While it’s always nice to have visitors in the Library, today we’re going to bring things a little closer to home with a 31 Days of Halloween discussion with my friend and Rue Morgue colleague Andy Burns, who is also Publisher/Editor-in-Chief of Biff Bam Pop! and the author of Wrapped in Plastic: Twin Peaks.
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31 Days of Halloween… with Andy Burns
Describe a time when a scene in a horror novel really unnerved you or caused you to turn on all the lights.
For me, the scariest story/novel scene has got to be the end of Stephen King’s story “The Boogeyman,” found in his Night Shift collection. I was ten years old and stuck in bed for a week with the chicken pox. I was already a King fan (I had open-minded parents) and my mother had bought me Night Shift at the corner store to keep me busy. Sadly, while mom had the best of intentions, the book did more harm than good, especially at the end of “The Boogeyman,” when the creature comes slithering out of the closet one last time. That scene has stuck with me and, as a result, I can’t sleep with closets open. Ever.
In your opinion, what is the all-time scariest horror novel or short story?
While “The Boogeyman” remains the scariest short story I’ve ever read, when it comes to novels I tend to go to another Stephen King story, Pet Sematary. To be fair, it’s not my favourite King novel (that would be The Stand), but in terms of actual nightmarish horror, Gage wins out. Hands down.
What are your top 3 fears?
1 – Sharks (thanks Jaws 3D)
2 – Snakes (thanks Raiders of the Lost Ark)
3 – the inevitability of death (thanks every Woody Allen movie)
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