost story.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

CRR: It takes some doing to scare the jaded adult me, but it can be done!

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

CRR: My mom and brother took me to The Omen (1976 version with Gregory Peck) when I was eleven. I remember we were at the drive-in, so I spent most of the movie hiding on the floor of our station wagon. That movie had a profound impact on me. It was the first time I contemplated what Evil was and how it could potentially harm me. I think my mom regretted taking me to see that movie. It gave me screaming nightmares for weeks. I haven’t watched the movie since.

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

CRR: Slasher movies have made viewers desensitized by fake gore. I feel it is true-to-life murders like the little girl’s killing in The Lovely Bones (2009 film based on the book) that are the most disturbing. It could happen to anyone in any neighborhood.

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

CRR: Yes! Paranormal Activity. I don’t know why, but it’s too creepy for me.

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

CRR: One of the classic Alfred Hitchcock movies like Psycho or The Birds. I love that era in Hollywood.

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

CRR: The Mummy (1999). It would be awesome to hang out with Brendan Fraser.

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

CRR: Dracula. He is the ultimate scary vampire (as they should be. No sparkly vamps, please).

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

CRR: I love handing out candy to the trick-or-treaters. Some of the costumes are so clever.

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

CRR: The theme from Psycho (1960). It’s immediately recognizable.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

CRR: There are two classic Occult novels by the same author team that keep me up at night. The First is The Cabinet of Curiosities by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. FBI Agent Pendergast chases a madman who mutilates his victims via dissection. The Second is one of my all-time favorite books, Still Life with Crows.  Killer in a small town who disappears without a trace.

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

CRR: I visited Boston several years ago and stayed in an old mill the owner had converted into condos. One night I heard someone slam open the front door. A man’s heavy boots stomped down the hall past my bedroom. I flipped on the light and crept to my sister’s room. We were the only people staying in the condo at the time. The front door was undisturbed, and I couldn’t see any uninvited guests. My sister told me the old mill was supposedly haunted by some workers who’d perished there over 100 years ago.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

CRR: I am fascinated by the Winchester Mystery House in San Jose, CA. Why did Sarah Winchester, widow of the famous rifle’s founder, build a house with stairs going nowhere and room layouts that don’t make sense? Was she really trying to avoid the ghosts of the rifle’s victims? Or was she insane? Visiting the house is on my bucket list.

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

CRR: The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. It’s a hard one to beat.

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

CRR: I’d go with a cricket bat as an homage to the movie Shaun of the Dead with Simon Pegg.

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

CRR: Vampire!

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

CRR: Let me at those zombies!

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

CRR: Zombie juice, of course!

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

CRR: Poltergeist house.

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

CRR: Yuck! I think I’d have to take the melon.

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

CRR: I wouldn’t mind trying the spider web cotton candy if I could add pumpkin spice.

Boo-graphy: C. R. Richards is the award-winning author of The Mutant Casebook Series. Her literary career began as a part-time columnist for a small entertainment newspaper. She wore several hats: food critic, entertainment reviewer, and cranky editor. A lover of horror and dark fantasy stories, she enjoys telling tales of intrigue and adventure. Her most recent literary projects include the new historical dark fantasy thriller The Vengeful Dead and the epic dark fantasy series Heart of The Warrior. She is an affiliate member of the Horror Writers Association.

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The Vengeful Dead
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The Dead don’t always rest in peace.

Dunham Raynor is a second-rate psychic traveling with a rundown medicine show. Months after the end of the American Civil War, Dun and his partners head west with dreams of easy wealth. They finally have a chance to make some real money when they cross paths with a murderess in a s small Missouri town. The blackmail job is sure to give their band of swindlers the stake they need to reach San Francisco. But luck is a fickle mistress.

Marked by magic as a youth, Dun isn’t the fake he pretends to be. His mysterious tattoo of an Ouroboros allows him to see and speak with the Dead. When the ghost of a Confederate soldier arfrives with a dire warning about the little town’s imminent destruction, Dun must choose between loyalty and his own skin.

The Undead never forget.

Dun tries to escape his past by traveling west along the Santa Fe Trail, but vicious killers haunt his every step. Their ruthless games turn deadly as Dun’s new traveling companions are brutally slaughtered. Are the supernatural hunters bent on delivering justice, or is the Necromancer holding their leash after revenge? The answer lies in the living Ouroboros embedded in Dun’s chest.

GUEST POST: Tommy B Smith

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Opening Themes

Who remembers Tales from the Darkside? Can you recall that introductory sequence, the slow trip through the woods, the eerie theme music, building tension until the scene flips, colors invert, and the organ lands its ominous final note?

It imparts a sense of unease, atmospheric tension. To halt the viewing experience at this point is to leave the details of the “darkside,” an alternate place which exists in the long twilight shadows of the world, to the viewer’s imagination.

The imagination can be powerful, intimidating, and sometimes inescapable.

Speaking of horror anthology television shows of the 1980s, another opening theme that comes to mind is that of The Hitchhiker. Late at night, the opening beat would start with a hitchhiker’s solitary walk down a dirt road between desolate hills and past a rock formation. It’s this aspect I remember most of all: the setting, the sense of isolation, and minimal accompanying theme music. But from an objective standpoint, it’s just a man walking, isn’t it? Or is it?

There is more to the picture, we sense, a crucial detail askew, and more to come. As the scene fades out, this lingers on our thoughts.

Reaching even further back, I could go on to speak of The Twilight Zone, the original version created by Rod Serling, one of my favorite television shows of all time and an early influence on my work as a writer. Its theme and opening sequence needs no introduction.

Visiting an old, abandoned barn, happening across an unusual cemetery to which no road leads, or a mere stroll through the woods might serve to stir these avenues of the imagination. A late-night drive along old roads, such as one I made years back to find the Joplin Spooklight, or walking the perimeter of a school at night, with bulbs casting faint illumination across each of the locked entrances. While the building appears abandoned for the moment, the heavy silence echoes an unspoken question: are we alone here? Or are we being watched at this very moment?

Frightening? Maybe. Better yet, inspiring. Prominent fuel for an opening theme, if only in our own minds.

Looking for audio inspiration? Check out some horror film and television soundtracks such as Bernard Herrmann’s original Psycho score, 1979’s Phantasm, composed by Fred Myrow and Malcolm Seagrave, or the soundtrack to Stranger Things. John Carpenter is another who doesn’t disappoint. Look to Lost Themes for musical scores to films that never actually happened.

Every horror story must have its beginning, after all, whether the beginning of the end, a stab of sheer terror, or a moment’s speculation that leaves us uncertain but wondering, unable to turn away. It begins with the senses—the sights, the sounds—and in the darker spaces of the imagination, culminates in the question: what next?

Boo-graphy:
Tommy B Smith is a writer of horror and dark fiction, award-winning author of The Mourner’s Cradle, Poisonous, and the forthcoming Black Carmenia series. His presence currently infests Fort Smith, Arkansas, where he resides with his wife and cats.

Black Carmenia 1:
New Era
Insomnia. Headaches. Fear.

It drove Marjorie down, cost her a career, and almost destroyed her marriage. When she and her husband Terry escaped to the quiet green countryside west of the Mississippi River, their new home, it seemed too good to last.

The snake-ridden adjoining property, bordered by a row of maple trees, hosts a deadly secret. There the blood of fields and innocents stain the crumbling ruins of an old farmhouse, a decaying testament to a web of treachery and murder stretching back to distant times.

The horror in the ruins watches in wait. Marjorie fears the end, and the end is coming.

GUEST POST: Thomas Smith

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Halloween via Time Machine – or – How to Haunt a House

When I received the request to write this post I was whisked away in my mental time machine and deposited smack dab in the middle of Halloween in the 1960s.

Bobby “Boris” Pickett was singing his new song, Monster Mash, on the radio. A day or so before the big day itself, televisions all over the country were following the antics of the Peanuts gang in a new TV special: It’s the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown. And in theaters everywhere, there were new movies unlike anything we’d ever seen before, each one guaranteed to make you sleep with a night light:

Night of the Living Dead, The Birds, and Norman Bates as the ultimate mama’s boy in Psycho loomed large on the big screen for those brave enough to keep their eyes open.

And when Halloween finally arrived, a legion of ghosts, goblins, clowns, ballerinas, and hobos came home with bags and plastic jack-o-lanterns filled with apples, oranges, Baby Ruths (regular and minis), Butterfingers (regular and minis), Saf-T-Pops (complete with heavy string loops instead of a stick), Dubble Bubble Gum, Snickers, Milky Ways, Forever Yours Bars, Kraft Caramels, B. B. Bats, wax lips, wax fangs, and boxes of Boston Baked Beans.

And almost every character that wasn’t created at someone’s mother’s sewing machine came from a cardboard box with a cellophane front from either Collegeville, or Ben Cooper. They were the huge Halloween costume companies in the 1950s and 1960s. If you really wanted to be cool, Ben Cooper’s clown, devil, princess, dragon, and spooky monster costumes had flashing lights in the mask. But Collegeville, not to be outdone, had some of the coolest costumes with their Gorilla, Ghoul, Monster, Body Snatcher, and Weird-O, Fink costumes.

Now none of the boxed costumes fit worth a dang, but we didn’t care. A rip here and a patch there (always in the back) and who’s to know? Besides, if you were wearing the Planet of the Apes, Batman, Superman, Hobo, Frankenstein, ghost, and mummy costumes (the very latest and greatest of the day), it was worth it.

Meanwhile, in the middle of all of this Halloween spectacle, my brother and I were waiting in the basement of our house to cap off Halloween in style. We worked for the previous two or three days to get everything just right. Then we went trick-or-treating with the first wave of costumed candy beggars so we could be back in time for the opening of Thomas and Paul’s Haunted Basement.

OK, the title wasn’t terribly original, but for the early 1960s, we were the only game in town (in our particular town at least). We took turns standing in the outdoor entrance to the basement and ushered the unsuspecting costumed customers (admission fee was one candy bar) into a maze of glowing cardboard skeletons, a ghost that moved and floated in the corner of the basement (thanks to an old screen door spring and a string), rubber bats that dropped out of the darkness above onto their victims’ various noggins, a bowl of grapes coated with a little vegetable oil and placed in a black box labeled EYEBALLS with a hole cut out just big enough for a victims hand), a Frankenstein’s monster (each of us in turn, in costume) that would jump out and growl menacingly (as if there’s any other way for the creation of Victor Frankenstein to growl) and watch the guys finch and the girls scream.

Then there was the scary movie.

We would get an 8mm copy of Frankenstein vs The Wolfman from the local Public library (the original movie condensed to approximately five minutes) and coupled with a homemade soundtrack from the Chilling, Thrilling Sounds of the Haunted House record (copied onto a reel-to-reel tape recorder to correspond with the movie scenes), we had the perfect ending to a horrifying (hey, I was nine years old in the 60s) trek through the darkness.

I went trick-or-treating a lot after that. And I’ve been through some really good professionally staged haunted houses. But I’ve gotta be honest.

I’d love to go through Thomas and Paul’s Haunted Basement just one more time.

Boo-graphy:
Thomas is an award-winning writer, essayist, playwright, reporter, TV news producer, and a three-time American Christian Writers Association Writer of the Year. His work has appeared in numerous publications from Writer’s Digest and Exploring Alaska, to The Horror Zine and Cemetery Dance magazine.

He has written for many publishers including Grinning Skull Press, Zondervan, Barnes & Noble Books, Adams Media, Chronicle Books, Borderlands Press, Barbour Publishing, Pocket Books, and Cemetery Dance Publications. Two of his short stories (Mother and Child Reunion and The Heart is a Determined Hunter) have appeared on Tales to Terrify, and his short story, A Rustle of Owls’ Wings, has been adapted for the stage.

Thomas has written jokes for Joan Rivers and his comedy material has been performed on The Tonight Show.

He is also, quite possibly, the only writer in captivity to have been included in collections with Stephen King, and the Rev. Rick Warren in the same week.

And other than author bios, he rarely refers to himself in the third person.

Rarely.

Something Stirs
Ben Chalmers is a successful novelist. His wife, Rachel, is a fledgling artist with a promising career, and their daughter, Stacy, is the joy of their lives. Ben’s novels have made enough money for him to provide a dream home for his family. But there is a force at work-a dark, chilling, ruthless force that has become part of the very fabric of their new home.

A malevolent entity becomes trapped in the wood and stone of the house and it will do whatever it takes to find a way to complete its bloody transference to our world.

Local sheriff, Elizabeth Cantrell, and former pastor-turned-cabinetmaker, Jim Perry, are drawn into the family’s life as the entity manipulates the house with devastating results. And it won’t stop until it gets what it wants. Even if it costs them their faith, their sanity, and their lives.

Monsters
“I killed my parents when I was thirteen years old.”

And now, with the murder of Missy Blake twenty-two years later, it’s time for Jack Greene to finish what he started.

When the co-ed’s mutilated body is found, the police are clueless, but Jack knows what killed the pretty college student; he’s been hunting it for years. The hunt has been going on for too long, though, and Jack wants to end it, but he can’t do it alone. The local police aren’t equipped to handle the monster in their midst, so Jack recruits Major Kelly Langston, and together they set out to rid the world of this murdering creature once and for all.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Robert Herold

megHan

Meghan: Hi Robert. Welcome back to Meghan’s HAUNTED House of Books. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Robert: Where do I start! I love the energy associated with the holiday. For a while, even those who say they don’t like scary books and films, get filled with the spirit. (Pun intended!) One of my favorite parts of Halloween is the great yard displays. My wife and I discovered an amazing display last year. It’s on 17th Ave NE, one half block north of NE 125th, for all you Seattle area folks!!

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Robert: Hmmm… Not really, but I do get a tingly feeling on the back of my neck as the hairs stand up.

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

Robert: Black Sunday (aka The Mask of Satan). This 1960 Mario Bava movie about witchcraft featured Barbara Steele as a witch who was put to death in a gruesome way. A spiked mask was hammered onto her head in the prologue. At this point, as a ten-year-old, I turned off the TV and hid under the covers of my bed! I revisited the film as an adult, and it holds up well. For you readers who like classic horror flicks, check this out!

For modern chills, I recommend The Witch (a masterpiece of folk horror), the original Exorcist, and Alien for tension and scares.

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

Robert: Janet Leigh’s death in Psycho. We are all vulnerable in the shower! Her character just decided to return the money she stole, making her that much more sympathetic. Hitchcock did a masterful job!

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

Robert: Nope. In fact, a pet peeve of mine is movie trailers that reveal too much and thereby ruin the film. Far too common nowadays. Trailers should convey the premise and tone of the film, enticing the viewer, not reveal 95% of the plot.

Meghan: If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?
The Exorcist, Ellen Burstyn was hot!

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

Robert: I’d choose Dana Andrews’ character in Curse of the Demon. Peggy Cummins was hot!

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

Robert: Hands down, or paws down, it would be the Wolfman. As a child I wanted nothing more than to be the Wolfman. Fresh snow provided me the opportunity to walk out onto neighbor’s lawns halfway and make paw prints with my fingers as far as I could stretch. I would retrace the paw and boot prints, then fetch the neighbor kids and point out that someone turned into a werewolf on their front lawn! (They were skeptical.)

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Robert: Checking out Halloween displays in the area.

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

Robert: There so many! I guess my favorite would be “The Monster Mash.” On my Facebook page is a film clip of me singing (apologies to Bobby “Boris” Pickett) my rendition when performing with a local band, The Rainy City Riff Raff. Here’s the link, if you dare (sorry the video quality is poor).

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Robert: My first reading of The Shining. I was alone in my apartment at the time, it was evening, and just as I was reading the scene about room 217 (Kubrick changed it to 237 for the movie), a thunder and lightning storm occurred. Then the power went out!

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

Robert: See previous answer. ☺

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Robert: Loch Ness Monster. It would be pretty nifty to have the Nessie in there paddling about!

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

Robert: A movie theater in Seattle, The Harvard Exit, is now the Mexican Consulate. In its movie house days, there were a number of ghostly events. I spoke to the staff and they mentioned several spooky encounters. One was the sound of women talking, but when staff person entered the room, no one was there. She also reported that a radio would turn on inexplicably. A manager reportedly came to work one day before anyone else. When she entered the lobby, the fire was lit, lights were on, and chairs were circled around the fire. The place used to be women’s club. I attended many films there over the years, and the spookiest thing I ever saw was a rat running across the stage!

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

Robert: A pen. As we all know, the pen is mightier than the sword. In this case, I would write myself a survival scenario!

Meghan: Let’s have some fun! Would you rather get bitten by a vampire or a werewolf?

Robert: A werewolf. Not only have I wanted to be one since I was a boy, but you would get to live normally for most of each month.

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

Robert: An alien invasion has more opportunities for interesting technology and perhaps alien sympathizers. You can’t reason with a zombie!

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

Robert: How old are the bodies? Can they be served up with gravy? Hollandaise sauce? Bearnaise?

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

Robert: The Poltergeist house. It has a swimming pool!

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

Robert: Cheese. I like cheese. (Maggots would provide extra protein!)

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

Robert: A witch’s caldron. It might be tasty, having subtle flavors that can only come from fillet of a fenny snake, along with eye of newt and toe of frog, wool of bat and tongue of dog, adder’s fork and blind-worm’s sting, lizard’s leg and owlet’s wing!

Boo-graphy:
The supernatural has always had the allure of a forbidden fruit, ever since my mother refused to allow me, as a boy, to watch creature features on late night TV. She caved in. (Well, not literally!)

While other kids my age wanted to grow up to be doctors, firefighters, spacemen, and the like, I wanted to be a werewolf.

I have pursued my interests over the years (including playing the sax and flute, and teaching middle school history for 36 years), but supernatural writing always called to me. You could say that I was haunted. Ultimately, I hope my books give you the creeps, and I mean that in the best way possible!

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The Eidola Project – The Eidola Project is a 19th century team of ghost hunters who become ensnared in a deadly investigation of a haunted house. They are a psychology professor, his assistant, an African-American physicist, a young sideshow medium, and a traumatized Civil War veteran, each possessing unique strengths and weaknesses. Will any of them survive?

Moonlight Becomes You – The Eidola Project travels to Petersburg, Virginia, to investigate a series of murders in the Black community—rumored to be caused by a werewolf. Once there, danger comes from all quarters. Not only do they face threats from the supernatural, the KKK objects to the team’s activities, and the group is falling apart. Can they overcome their human frailties to defeat the evil that surrounds them?

Totem of Terror – The Eidola Project, a team of 19th Century ghost hunters, have been tasked with trying to stop a deadly shapeshifting demon attacking the native people of La Push, on the Washington Coast. The team brings their own demons with them, in the form of drug addiction, a werewolf’s curse, and being in mourning from the death of a loved one. Can they rise to this new challenge, or will they face the same grisly end as the shapeshifter’s other victims?

Witch Ever Way You Go
When an ill-fated graduate student and his girlfriend are lured into a terrifying world of witchcraft and murder, they become targets for human sacrifice. Is there a chance they can escape a bloodthirsty coven of witches and certain death until the curse is lifted? A spellbinding story of modern horror.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Davide Tarsitano

megHan

Meghan: Hi Davide. Welcome to Meghan’s HAUNTED House of Books! What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Davide: I like the atmosphere, the weather and I love the costumes and the masking.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Davide: I don’t get spooked very easily.

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

Davide: One that I found really disturbing is The Strangers. People are capable of real horror; reality is way scarier than any horror fiction.

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

Davide: In the movie Hereditary I found Charlie’s death to be quite disturbing

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

Davide: Nope, the scarier the better.

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

Davide: The Mist would be a pretty cool set. I love that story from Stephen King.

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

Davide: Norman Bates in Psycho.

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

Davide: Pennywise.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Davide: Read, read and read, then watch a scary movie and start reading horror books again.

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

Davide: The theme from the movie “Halloween” is just something else.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Davide: If I exclude my novels ☺, probably Desperation by Stephen King.

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

Davide: While I was sleeping in a teepee tent in the monument valley I kept hearing someone thumping at the tent from outside. Every time I went checking outside there was no one. No prints in the sand, nothing. I’m pretty sure it was an unfriendly native American spirit.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Davide: The assassination of JFK is probably at the top of the list.

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

Davide: Stolen Tongues by Felix Blackwell is such a well-crafted and creepy story. The Haunting of Hill House is also among my favorites.

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

Davide: Shotgun.

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

Davide: Vampire

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

Davide: Zombie apocalypse

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

Davide: Jeez. I’m going to have to go with zombie juice, whatever that is.

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

Davide: Amityville

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

Davide: Melon.

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

Davide: Drink from the witch’s cauldron.

Boo-graphy:
Davide Tarsitano is an author of novels and short stories.

He was born in Italy in 1989. He was raised in Cosenza, a small town in the south, and educated in its public schools. He eventually found his way to University of Calabria and to University of Modena and Reggio Emilia where he graduated, respectively, in Mechanical Engineering and Automotive Engineering. He currently works in the race car industry in North America.

Meanwhile, at the age of seven, he found the passion of his life when his dad brought him a book from the Goosebumps series by RL Stine named Night of the Living Dummy. This escalated quickly, inevitably leading him to Edgar Allan Poe, HP Lovecraft, and Stephen King.

By the time he was fourteen, he had written short stories and a full screenplay of a horror movie, never produced. In the following years his interest broadened towards cosmic horror, science fiction, and dystopian fiction.

He met his wife in 2016 and married her in 2019.

In 2018 he started to write his first horror novel, The Tooth Fairy, which represents his debut as an author.

Johnny Hawk is a successful entrepreneur in the tech field, escaping from his former life after an utter breakdown. During his trip across the country, his route crosses with Wendy Jag, a beautiful woman who works as a dentist in New Mexico.

As the attraction between the two lost souls escalates furiously, they engage in a passionate and daring physical affair. For the first time in a while Johnny finds some peace and hope for the future. 

But he cannot imagine that behind those innocent and deep eyes Wendy is a profoundly disturbed woman, tormented by the demons of her past: a childhood made of abuses, losses and nightmares filled with darkness. As Wendy’s feelings for Johnny grow stronger, the fight inside Wendy’s chaotic subconscious begins. 

The Tooth Fairy, a dormant and malevolent side of her personality is reawakening, silently awaiting…to take over.