I am delighted to round out my month of horror and wish you a happy Halloween by introducing you to a new author. Enjoy!

The Interview

I’m so excited it’s October. Thank you for letting me interview you.

Today we are sitting down with Pamela K. Kinney to talk about her latest ghost book, Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle 2nd Edition: Williamsburg, Yorktown, Jamestown, and Other Haunted Locations, plus horror novels and stories and what makes her tick.

So, you’re a horror author. When did you first realize you loved horror? 

Ever since I was a kid. I always wrote scary stories along with animal ones since I was age 8. 

What came first? The horror movie or a scary story? Tell me about it. 

The scary story. I loved reading children’s books set during Halloween or were scary. Like Alfred Hitchcock’s Ghostly Gallery. Also, I enjoyed reading true ghost stories, alien encounters, things like that, in books like a sort of anthology with different chapters on various ghost encounters, werewolves, vampires, and alien abduction stories from around the world. I also began reading Paranormal Researcher Han Holzer’s books about him investigating haunted places around the world. Like his first book, Ghost Hunter, published in 1963. 

Have you ever met a ghost or had a paranormal experience? 

Yes, I have. I had just done a paranormal investigation, along with my friend and author, Carol Smith, and my husband, at the Moose Lodge in Chester, Virginia, September 22, 2019, overnight. Some things happened, plus I caught a window of a garden shed in the lodge’s fenced-in backyard lit up when the place was dark.

What is the hardest part of writing horror for you? 

I sometimes find that with a short story I had written that it dissatisfied me, that it wasn’t the best one for a submission call I set it for, so another idea hits me and I write another story. That has been happening this year, so I am not sure what is up with that. I don’t throw away the original one I wrote but put it away to come back to later. I find then; it works for me for another submission call.

How far do you go on Halloween? 

I used to decorate the house, even dressed up in scary costumes to meet children at the door. Except, nowadays with book signings at bookstores or events in October, I decorate my signing and event tables instead. 

I read horror all year round, but I pick to read a horror book set during Halloween for October. I also watch horror movies on DVD/Blu Rays, plus those on TV and Netflix and Prime. I also watch paranormal reality television shows and specials on cable channels like Travel Channel.

Does your ability to write horror impact your ability to enjoy other horror books and movies? Writing whatever I write (can include fantasy and science fiction) impacts me for any movie these days. Like plot holes I catch in films, or how stupidly some person walks into a situation they know killings have been happening, but till go outside or down a dark place. How about, ghost shows, where they hear loud, scary noises and they are frightened, and yet, do not turn on the light heading downstairs or into a room the sound came from?  

If you could only own one horror book for the rest of your life, which book would you pick? 

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson. Can I include two? I would add Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes. Because Stephen King and I are close in age, he did not inspire me to become a horror author. It was Shirley Jackson (showing women can be good scary writers) and Ray Bradbury. Along with Edgar Allan Poe and HP Lovecraft. 

Do you listen to music while you write? What’s on your horror playlist? 

I don’t listen to music when I write. I either have background noise of the TV on or nothing at all. I listen to music on my downtime or while driving in the car; I listen to my Halloween music CDs.

And finally, what three pieces of advice would you give a fledgling horror writer? 

Write every day, even if you get stuck in your manuscript, just write something else until you can return to your original document. If all you write is a paragraph’s worth, that is still progress. And it doesn’t have to be on the computer, even writing by long hand works. And read other horror books and stories to research all that fits what is considered horror (actually, read all types of genres and books—know what is out there). 

About the Author

Author Pamela K. Kinney gave up long ago trying not to listen to the voices in her head and has written award-winning, bestselling horror, fantasy. science fiction, poetry, and a ghost wrangler of nonfiction ghost books published by Schiffer Publishing. Three of her nonfiction ghost books garnered Library of Virginia nominations. Her newest ghost book release is Virginia’s Haunted Historic Triangle 2nd Edition: Williamsburg, Yorkton, Jamestown, and Other Haunted Locations, with extra new stories and ten new ghostly images added then was in the first edition. She is working on a seventh ghost book set in the Surry to Suffolk area of Virginia for Anubis Press. Her horror short story, “Bottled Spirits,” was runner-up for the 2013 WSFA Small Press Award and is considered one of the seven best genre short fiction for that year. Her latest novel was her first self-published venture, an urban fantasy, How the Vortex Changed My Life, and in the future, she will have a science fiction novella released from Dreampunk Press, Maverick Heart.  

Pamela and her husband live with one crazy black cat (who thinks she should take precedence over her mistress’s writing most days). Along with writing, Pamela has acted on stage and film and investigates the paranormal for episodes of Paranormal World Seekers for AVA Productions. She is a member of both Horror Writers Association and Virginia Writers Club. You can learn more about Pamela K. Kinney at https://www.PamelaKKinney.com.

Her social media:

Amazon

Facebook

Twitter

Instagram

Readers can see the anthologies she has stories included in:

https://pamelakkinney.com/Anthology.php

Readers can see the other nonfiction ghost books and true ghost stories anthologies including her true ghost stories:

https://pamelakkinney.com/Ghost.php