Chad P. Brown’s short story The Peepers will appear in the Gothic Blue Book: The Revenge Edition this month.
1. Vampires or Zombies? Which do you prefer in fiction?
Right now, zombies because they are still portrayed as monsters. Vampires have become too humanized and animated with human emotions through the genre of YA fiction and the Twilight series. They need a revamping, so to speak, and a return to the blood-thirsty monsters that they are.
2. Haunted House or Haunted Mental Asylum? If you had to spend the night in one to write about your experience which would you chose, and why?
I would want to stay in a haunted house. Having never actually seen a ghost, I would want to start out small rather than be assaulted by a plethora of ghosts like I think that there would be in an insane asylum. Plus, ghosts can be scary enough; insane ghosts might be a bit too much.
3. Have you ever read a book or a fictional story that frightened you so much you had to put it down at least once while you were reading? If so, what was it? What frightened you?
King’s Pet Sematary is a book that I still find difficult to read to this day. The story doesn’t scare me in the sense of jumping at shadows while I’m reading it, but it frightens me because of the emotions it evokes surrounding the death of a child and the extent one would go in order to bring a loved one back. As a parent, it is the most frightening horror imaginable: the death of a child.
4. Why do you enjoy writing Gothic/Literary horror/horror/paranormal fiction? Or just, why do you enjoy writing in general?
The simple answer: I write because I have stories to tell, and sometimes other people enjoy those stories. But I write horror and dark fiction because I am drawn to those subjects and I enjoy exploring fears and what frightens us all. And it always puts a sinister grin on my face when I can scare someone.
5. What other projects do you have in the works?
Besides various short stories, I am trying to get my dark fiction novella, The Pumpkin House, published and I recently released a zombie novelette, Messiah of the Zombie Apocalypse. I have also started working on a longer piece of dark fiction wherein the main character has catoptrophobia, a fear of mirrors.
CHAD P. BROWN was born in Huntington, WV. Once he outgrew his childhood fears of haunted houses, clowns, and toy monkeys with cymbals (although those still creep him out a little bit), he discovered a dark love for writing and an affinity for macabre and eldritch matters. He holds a Master’s in Latin from Marshall University. In October 2011, he released his first horror novel, The Jack-in-the-box. His current projects include a zombie novella and various short stories, as well as a dark fiction novella, The Pumpkin House. You can find him online at www.chadpbrown.com, and follow him on Twitter @chadbrown72 and Facebook at www.facebook.com/ChadPBrown.
