Tag: The Girl Next Door

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Christina Bergling

megHan

Meghan: Hey Christina. Welcome back, and thanks for joining us today on Meghan’s Haunted House of Books, New Year’s Day Edition. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Christina: It’s hard to pick because I love everything. I gravitated to Halloween as a young child, before I ever knew how dark my mind was. I think the costumes drew me in first, maybe the candy too. I still love costumes (and try not to love candy). I used to write Halloween stories the entire season. Now, I write horror all the time.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Christina: No. Admittedly, I’m a bit desensitized. Besides a steady diet of horror, I am prone to very brutal nightmares. Ever since I was a child. It’s challenging for media to rattle me. The last time I was truly scared is when I was a contractor in Iraq. And the one time I lost my daughter in a store for about ten minutes.

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

Christina: I don’t get scared much by movies anymore. Disturbed, traumatized, sure. However, when it comes to real fear, I remember watching Texas Chainsaw Massacre The Next Generation when I was babysitting alone. I hadn’t watched any horror before, and it scared the hell out of me. When the parents got home, I ran all the way home in the dark. Watching that movie now, I severely judge myself.

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

Christina: Human Centipede was pretty traumatic. The skinning in Martyrs also has always stuck with me. Then there’s also when a woman gets sawed in half in Terrifier. And the entire movie The Sadness, end to end. Those are the grisliest I can think of.

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

Christina: Never. Though there are ones I avoid because they appear too lackluster in the commercial.

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

Christina: Trick ‘r Treat. I love that world. It’s so completely Halloween, and you only get hurt if you need to be punished for violating the rules.

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

Christina: I would be Clarice Starling in The Silence of the Lambs. I find Hannibal Lecter fascinating, and would like to play the mental game with him.

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

Christina: Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde is/are my favorite. I can relate to feeling like there are two opposing personalities trapped within you. Plus double the character for one body.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Christina: Again, everything. I watch a horror movie every night in October, which I have dubbed Horror Movie Bingo. Each square is a horror movie element or trope, and I spend the month filling that in. Attending the Telluride Horror Show helps. Then we usually have a costume party. It gives me a good excuse to dress up as an adult when I’m not on stage.

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

Christina: This year, I’m going with Spooky Scary Skeletons. I like to dance to it.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Christina: Last year, I said The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. Since then, I would say Things Have Gotten Worse Since We Last Spoke by Eric LaRocca. The novella is so visceral and gets under your skin. It is written as online correspondence between two people in a unique relationship. It is a throwback to the internet in the 90s. And it is amazing what LaRocca can communicate in those brief entries.

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

Christina: When I took my daughter to girl scout camp, I walked back to the cabin in the dark while she was making s’mores. As I was ambling down the path, I heard some rustling and banging. When I got closer, I smelled something distinctly… wild. In my weak night vision, I saw the blurred shape of a bear. Convincing myself to retreat slow, I hurried right back to the fire.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Christina: Last year, I said Jack the Ripper. That is still true. However, this year, I will say the mysteries from Netflix’s reboot of Unsolved Mysteries. I want them solved! After an entire episode investment, I was always left itching for answers.

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

Christina: Bloody Mary messed me up as a child. I was genuinely terrified she would appear in a dark mirror and snatch me through the glass. Then I stopped believing in ghosts, and the stories became more interesting that spooky.

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

Christina: Machete. It needs to be able to cut through or off a head but also be quiet to not rouse the other zombies.

Meghan: Okay, Christina. Let’s have some fun… Would you rather get bitten by a vampire or a werewolf? Vampire. Give me blood, immortality, and largely inherent bisexuality, please.

Meghan: Would you rather fight a zombie apocalypse or an alien invasion? Alien invasion. I do not want to deal with humans when they come back a second time. They are rough enough the first.

Meghan: Would you rather drink zombie juice or eat dead bodies from the graveyard? Maybe dead bodies? I don’t want to become a zombie, and I can always cook the “meat.”

Meghan: Would you rather stay at the Poltergeist house or the Amityville house for a week? Amityville house. Maybe if I stay alone, things won’t be so bad.

Meghan: Would you rather chew on a bitter melon with chilies or maggot-infested cheese? I’ll take the melon. I would choose a lot over anything with maggots.

Meghan: Would you rather drink from a witch’s cauldron or lick cotton candy made of spider webs? Witch cauldron. I hate spiders! I can’t even type this answer without shuddering.

Boo-graphy: Christina Bergling has been writing since childhood. She has written a variety of styles. A blog from Iraq, software user guides, articles for a numismatist magazine. More than anything, she is a horror author.

Crystal Lake released her latest novel, Followers. Limitless Publishing published her novel The Rest Will Come. HellBound Books published her two novellas, Savages and The Waning. She co-wrote Screechers with Kevin J. Kennedy. She is also featured in numerous anthologies, including Collected Christmas Horror Shorts
(1 and 2), Demonic Wildlife, Colorado’s Emerging Authors, and Graveyard Girls.

Bergling lives with her family in Colorado and spends her non-writing time working in IT, hiking mountains, dancing, and sucking all the marrow out of life.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Somer Canon

megHan

Meghan: Welcome back, Somer. It’s always a pleasure to have you here during our extended Halloween shenanigans. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Somer: There’s something about the coziness of the season juxtaposed next to the spooky decorations and scary movies that I just really love.  I grew up with a mother and grandmother who LOVED Halloween and I inherited some of that.  You snuggle up with those you love, have fun getting scared, eat junk, and hand out candy to kids.  What’s not to love?

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Somer: I startle easily, but I don’t scare easily. 

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

Somer: The obvious answer here is a horror movie, but I’ve been watching horror movies my whole life.  Like, waaaaaay before I should have been. I’ve seen movies that have gotten to me, disturbed me, and even thrilled me, but honestly, the scariest movie I’ve ever seen was the documentary Food, Inc. THAT’S scary. 

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

Somer: The Korean movie, I Saw the Devil has a death early on that really disturbed me.  Not so much the murder itself, although it was awful, but the aftermath of it.  It’s a very severe and unrelenting film, but that first murder we see that gets that ball rolling on the rest of the plot is disturbing. 

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

Somer: Nope. 

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

Somer: The Mist.  Look, you’re not safe in that grocery store, but you can stress eat before the monsters get you. 

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

Somer: Ginny in Friday the 13th Part II

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

Somer: Werewolves!

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Somer: Making a big pot of chili on Trick or Treat night and watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show after the kids go to bed. 

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

Somer: When I was in high school the gift store that I worked at opened a Halloween pop-up.  It was so much fun and we played a CD in the store that took famous music that could maybe, possibly be linked to Halloween and my favorite was I’m Your Boogie Man by KC and the Sunshine Band.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Somer: The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum.

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

Somer: We used to be neighbors with a family that…had problems, I’ll say that.  The youngest child, a boy, one night came to my house and said that there was a man in his house who kept trying to get in bed with him and would I please come over and look for the man.  I was thirteen at the time and weighed all of ninety pounds but I went over there and looked for a man in this boy’s bed and found nothing.  The next day the boy’s mom told me that he was sleepwalking and she thanked me for being so nice and not calling the cops.  I was polite and didn’t tell her that I got NO sleep that night because I was terrified that that boy was going to get murdered or kidnapped after I left. 

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Somer: When is Bigfoot going to make her star-making debut?

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

Somer: The folk horror tale of Tailypo. I grew up in West Virginia and Tailypo was a story I grew up hearing and it creeps me out to this day.  You can find the story on Google. It’s pretty famous in Appalachia. 

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

Somer: Oh that’s optimistic, but I assure you that I’m not surviving the initial wave.  By the time we’re at the “survivor” stage of that apocalypse, I’ll be a zombie myself…eating my neighbors. 

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

Somer: Werewolf!  As a woman I’m already on a 28-day cycle.

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

Somer: Aliens!

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

Somer: Dead bodies, for sure.

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

Somer: The Poltergeist House had hot spots, so I think I could find a cozy corner there. 

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

Somer: I’m actually curious about Casu martzu, which is a maggot cheese.  I mean, I’ll eat both.  I’m not picky. 

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

Somer: I’ll take my chances with the witch’s cauldron!  It might be punch!

Boo-graphy: Somer Canon is the Splatterpunk Award nominated author of works such as Killer Chronicles and The Hag Witch of Tripp Creek. When she’s not wreaking havoc in her minivan, she’s avoiding her neighbors and consuming all things horror. She has two sons and more cats than her husband agreed to have.

You’re Mine — Insecure misfit Ioni Davis never thinks she’ll find love in her sleepy West Virginia hometown. Then the tall, fascinating stranger Raber Belliveau transfers to her school.

Their attraction is instant and red-hot. And a shared fascination with witchcraft bonds the young lovers even closer.

But while Ioni is responsibly studying her newfound religion of Wicca, Raber has chosen an altogether…different path.

Soon, Raber’s behavior becomes manipulative. Even abusive. And their love story for the ages is turning into a macabre farce. All Ioni wants to do is get out.

But Raber has discovered a dreadful way to control their relationship. A ritual which hasn’t been attempted in over a century. A spell to unleash a bloodthirsty terror which can never be satisfied.

Ioni finds herself trapped in a struggle for her life and even her free will against a once-trusted lover who has assured her…

YOU’RE MINE

The Hag Witch of Tripp Creek — A NEW HOME: Dawna Temple let herself be moved from the familiarity of Pittsburgh to the wilds of West Virginia, all so her mentally exhausted husband, John, could heal from a breakdown. Struggling with the abrupt change of location, Dawna finds a friend in her neighbor, Suzanne Miller, known to the locals as The Hag Witch of Tripp Creek.

A NEW FRIEND: Dismissing it as hillbilly superstition, Dawna can’t believe the things she hears about her funny and empathetic friend. Suzanne has secrets—dark secrets—and eventually she reveals the truth behind the rumors that earned her the wicked nickname decades earlier.

OLD WOUNDS: Now in possession of the truth, Dawna has conflicting emotions about Suzanne’s past deeds, but when her husband’s well-being takes a downturn, she finds there is no one else to turn to. Will she shun her friend as others have done before? …or can she accept that an act of evil is sometimes necessary for the greater good?

Slaves to Gravity — with Wesley Southard — After waking up in a hospital bed, paralyzed from the waist down, Charlie Snyder had no idea where life would take her. Dejected, broken, and permanently bound to a wheelchair, she believed her life was truly over. That is… until gravity no longer applied.

It started out slow. Floating from room to room. Menial tasks without assistance. When she decided to venture outside and take some real risks with her newfound ability, she rose above her own constraints to reveal a whole new world, and found other damaged individuals just like her to confide in.

But there are other things out there, waiting in the dark. Repulsive, secretive creatures that don’t want Charlie to touch the sky. And they’ll stop at nothing to keep her on the ground.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Kristopher Rufty

megHan

Meghan: Hey, Krist! Welcome back to Meghan’s HAUNTED House of Books. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Kristopher: I couldn’t imagine not being a fan of Halloween. Next to Christmas, it’s the one day when everyone can be a kid again. People celebrate horror and openly admit to being entertained by it. Plus, it’s just so much fun. That’s never changed throughout all my life.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Kristopher: I don’t know if “easily” describes it. But a lot of things do scare me. Now that I’m older and a father, I have worries that I never thought about when I was younger. Plus, I’ve seen relatives get sick, friends have passed away, and marriages haves ended. I never thought I was indestructible when I was younger, but such fears never crossed my mind. Now they dwell there.

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

Kristopher: Probably The Changeling with George C. Scott. I saw it when I was very young and some of it really disturbed me. Even now, I still feel the same way I did as a kid whenever I watch it. The images, locations, and music just really messed me up all those years ago.

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

Kristopher: Probably the flashback seen in The Changeling. I don’t want to give it away, but that one bothered me when I saw it for the first time. Still does.

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

Kristopher: I don’t think so. If anything, it had the exact opposite influence on me. The scarier the better. Especially when I was younger. I’d talk about the trailers with my friends, and we’d imagine what the movies would be like. Usually, they didn’t come close to our imaginations, but sometimes they far exceeded them.

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

Kristopher: Probably Just Before Dawn because of the beautiful scenery. I’d just have to make sure I steered clear of the inbred family.

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

Kristopher: Maybe the Scream series since, until recently, the core group have lasted so long.

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

Kristopher: The werewolf, for sure.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Kristopher: All of it. I don’t think I enjoy one more than the other. It’s all a buffet of scary fun.

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

Kristopher: Monster Mash. I have loved it since I was a little kid.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Kristopher: The Girl Next Door. Nothing comes close. Jack Ketchum was a master, and he stuck to the basics in that story and conjured up a truly disturbing book based on real events.

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

Kristopher: A candle flew off a shelf and smacked into a wall right in front of me. I think it was going after my wife at the time. She’d been standing where the candle hit seconds before it launched. I entered the room just as it took flight. Once, in the same place, when I was completely alone, I watched hand-prints appear on the ceiling and vanish within seconds of emerging. Needless to say, we moved out of there first chance we got.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Kristopher: I’m fascinated by most with a supernatural element. Unsolved murders and things like that don’t really fascinate me much. But anything with “monster sightings” or paranormal components will hook me in. If it involves a cryptid, even better. Water monster sightings also interest me a lot.

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

Kristopher: Surprisingly, I haven’t heard a bunch. But there was a local legend about a Wildman that lived in the woods around my house growing up. When I was a kid, I swore I saw him once. I was in the woods and saw a man just walking around, dressed in ragged clothes and carrying an ax. I told people, and that was when I learned about the “Wildman.” Don’t know how true that story was, but I did see the man.

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

Kristopher: Unlimited gun supply. I’d want them to be as far away from me as possible. No up-close battles if I can help it.

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

Kristopher: Werewolf!

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

Kristopher: Probably a zombie apocalypse. But an alien invasion would be quicker, if I was on the losing side.

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

Kristopher: Ew! Zombie juice. Unless it was just one bite from a dead body.

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

Kristopher: Amityville. The Poltergeist house is terrifying!

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

Kristopher: Nasty! The melon, for sure.

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

Kristopher: Give me the cauldron.

Boo-graphy: Kristopher Rufty lives in North Carolina with his three children and pets. He’s written numerous books, including All Will Die, The Devoured & the Dead, Desolation, Pillowface, and more. When he’s not writing, he’s obsessing over gardening and growing food. For more about him, please visit his website.

All Will Die —
A year after a group of teenagers were brutally murdered in the mountains, their parents return to the scene of the crime in hopes of luring the killer out of hiding. Unfortunately for them, they are successful. Though they expect the fight of their lives, they quickly learn how unprepared they are for the savage brutality that awaits them. One by one, they will experience exactly what their children endured in their own night of hell.

Their obsession has led them to this nightmare and their one chance at retribution. But if they don’t succeed…

Bone Chimes 2 —
A woman battles a madman to save the package she ordered…and her life! A Christmas party in the mountains is invaded by otherworldly creatures. A man teams up with his son’s favorite toy to kill someone. And a Halloween prank might lead to the end of two boys’ innocence.

These are just a few of the stories in Bone Chimes 2, the second collection from Kristopher Rufty that features nine more demented tales for fans of monsters and childhood fears brought to life. With an introduction by Aron Beauregard, this collection will leave you squirming with fear and delight!

Bone Chimes

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Mike Lombardo

megHan

Meghan: Hey, Mike! Welcome back! Last time you talked about creating movies, and I’m glad to have you back, especially with the new book recently published. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Mike: As a kid I loved it because it was the one time of year it was okay to be me in public. I didn’t catch any shit for being a weirdo obsessed with horror movies. As an adult I love it because it brings out creativity in normal people and it warms my heart seeing people making decorations and costumes.

Meghan: Do you get scared easily?

Mike: Not at all. The things that scare me are much more existential than monstrous or spooky.

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

Mike: Even as a kid, movies didn’t really scare me, but one that really got under my skin was Fire in The Sky. The flashback scenes of the main character being experimented on by aliens is still one of the most unsettling and frightening sequences I’ve ever seen in a movie.

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

Mike: Not a murder per say, but the woman they find in the french film, Martyrs, that has the metal device stapled into her head. She just starts rubbing her raw exposed skin against the wall like a dog and screaming and it’s extremely disturbing.

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

Mike: Not really, but there were a lot I saw as a kid and would make up the movie in my head because I wasn’t allowed to go see it.

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

Mike: Dawn of the Dead

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

Mike: The Blob

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Mike: Being an FX artist and horror filmmaker, I literally am surrounded by this stuff every day so I don’t really have any particular Halloween traditions anymore. I do love the first midnight stroll through town when the weather changes and I can wear a hoodie though.

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

Mike: The Creepshow’s cover of the Misfits song, Halloween.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Mike: Probably The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum or Surivor by JF Gonzalez.

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

Mike: I was once location scouting abandoned houses for shooting I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday and as I was standing in a pitch black abandoned living room, I heard breathing from the other side of the room. I exited VERY quickly and never went back.

Meghan: Which unsolved mystery fascinates you the most?

Mike: There was an episode of Beyond Belief: Fact or Fiction where a kid was locked in his closet by his friends and started screaming. They opened the door and he was gone without a trace. The end of the episode claimed it was based on actual events and it scared the hell out of me as a kid.

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

Mike: There was a story called The Horror at Berkeley Square in an old real life hauntings book I had when I was a kid and it really freaked me out.

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

Mike: Fire axe.

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

Mike: Werewolf because I could at least shackle myself on the full moon.

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

Mike: Zombies.

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

Mike: Not sure what zombie juice is, but I’ll take my chances. Was never much for carrion.

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

Mike: I’ll take my chances at he Amityville Hoax.

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

Mike: Bitter melon.

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

Mike: I do love me some cotton candy.

Boo-graphy:
Mike Lombardo grew up on a steady diet of Goosebumps, scary story books, ’90s Nickelodeon, and horror PC games. He is an award-winning independent filmmaker, writer and FX artist who runs Reel Splatter Productions. In 2017, his first feature film, I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday, played the festival circuit around the world, taking home seven awards including multiple Best Picture and Best Actress wins, and over a dozen nominations. He debut short story collection, Please Don’t Tap on the Glass & Other Tales of the Melancholy & Grotesque, was released in August of 2022.

He is the star of the award winning documentary, The Brilliant Terror, from Lonfall Films, which chronicles the world of indie horror and the lengths that low budget filmmakers will go to get their projects made.

He currently lives in Lancaster, PA surrounded by skeletons and old movies. If you would like to experience more of his insanity, you can find him online at Reel Splatter, Facebook, YouTube, and on moonlit nights wandering the ruins of defunct video stores mourning the death of physical media.

Eleven stories of grief, existential dread, extreme horror, and gross out comedy.

After discovering a tape he’s never heard of at a video store closing sale, a VHS collector discovers that sometimes nostalgia comes at a terrible price in Dead Format.

In Weekend at Escobar’s, a man finds himself smuggling drugs across the border stuffed inside the corpse of a cartel boss he’s trying to pass off as living.

An eighteen-year-old virgin’s first trip to the porn store goes horribly awry in Just Like the Real Thing.

With supplies and hope dwindling as they struggle to survive in a fallout shelter, a mother gives her son one last Christmas in the original short story that inspired the award-winning film, I’m Dreaming of a White Doomsday.

These and more await as you are invited to gaze into the depths of the twisted mind of filmmaker Mike Lombardo, just be careful you don’t tap on the glass, you might not like what you stir up…

A mother and her 8 year old son struggle to survive in a bomb shelter after an unnamed apocalypse.

AUTHOR INTERVIEW: Kevin J. Kennedy

megHan

Meghan: Hey, Kevin! Welcome back to Meghan’s House of Books AND our annual Halloween Extravaganza. What is your favorite part of Halloween?

Kevin: Throughout the years it’s changed. When I was young I loved making costumes and going tricker treating and then I hit a stage where I was a bit older and I would line up lots of horror movies to watch. A few years later I was going clubbing on Halloween and it’s probably the most fun night of the year to do it. For the last few years it’s became more of a month long event where I pick a few Halloween themed books to read, watch a few horror movies with my wife and pick up Halloween themed stuff that I don’t really need. Whatever stage I have been at in my life, Halloween has always been a fun time. I can’t imagine many horror lovers not loving October.

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween tradition?

Kevin: Watching horror movies with my wife.

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

Kevin: Probably favourite now. Christmas was always a fave too, but my dad absolutely loved Christmas and he died a year and a half ago. This will be our second Christmas without him and it’s just not the same. I think Halloween has taken the lead.

Meghan: What are you superstitious about?

Kevin: Nothing

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

Kevin: Jason Vorhees. I always loved the Friday the 13th movies but they seem to be doing more with Michael Myers these days.

Meghan: Which unsolved murder fascinates you the most?

Kevin: None that I can think of but for unsolved mysteries, it’s the Mary Celeste.

Meghan: Which urban legend scares you the most?

Kevin: We don’t really have urban legends in the UK. I think it’s more of an American thing. I’ve seen a few movies about them but can only think of the one where there is the scrape on the rook of the car and it’s the dead persons ring as they swing back and forth.

Meghan: Who is your favorite serial killer and why?

Kevin: Favourite is a strong word lol. I’ve been enjoying all the programmes about Dennis Nilsen recently so I’ll go with him.

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

Kevin: I was 6 or 7 I think and I snuck into the living room when my mum was in bed and my dad was out and watched the 1st Nightmare on Elm Street. I was terrified to go to sleep after it. Think it’s the only movie that ever scared me. I read a lot of Point Horror books when I was in primary school (ages 5 to 11 for the Americans) but the first adult horror novel I read was Darkness Tell Us by Richard Laymon. It blew me away and I devoured his entire back catalogue before finding other authors I enjoyed.

Meghan: Which horror novel unsettled you the most?

Kevin: The Girl Next Door by Jack Ketchum. I think because it was based on true events, it took it up a notch. It was really well written and it’s a book that never leaves you after you’ve read it.

Meghan: Which horror movie scarred you for life?

Kevin: Nightmare on Elm Street

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween costume?

Kevin: I went as the devil once. I shave my head but left two little tufts of hair at the front that I gelled into horns. I used red body pain over my entire head and torso. I wore a cape, black trousers and boots. I won first prize at work for it then I won a prize in a club I went to that night

Meghan: What is your favorite Halloween-themed song?

Kevin: The Monster Mash

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

Kevin: I don’t really eat candy.

Meghan: Thanks for stopping by, Kevin. Before you go, what is your go-to Halloween watches and reads?

Kevin: Once Upon a Halloween by Richard Laymon and I like Rob Zombie‘s Halloween but not the sequel.

Boo-graphy:
Kevin J. Kennedy is the author of Halloween Land and the co-author of You Only Get One Shot, Screechers & Stitches. He has released three solo collections of short horror stories and he is one of the UK’s most prominent horror anthologists. He lives in the heart of Scotland with his wife and three small fur babies, Carlito, Ariel and Luna. You can find him hovering around Facebook most days if you want to chat.