Author | Critic
“Be warned: unlike most traditional horror, this latest collection from rising horror star Mike Thorn will make you feel less at home with yourself and your world. And the feeling may be permanent. That’s not some blurbic exaggeration or nifty hook. It’s the truth.”
“It’s almost Halloween and so I’ve brought in an expert on scaring the hell out of you. On this episode, horror author Mike Thorn joins me to talk his latest short story anthology, the darkly powerful Peel Back and See, out on October 29th from Journalstone Publishing. We also talk about horror on film, salvia trips, sleep paralysis, and a whole lot more.”
“Throughout the course of the episode, we talked about Shelter for the Damned, his influences, coming of age narratives, toxic masculinity, suburban horror, Stephen King’s Dreamcatcher, possession films and so much more. We had a lot of fun recording this episode and hanging out with Mike. We hope you guys enjoy the conversation as much as we did!”
“Mike Thorn’s debut novel, Shelter For the Damned was just released from JournalStone on February 26, 2021. It recently received a 4-star review from IndieMuse. He is also the author of Darkest Hours, a short story collection.
We cornered Mike in the days leading up to his first novel release to learn a little more about him and his latest book.”
In his latest interview, Mike Thorn answers Lou Pendergrast’s questions about Shelter for the Damned, Darkest Hours, and his new story “Deprimer” (from the latest issue of Vastarien).
“Was there a pivotal moment when you decided to be a writer?
I can’t remember a time before I started writing. For better or worse, it has been a lifelong impulse. I was always drawn to reading, which is probably where my interest in writing originated. As a kid, I was excited by fantasy and horror (J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and R. L. Stine when I was quite young, and then Stephen King when I got a little older).”
![arctic-smoke-design-michel-vrana[1].jpg](https://freefallmagazine.files.wordpress.com/2020/03/arctic-smoke-design-michel-vrana1.jpg?w=244&h=366)
Randy Nikkel Schroeder’s Arctic Smoke does not simply inhabit its multiple genres, but instead interrogates the intersections and tensions between those genres’ methodologies.
Mike Thorn 