Can you believe tomorrow is Halloween? It's true! In honor of the spooky season, I picked a story that also dipped into the paranormal and featured an author that has a variety of stories in the genre if that's your thing! I hope you enjoyed Miles to Go this month, now enjoy this interview I sent to @Comicality before you share your comments below. 

Who was the real villain, ACME or Wile E. Coyote?

Hehehe, Wile E. Coyote! All the way! They sold it...but YOU bought it, dude. Repeatedly, after injury and failures galore. That’s all on him. Learn or suffer, I always say. 

If you were an animal, what would you be?

A panther! Can’t explain it, but I’ve always had a thing for panthers, even when I was little. Like all black, or purple, fur...sleek, with bright and mysterious glow in the dark golden eyes? What could be cooler than that?

What’s one location you’d love to go to research for a story?

Egypt. Hands down. It’s on my personal bucket list. Being here in America for my whole life...we see stuff that might be like 100 years old. MAYBE 200 years. But being able to stand in front of something thousands of years old and marvel at it? That would be priceless to me. I’d research that for a story and really put my creative mind to the test. My second pick would be Tokyo. Because Tokyo just sounds awesome!

What do you like to do when you’re not writing?

I’m almost never ‘not writing’. But when I need to unplug and relax, I’m a big film fanatic. I could lose an entire day watching movies. Video games too, because I love the stories behind them and everything that goes into bringing those worlds to life. Outside of those two things, it’s all me trying to spend quality time with my family.

What’s the best part of being a writer?

Being able to exist in a world where I control the ‘rules’. Where the people with good hearts and good intentions get rewarded for it. And people who suck and just live to cause misery, bigotry, and pain, get what they deserve. The real world isn’t like that, unfortunately. Assholes stay assholes, the super rich stay rich, and hopeless romantics get their hearts broken. 🤷🏻‍♂️ Such is life, I suppose. I don’t expect it to change.

Out of all your stories, which story or series is your favorite and why?

“Gone From Daylight” will probably be my favorite series from now until infinity. Hehehe, there is so much of myself poured into that story and everything started branching off into different corners of that world but are all still connected. It’s the biggest thing that I’ve ever done in my life, and I’m completely invested in seeing it all play out till the very end.

Miles to Go did into the paranormal. Do you like to read or watch paranormal stories yourself?

I LOVE paranormal stuff! And not just in fiction, but I love a lot true story details about paranormal stuff. I’m an 80’s kid, so I grew up in the horror movie era (Michael Myers, Freddy, Jason, Chucky, Leatherface, etc), and a lot of Chicago has many haunted spots in the downtown area. So I live for spooky stories. I find them fascinating.

So… why zombies? What inspired the idea for Miles to Go?

Actually, I wrote a zombie story one year for Halloween because there were a few readers that really wanted me to do one. So I basically did it for them, and it’s called “Shelter”. It had one main character and a love interest involved, but it was only meant to be a one chapter type of thing. And when folks wanted more, I came up with a few more characters to help build up the story and make it more unique and a bit more interesting. One of those characters was Preston, who I really enjoyed writing because he’s so much FUN! Hehehe! And as “Shelter” moved forward, I began writing backstories for each of the main characters to explain how they got there and brought them all together into one story. And that’s where “Miles To Go” came from.

Do you have a favorite part (line or section) of the story?

I really love the parts where Preston is trying to fit in at his very first party and all, but my favorite, I think, was him running through a cornfield full of zombies. I wanted to add something extremely creepy to this story, and having him push his way through a cornfield and not being able to see what’s right in front of him seemed like a rather frightening idea. Not knowing what you might run into. It almost has a Jaws ‘shark under the water’ feel to it.

Can you share a little of your current or upcoming work with readers?

I have some new stuff in the works, but my biggest priority is finishing off some stories that are almost done, but have been waiting for me to focus long enough to edit them and put it all together the way I’ve been wanting to do for AGES now! Stories like “Dream Lover”, “Boys Of Widow Lake”, “Empty Corners”, “Always”, and plenty more. Everything just takes time, and I don’t want to rush through and deliver something less than amazing? You know? What can I say? I can be overly ambitious sometimes. Hehehe!