This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

Lock your doors and light your candles, horror fans. From George Morris De’Ath comes THE HAUNTING OF MORSLEY MANOR, a deliciously unhinged ghost story where nothing stays buried—not even the dead. World-famous paranormal investigator Eric Thompson’s career is on life support after a botched case left most of his crew in body bags and his best friend out the door. But when a mysterious woman hires him to host an investigation at the notorious, long-forbidden Morsley Manor, Eric jumps at the chance for redemption. More than shadows await him, however. Inside the manor’s rotting walls lurk grisly apparitions, blood-soaked secrets and a darkness that blurs the line between the living and the dead.

The Haunting of Hill House meets The Woman in Black in George Morris De’Ath’s THE HAUNTING AT MORSLEY MANOR, a gleefully macabre gothic horror. RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with the author to chat about his new book, coming from Rising Action.

THE HAUNTING AT MORSLEY MANOR blends classic gothic atmosphere with modern paranormal investigation. What inspired you to combine those two worlds?

No clue. It’s a weird thing, talking about a book you wrote eight years ago! But here’s what I do remember: I’ve always been obsessed with classic horror—the fog, the candlelit corridors, the doomed inheritances—and I also love the current horror renaissance we’re in across books, TV and film.

To me, every story has been told already—it’s just about how you mix the ingredients. So, I mashed together everything I love: dusty gothic tropes, modern ghost-hunting culture and a few experimental modernisms to see what kind of monster would crawl out. It’s like a horror smoothie, or maybe more like a Frankenstein monster of a book stitched together with old-school scares and new-school madness. Honestly, it was just fun.

Your protagonist, Eric Thompson, is a complex mix of charm, cynicism and trauma. What drew you to his character, and how did he evolve during the writing process?

Eric fascinates me because he’s kind of famous, but not too famous. He can still sit alone in a restaurant and not get recognized—just enough anonymity to brood properly. There’s this loneliness to him that’s both tragic and self-imposed. He wants to connect with people, but people keep him at arm’s length like he’s contagious with bad luck. What I love is the contradiction: he’s sociable, he can be disarmingly charming—but there’s always grief behind the grin. He’s pragmatic, even a little desensitized, but never quite tips into cold. And yes, there’s a supernatural gift involved: a bit witchy, though he’d never ever want to join a coven. Eric doesn’t crave power, he craves connection. That became the soul of the book without me even realizing it at first.

This novel doesn’t shy away from gruesome imagery or emotional horror. Without spoiling anything, what was the most challenging scene to write?

First of all, my favorite death scene? The head one. You know the one. Let’s just say it’s a satisfying, melon-splitting moment of justice. But the hardest parts to write weren’t the gory bits—it was the emotional horror. Navigating toxic relationships—romantic, familial, platonic—was the real challenge. I wanted to explore emotional manipulation and domestic abuse with nuance and respect. Getting that right was the thing that kept me up at night, editing and re-editing. Hopefully I did those moments justice.

Oh, and there’s a particular neck-snap scene that’s weirdly beautiful … tragic, but kind of poetic. That one stuck with me too.

Themes of grief, guilt and the supernatural intersect powerfully in the story. What do you hope readers take away from it?

I want readers to appreciate life: warts, ghosts, grief and all. But beyond that, it’s not really for me to dictate. One of the best parts of writing is hearing what people think a book is about, especially when it’s something I never consciously intended. I write one thing, and you read something else entirely, and then we meet somewhere in the middle. That’s the magic. That’s the conversation. That’s what makes all of this fascinating.

If Morsley Manor were real and you had to spend a night inside, would you do it? And what item would you bring for protection?

Absolutely. I’d bring party vibes. They’d either love me or murder me on the spot for being too much. I’d bring my little red zircon witch ring I got for my 18th birthday—it’s seen things. That and maybe a good ol’ circle of salt. Classic. I’d be safe as a kitten. Meow.

You set up a lot in this book: certain characters, prophecies, a modern coven. Will all this return?

Oh my, yes. This book is planting seeds like a cursed gardener. The prophecy? That’s a slow burn that’ll unravel across many, many books, right up to my final one. And I know which characters you’re referring to—Eric and … them. Trust me, they’ll meet again, and when they do, it’s going to be cataclysmic. But not for a while yet. I’m playing the long game. And the coven? They’re getting their own trilogy down the line. Modern witches fighting for control and power. Can’t wait.

What can readers expect next from you?

My next book is called Something on Your Mind and it’s coming May 2026. It’s part of the same universe but a new story. It’s wild—hallucinations, a brain tumor, a devil-on-your-shoulder type entity, pills, a pink bunny. Total chaos. I love it.

I’m also in talks for more books (can’t say too much yet), but I’ve got seven more already written and ready to go. All connected. All part of the grand, weird, haunted web. Stay tuned.

Lastly, give me three words to describe THE HAUNTING AT MORSLEY MANOR.

Campy. Creepy. Controversial. In the best, most unhinged way possible.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

From CJ Leede, the author of Maeve Fly, comes AMERICAN RAPTURE a terrifying new novel in which American Gods meets The Last of Us in, an epic, sweeping story about the end of the world as we know it.

This feverish odyssey spotlights Sophie, a “good Catholic girl” amid the sudden onset of a gristly disease that transforms everyone around her into something monstrous. As she journeys through the Midwest’s splintering Americana to escape the contagion, Sophie faces shredded limbs, her strict religious upbringing and the pained dissonance of growing up during the end times.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Leede to chat about AMERICAN RAPTURE – now available from Tor Books.

What inspired you to set this apocalyptic horror novel in the Midwest and, more specifically, in Wisconsin in particular?

The book really could have been set anywhere in America, but I really love Wisconsin for the fact that it has such a strong and unique cultural identity and frankly, just some of my favorite roadside attractions. I love the Midwest and Wisconsin, and I’m kind of working my way through America one state at a time trying to highlight and showcase what makes this country so special.

Religion and horror have long been intertwined, but Sophie’s journey addresses a very contemporary moment in our society. Were you inspired by previous religious horror novels while writing AMERICAN RAPTURE, and if so, how did you channel them in this work?

I was largely inspired by the ONE BIG BOOK (the Bible), or rather, what I was taught from it as a kid, and honestly, religious horror has historically scared me so much that I’ve mostly stayed away from it. However, I did read Carrie (and reread it), and I think it’s absolutely perfect. I also did the Books in the Freezer podcast and got a big education on religious horror from that, and I love Chuck Tingle’s Camp Damascus, too. I’ve also read a lot of Anne Rice over the years, and her back and forth with Catholicism probably has factored into my work in ways I don’t realize since I’m just such a huge fan of hers.

Without giving too much away, it’s safe to say that AMERICAN RAPTURE ends with a bang. Did you always know that’s how the story would end, or did it come together in pieces as you were writing it?

I always knew what the very last moments would be, but where, exactly, they took place and how the characters got there was a bit more of a journey to find. But I love writing endings; They’re my favorite part. I have so much fun figuring out where it’s going and then, combing back through the book and making everything move right toward that moment very intentionally.

How did the process of writing AMERICAN RAPTURE compare to the process of writing your debut Maeve Fly?

Maeve clawed her way out of me in no time at all. I plotted the book in two days and then wrote it and did multiple edit rounds in a matter of, like, four months. AMERICAN RAPTURE on the other hand, [had] so many big ideas that I was grappling with. And I started it when I didn’t know how to write anything, so it’s been a journey. It’s taken me ten years on and off to really figure it out.

Are there any specific lines or scenes that stuck with you after you finished writing AMERICAN RAPTURE? Do you have a favorite character or setting from the book?

I added a scene toward the end in which Cleo talks to Sophie and the others in a hotel room about Catholic guilt and the ways in which the ideas we’re taught about sin and our thoughts might affect Sophie throughout her life. It was actually very emotional for me, and I felt it was so vital to write it for myself and, at the same time, very painful. I think every book worth writing should have a cost, and I paid one a lot of times over with this book – and I’d gladly do it all again.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

In THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT DOOR, author Katrina Monroe delivers an emotional tale of the sometimes-fragile bonds of sisterhood and deeply rooted generational trauma.

The Finch sisters once spent their summers exploring the abandoned properties littering their dying town – until they found an impossible home with an endless hall of doors… and three keys waiting for them. Fearless, each sister stepped inside their chosen rooms to experience horrors they never dared speak of again. Years later, the youngest sister, Claire, is discovered dead in that old house. Haunted by their sister’s suicide and the memories of a past they’ve struggled to forget, the remaining siblings find themselves at bitter odds. As Meg and Esther navigate the tensions of their brittle relationship, they draw unsettling parallels between Claire’s death, their own haunted memories, and a long-ago loss no one in their family can face. With the house once again calling them home, Meg and Esther must find the connection between their sister’s death and the shadow that has chased them across the years – before the darkness claims them, too.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Katrina and chat about THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT DOOR, the final installment in her “Triangle of Trauma,” now available from Poisoned Pen Press wherever books are sold.

THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT DOOR is a supernatural thriller about three sisters who step into an abandoned house, and the darkness that follows them out. What inspired you to write this book?

I think the Haunting of Hill House inspiration is pretty obvious, but when I started writing this book, I didn’t initially have Shirley Jackson in mind. All I knew was that I wanted to write a haunted house book and that I wanted some sort of sibling dynamic in it. I am a massive fan of Mike Flanagan’s interpretation of Jackson’s story, and while the scares are fantastic, it’s the interpersonal relationships that he really nails for me. I wanted to do something like that. I’m very close to my sisters now, but there was a time when we weren’t. I missed them, and it’s that spirit that finally brought me to Meg, Esther and Claire.

Keys feature prominently throughout the book. Can you talk more about the symbolism here, and how you incorporated that into the plot?

I grew up on portal fantasy. The Chronicles of Narnia, Alice in Wonderland, Peter Pan… Being the eldest of six kids, I constantly daydreamed about finding some door – away from everyone and everything – to some magical place where I didn’t have to be a secondary parent. Being a mom of teens now, the urge is even stronger.

[The] point is I’m always thinking of keys.

So, when Meg, Esther and Claire first find these keys, they’re thinking the way I did when I was a kid – escape from their parents, from their dying town, from a traumatic secret no one can talk about. After that first visit to the house, though, the keys become a vehicle for truth – for trauma. There’s no outrunning it. You have to face it.

For all its dread, there is a story of sisterhood at the heart of this novel. What from your own experiences inspired these women and their individual stories?

This book is truly my lovesong to sisters. I have two, and they are my best friends. I would say I wrote this book for them, but that’s not exactly right. I wrote it to celebrate the unique bond of sisterhood, the way vicious fights can take a sudden turn into adoration. A friend will lie to make you feel better, but a sister will tear you apart to get to the glowing center, and then show it to you because you can’t always see it yourself. (My sister, Allison, is especially good at this.)

There have been some incredible suburban gothics to hit the shelves lately, and THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT DOOR brings its own unique twists and worst fears into the mix. Ignoring things like alphabetical order, if you could pick any two books to anchor this one on bookshelves, what would they be?

This might seem like an odd first choice, but I don’t think THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT DOOR would be too out of place next to How to Sell a Haunted House by Grady Hendrix. Hendrix’s book does a fantastic job of taking a microscope to a complicated sibling dynamic when put under the pressure of grief and impossible happenings.

My second pick is The September House by Carissa Orlando. I love horror that anthropomorphizes, especially things and places that are meant to be comforting – like home. In Orlando’s novel, saying the house is haunted is like saying the ocean is water. [That’s}true but doesn’t come close to addressing the eerie undercurrent. Like THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT DOOR, the fact of a presence in the house, or the evil nature of the house itself, doesn’t matter as much as what it means for the characters and the memories they’ve tried to hide away in boxes.

What message or lesson do you want readers to take away from your book?

Anyone who knows me knows I love a good allegory. I know what I wanted to take away from writing this book, but I’m hesitant to assign a message or lesson to it for others. I’ve taken to calling this book the final piece in my “Triangle of Trauma,” with They Drown Our Daughters and Graveyard of Lost Children as the other two. Put together, they are hard lessons I’ve had to learn, a past I’ve been trying to outrun. My own keys to impossible doors.

I do hope it resonates with readers who have their own darknesses they can’t quite articulate. I want them to know that I see them, and that though it might not look like it right now, everything will be okay.

And finally, can you share anything about what you’re working on now, or what readers can expect next?

I have taken a sharp left turn, for sure. Being a private investigator by trade, I’ve been asked hundreds of times whether I’ll ever write a P.I., mystery. For years, I stubbornly said no.

Then, I got an idea. (Isn’t that always the way?)

It’s definitely on the lighter side. The Triangle of Trauma is complete, for now, and I had a ton of fun writing a new kind of story with characters I’m still thinking about. In an ideal world, it would be the start of a series with a mom at the center, and the wide, curious world spreading out around her. It’s with my agent at the moment, and we’re hoping to find a home for it soon. Cross your fingers for me!

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

When aimless twenty-something Mara lands a job as a night-shift production assistant on her cousin’s ghost hunting/home makeover reality TV show Haunt Sweet Home, she quickly determines her new role will require a healthy attitude toward duplicity, but as she hides fog machines in the woods and improvises scares to spook new homeowners, a series of unnerving incidents and a creepy new co-worker force her to confront whether the person she’s truly been deceiving and hiding from all along is herself.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Sarah Pinsker to chat about HAUNT SWEET HOME, now available from Tordotcom Publishing.

HAUNT SWEET HOME joins a growing neighborhood of scripted-shows-gone-wrong narratives. What inspired you to write this book? Are you a fan of haunted reality shows?

I’m fascinated by all reality shows and the things that they pass off as real. They work so hard to bring us scenarios that seem natural but are manufactured or manipulated. The haunted ones in particular are fascinating because they have to work so hard to convince the audience. Places that probably would make you uneasy in real life flatten a bit on a small screen, so they have to react in a way that feels over-the-top to compensate. I’m also fascinated by the bigfoot shows, because they never, ever get to succeed. They breathlessly chase something that they can’t find because it would mean the end of their show. At least the shows about hauntings can catch up with their ghosts, even if it’s usually in a vague way that leaves room for interpretation. That’s what makes them fun for me. They try so hard! It was a lot of fun to try to work backward to see how I would create those scares if I were in charge of manufacturing a haunting And combining the haunting with a home renovation/glow-up show was even more fun. I would absolutely watch Haunt Sweet Home with delight.

Your novel takes an entirely new approach to staged scares when production assistant Mara gets more than she anticipates as the show’s resident haunter. Without giving away any spoilers, can you share your thoughts behind the unstaged haunting(s) in HAUNT SWEET HOME? Have you ever experienced any paranormal activity in your home?

Not in my home, even though it is old and has some dubious history! I’m glad for that. I can only write creepy stuff when I’m not creeped out myself. [The] closest I can come is that I was working in a locked archive at a library and ran into a woman in the stacks, only to find out later that there was nobody else let in while I was there. Who was it? Not sure, though it later turned out that the library needed some environmental remediation, so maybe I was just hallucinating from the fumes.

I haven’t figured out how to talk about the unstaged hauntings in HAUNT SWEET HOME without giving anything away! I guess I’ll say that even though I wanted to write a book about a TV show that stages hauntings, I wanted there to be something beyond the staged scares. The show was fun, but it was more fun to think about layering in real hauntings to see how the characters and the show deal with it. There’s a funny phenomenon where sometimes you write something that’s completely true, but people assume it can’t be. You can look up “the Tiffany problem” for an example. “Tiffany” is a medieval name, but when we see it in a historical book, it pulls us out because we think of it as a modern name. Similarly, I can imagine how a real haunting would mess with a show that depends on a kind of formulaic approach to its paranormal aspect.

Production assistants get the brunt of the grunt work on any film set, and Mara is certainly no stranger to that on the set of HOME SWEET HOME! Between her rough working environment on the night shift, a less-than-stellar assigned roommate situation, and family drama, both on and off set, Mara has her hands full! As a writer and singer/songwriter, have you ever had a spooky experience in your work? Or maybe worked a season scaring visitors at a haunted house?

I’ve never worked at a haunted house, but in my music career, I stayed in some unusual places. My band was given a place to sleep once in this cool old, abandoned factory in New England – in the area where HAUNT SWEET HOME is set, coincidentally! Someone was supposed to be staying there with us but then left, so we got locked in on our own for the night. We knew we were alone there, but we kept hearing horrible noises all night long, which turned out to be something in the industrial kitchen absolutely demolishing the remains of our dinner, which we’d put in a garbage bag.

And last year, I got to spend a week in a thousand-year-old castle in Spain for a workshop. It’s not supposed to be haunted, but I did have a night terror on my first night there [in which] the nuns who had run the place in centuries past were all standing around my bed. I have absolutely no Catholic background – nor any beef with nuns. But if any of my students heard screaming that night, it was me! I guess I added to the ambiance!

In addition to scripted shows, haunted homes, and “ratings-boosting screams,” you bring in an element of folk horror as Mara tries her hand at her family’s woodcarving legacy. How did you feel all these elements work together in HAUNT SWEET HOME?

I had wanted to write something about someone who turned trees into art for a while, inspired by a couple of pieces at the American Visionary Art Museum. There are some magnificent carvings in their permanent collection, all done by untrained artists. As I say in the acknowledgments, there’s a piece there made out of apple wood that is, in my opinion, one of the most profound self-portraits I’ve ever seen.

I love outsider art, and I love writing about artists. Mara’s carving is the one thing she can call her own in her life since the rest of her time is spent pleasing co-workers and family members. She tries to do what others want of her, even at her own expense. The carving is literally her carving out her own time and space in the world.

I like the combination of the contrivance of the reality show and this thing that interests her, which is kind of the opposite. There are no second takes if you make a mistake when you’re working with wood. And she’s trying to make something true, to make the kind of art that compels you, that’s out of your control, while working in a very controlled environment. There’s a kind of magic in the communication between an artist and their muse and an artist and their work and even an artist – or a writer – and their audience, where you are making something for yourself that speaks to others because it rings true. I love juxtaposing that with the other forms of communication seen here.

Finally, what can readers expect from you next? Are you working on anything new?

I’m always working on a lot of stuff! I actually had a novelette come out last month in Uncanny Magazine, called “Signs of Life,” which was also inspired by something at the American Visionary Art Museum – an exhibit of photos of rocks and trees and clouds that look like other things. I have one more reality show-related project in the works and another novel that I’ve been taking my time with because I love it, and it’s research-intensive. I want to get it right. And lots of short fiction because I love short fiction, and it carries me along as I try to figure out the longer works.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

Fashionista Dez Lane doesn’t want to date Patrick Ruskin; she just wants to meet his mother, the editor-in-chief of Nouveau magazine. When Patrick invites Dez to his family’s big Easter reunion at their ancestral home, she’s certain she can put up with his arrogance and fend off his advances long enough to ask Marie Caulfield-Ruskin for an internship that someone with her pedigree could never nab through conventional means. When they arrive at the enormous island mansion, Dez is floored. She’s never witnessed how the 1% lives before in all their ridiculous, unnecessary luxury. But things take a dark turn once all the family members are on the island and the ferry has departed. For decades, the Ruskins have made their servants sign contracts tantamount to indentured servitude. With nothing to lose, the servants decide their only route to freedom is getting rid of the Ruskins for good…

We recently had the opportunity to sit down with Delilah S. Dawson to chat about GUILLTONE, available September 10 from Titan Books.

GUILLOTINE’s protagonist, Dez, joins the ranks of “Good for Her” Final Girls taking the slasher genre by storm, and RUE MORGUE is here for it! What inspired the story?

It began with an article on Buzzfeed about what it’s like to work for the insanely rich. There was one story about a megayacht that was so large it contained multiple smaller yachts that popped out of it like baby Surinam toad hatchlings. The family that owned the megayacht was complaining that other people had bigger, nicer megayachts, and it made me want to vomit. Inheriting so much money that you could never spend it all and using it to buy outrageously wasteful things that don’t even make you happy or grateful – and then abusing your servants aboard your megayacht – it’s just so depressing and infuriating. So, I wanted to punish those people in fiction. Of course, I had to make their sins more extreme than “complains about megayacht,” so I looked at the vilest stories we know about public-facing generational multibillionaires and had as much fun as possible drawing my own conclusions.

An unmissable, brutal narrative on classism, wealth, and privilege underlines the story. Is there a larger message in this novel?

The larger message is that we need to tax the crap out of mega-billionaires instead of making up laws to help them further hoard wealth won through exploitation. Everyone I know is angry. We’re working ourselves to the bone and still having trouble making a living, and the arts are considered a hobby instead of a livelihood. We’re stuck in an era where my kids can’t reasonably expect to buy their own homes until I die, a time in which the American Dream of the 1950s is entirely out of reach even for smart, responsible people who do everything right. This book is a playful off-gassing of that rage.

Dez is taken to the Ruskin’s ancestral home because she’s dating one of the family’s sons, but it’s the Ruskin matriarch she’s most interested in. Indeed, Marie Caulfield-Ruskin is at the center of this story in more ways than one. Can you share more on the dynamics of female relationships explored in GUILLOTINE?

Dez will do anything to survive and succeed. For her, this means working as hard as she can and securing any available advantages. Her biggest sin is pretending to like Patrick Ruskin – and even that isn’t a pleasant experience for her. Marie Caulfield-Ruskin will also do anything to survive and succeed, and for her, that means she’s willing to uphold the patriarchy and oligarchy and play by her family’s twisted, sadistic rules, even if it hurts other people. Even if it hurts her children. Even if it hurts her. I see these women as two sides of the same coin – a have and a have-not – and it was fun to explore how they deal with the same impossible choice.

Readers will notice a series of stunning designer numbers catwalking through the story, which adds lovely texture to the plot. I imagine conjuring these up took as much magic as some of GUILLOTINE’s kills! For the fashionistas among us, was there a certain number that struck your fancy?

Well, I have to admit that instead of giving Dez the couture numbers she would actually love, I gave her things that were chosen for her to further subjugate her and render her less unique, less provocative, less confident. She’s waited all her life for a Chanel, and she gets one that’s matronly and prudish, which is not her style at all. That’s part of the cruelty. It’s like when the genie grants your wish, but they use it to torture you. My favorite number was the pair of snakeskin Louboutin stilettos – for obvious reasons.

Finally, what incredible Delilah S. Dawson novel should readers expect next?

My next book is It Will Only Hurt for a Moment, an atmospheric horror-thriller that, like GUILLOTINE and The Violence, explores feminine rage. That one is out October 22 and is available for preorder now. September also brings the paperback of Bloom, my cottagecore Hannibal sapphic love story, and Midnight at the Houdini, my spooky YA haunted hotel romance. I have nearly 30 books on my backlist, so if you’d like a personalized recommendation, hit me up on Instagram, Blue Sky, or Threads @delilahsdawson.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

In the mood for a spooky getaway? Horror lovers, lifelong best friends and co-hosts of the Horror Rewind podcast, Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl, have traveled the U.S. to find the most thrilling spots for horror, history and true crime. From big cities to small towns, from Florida to Minnesota, this dynamic writing duo has mapped out everything you need to plan your own ghoulish getaway in their latest book, TRAVELS OF TERROR.

The duo has compiled a list of what to do, where to stay, where to eat and drink and where to shop to make your dark and deadly vacation-planning a breeze. They’ve also delved into the history and pop culture of each location, revealing hidden gems, the most notorious true crimes, horror books and movies set in each state and other strange facts about some of the scariest places around the nation.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Florence and Hafdahl to chat about TRAVELS OF TERROR, available September 10 from Sourcebooks.

Most of your co-authored titles have tackled the science behind various horror topics – Stephen King, monsters, witchcraft, women in horror and more. What was the inspiration for TRAVELS OF TERROR?

Meg Hafdahl: A love of travel is something we both share and after the restrictions of the pandemic, like a lot of people, we were eager to get out and see some unique places. Get some fresh air! Also, back in 2001, Kelly and I went on our first big trip together to check out The X-Files filming locations in Canada. We remembered how we’d used a book to chart out our adventure, and without that book, we would’ve missed so many great memories!

Kelly Florence: Being best friends for over 20 years and traveling together, it was a natural fit that we would write about all the things we love to explore. We love history, ghost tours, great restaurants and hidden gems, and we can’t wait to share them with our readers.

TRAVELS OF TERROR highlights strange and spooky sites across twelve U.S. cities. Can you tell us more about the research process for this book? Please tell me you did a road trip!

MH: Yes! There was a road trip involved! Thankfully, Kelly and I are best friends and travel well together. That’s really at the heart of this book – finding places that we both enjoyed and sharing that enjoyment with people who are like us! Before we went to a city, we would do some pre-planning, often booking tours. We learned that by taking a tour early in the visit, we’d get suggestions from knowledgeable guides about what places to try next. There was trial and error, like how we spent at least an hour wandering a huge cemetery in Pittsburgh trying to find a unique tombstone (We finally found it!) and also dumb luck when we’d walk right into the most unexpected gothic boutique. That mix of planning and spontaneity, I think, is what makes traveling so fulfilling.

KF: We learned a lot on the way and share some practical tips, too, in our book, about packing, walkability in places, safety and practical things to consider. For example, Meg found out TSA doesn’t appreciate a fake plastic ax being brought as a carry-on!

What are your favorite sites included in the book?

MH: It really meant a lot to me to go to the Lizzie Borden house, which is now a bed and breakfast. I’ve been fascinated with Lizzie Borden since I was about 8 years old – read every biography – so sleeping in her bedroom was such a surreal experience. I was also really blown away by the Athenaeum in Providence, Rhode Island. As a literary history nerd, it was the closest thing to a Europe-level library I’ve seen in the States. And Edgar Allan Poe dumped his fiancé there, so I was in goth-nerd heaven!!

KF: Seeing the actual mall where Dawn of the Dead was filmed near Pittsburgh was a highlight for me, and visiting Vampira’s (Maila Nurmi) grave at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles was very special. We were able to take time in places and explore without being overly scheduled or overly planned. It was the best to discover things!

Are there any plans to travel in terror worldwide?

MH: Oh yes! I recently came back from Oxford and would love to write about some British ghosts! Also, every culture has a different way of experiencing horror, whether it’s true crime or fictional. It would be such great fun to explore that!

KF: Even as we were writing this book, people gave us great suggestions for places to visit all around the world that we can’t wait to explore.

Both of you are academics. How do you think horror fits into academia?

MH: We could be here all day! But I’ll make it short: Horror, I believe, was a genre conceived by women to tell women’s stories. Yes, men are pretty good at it, too. (We are both die-hard Stephen King fans.) But overall horror and the gothic are the perfect ways to reflect the psychological and physical realities of being othered, being traumatized or, heck, living in a society that values the wrong things. Often, horror is reduced to jump scares and gore (We love that, too), yet it is so much more than that.

KF: As a teacher, I see how media in all forms can be used as a tool for learning. Naturally, we are drawn to things we find fascinating, and feeding that curiosity through the horror genre has been really eye-opening and rewarding for us.

What is next up for the Hafdahl/Florence writing duo? And for you individually?

MH: I’m working on my creative writing diploma at Oxford, writing novels, short stories and mulling over furthering my career in academia. We have The Science of Alfred Hitchcock coming next summer.

KF: We also continue to write screenplays together and have some fun TV projects in development. Stay tuned!

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

"I’ve always been drawn to ghost stories and haunted house tales that are really a bigger metaphor for the way each of us is psychologically haunted."

There’s a reason Gwendolyn Kiste is one of the biggest names in horror. From turning classics on their head to redefining horror tropes, she has made a name for herself as one of the fiercest women in horror today. Kiste’s newest novel, THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD, turns the tried-and-true haunted house trope on its head in a suburban ghost story about a small town that traps three young women who must confront the past if they’re going to have a future.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Gwendolyn Kiste and chat more about THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD, coming from Simon and Schuster on March 5, 2024, to bookstores and online retailers everywhere.

THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD is a suburban ghost story about a neighborhood that has disappeared from its small town, taking its residents along with it. This unique concept turns the “haunted house” trope on its… doorstep? What inspired the idea of a spectral neighborhood?

It started out in a fairly simple way. During the pandemic quarantine, I picked up several photography books, including ones from Cindy Sherman and William Eggleston. In that stack, there was also a first edition of a book called Suburbia by Bill Owens. It turns out that particular book and its pictures, which depict an interesting blend of suburban malaise in an American neighborhood from the 1970s, was used as a reference for both The Virgin Suicides and Edward Scissorhands. I started thinking about how much I would love to create my own neighborhood like that, but I didn’t want to do another period piece right after Reluctant Immortals, which is set in the 1960s. That’s when I came up with the idea of having the neighborhood itself separated from the rest of the world. THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD isn’t a period piece; It’s set in the present day, but the ghostly neighborhood itself is stuck in the past.

The concept of home has always been an elusive one for me. Your home is supposed to be a place that you feel safe, a place that’s a refuge. But unfortunately, that’s not always the case for everyone. So often in haunted house stories, there are secrets from the past coming back to haunt the present, but I couldn’t help but think how it often takes more than one person (and more than one house) to keep those secrets. A whole neighborhood that gets trapped in the past seemed so different to me, and I was surprised that I’d never really seen it done before. It’s always an exciting moment as a writer when you get a chance to do something you haven’t already read, so I definitely seized the opportunity to create this world.

There are so many themes throughout this book, but perhaps some of the strongest are overcoming grief and trauma, both from Talitha’s perspective and that of some of the other characters. After all, there’s more than one way to be haunted. Can you tell us more about how you approached these in the story?

I’ve always been drawn to ghost stories and haunted house tales that are really a bigger metaphor for the way each of us is psychologically haunted. That’s part of what makes Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House work so well. Eleanor is haunted by the specter of the past – and particularly the specter of her own mother – and that’s what draws her to Hill House and vice versa. So, anytime I’m reading a ghost story (as well as anytime I’m writing one), I’m always questioning what’s secretly haunting these characters because that’s often where the most interesting things are happening.

In terms of writing about trauma itself, I wanted to be really careful to never be exploitative about it. Trauma is a tricky topic, and it was important for me that nothing felt gratuitous or done for shock value. This is also a story that deals with queerness and the trauma that too often goes along with coming out and embracing who you are. Being bisexual myself – and not being accepted for it in the past – is something I wanted to write about, but I also didn’t want it to be all about trauma either. There’s so much resilience in the LGBTQ+ community. I wanted that strength to be on the page as well.

While THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD is the kind of novel that will certainly appeal to a wide range of readers, it’s a fiercely female story. Sisterhood. Motherhood. Best friends. So many dynamics of female relationships percolate throughout. Can you talk more about what it’s like being a woman in horror, and writing women in horror?

In general, I feel like horror is a really great genre for female authors. There’s a lot of camaraderie in the horror community, and so many female writers are out there supporting each other every single day, which is so incredibly heartening. I love Women in Horror Month, and even though its popularity has waned a bit over the last few years, it’s still wonderful to celebrate the women of horror every March as well as throughout the rest of the year.

Horror has always been a great place for female characters, too. From the early days of gothic literature to the slashers of the 1970s and 1980s, and up until today, you can always find interesting, complicated female characters in the genre. The Brontes, Mary Shelley, Shirley Jackson, and Angela Carter are just a few of the authors who have written amazing characters in equally amazing stories, and it feels very much like we’re standing on the shoulders of giants. In so many ways, horror is the perfect place to be a woman and a writer. This is our genre, and it always has been.

This book really puts the old adage “you can’t go home” into the spotlight. What do you want readers to take away from THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD (should they be able to leave)?

I love your caveat, “Should they be able to leave!” You know, I’m never too worried about telling readers what they need to get from my work. I’ve definitely heard from people who have interpreted my stories in wildly different ways than I have, and their perspectives are truly as valid as mine. I feel like, as authors, we’re putting our work into the world, and then the world gets to decide what it means.

That being said, if forced to choose, I do hope that this story haunts readers as well as gives them a different way of looking at trauma. Talitha’s personal journey is all about self-acceptance and self-discovery, and, if nothing else, I would like for readers to have a sense of empathy for what she’s going through because so many of us have had traumatizing experiences that still haunt us.

As always, what’s next?

I’m currently at work on both a new horror novel and a new horror novella. I never like to reveal too many specifics because it always worries me that the story will immediately scurry away from me! But both of the books are coming along well, which means so far, so good.

In terms of what’s coming out next, I’ve got a number of new horror short stories scheduled for release this year, including, of course, in the fabulous Mother Knows Best anthology from Black Spot Books. I’ve always loved short fiction so much, and now that it’s almost the seventh anniversary of my first collection (seriously, where does the time go?), I’m hoping to put together a new collection at some point in the next year or so. Definitely a lot of writing plans, so fingers crossed that I’ll have more to announce very soon!

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

If you’ve read The Troop (currently in development as a film with producer James Wan (Saw X, The Nun II, Malignant)) you know Nick Cutter leaves behind few survivors. And, if you’ve read The Marigold, you know Andrew F. Sullivan knows his way around the bleakest dystopia. Now, Cutter and Sullivan have combined their impressively terrifying chops with THE HANDYMAN METHOD, a brand-new domestic thriller from the spooky folks at Saga Press.

When a young family moves into an unfinished development community, cracks begin to emerge in both their new residence and their lives, as a mysterious online DIY instructor delivers dark, subliminal suggestions about how to handle any problem around the house. The trials of home improvement, destructive insecurities and haunted-house horror all collide in this thrilling story of domestic terror.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with the authors and chat about THE HANDYMAN METHOD, now available wherever books are sold.

Outside of the official cover copy, what is this book to you?

Andrew F. Sullivan: For me, THE HANDYMAN METHOD is a book about self-destruction. That’s at the core of it to me. Attempting to live up to an ideal that never existed and becoming a worse person for it, someone obsessed with the perception of outsiders and the weight of the past on their shoulders. It’s a path that only leads to a dark place. I think that also connects to how desperate people are to find some meaning in their lives. They’ll look to anyone who presents as an authority figure, even if it is just a man on a screen who tells you that you’re doing everything right.

Nick Cutter: I think I mirror Andrew’s thoughts, though I come from a full generation (and a bit) past him. A lot of the fixations the book dwells on go back to the days of the Piltdown man, honestly, but they change and diversify and likely metastasize with each generation of man.

For me, it was written when my son was the age of the boy in the book, so in some ways – not to align myself strongly with our main character or my wife with his wife – but in some ways, it was a mirror of my own family and some of the strange thoughts that go zipping through a (I think!) sane, loving person’s head, regarding how families work now – and need to work now and work better now and more equitably than they did in older generations … So trying to find your current place in it vis-à-vis your father or grandfather or great-grandfather.

How did the co-writing process shape the book’s final form? For example, did one person take point on each character or mold particular plot points, or was every scene a dynamic conversation?

AFS: Early on, it was just about keeping the ball in the air, passing 500 words back and forth to build it into a story. We overlapped on almost everything by the end. It was a very cohesive experience, not one that we intended, but I was happy it turned out that way. Cowriting a novel takes a lot out of you, there’s a level of trust you need to have developed with your co-writer. I am lucky Nick and I are friends and we have that trust. By the time we were closing things out, we’d both left our imprint on every page.

NC: Yeah, we didn’t exactly know what we were getting into! We said we’d write a short story and it kind of embiggened itself as it went along. It’s not like these kinds of collaborations are all that common, there’s no guidebook, so I think we just said to ourselves to let the other person’s work breathe as much as was possible, keep some things sacrosanct and do our best to put the best pages forward.

This story of subliminal possession takes inspiration from classic tales of haunting, and THE HANDYMAN METHOD has been called a “modern twist on the haunted house story” by Library Journal. What’s your favorite haunted house horror, and what inspired you to reinvent this timeless horror archetype?

AFS: There are so many, and they all build on each other. I will have to go the typical route here and say The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson, just to get that out front. You can’t ignore or deny its influence on the genre and the power it still carries to this day. The idea that a place can possess you has always haunted me. For THE HANDYMAN METHOD, I think I wanted to show the home as a site of betrayal, a place that is supposed to protect you and fails to live up to its end of the bargain.

NC: As I said in my side of the acknowledgments, yeah, the haunted house has a hundred variants, a hundred mothers and fathers. I feel like over all the edits, I almost backed us into The Shining, one of my favorite haunted house stories. The idea was to make it more domestic. The initial story was just a guy alone out at this house, fixing it up – give him a wife, a child – and, for me, I ended up feeling comfortable going with my own family unit at the time: my wife, my son, myself and a daughter on the way. So my own family mimics the Torrances, without the axe-murdering. But then, I could have as easily based it on the family from Burnt Offerings, another excellent haunted house book with the exact same family dynamic.

THE HANDYMAN METHOD is a possession-via-algorithm story for our time. Are there ways in which this book can be a paranormal cautionary tale for readers?

AFS: I’m definitely haunted by the parasocial relationships people develop with streamers or podcasters. The idea that you can “know” someone you’ve never met but have experienced as a curated viewing experience, whether it’s TikToks, reels or long-form videos, is wild to me and points to a deep, hungry desire for connection that exists in a lot of us. Handyman Hank is like that in this novel, a comforting voice who provides answers that our lead, Trent, wants to hear. Confusing a product for reality is what really haunts me.

NC: Andrew’s answered that adroitly. You young whippersnappers with your Tikky-Tokkys and so forth and so on…

Finally, what’s next for both of you – future books on the horizon, either together or separately?

AFS: We will probably do another one of these together. I think there are still ideas we want to explore as a unit. I’ve had a pretty crazy year with this book and my other novel The Marigold released back in the spring. Two books in a year can wear you out. I will probably continue exploring my obsessions with entropy, decay and generative rot in my fiction. I want to write another big book about state capture and generational wealth – what hoarding money does to a person’s brain. It can’t be anything good.

NC: Yes, I hope to once again purloin the rich and fertile loam of Andrew’s psyche for my own personal gain someday quite soon. Until then, I’m happy to let those ideas gestate in his very thoughtful, very hirsute head.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

“There is no twilight in our New Zealand days, but a curious half-hour when everything appears grotesque—it frightens—as though the savage spirit of the country walked abroad and sneered at what it saw.”

For most of us, New Zealand, the land of the long white cloud, is a dream holiday destination, an exotic island in the Pacific, the place you go to visit Hobbiton, sail the harbour, climb a volcano and be mesmerised by steaming bubbly mud. RUE MORGUE’s author-in-resident, Lindy Ryan, caught up with five-time Bram Stoker Awards®-winner, Lee Murray, editor of upcoming Kiwi horror anthology REMAINS TO BE TOLD: DARK TALES OF AOTEAROA (Clan Destine Press) and some of the anthology’s contributors, to talk about the horror inherent in the Aotearoa landscape.

By its very nature, the landscape of New Zealand “presents myriad terrors, with its towering peaks, rugged coastline, and impenetrable bush,” says Lee. “There is the merciless isolation of small towns and farms, and the cold indifference of our bustling cityscapes.”

In her foreword to the anthology, Lee also speaks of something “inherently uncanny” about the landscape. She refers to the ‘savage spirit’ that Katherine Mansfield described in her iconic murder tale “The Woman at the Store”:

“There is no twilight in our New Zealand days, but a curious half-hour when everything appears grotesque—it frightens—as though the savage spirit of the country walked abroad and sneered at what it saw.”¹

Lee claims that ‘savage spirit’ “doesn’t just sneer, it sucks unsuspecting victims into watery graves, yanks them into cosmic hell, or crunches them between bloody teeth.”

“The ocean is angry today,” writes Sir Julius Vogel Award-winner Nikky Lee in “What Bones These Tides Bring” by way of an example. “Its waves pound the sandbar; pummel the beach in a roar of white static.”

“The ground heaved like a great beast trying to shake off vermin,” writes Tracie McBride in “Her Ghosts”, a story inspired by her Māori heritage. “It threw Callie to her hands and knees. She dug her fingers into the soil and clung to the earth as if she might at any moment spin off into space. Time lost meaning as she endured the dual onslaught from the land and the ghosts.”

In “Fires of Fate” Jacqui Greaves takes us back to the late 1800s when New Zealand women had just obtained the right to vote, the first country in the world to afford women this right: “Beyond the crest of the hill, the track cut a straight line through charred, flat land studded with blackened stumps. Moira’s eyes stung from the smoke hanging thick in the listless air. It reminded her of Hades: all it lacked was the burning stench of sulphur in her nostrils and a three-headed dog. She rode on, the horse skittering beneath her.”

Lee’s Path of Ra co-author, Dan Rabarts, whose haunting story “Spare the Rod” opens the anthology, explains the local preoccupation with the landscape: “We live on a string of major fault lines, on the spines of any number of volcanoes, surrounded by violent and unpredictable oceans and everything they bring with them, including regular floods, cyclones and tornadoes. We live with a constant edge of isolation, both in our rural and suburban communities, and even within our own neighbourhoods.”²

Co-contributor Celine Murray agrees: “There is a pervasive external threat posed by the landscape we live on,” she says. Acclaimed screenwriter and playwright Kathryn Burnett, who makes her short fiction debut in Remains to be Told with body horror tale “Hook”, believes the threat resides in “the quiet and the darkness of the landscape,” where there are “plenty of places for people to hide and to hide terrible things,” adding that “it’s also a country drenched in blood – our dark history and the existence of industries that rely on killing such as meat production.”

Māori people trace their lineage back to the ancestral landscape that nurtured them; this notion is more than just a metaphor as this statement from Merata Kawharu’s landmark paper reveals:

“For Māori, landscapes are imbued with metaphysical values as well, not least when tribal groups’ stories tell of gods, mythological heroes or ancestors carving or shaping the environment. The stories of the demi-god Maui are well-known throughout Aotearoa and in wider Polynesia, and it was he who fished up the North Island. Tribal groups have many traditions about more recent ancestors who achieved great feats in relation to the environment which are recalled in proverbs, songs, place-names and in the landscapes themselves. Stories are remembered because they tell of protocols, practical and ethical ways to care for places and people.”³

Since 2014, laws have been established in which give legal personhood to natural features of significance to Māori, much in the same way a registered company operates as a legal entity separate from its owners. These laws offer iwi (tribes) the means to protect their ancestors. Examples of protected areas include Te Urewera Forest rohe (region), the Whanganui awa (river) and more recently Taranaki maunga (mountain).

The official wording from section 3 of the 2014 Te Urewera Act which saw the forest region gain personhood provides vital insight into the importance of landscape to all New Zealanders:

Te Urewera is ancient and enduring, a fortress of nature, alive with history; its scenery is abundant with mystery, adventure and remote beauty.
Te Urewera is a place of spiritual value, with its own mana [prestige] and mauri [life force].
Te Urewera has an identity in and of itself, inspiring people to commit to its care.

Fulbright scholar Gina Cole, the author of acclaimed Pasifikafuturism novel Na Viro, says, “As island dwellers on very narrow strips of land located in the South Pacific Ocean, Kiwi horror is grounded in our relationship with the environment, including whenua (land) and moana (sea), and how those elements impact on us humans.”

Yet it isn’t only those with Māori and Pasifika heritage who acknowledge an underlying spirituality in the New Zealand landscape. In his 1998 book, Mapping the Godzone, American William Schafer noted the significance of Māori mythology and culture in the development of Aotearoa gothic:

“A common cultural link between Pākehā [European] and Māori is a belief in the hauntedness of the landscape, the sense that Aotearoa New Zealand is a land of sinister and unseen forces of imminent (and immanent threat), of the undead or revenant spirits.”⁴

Writer Tim Jones, author of the forthcoming climate fiction novel Emergency Weather, tells of just such an incident from his past: “What comes to mind is the stairwell leading to the Unemployed Rights Centre in Dunedin, back when I was in my early twenties. Once, leaving last after an evening meeting and descending the stairs in half-darkness, I was struck with a powerful sense of an unfriendly presence, watching. Was it just a cold night, just the wind, just an old building? I don’t think so—but I never went back to find out.”

Gina Cole also recalls an incident that reveals the universal respect New Zealanders afford the land and its spiritual guardians. “One time hiking in the bush in Aotearoa, the guide told us there was a guardian sitting on a rock in front of us and he was angry because no one spoke to him or greeted him as they walked past the rock. We made sure to greet him as we walked past.”

Tracie Mc Bride says, “I talked to my father once about this peculiar sensation whenever I returned to Northland after a long absence; while I was away, I would be perfectly content, but as soon as I returned, I would be filled with a powerful urge to stay. He told me that it was my Māori blood calling me home.” Given the land embodies the spirits of Māori ancestors, it seems likely McBride has been affected by the hauntedness of the landscape that Schafer mentions.

The artwork for the book also reflects the haunting atmosphere of the New Zealand landscape. Sir Julius Vogel Award-winning artist, Emma Weakley, who created the cover and interior artwork said working on the anthology was her dream job, and that she’d felt vindicated in keeping thousands of photographs of the New Zealand landscape taken during various road trips, which she then used as her inspiration for the images. “From the perspective of a visual artist who loves to draw lonely, unsettling landscapes, Aotearoa/New Zealand is an endless [source of] inspiration,” she says. “For me, it’s about contrast and isolation. The contrast of such peaceful and beautiful islands that any darkness stands out starkly, every detail sharp and clear. If all you hear is birdsong, a cry of fear or anger is piercing. The isolation creates a sense of unease and vulnerability. There’s no one else to turn to, nowhere to run. We are stuck with each other on volatile land in a huge, harsh ocean.”

Letters from Elsewhere author, Jacqui Greaves, sums it up the conflict posed by the landscape beautifully when she says, “Aotearoa is isolated. This distance and separation from the rest of the world has resulted in a unique environment. Where both land and waters are violent. This country is beautiful, but deadly. Only the naïve wander our wild areas unprepared. Everything about the country is imbued with meaning—nature, place and people. Much violence has been perpetuated in our short human history. Our stories find their birth in myths and legends, waves of immigration, the consequences of colonialism and the landscape. This isolation, this violence, this history, this land, contribute to an underlying darkness. Those of us who live here, who call this place our home, embrace that darkness in our sense of humour, in the way we dress, in our resilience and in our stories.”

Featuring uncanny disturbances, death, and the dank breath of the native bush, Remains to be Told: Dark Tales of Aotearoa is an anthology of dark stories and poems mired in the shifting landscape of the long white cloud, and deeply imbued with the myth, culture, and character of Aotearoa-New Zealand. Laced with intrigue, suspense, horror and even a touch of humor, and comprising a range of subgenres, the volume showcases some of the best homegrown and Kiwi-at-heart voices working in dark fiction today, including stories and poems by Neil Gaiman, Owen Marshall, Gina Cole, Tim Jones, Lee Murray, Dan Rabarts, Marty Young, Debbie Cowens, Paul Mannering, Tracie McBride, Kirsten McKenzie, Jacqui Greaves, Nikky Lee, William Cook, Bryce Stevens, Kathryn Burnett, Celine Murray, Denver Grenell, Del Gibson and Helena Claudia. Foreword by six-time Bram Stoker Award-winner, Lisa Morton.

References

1. Mansfield K. (1912) The Woman at the Store. Rhythm. Spring.

2. Rabarts D. and Murray L. (2017) Underworld Gothic. HWA Halloween Haunts.

3. Kawharu M. (2009) Ancestral Landscapes and World Heritage from a Māori Viewpoint. Journal of the Polynesian Society. Vol 118, pp319-320.

4. Schafer. W J. (1998) Mapping the Godzone: A Primer on New Zealand Literature and Culture. University of Hawaii Press.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

"I would hate for any of the things I’ve written to come true."

It’s hard to be a horror reader and not know the name, Charlaine Harris. Really, it’s hard to be a reader and not know Charlaine Harris, regardless of your genre of choice. From her wildly popular series The Southern Vampire Mysteries, adapted into the hit TV show True Blood, to the supernatural Harper Connelly Mysteries series and the slightly sweeter Aurora Teagarden, Harris is the reigning queen of mysteries, and her gripping Gunnie Rose series is packed with enough post-apocalyptic thrills and dark magic to keep horror readers’ blood pumping, too.

RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Charlaine Harris to talk about ALL THE DEAD SHALL WEEP, the fifth installment of her Gunnie Rose series, coming to bookshelves near you this September.

For RUE MORGUE readers who may be unfamiliar with Gunnie Lizbeth Rose (or more familiar, perhaps, with Sookie Stackhouse), can you tell us a little about the series and the world these books take place in?

I’d love to. This is my attempt at writing alternate American history. [Gunnie Rose is] set in the 1930s in an area that used to be Texas and Oklahoma but is now a country called Texoma. My protagonist is a female gunslinger, very young, who has one sellable skill: She’s a very accurate shot. And that’s how she’s making her living.

And that’s Gunnie Rose?

Yes, Lisbeth Rose, otherwise known as Gunnie.

You mentioned that the series is set in an alternate version of 1930s America, and in that version, the attempted assassination of President Roosevelt was successful. Add in real events like the Spanish Flu and the collapse of Wall Street, and we have a whole new world. What inspired you to write in this alternate history?

I didn’t really set out to write alternative history. That wasn’t my goal. I just wanted to tell the story of this character I dreamed up. But I had to build a world that could support her to do what she does, and that turned out to be an alternate America. So I kind of backed into it by accident.

But all the best things happen that way, don’t they? And, of course, there’s the Wild West and wizards and magic and Russian influence – part post-apocalyptic, part urban fantasy. What is the role of gunslingers like Gunnie Rose in this world?

It depends on which country you’re in. In her country and in the area that used to be the Great Plains, which is now New America, her role is essential because those areas are basically lawless, or at least the law is very flexibly enforced in those areas, and defenders of goods and people are in high demand because travel is precarious. And there are many roving bands of ruthless people who will do anything to get their way.

Gunnie Rose is a fierce and flawed heroine – a little rough around the edges but smart and dedicated, with so much of her personal life mixed up in her adventures. What is it like to write a character like Gunnie?

You know, sometimes I think that getting really into a character is what I suppose being a method actor is like. You get into the character and see what has shaped her, and you have to assume the same conditions when you’re writing. You have to write from the place [the character] sprang from, and sometimes, that’s easier, and sometimes it’s more difficult. With Gunnie, it just seemed to flow once I figured out what her world was.

ALL THE DEAD SHALL WEEP is the fifth and newest book in the series. What’s the latest for Gunnie Rose, and the family?

Oh, my goodness! Well, Gunnie and her sister Felicia are spinning up a little vacation together, along with Lizbeth’s husband, Eli, and his brother, Peter (who has a crush on Felicia, Lizbeth’s sister), and terrible things start happening, of course, since this is, you know, one of my books. Terrible things. And Gunnie is instrumental in figuring out who is behind all this and what she can do about it. Her husband and his brother don’t help a bit because they get captured, and Gunnie and Felicia have to free them, but in the process, we learn a lot about what’s happening with Felicia as her maturing happens rapidly. She’s free of the spell her father cast on her to keep her little and quick. And Felicia is growing up at an amazing rate, her hormones kind of going crazy, and then her magical ability just roars in … and it’s kind of terrifying. Absolutely terrifying. It’s a shock to everyone, and they all have to adjust to this new girl with her terrifying abilities, and Gunnie learns that she’s going to have to defend her sister for a while yet.

So I can only assume there’s more coming in the Gunnie Rose universe?

Yes, I’m writing the sixth book now.

Outside of Gunnie, you’ve written several different series and several standalones. Which is your favorite: series or standalone?

My heart is in my series. I wrote two standalones first thing, and after that, it’s been series all the way, though I do write a lot of short stories, too. I like to write series because I love to stick with the characters for a while and develop them. Writing a standalone can be fun, but it’s also like reinventing the wheel every time. You have to have your cast of characters. They have to be different. They all have to work to move the story along. And sometimes, it’s just fun to revisit characters and find out more about them.

How about a crossover, either your worlds or your characters? If that’s even possible, would you consider it?

The closest I’ve come is the Midnight Texas trilogy, where there are characters from every single series I’ve ever written – which I think is five or six now. Oh, that was just so much fun. It’s like a tip of the hat to my older work, and that was just pure fun for me.

Before we go, is there anything you’d like to share with readers?

I’m sorry I’m not traveling as much as I used to. I have to become more of a bionic woman before I can do that – replacing some joints and this and that. But it would be lovely to see my readers like I used to. And even with this long hiatus in American history, there are always books inside with you. I think a lot of people have come back to reading through the COVID experience, and I think that is probably the only good side of it.

I think it’s definitely a silver lining. I only hope, as a society, we aren’t creating our post-apocalyptic world.

I would hate for any of the things I’ve written to come true.

I love that! That’s a great, great quote.

So true. When I think of something terrible to do to one of my protagonists, I always go, “Oh, that’s too bad. I really should not do that.” But then, I kind of have to now that I’ve thought of it.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

"We all have very complicated relationships with inanimate objects."

If you read horror, then you should be reading Grady Hendrix. From fiction to nonfiction, Grady brings one of the sharpest voices to the genre—along with a special talent for penning tales that horrify and humor in equal measure, always bubbling over with nostalgia. His newest novel, HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE, released this month from Berkley and “takes on the haunted house in a thrilling new novel that explores the way your past—and your family—can haunt you like nothing else.”

Rue Morgue recently had the opportunity to sit down with Grady to talk more about HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE, the intersection of horror and humor, haunted houses, and our complicated relationships with creepy childhood toys.

You’ve covered everything from vampires to demonic possession to hellgate DIY furniture shops in your novels (and more). What inspired you to tackle puppets?

To me this is less of a killer puppet book and more of a haunted house book, but I totally get that the second killer puppets appear onstage they pretty much reduce everyone to a gibbering wreck and take over the show. The reason I wanted to inflict them on people is that ghost stories and haunted house books are about the things we leave behind when we die, both physical and emotional. And I was thinking about that task we’re all going to have to do one day: clean out the house of a dead loved one, and deal with all the things they left behind, from their clothes to their collection of Hummel figurines. That got me thinking about our complicated relationship with inanimate objects, especially our stuffed animals that we loved so much as kids, and from there it was a short leap to killer puppets.

Are you haunted by any childhood toys, or any nostalgic objects you find particularly personally disturbing?

My wife’s childhood stuffed friend is named Snocchio and he’s still with us. He served as a model for Pupkin in the book, although Snocchio is much nicer and less murdery. Snocchio just kind of appeared in my wife’s crib when she was 2, and he’s been with her ever since, and I’ll confess that the first time I met him I definitely had a fight or flight response. But now that I’m used to him I’ve grown to appreciate what he brings to the table. He’s very much enjoying his moment of stardom, too.

Familial drama and past trauma provide emotional subtext that amplifies the horror your characters experience in HAUNTED HOUSE, but true to form, there’s a level amount of humor and camp in the story—so very Grady Hendrix! How do you think these elements (humor, horror, and emotion) work together to draw readers in?

My job is to keep readers turning the page, so I’ll use anything I’ve got at my disposal, whether it’s an emotional hook, a joke, suspense, or something disgusting and horrible. That said, humor and horror are joined at the hip. You can’t have one without the other. I can’t think of a single good horror movie that isn’t funny on some level. Alien is as grim as it gets, but the filmmakers get a lot of mileage out of the Harry Dean Stanton/Yaphet Kotto double act. The Blair Witch Project has a really funny opening 20 minutes that sends up documentary filmmakers, and The Thing has one of the funniest lines in movie history that absolutely brings the house down every time it screens. I’m not sure we should talk about humor and horror like they’re two separate things anymore?

Scary clowns and possess dolls are quintessential horror tropes, but you’ve made them your own by injecting real opportunities for empathy for the villainous Pupkin and many of the other puppets in this household’s collection. I’d love to know more about your thought process on this, and what inspired you to reimagine scary dolls (and even the not-so-scary dolls, but dear god the squirrels) in this way.

We all have very complicated relationships with inanimate objects. We praise our cars, we curse at our laptops, we step on a stuffed animal and automatically say “sorry!” We all grew up with stuffed animals or blankets or something that served as a comfort and a friend when we were little kids. And yet these objects get outgrown, they break, they get replaced, and that all brings up a bunch of weird feelings for us. Something about these things hits us on a very vulnerable emotional level.

At the same time, we all automatically feel queasy at the first mention of a scary doll, yet we surround ourselves with Funkos and action figures and dog toys shaped like people and bobble head dolls. We invite the possible architects of our own destruction right into our workspaces and living rooms. Dolls are, after all, the only inanimate objects that can make eye contact, so they already exist in this weird space where we know they aren’t alive, but are we really sure about that?

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

I have always been a fan of horror stories, and Christmas is my favorite holiday. 

From Hallmark screenplays to films including Truth or Dare and Animal (and even Scooby-Doo!) and the documentary Never Sleep Again: The Elm Street Legacy: The Making of Wes Craven’s A Nightmare on Elm Street, author and screenwriter Thommy Hutson is known for blending the holidays and horror. Recently, Hutson took some time out of his busy schedule to speak with RUE MORGUE and share more about his new dark holiday fantasy, Write Christmas.

You have such an interesting background, writing everything from sweet romance to horror nonfiction. How do you balance writing horror with the holidays – what appeal do these two very different genres hold for you as a creator?

I have always been a fan of horror stories, and Christmas is my favorite holiday. I adore A Christmas Carol. It’s a tale that has heroes and villains and ghosts and death and the fear of realizing if we don’t understand who we are (and who we can and should be), that lack of self-awareness may destroy us. It’s scary stuff – and heavy for Christmas – but that’s what makes it so special and effective. It touches readers deep down.

As a writer, I look at how Christmas appeals to people in so many different ways—just like the horror genre does. So it felt natural to combine them and find a way to tap into what the holiday means and why it has such an effect (positive or negative) on so many. I also believe that looking at stories, no matter the genre, through the lens of character allows one to write almost anything. Just because it’s Christmas doesn’t mean it can’t be scary, thrilling or even a little sad. And just because something is horror doesn’t preclude it from taking place at “the most wonderful time of the year,” as we have seen many, many times. In fact, the combination of Christmas and horror almost feels more immediately compelling and fantastical. It’s why I wanted to craft something that pulls at the heart of the holiday but still has a hint of darkness.

Your newest novel is Write Christmas, billed as a contemporary, holiday fantasy with a new twist on A Christmas Carol and It’s A Wonderful Life. Can you tell us what it’s about?

Write Christmas is about what happens when a woman loses her belief in what the (Christmas) holiday was and can be, both for herself and everyone around her. She is myopic in thinking that because of tragedy occurring during the holiday, that if she ignores Christmas and what it meant for her and her family, somehow everything will be okay. In fact, by abandoning the holiday she once loved the most, she has done the opposite: When Christmas disappears, she sees that everything and everyone has changed for the worst. It becomes clear she must embrace the things she was running from and bring back the spirit and magic of the holiday – or her family, friends and the town will never be the same.

It’s a story about redemption as much as it is about understanding why people are the way they are – that running from the past and thinking that will solve everything is the ghost that can follow you forever. I wanted to create something that hints at the idea that it’s never too late to put a little holiday in your heart … even when there are people who’d rather see your hopes and dreams destroyed.

Based on that description, Write Christmas sounds like it takes Dickensian holiday hauntings and puts them through a modern lens! Why do you think readers need a little bit of a chill during the holidays?

Christmas is billed as the most wonderful time of the year. And it really can be. But to quote “Darkness” from Legend, “What is light without dark?” The Christmas holiday is a time for joy and light and love, but to truly appreciate those things, you must understand that a hint of darkness may be just around the corner. Maybe the shadows on the wall in between the red and green glow of Christmas lights have an agenda all their own. It’s fun to look at something we think we all know and turn it on its ear, and that’s why horror and darker stories at Christmas are so effective. The juxtaposition of anything other than perfect and happy at the holidays is striking and a wonderful playground to be on as a writer.

At the end of the day, it’s understanding that shadows and darkness at Christmas might be coming from within, so it’s about finding our way back to the light, whether that be by ourselves or with friends and family. (Note: a good cup of hot cocoa with marshmallows helps!)

What are you currently working on? What’s next for Thommy Hutson?

Currently, I’m wrapping up the sequel to my first novel, Jinxed, which will have a sort of revival in 2023 as the sequel gears up for release. I’m excited to continue that story in bloody, thrilling and fun sequel fashion and have readers wondering who is behind the mask! I’m also wrapping up interviews and gearing up to begin post-production on another multi-hour, behind-the-scenes horror documentary that has been a really fun project so far. Aside from those two projects, I’m writing a story for an upcoming anthology that will allow me to once again combine two things I love – horror and Christmas! It’s a fantastic lineup of authors, and I am proud to be included with them. Lastly, I’m also writing the screenplay for a remake of the classic ’80s horror film Happy Birthday to Me. Having grown up with the film, being able to revisit it in new and exciting ways is both challenging and exciting. Aside from that, lots of reading, watching Christmas movies, horror movies and wrapping presents!

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

THE BOULET BROTHERS’ DRAGULA: TITANS debuted in a two-episode premiere on Shudder on October 25th, quickly becoming the most widely viewed debut for the franchise to date. The ten-episode spin-off series starring drag icons from the show’s previous seasons aired weekly on Shudder and AMC+ and saw contestants competing in a grand championship of drag artistry and physical challenges for a $100,000 grand prize along with the headlining spot on the Boulet Brothers’ upcoming world tour.

This week, Victoria Elizabeth Black was crowned the first-ever DRAGULA: TITANS winner. RUE MORGUE had the opportunity to sit down with Victoria just hours after the results aired (“It still doesn’t feel real!” says Victoria) to discuss her time on the show, her win and the world tour coming next spring.

First off, congratulations! I’m so excited to hear about your experience on the show. What was it like?

It was so incredible! I was able to reunite with some of my favorite people on the show and working with Kiki to create art together was amazing. Pushing each other’s art is such a fun environment to be in. You’re literally with the best of the best, and there’s so much inspiration by your side.

I believe it and love that you thrived in such a creative, fast-paced environment. What was your reaction when you heard yourself declared the winner?

Oh, incredible. We had some friends over for a little viewing party at home. There was so much to anticipate. It could go any way. But when it happened, the room erupted. I was screaming. We were crying. All the emotions, all right at once. I still can’t believe it.

I understand this is something of a culmination of your long love for all things horror. Can you share a little about your history with horror and drag?

It started out when I was very young – like 4, 5, 6. My grandfather had owned a party store in Miami that went all out for Halloween. The store closed by the time I was born, but he had a garage full of Halloween, and every time I went over, I was completely enthralled. That kind of started the journey of my horror obsession as a child. Before I knew it, I was making corpses in the kitchen and all kinds of crazy stuff, working on Halloween every day of the year until the day of Halloween. When I was 9, I went to the Halloween Horror Nights for the first time and became obsessed with all the haunted houses. I knew this was what I wanted to do, just like that (I even worked on the set team for Halloween Horror Nights the past couple of years)! I learned all my monster make-up working for home haunts doing character makeup, and my love for it grew. From there, I discovered drag and then was able to combine drag with my love for horror. Everything changed. I became a monster. Bringing all of that knowledge to the show was amazing.

Well, it has certainly paid off. Your costumes and performances on the show were absolutely phenomenal. And more importantly, it looks like you had a lot of fun too!

Absolutely. One of the best parts is meeting all of the kind people in this community, seeing their smiling faces and how joyful they are. I’m like, “I’m not worthy,” but it’s so amazing.

Who’d have thought that the world of monsters would be full of such wonderful, kind, passionate people – and you, their reigning Titan! It’s the time for drag. We’re seeing a surge in awareness and excitement and enthusiasm that I don’t think we’ve ever experienced before, so this feels like extra special timing for you.

It feels incredible – being able to showcase our type of drag to the world, the amount of art and conceptualization and merging the glamour with the grotesque. It can be anything you want. There’s no limit to this sort of drag. And it’s great to be able to show people that there are no limits in that sense. It’s spreading, and I can’t wait to see where it goes. The show has been incredible and the love and respect from everyone is amazing. I couldn’t be more thankful.

I will absolutely be watching and rooting you on. Speaking of no limits, not even the bounds of geography can hold you! Tell me about the upcoming world tour.

The world tour is coming up, and the first stop is actually my hometown, Orlando! It’s going to be incredible to kick off the tour with all my sisters. I couldn’t be more excited. [It’s] a dream that’s so special, so special. Get your tickets!

And let’s not forget the fabulous Boulet Brothers themselves, who said in an exclusive quote for RUE MORGUE, “Victoria Black has taken the art of drag to places no one before her has, and we are excited to see where she takes her career,” adding, “We are very proud to call her our first Titan on THE BOULET BROTHERS’ DRAGULA: TITANS.”

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

Confront the thing you don’t want to confront. There’s freedom on the other side. 

From her debut. The Return to 2021’s witchy Cackle and 2022’s feminist body horror Such Sharp Teeth, Rachel Harrison has been taking horror literature by storm. Her newest, BAD DOLLS, a collection of four tonally consistent short stories is available now in ebook and audio from Berkeley. Recently, Rachel took some time out of her busy schedule to speak with Rue Morgue and share more about her BAD DOLLS.

Following Cackle and Such Sharp Teeth, BAD DOLLS contains four short stories that address the horrific nature of the female experience and complex relationships, both thematically resonant with your other work. Can you tell us about the origins of these stories? How did this collection come to be?

I wrote two of the stories, “Goblin” and “Bad Dolls” before I wrote my first novel, The Return. Prior to writing that novel, my focus had been on speculative short fiction. I wrote a bunch of stories with protagonists that make questionable – okay, bad – choices. I loved the idea of including them in a collection called BAD DOLLS, and I continued to write stories between novel drafts and edits, etc. I wrote “Bachelorette” and “Reply Hazy” after my most recent novel, Such Sharp Teeth. Of all the stories I’ve written, these four are the most similar, thematically and tonally – the baddest of my dolls. Luckily, Penguin Random House Audio and Berkley were interested in publishing stories, and here we are!

The stories in this collection reflect “normal” women’s experiences in absurd and sometimes tongue-in-cheek ways: a bachelorette party hinged on blood sacrifice, a dieting app that comes with a monstrous manifestation of hunger and so on. You’ve traversed everything from complex romantic relationships to deep familial issues. Can you share more on how you fit together these themes into one collection?

If I were to pick the meat off these four stories and get down to the bare bones, they’re all about the same thing. A woman reckoning with something she doesn’t want to reckon with. And messing up in the process! Making mistakes. I love a protagonist who makes mistakes. We all make mistakes. And tonally, these mistakes lead to a mix of humor and horror in each story. The stories get darker and scarier as the collection goes on, but they all felt like they could exist within the same universe [and] be in conversation with each other.

Is any one of these stories most personal for you?

“Goblin” for sure. I wrote it in 2016 and think about it every day. There are actually a lot of personal details throughout the collection, things I plucked from my own life. None of which I’ll cop to here!

Cackle, I think, taught us to harness our inner power, and Such Sharp Teeth provided another lens to consider that same lesson: to embrace the monster within. What is the larger message you’d like readers – perhaps women – to come away with from this collection?

Confront the thing you don’t want to confront. There’s freedom on the other side. That sounds preachy and weird, but it’s what I got!

I have to ask, would Jordan, Natalie, Meg and Mac all be friends in real life?

I think so! They should start a support group. Lord knows they need it.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

 "I think a lot of young girls have this shared experience of concocting strange things in their back yards… jars full of water and flowers and leaves, cakes made from mud dried on stones, strange little toys formed from twigs and old string. Witchety is one of those girls who never grew out of that phase, but instead leaned into it and learned to harness it into something a little bit powerful."

If you’ve been reading horror lately, chances are you’ve come across Darcy Coates. A USA Today bestselling author, Darcy has more than a dozen horror and suspense titles on the bookshelf with her byline, including Hunted, The Haunting of Ashburn House, Craven Manor, and more. Her newest, GALLOWS HILL, which released last month (September 6) from Poisoned Pen Press, the adult mystery fiction imprint of Sourcebooks.

Recently, Darcy took some time out of her busy schedule to speak with Rue Morgue and share more on GALLOWS HILL—and what’s up next for the Australian author.

Hi, Darcy! First off, what inspired you to write Gallows Hill—anything in particular? I’ve had the pleasure of reading several of your books, but Gallows Hill now reigns as my new favorite.

Thank you! Gallows Hill had its earliest inspiration from a small boutique winery my family stopped at about a decade ago. Until then, I’d thought you could only make wine from grapes, but they used unconventional bases—everything from oranges to flowerheads to chili peppers, all grown in their own garden.

I always thought that would be an amazing place to set a story. Even though Margot’s family business morphed to feel more of a traditional winery, it still carries some traces from its source: a storefront that’s open to the public and the close-knit feeling of a small business.

The crux of the story, though, actually came from a bad dream. I won’t spoil the ending, but Margot’s final discovery was something quite literally out of a nightmare!

Gallows Hill is a masterpiece of gothic horror, about an estranged daughter who comes home to inherit much more than the family business. But the family business itself is interesting. Do you have any background in winemaking, or did you undertake any special research to get the details quite right?

So much research went into the story! My favourite piece of trivia: some of the most expensive wines come from grapes that are allowed to grow moldy on the vine. It’s nicknamed Noble Rot and adds a natural sweetness that’s difficult to get otherwise.

I absorbed an incredible amount of random trivia in the months before and during writing Gallows Hill to make sure the winery would be (mostly) accurate. Only one problem: Margot couldn’t know any of it. I wanted her to feel entirely out of her depth in the business, so her knowledge of wines had to be kept absolutely bare-minimum, and almost all of my research was left on the cutting room floor. (Tragic!)

I loved Witchety’s character, and her sculpture, The Watcher. She’s such a welcome bit of sunshine in a dark book. As the mom of a golden retriever, I loved her pup even more! Combined they brought such a wonderful tenderness to the story. Can you talk a little more about the “goodness” of these characters in contrast to the darkness of Margot’s own ancestors?

It’s so, so important for me to have those little measures of warmth in a story. They give us a reason to care for the characters and create moments to breathe between the heavier segments. Plus, they can heighten the sense of dread we feel when things turn bad; shadows appear at their fullest when there’s some light to contrast against them.

I love Witchety. I think a lot of young girls have this shared experience of concocting strange things in their back yards… jars full of water and flowers and leaves, cakes made from mud dried on stones, strange little toys formed from twigs and old string. Witchety is one of those girls who never grew out of that phase, but instead leaned into it and learned to harness it into something a little bit powerful.

Gallows Hill is rife with beautifully macabre imagery and immersive atmosphere, balanced with a delicate spiderweb of a horror story. Where do you draw inspiration to craft this type of story?

Every story I write starts with the same question: What would scare me the most? It’s a great question; it means I’m always excited to write (since I’m telling a story I desperately wish I could read), and I can re-ask that question as often as I need if I’m not certain where to take a scene.

That’s why you’ll see some themes pop up across different books–old houses, old trees, lost graveyards, things that are dead, whispers in a dark room. Those are all themes that fascinate me and make it hard to sleep at night, and I can’t get enough of them.

What are you working on next?

Oh, I’m excited about what we have coming up!

First is a very dark survival thriller. A tour group finds themselves stranded in a snowbound cabin as they’re picked off one by one. Any of them could be the killer, and no one’s coming to save them. It’s fast and a bit gory and was incredibly fun to write. It’s called Dead of Winter and is due out next July!

The next story—the one I’m writing right now—is a YA horror story set in a small town where people go missing with no explanation. It’s called Where He Can’t Find You and leans into my love of urban legends and monster horror, with a really strong found family dynamic. I asked my editor how dark I was allowed to go, and she told me to lean into the horror. I didn’t mean to take it as a challenge, but it’s unraveling to be a deliciously creepy, deeply horrifying story, and I can’t wait to share it with you.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

Having premiered on Shudder (and via the Shudder offering within the AMC+ bundle), Queer for Fear: The History of Queer Horror, is a four-part documentary series about the history of the LGBTQ+ community in the horror and thriller genres from executive producers Bryan Fuller (Hannibal, Pushing Daisies) and Steak House (Disney Launchpad, The Mustang).

From Mary Shelley and Bram Stoker to legendary gay director James Whale, the tragic end of Oscar Wilde, and a touching tribute to closeted gay heartthrob Anthony Perkins—Pyscho’s Norman Bates—Queer for Fear “re-examines genre stories through a queer lens, seeing them not as violent, murderous narratives, but as tales of survival that resonate thematically with queer audiences everywhere.” Illuminative, intoxicating, and deeply moving, Queer for Fear shines a spotlight on those queer pioneers of horror whose works have commanded the page and screen while the stories of the people behind some of horror’s most fundamental scares have all too often been erased from history.

Rue Morgue recently had the opportunity to sit down with executive producer Bryan Fuller to talk more about this unabashedly brave and passionately poignant new docu-series.

From Star Trek to Pushing Daises, you’ve done it all. What attracted you to this project?

I’ve been watching horror films and consuming horror stories my entire life, so it felt exciting to have that conversation on a bigger platform with folks who’ve also been having that conversation and that experience: watching these films and seeing queerness in them, wondering if it’s just their projecting onto the storylines or if there’s something actually there. As we wanted to illustrate very clearly with Queer for Fear, there is something there and those projections are valid. There’s something about the “other “experience as a queer audience member and as a queer storyteller that brings these stories into a greater clarity of how we see ourselves in the movies, television, and stories we consume. Queer for Fear just felt irresistible on that level.

It’s certainly irresistible to watch! Can you tell us a little bit more about the development of the series—how you’ve curated the people profiled and those you’ve invited to help tell their stories? Personally, I had such an emotional experience watching the series—even tearing up at the recounting of the tragedy of Oscar Wilde. How did you make some of the darkest horror stories so incredibly resonant?

Queer for Fear started as a sort-of offshoot of a wonderful documentary horror noir Shudder released a few years ago. The producer of that documentary—Phil Noble, editor at Fangoria—wanted to do something from the crew’s perspective. So, we had a straight white guy as a queer ally, who pushed this storyline into being, and in a way that goes to show that we have allies outside of our community that want to hear our voices just as much as we do (did).

It’s such a sprawling canvas, queer history and horror stories, and so much bigger than any of us realize on an individual level. As a fledging documentarian, I didn’t know that Mary Shelley was queer; I didn’t know that Bram Stoker was queer. Yes, I knew about James Whale, but I didn’t understand that he got bit by the “theatre bug” as a prisoner of war. So, what started as a 90-minute movie soon began to burst at the seams. By the time we got to Oz Perkins (son of Anthony Perkins), he was so incredibly vulnerable and honest and refreshing, we knew what we could make a lasting impact if we stopped to tell the right story. We had to make room; it wasn’t going to do anybody any good to give information that was a quick Google away. We didn’t want to shave things down but expand them and give them that emotional context. You talked about tearing up over Oscar Wilde, and it makes me so happy because that’s the experience we want viewers to have. It’s heroic, and it’s foolhardy, and it’s arrogant, and it’s dumb, and yet brilliant and savvy at the same time. We tried to get as much information out with enough emotional context that we’re able to tell complete stories at pace without short-shrifting any of the material, so I’m glad you had an emotional experience, because that’s exactly our intention in sharing these stories.

You’ve referred to yourself as a fledgling documentarian, but it’s impossible not to feel the love you hold for the subject matter and see your passion for storytelling in every episode. And, in a way, Queer for Fear is a love story to the people who have shaped horror as we know it. What do you want audiences to take away from watching this series—how can we embed these stories and these truths into their lives?

I think, especially for queer audiences, we would love our audiences to see themselves and a validation as to why horror means so much to them—to claim ownership of the genre, because foundationally, queers own the horror genre in a way that no one else does. And that deserves a Pride parade in and of itself, as far as I’m concerned. For straight audiences, I think there’s going to be a lot of folks who get angry that things they love have queer associations (tweet about it, just make sure to hashtag us). Then there will be people that see, or find an affinity for, an association with the queer community, because they can relate to these things and to the queer people who created these things—like, I have more in common with queers than I perhaps do with anybody else in terms of feeling marginalized, like a monster, or ideologically queer even if not sexually queer.

There’s a lot of commonalities to be found in the horror genre for straight horror bros to look at the genre and say, “You know, I have more in common with queerness than I realized, and therefore queerness is more acceptable, or less demonized, or less different than I once thought it was.” Because queerness is about this experience, this human aspect, of an audience member seeing themselves in a monster and relating to Frankenstein’s monster, because they too felt unloved in some circumstances in their lives. If we can bring straight people closer to associating and understanding the queer experience and accepting that, and then also give queer people a home for conversations about art and storytelling, where parables and metaphors and euphemisms all run rampant, you get to dissect and interpret them and project yourself onto them. This makes the experience of watching a horror film both more communal and more personal.

QUEER FOR FEAR is available now on Shudder.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

“If you believe in the mythology … that’s how you play it. I believe that a good writer puts everything on the page… Believe, even if it’s weird. It’s all real. It’s all happening. So that’s what I do.”

From The Exorcist to Helter Skelter to her memoir, Excorising My Demons: Exorcising My Demons: An Actress’ Journey to the Exorcist and Beyond, and a zombie scene in 2005’s Constantine (which was cut from the theatrical version but bears mention in light of the announcement of the upcoming sequel and because who doesn’t want to work with Keanu Reeves?!?), Eileen Dietz is a staple in the horror genre. Now, she’s back with a new film, OF THE DEVIL, just released in August.

RUE MORGUE recently had the chance to sit down with Eileen Dietz and chat about OF THE DEVIL, Exorcising My Demons as well as some of the other projects she’s currently working on.

OF THE DEVIL follows a family desperate to find a cure for their young son’s brain cancer, but when unconventional treatments lead to the child being possessed by an ancient evil, the parents must fight not only for the child’s life but his soul. You play June Summers, their neighbor and mom of Mr. Ravioli (the cutest pug ever). Can you tell me a little more about June and who she is in the film?

June is a busybody neighbor with a connection to a “doctor” in Mexico who says that he can cure the little boy with his spiritual treatment. She’s very fond of the little boy, who she often lets play with Mr. Ravioli, her dog, and she takes a huge interest in what’s going on with this family. She recommends the treatment which subsequently creates all kinds of demonology for the little boy. He comes back cured, but not the same.

I have to say, June stole her scenes and so did Mr. Ravioli, June’s pug who’s essentially her child in the film since June has no family or children. Unfortunately, Mr. Ravioli comes to a rather terrible end. What was it like filming with a canine sidekick?

Funnily enough, the dog wasn’t allowed on set – it was 106 degrees in California where we filmed, and pugs can’t breathe in that kind of heat. So we had to add all his scenes in afterward as an insert.

Movie magic, right?

[Laughing] The first scene I shot was at 7:30 in the morning – and I’m not a morning person – because of the heat. And I’m looking for my dog, not the pug, but my dog, who’d passed way about a year ago. She was an emotional support animal and with me all the time. Anyway, so the first scene I shot, this early morning shot, was the scene in which I’m looking for Mr. Ravioli, and I discover that the boy has made sort of a skull out of my dog. Well, I don’t know how much acting was involved in that scene because I looked at the skull and burst into tears! The director wanted me to fall on the ground in the fetal position and cry and moan. So, that was the first scene we shot and both the hardest and easiest scene for me in the whole film.

I suppose the hard part was done then? And the personal story makes that scene even more horrible and powerful, especially for you!

The director’s wife created that prop and didn’t let me see it beforehand. It gave me chills. [It] still does!

One of my favorite scenes in OF THE DEVIL is yours, and it’s an early one, too – maybe the first or second time you’re on camera. Just after the diagnosis, June comes over to have tea with Daniela Palavecino, who plays Norma Cortez, the boy’s mom, and you say (about the tea), “The more you drink, the better it gets.” I remember thinking, “How foreboding!” and sure enough, things do get a little bizarre from then on. There was something suspicious in that tea!

Yeah, I think there’s a different language they use for it now!

The symbology used in the film is really neat, and the connection between change and transformation is prevalent throughout – both the good and the bad. Did you do a lot of learning about the mythology as you prepared for the role of June?

No, but frankly, I’m not that kind of an actor. If you believe in the mythology and just accept it, then that’s how you play it. I believe that a good writer puts everything on the page. My acting teacher, Don, may he rest in peace, he always said, just go back to being a child. Believe, even if it’s weird. It’s all real. It’s all happening. So that’s what I do.

It’s really interesting to learn more about your process and what has worked for your long and successful career. You’ve done a little bit of everything! In fact, you’re a writer, too. Your memoir, Excorsing My Demons, is out now.

It is! In the book, I write about everything from becoming Pazuzu in The Exorcist to how people often say that I was a body double for Linda Blair – which I wasn’t. Speaking of, The Exorcist is celebrating it’s 50th anniversary soon! I was part of the team of actors that worked with Linda Blair’s character, Regan, so I was quite a bit older than the character, who was 12, when we filmed that movie. Luckily I was tiny and had to make sure I stayed tiny. Actually, I once biked through Central Park wrapped in Saranwrap because at the time, that was a fad to stay fit.

Time flies when you’re having fun, right? So what’s next for you? Are you currently working on any new projects?

Several, actually. Too many to talk about! I just finished a few things that’ll be coming soon with a number of new projects starting production.

We will certainly look forward to those! In the meantime, OF THE DEVIL is out now. And we hope everyone will check out your fascinating memoir, Exorcising My Demons: An Actress’ Journey to the Exorcist and Beyond as well!

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

“I grew up loving horror and embracing the monstrous visuals that disturbed others. I found comfort in things that were generally considered to be ‘spooky’…”

The future of horror art is colorful. Recently named UK alternative culture brand Kerrang!’s first-ever female lead illustrator, Daniella Batsheva’s June 2022 cover art marks a rare occasion in the publication’s 40-plus year history. Visually alluring, humorous and thought-provoking, Daniella’s aesthetic boasts beautiful detail-heavy, intricate linework mixed with vibrant colors. Her focus for Kerrang! embraces a wide range of timely issues, including mental health, sex, drugs and female empowerment.

A self-proclaimed “illustrator with a design habit,” Daniella Batsheva is a visual artist who straddles the line between the underground and the mainstream. Her art blends the intricacy of the Victorian era with the dark goth imagery inspired by horror films. Batsheva’s softly stylized figures and deep color palettes evoke whimsy with a creepy twist.

Recently, Daniella Batsheva took some time out of her busy schedule to speak with RUE MORGUE and share her thoughts, inspirations and perspective on the future of women’s art in horror.

Congratulations on being named Kerrang!’s first-ever female lead illustrator. This is a tremendous accomplishment that rings extra sweet knowing that you have achieved a first for women and have the honor and distinction of carving that path forward for others to follow. Can you tell us a little bit more about how this came to fruition and what it means to you?

Thank you so much! Kerrang! has a great team with lots of young professionals, so there’s a lot of fresh talent there. Brand Manager Esme Surfleet brought me on board to work alongside the crew whenever an illustration is needed and trusted me to handle the given topics with care. My work for Kerrang! focuses on inclusivity, mental health, and social issues in the context of alternative communities, so I take it very seriously, but I do still try to maintain a sense of humor about it where possible. It’s very humbling to work alongside so many professionals who are making such a huge impact in the alternative. Particularly as an artist of Middle Eastern descent who has always prowled the underground music scenes, having a space where I can be myself and share my work has meant a lot, and I’m very grateful for it.

Of course, Kerrang! is one feather amongst many in your cap. You’ve also designed a lot of horror-related artwork – including for Shriekfest and for Sam Raimi’s film Crawl as well toy designs for Teddy Scares “Mazey Podge” Eastern State Penitentiary exclusive and “Annabelle Wraithia.” Where do you find your inspiration?

It depends on the project and who I’m working for. On the one hand, I look at the logical, business side first and ask, “What’s the demographic? What’s the budget? What’s the message? Are they using this project to channel a specific style?” Once I figure out what we’re aiming for, I have the set guidelines, and I’m able to work around that. As far as inspiration goes, I prefer to hit the books first, so I like checking out the library to see what I can find. Google is also very useful, but I like to take an active approach for reference, so I’ll go out all day and soak in everything from architecture to bugs for fuel.

Your art has been described as “visually alluring, humorous and thought-provoking all at once,” and I must say that I agree! It’s full of intricate detail alongside vibrant colors, mixing a Victorian aesthetic with imagery inspired by classic and modern horror. Who are some of your biggest artistic influences?

Thank you so much! Off the top of my head, Georges Melies, Irish illustrator Harry Clarke, Versailles court painter Vigee Le Brun, Camille Rose Garcia, Clive Barker, Austin Osman Spare… The list is extensive because I don’t have just one or two artists that influence me. I could probably list two solid pages full of artist names that have made an impact on me for different reasons.

How does your love of horror influence your art?

Horror and Halloween tint everything I do. It always has. I grew up loving horror and embracing the monstrous visuals that disturbed others. I found comfort in things that were generally considered to be “spooky” because I liked how different it was. It was the furthest thing imaginable from my Yemeni-Jewish background. I disliked that horror only seemed to be widely acceptable in Autumn and went about my younger years asking, “Why does Halloween ever have to stop?” So, I aim to capture a bit of that quality in everything I do.

Your portfolio embraces a wide range of timely issues, including mental health, sex, drugs, female empowerment, and more. How do you feel art is important to society?

Art has always been important to society. Art in all areas is what we use to define where we stand as a species at a particular point in time. If you want to know what happened in the ’50s, what people were feeling and thinking, you look at the illustrations in ads, the clothes they wore, the books they read, what they were watching on TV… Art has always defined us – whether we acknowledge and accept that or not. I feel very strongly about this because, in recent years, I’m afraid people have lost sight of the value of visual and performing arts. Art classes in schools are losing funding, art organizations have minimal resources to work with and the average person is mostly unaware of visual arts outside the rare museum trip.

I think we need to reintroduce art to the everyman outside of a gallery setting. Personally, I would love to see more care and consideration taken with packaging design and smaller products that someone could use and cherish every day. Art doesn’t have to be highbrow or intimidating, it can just be a beautifully designed tchotchke that makes someone’s space feel nicer. Being in such uncertain times, we need to embrace art now more than ever.

What motivates you to create? Have you always been an artist?

It’s funny, I struggle with calling myself an artist, even after all these years. It’s a title that carries such weight for me, like someone walking around claiming to be a knight. I think, “Who knighted you?” That being said, yes, I have always drawn! I have always made art. It’s a compulsion for me. By the time I became self-aware as a child, I was already scribbling and drawing my wonky princesses with purple hair. I communicate much better through drawing than I do through words. Conversations don’t do much for me, I rarely feel like I have the vocabulary to share the depths of my thoughts and feelings. Drawings can be nuanced enough to convey a whole spectrum of emotions, so I often channel my feelings and thoughts into my illustrations.

Your art has appeared on magazine and book covers (I’m especially fond of the cover art for Chandler Morrison’s Dead Inside, published by Death’s Head Press) to t-shirts and more. How does this – or does it – affect the designs you make as a creator? What’s it like to see your art embraced and rendered in so many ways?

I absolutely love it. I much prefer to have my illustrations used for many different purposes because I know that they’re going to have a presence in others’ lives. That’s so important to me – that someone else would be happy to have my art be a part of their home. It does affect how I create, though! Whenever I make a piece, I consider how it will be used. My stylistic approach of hard lines and flat colors is very compatible with printing of all sorts, so there is a versatility to each piece. If I know that it’s going to be turned into a t-shirt, I’ll make sure to cap the design off, so it’s self-contained and neat looking. If it’s for a screen print, I’ll separate the shapes and minimize the color palette accordingly. Before I illustrate anything, I need the dielines and I need printing info, so the format is the foundation for each piece I create.

Thank, you, Daniella! As we part ways, can you share your feelings and desires about the future of women’s art?

Thank you for taking the time to chat with me! It was a lot of fun!

The only thing I have to say is that I hope feminine art can become a standard without the need for justification. I’ve been asked so many times “Why do you draw women? Why is your work so girly?” And I’m not sure that men have been asked the same question when they’ve only drawn things like male superheroes or characters. The same way that someone would not have to justify their masculinity in their work, I don’t want to have to justify my femininity. I hope that, someday, being “girly” can be a standard because I’ve had many experiences seeing women’s voices be treated as a novelty. I think we’ll come around to it though! We’ll get there!

You can keep up with Daniella Batsheva and her many projects at her official website.

This interview originally ran on Rue Morgue.

“Don’t ask me why, but I love getting into the mind of a psychopath. Writing bent characters is just fun.”

History, haunts, and horror. Growing up the daughter of a filmmaker in New Orleans’s famous French Quarter, novelist Alexandrea Weis has seen it all—and she’s brought it all in her new novel RIVER OF ASHES, co-written with Lucas Astor. Currently in development for a television series, RIVER OF ASHES is the first in a new series that follows a pair of twin sisters who unintentionally expose the dark, twisted skeletons of their small town’s premier family. RUE MORGUE recently sat down with the author to discuss the genesis of the series and its future.

In many ways, RIVER OF ASHES is a very personal story for you, starting with the book’s setting, which is essentially right in your backyard: set along the Bogue Falaya River, a waterway that runs near the ruins of the abandoned St. Francis Abbey. Both are real locations in Louisiana, though not necessarily as they appear in the book – is that correct?

The Abbey is real, though not abandoned. There is a working seminary college and Saint Joseph Abbey located in Saint Benedict on the outskirts of Covington, Louisiana, very near where I live. And nearly every day I drive over the Bogue Falaya, which roughly translates to “little river” in the Indigenous language of the area.

I love that you draw inspiration from places near and dear to you; It brings a sense of realism and authenticity to RIVER OF ASHES and lends a natural ambiance that resonates with readers. Since the Abbey is currently in use, it’s obviously not in ruins, but I imagine it comes with a ready fount of folklore and superstition. Did any of the setting’s real history influence your novel?

The Abby does have a cemetery where some of the monks are buried, and the area itself is steeped in history and legend as well as many stories from the Tribes who were here before New Orleans was settled. Of course, anywhere there’s a creepy, derelict building in Louisiana, especially next to a river swathed in the shadow of trees, there’s a story to go with it.

Well, if I were a spectral Lady in White – like the ghostly woman in RIVER OF ASHES – ruins near a river seem like a perfect place to hang out.

It’s got to be a lot quieter than the French Quarter, so why not?

Many people have only seen New Orleans as tourists, but you’ve spent your life in the area. What’s that been like?

I grew up in the French Quarter. Back then, it was a different atmosphere – all the rowdiness was really contained to two, maybe three, blocks along Bourbon Street. The rest of the quarter was a relatively quiet neighborhood. A lot has changed through the years, starting in the 1980s when Anne Rice set her Vampire Chronicles books in the Quarter.

And she had her beautiful home in the Garden District for some time.

Yep, at First and Chestnut. Everyone knew Anne Rice’s house. She had multiple properties at one time, but what I remember most was she had two beautiful mastiffs – I mean, gorgeous. I worked uptown for a number of years, and whenever I was nearby, I would want to just stop and talk to the dogs.

Proximity to Anne Rice isn’t your only celebrity encounter in the French Quarter. You have an interesting familial relationship with Hollywood and have been involved in some film work in the heart of New Orleans. Can you tell me more about that?

My dad had an independent production company in the French Quarter – part of the reason why I grew up down there. His office was right across the street from a place called Madame John’s Legacy, which is the oldest standing Caribbean architecture and one of the only buildings to survive the Great New Orleans Fire in 1788. Dad worked on several big productions, one of them being the James Bond film Live and Let Die (1973). The famous jazz funeral in the French Quarter was filmed right around from my dad’s office. I grew up on film sets. I know how to load 35-millimeter mags, set up lights, run sound and edit. I even had a SAG card.

And yet here you are, a novelist. Was there a reason you gravitated to writing and not so much to the film side of things?

Actually, I started out writing scripts with my father, but friends I went to high school with said I would grow up to be an author. I think good writing begins with experiences. You’ve got to live to write. My mom was a nurse who worked on the first open heart transplant team in Louisiana. She once told me, “In your father’s business, you get many takes to get it right. In mine, you only get one.” That stuck with me. So I pursued nursing – always writing and having stories in my head, but thinking that novels would be something I’d focus on “later.” I got my Masters and Ph.D., then went on to teach, but once that was done, I sat down and started writing, bringing those experiences to the page.

And do you ever! You’ve written everything from romance to thrillers. Though you’ve done so many excellent projects across genres, do you have a favorite to write in?

I like thrillers. Don’t ask me why, but I love getting into the mind of a psychopath. Writing bent characters is just fun. And I love the supernatural, of course. I grew up with ghosts. I love writing them. If I can combine the two, even better.

Many of your works involve supernatural elements like ghosts and hauntings, and your Magnus Blackwell series also centers around voodoo. Have you ever had any experiences with ghosts or voodoo practitioners in the French Quarter?

I grew up in a haunted cottage on Dumaine Street. Ghosts were the norm for me and everyone living in the oldest section of the Quarter. I did not have what anyone would call a normal childhood. Early on, I developed a healthy respect for the strange and unusual. In our home, unseen things knocked on walls, doors opened, lights flickered, radios turned on and off, things moved around and full-bodied apparitions appeared, which fascinated our cats. There was nothing like sitting in a chair and having all the cats in the room follow something across the floor that you couldn’t see. The French Quarter I knew was well before the popularity of ghost tours. Much of what is told by tour companies is a mixture of myth and fact. The people who lived, loved and died in the city’s oldest section had tragic experiences that weren’t all about voodoo or long-forgotten curses. Fortunately, those who grew up there remember the authentic oral tradition related to particular houses on certain streets. And I was lucky enough to know many of the owners of those famous homes and even visited a few of them.

My neighbor was a voodoo priestess who often performed rituals on her patio. I would watch, fascinated by the ceremonies. She taught me a great deal about the religion and respecting the ghost who inhabited my home. It instilled in me a sense of wonder about the supernatural but also allowed me to approach it in a way that made the unreal seem real in my books, including the Magnus Blackwell series I also co-authored with Lucas Astor.

As with many of your books, your thrillers can become deeply personal, sometimes, as well. Beyond the proximity to your hometown, I understand that RIVER OF ASHES was also inspired by a friend in high school who – like the women in the book – was a victim of an assault by a “golden boy” similar to the RIVER OF ASHES’ antagonist, Beau Devereaux. Are you able to share more on how that shaped the characters in this novel?

Yes, there’s a true story that I discuss in the back of the book about someone I went to high school with in the ’80s. Junior year, she was asked out by a guy everyone wanted to date. Afterward, we all watched her change – her clothing, her personality, her interests. By senior year, she had really changed, and we didn’t understand why. Decades later, she finally shared her story: She’d gone on the date, was drugged and raped. She never told anyone, and we, her friends, never knew what was wrong. I remember thinking, “Oh my God, we missed it,” and I felt so guilty. At the time, none of us knew how to look for or decode the signs of sexual assault, and her story became a catalyst for RIVER OF ASHES. I wanted to give women like her a voice – to show girls that “Mr. Perfect” isn’t always “Mr. Perfect.”

It’s a powerful message and a necessary one, a cautionary tale, written inside a story rich on atmosphere, history, and culture that, despite its ghosts and hauntings, presents an all-too-real terror that many have experienced firsthand. On that note, when can we expect the next book in the St. Benedict series?

The second book, River of Wrath, is set to come out on January 31, 2023. The third installment in the series, River of Ghosts, is expected fall 2023.

“Don’t ask me why, but I love getting into the mind of a psychopath. Writing bent characters is just fun.”