Peter Adam Salomon, what scares you?
Of all the nightmares, abandonment is the one concept that always lingers the longest. Sure, spiders are creepy and the monster under the bed kicks too much and the witches, mummies, clowns, and vampires in the closet tend to offer momentary chills, but being abandoned (emotionally, physically) is an emptiness and terror that never quite lets go, never completely goes away, never stops being terrifying.

It’s that emotional ‘scare’ that, to me, is the most potent. Shout ‘Boo!’ in the dark and for a moment or two someone will be scared. But give them a true, vibrant connection to the story: someone to care about, something to care for, and a simple scare becomes terror.

PETER ADAM SALOMON graduated Emory University in Atlanta, GA with a BA in Theater and Film Studies in 1989. He has served on the Executive Committee of the Boston and New Orleans chapters of Mensa as the Editor of their monthly newsletters and was also a Judge for the 2006 Savannah Children’s Book Festival Young Writer’s Contest. He is a member of the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators, the Horror Writers Association, the International Thriller Writers and The Authors Guild and is represented by the Erin Murphy Literary Agency. His debut novel, HENRY FRANKS, was published by Flux in September 2012. His next novel, ALL THOSE BROKEN ANGELS, a ghost story set in Savannah, GA, will be released by Flux in Fall 2014. Peter Adam Salomon lives in St. Petersburg, FL with his wife Anna and their three sons: André Logan, Joshua Kyle and Adin Jeremy.

Die Booth, what scares you?
I am afraid of a lot of things, like open doors and closed doors and life. I’m afraid of nuclear war even though it’s no longer the 90s. I’m afraid of incarceration, sleep paralysis, airports, and squirrels. I am a little afraid of everything in the world, but I’ll tell you this: the only thing that truly terrifies me is the thought of one day being all alone with my own thoughts.

DIE BOOTH lives in Chester, England in a tiny house with four fire-places and enjoys playing violin, drinking tea and exploring dark places. Die’s work has been featured in three Cheshire Prize for Literature anthologies and has recently appeared in The Fiction Desk, Litro, For All Eternity from Dark Opus Press and Prime’s Bloody Fabulous anthology amongst others. You can also read several of Die’s stories in the 2011 anthology Re-Vamp co-edited by L.C. Hu. Forthcoming work is due to appear in The Art of Fairytales edited by Sarah Grant and Die’s first novel Spirit Houses will be available in 2013. You can visit Die at http://diebooth.wordpress.com/.

Nicole Degennaro, what scares you?
Like most people, I have fears that range from the mundane to the irrational. Instead of picking one or providing a list, I wanted to figure out the common link between them, and I think I have. What scares me is my own imagination. That is what transforms those bumps in the night into monsters or killers, what morphs something like climbing a tall ladder into a terrifying life-or-death situation. My imagination can’t let the “What ifs” go, and although I appreciate that when it comes to my writing, I don’t enjoy it as much when I’m trying to fall asleep or change a light bulb.

NICOLE DEGENNARO currently works as a copy editor for a science publisher and lives in the Hudson Valley area of New York. Although she studied journalism at Purchase College, her heart has always belonged to fiction writing. Her short story Home Coming will appear in the upcoming anthology Scared Spitless from Silly Tree Anthologies, due out in October. You can learn more about Nicole at her blog: http://nicoledegennaro.wordpress.com/.

Jessica McHugh, what scares you?
Ever since I was thrown off a bicycle and slid several feet on my face, I’ve had a fear of facial disfigurement. It was a long time ago, and I hardly have any scars from the incident, but I can’t seem to shake that terror (vain as it sounds). Eyes extracted, jaw missing, lips sewn shut–it’s a common occurrence in my horror stories, but if I see it in a movie, forget about it; I’m watching the rest of that movie from behind a pillow.