Meghan: Hi Thomas. Welcome to Meghan’s HAUNTED House of Books. I’m glad you could join us today. What is your favorite part of Halloween?
Thomas: When I was younger I used to like setting up a haunted house in our basement with my brother (more about that later in the Extravaganza). I like haunted hayrides and monster movie marathons. And for the last 20 years I have enjoyed the Halloween Express that came through our neighborhood. Some of the parents started with a lawn tractor and attached a couple of wagons full of kids in their Halloween costumes. And as the years progressed and kids became more numerous, it became an ATV pulling five decorated floats with lights and sound. All loaded with trick-or-treaters. Parents and kids all having a blast.
Meghan: Do you get scared easily?
Thomas: Not really. Unless it’s snakes. Then, all bets are off. I will run over an elderly nun to get away from a snake.
Meghan: What is the scariest movie you’ve ever seen and why?
Thomas: I wish I could remember the title. It was probably made in the late 50s or early 60s. It had to do with a serial killer who the police thought had died at the end of the movie. When everyone had left the scene, the killer comes out of the darkness, turns to look directly at the audience (me, I know he was looking at me) and said something very close to, “If you tell them I’m alive, you’re next.” And even though I’ve seen easily hundreds of horror movies since then, that one still gives me the creeps.
Meghan: Which horror movie murder did you find the most disturbing?
Thomas: While this is more of a mercy killing, David Drayton’s killing of his companions (including his son) in The Mist just moments before the military shows up to rescue them is still up there at the top of the list. Especially after his expression/reaction when the unexpected help arrives.
Meghan: Is there a horror movie you refused to watch because the commercials scared you too much?
Thomas: Not really. But there are some (The Human Centipede, a Serbian Film) that the descriptions were enough to make me say no thanks.
Meghan: If you got trapped in one scary movie, which would you choose?
Thomas: Frankenstein (1931)
Meghan: If you were stuck as the protagonist in any horror movie, which would you choose?
Thomas: Quatermass in Quatermass and the Pit
Meghan: What is your all-time favorite scary monster or creature of the night?
Thomas: The wolfman
Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?
Thomas: Watching all night horror movie marathons
Meghan: What is your favorite horror or Halloween-themed song?
Thomas: For fun, it would be Screamin’ Jay Hawkins’ I Put a Spell on You and for just general creepiness, Mike Oldfield’s Tubular Bells or John Carpenter’s Halloween Theme.
Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?
Thomas: When The Amityville Horror first came out, that was intense. It took me a while to finish it. Then I didn’t want to be able to see it on the shelf, so I turned it around backwards for a while.
Meghan: What is the creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?
Thomas: Years ago, we lived in a house on the White Oak river and on this particular night, my wife was working the night shift at the hospital. So, I was the only one at home. I had just home about 12:45 a.m. from visiting a dying church member (I was a minister back then) at a different hospital and thought I’d read a little before going to bed. I had just opened my book when I heard a drawer slide open in the kitchen (they tended to stick, so there was always a scraping noise when we opened a drawer) and heard what sounded like someone rummaging through the drawer as if looking for something. I grabbed the shotgun in the corner and ran into the kitchen. All the drawers were closed, the kitchen door was closed and locked, and there was nobody there.
Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?
Thomas: The Lost Colony has always fascinated me. How did all those people just disappear? In fact, I wrote a story recently about what might have happened to the people on Roanoke Island, the Mary Celeste, the town of Hoer Verde, Brazil, and the fishing village on Lake Anjikuni in Canada (and the editor I sent it to likes the concept). And if my theory is right, we’re all in trouble.
Meghan: What is the spookiest ghost story that you have ever heard?
Thomas: The Haunted Doll’s House by M. R. James
Meghan: In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?
Thomas: A Mossberg 930 SPX Tactical Shotgun and a lot of buckshot. I also wouldn’t mind having an Infantry Kukri-Sword. That 15-inch blade would relieve a zombie of his/her noggin pretty quick.
Meghan: Let’s have some fun… Would you rather get bitten by a vampire or a werewolf?
Thomas: Werewolf
Meghan: Would you rather fight a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion?
Thomas: Zombie Apocalypse
Meghan: Would you rather drink zombie juice or eat dead bodies from the graveyard?
Thomas: Drink Zombie juice
Meghan: Would you rather stay at the Poltergeist house or the Amityville house for a week?
Thomas: The Poltergeist house
Meghan: Would you rather chew on a bitter melon with chilies or maggot-infested cheese?
Thomas: Maggot infested cheese
Meghan: Would you rather drink from a witch’s cauldron or lick cotton candy made of spider webs?
Thomas: Lick cotton candy made of spider webs
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.
Meghan's Haunted House of Books 