Horror fulfills an important part of human culture. Ancient societies were full of examples: The Chaos Monster in Mesopotamia, the Greek’s Minotaur and Gorgon, the tale of Beowulf, the Gumiho from Korea, and many others.
Confronting fearful mythic figures have been used to inspire, explain the unknowable, and to entertain. But they do more than that. Many times, a monster is pitiable, getting us to confront societal prejudices and unfair practices. For example, while Frankenstein’s monster is depicted differently in book and film, both are victims and cause us to question what is just and fair. So too with many of the figures of horror fiction and film.
While some contend that horror is inherently conservative, as the goal is to return to how things used to be, many times the reader or viewer of horror is actually asked to question the norms of society. When done well, horror can enlighten.
Ultimately, we need horror. Stephen King perhaps said it best: “We make up horrors to help us cope with the real ones.”
(This piece originally appeared in the author’s newsletter, The Haunted House of Herold. If interested in subscribing, contact the author at email@robertheroldauthor.com)
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!
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.
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?
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!
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.
Meghan: Hey Ramsey!! Welcome back to Meghan’s HAUNTED House of Books. It’s always a pleasure to have you here, and I thank you for taking time on this busy book-release day to join us here.
Yes, you read that right, everybody. Fellstones is out today. You can pick it up by following the link below: Flame Tree Publishing
Sorry about that. What were we talking about? Oh yeah… What is your favorite part of Halloween?
Ramsey: I have to say it has no great significance as a festival in Britain. There were attempts a few years back to situate it as an alternative Autumn event to Guy Fawkes Night, since it was felt there were too many accidents at private firework displays on 5 November. When I was a child it wasn’t celebrated locally at all, and so my only sense of it was through fiction—specifically, some of the great tales of Ray Bradbury. Ray made October uniquely his, both capturing its flavours and adding individual ones of his own. While you can read them at any time, they have a particular relevance to Halloween, and so I’ll name them as my favourite aspect thereof.
Meghan: Do you get scared easily?
Ramsey: No longer, but as a child I was—by films, by books, by my domestic life. I must have been three, maybe a little older, when I saw my first film, Disney’s Snow White. Elements in it terrified me—the unstable face in the magic mirror that doesn’t reflect the person in front of it, and even the sight of darkness beyond a window in the dwarfs’ cottage while they perform their song and dance, because I was sure something would appear out of the dark. M.R. James gave me many uneasy nights jut a few years later. As for my everyday experience, my parents were estranged when I was three but continued to live in the same house, which meant I hardly ever saw my father face to face—he became the footsteps on the stairs at night, the presence beyond a door that I dreaded might open. All this was exacerbated by my mother’s schizophrenic fantasies: for example, that he would poison us or creep into the bedroom to commit some terrible act. The neighbours were conspiring against her and writing a nightly radio soap opera that contained references to her and secret messages addressed to her, and so on. I had an interesting childhood, which has subsequently produced much literary material.
Meghan: What is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen and why?
Ramsey: Apart from Not I, that terrifying Beckettian tour de force performed by Billie Whitelaw (and enacted less intensely by Julianne Moore), all my candidates are the work of David Lynch. Some scenes in Fire Walk With Me affected me so profoundly I was close to leaving the first time I saw it, but I’ll go with Lost Highway, the first extended section of which in particular frightens me afresh on every viewing. I’ve concluded Lynch uses every element of film—lighting, camera placement and movement, staging, especially sound—as skillfully (if possibly instinctively) as Hitchcock, to convey the uncanny at its most indefinable and disturbing.
Meghan: Which horror movie murder did you find the most disturbing?
Ramsey: The protracted finale of Megan is Missing, a film I analyse and defend at length in Ramsey’s Rambles. The scene is appallingly convincing, not least in its banality.
Meghan: Is there a horror movie you refused to watch because the commercials scared you too much?
Ramsey: The trailer, do you mean? No, never. As for the other kind of commercials, I’d do my best to avoid any film interrupted by them and see it uninterrupted elsewhere.
Meghan: If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?
Ramsey: Night of the Demon, my all-time favourite, since you can avoid falling victim to the demon if you know how.
Meghan: If you were stuck as the protagonist in any horror movie, which would you choose?
Ramsey: The same, for the same reason.
Meghan: What is your all-time favorite scary monster or creature of the night?
Ramsey: The original King Kong, the greatest of all monsters in the greatest monster film.
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?
Ramsey: Alas, for reasons outlined above, I have none. Oddly enough, I’ve often been at World Fantasy Conventions in America over the season, but I don’t believe I’ve ever seen signs of the celebrations. Ah, hang on—in Baltimore in 1980 all the check-in staff at the Park Plaza were dressed as witches and pumpkins and the like. I think it was a pumpkin who proved loath to let Steve King have his room because he presented not a credit card (he had none in those days) but cash.
Meghan: What is your favorite horror or Halloween-themed song?
Ramsey: Horror uncanny enough for Halloween—Schubert’s Opus 1.
Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?
Ramsey: Samuel Beckett’s The Unnamable—one of the books I celebrated in an essay in The Book of Lists: Horror. It may be a protracted cry from the afterlife, or a narration by a limbless body displayed in a jar on a street, or by something even more featureless. I read it in a sitting one afternoon and have been haunted by it ever since. If it isn’t horror, I don’t know what is.
Meghan: What is the creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?
Ramsey: The room next to my workroom (where I’m writing this) has seen various uncanny manifestations over the decades we’ve lived in this house, and here’s the most extreme. Jenny and I had discussed befriending the room by spending the night up there together. During one of my attempts to let her sleep without my snoring I wakened at about two in the morning to discover that she’d decided to try the experiment. It was only when I opened my eyes and reached for her that I realised the silhouette next to me, its head on the other pillow, wasn’t Jenny. I tried for a very long time to move and cry out. Apparently I achieved the latter. In our bedroom on the floor below Jenny heard me make some kind of protest, but I’ve often exhorted her not to wake me if I’m having a nightmare, because I believe these dreams contain their own release mechanism, and I resent being taken out of them before the end. Jenny headed for the toilet on the middle floor, and when she returned I was still making the noise. Perhaps I was dreaming, in which case it had to be the longest nightmare, measured in objective time, that I’ve ever experienced. It consisted purely of lying in the bed I was actually in and trying to retreat from my companion. I admit to never having been so intensely terrified in my life. After minutes I found myself alone in the bed. I made myself turn over and close my eyes, but had a strong impression that a face was hovering very close to mine and waiting for me to look. Meanwhile, downstairs, Jenny felt an intruder sit beside her on our bed.
Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?
Meghan: What is the spookiest ghost story that you have ever heard?
Ramsey: I heard Graham Watkins tell this tale onstage at an American convention. He investigated haunted places, and had arranged to spend a night at a deserted mansion notorious for manifestations. He chose an upstairs room as his base of operations, and for several hours he heard ordinary domestic noises from downstairs—people talking, kitchen sounds and the like. After some hours he lost patience with them, as I recall, and declared as much aloud. At once there was silence, and he realised he’d alerted whatever was there to his presence. And then all the noises recommenced—directly outside the room he was in…
Meghan: In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?
Ramsey: My brain.
Meghan: Okay, let’s have some fun… Would you rather get bitten by a vampire or a werewolf?
Ramsey: A vampire, since it might give me a chance to experience immortality until I tired of it. A trip to Vasilema should do the job.
Meghan: Would you rather fight a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion?
Ramsey: Aliens—the less boring option, I’d hope.
Meghan: Would you rather drink zombie juice or eat dead bodies from the graveyard?
Ramsey: Neither. I find disgust nothing except tedious.
Meghan: Would you rather stay at the Poltergeist house or the Amityville house for a week?
Ramsey: Amityville if I wanted a quiet time, since the entire thing was a cynical hoax (which I said in a review as soon as I’d read the original book).
Meghan: Would you rather chew on a bitter melon with chilies or maggot-infested cheese?
Ramsey: I’ll take the melon.
Meghan: Would you rather drink from a witch’s cauldron or lick cotton candy made of spider webs?
Ramsey: If the cauldron conferred magical powers I’d take the risk.
Fellstones takes its name from seven objects on the village green. It’s where Paul Dunstan was adopted by the Staveleys after his parents died in an accident for which he blames himself. The way the Staveleys tried to control him made him move away and change his name. Why were they obsessed with a strange song he seemed to have made up as a child?
Now their daughter Adele has found him. By the time he discovers the cosmic truth about the stones, he may be trapped. There are other dark secrets he’ll discover, and memories to confront. The Fellstones dream, but they’re about to waken.
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?
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.
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.
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?
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.
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