Now available from Fiery Seas Publishing is the young adult fantasy-horror At the End of Church Street by author Gregory L. Hall.



The author has taken a few minutes out of his busy schedule for a Q&A about his debut novel.




When did you become interested in storytelling?

I’ve always loved telling tales, whether it was superheroes fighting Martians or a ghost that hid out by our trashcans at night. Of course, both of these were based off of fact, so my imagination didn’t have to go far. I still see the ghost out there on trash night.

What was your first book/story published?

My old high school magazine asked for tributes to Poe so I wrote a story called ‘When the Lightning Flashes’. I never retire any idea so I later did it on stage as part of a Halloween play, then as a short film, and finally got it published in a professional magazine. When I put out my short story collection, ‘Lightning’ was an obvious first choice. I still have to turn it into a musical. Possibly a sock puppet show as well.

What inspired you to write At the End of Church Street?

I had been a stand-up and improv comic for twenty-five years. I was burned out and didn’t want to be gone every weekend anymore. After sitting around the house for a couple weeks, my wife said “Oh no. You’re not going to shut down and stop being creative. Go write a novel.” I told her I was too tired to be funny and she suggested I switch to horror (because I’m such a fan). I didn’t want to write the same old monster shtick. The idea of a vampire story without an actual vampire in it challenged me. I used to know a group of Goth kids when I worked at a haunted house attraction in Orlando and thought they had such tragic personal stories. Of course they’d go to Burger King for lunch and flash fake fangs as they munched on a Whopper. Not selling the ‘I’m a real vampire’ gig very well. So I saw humor too. A story formed around them.

What character in At the End of Church Street is the most/least like you, and in what ways?

There’s an old man who takes care of the Goth kids named Renfield. He drools a lot and says things like ‘beedily bop’ as a nervous tick and keeps waiting for the Mother Ship. I think anyone who knows me can clearly see I wrote myself directly into the story.

What is your favorite part in At the End of Church Street?

St. Martin's Press; 276 pages; $18.99; Amazon

Once upon a time, there were young adult horror novels that didn't contain glittering vampires, dystopian worlds, or supernatural romances. Yep, back in the middle 1980s throughout the 1990s, there were a slew of YA horror novels, mostly published by Point Horror. Of course one of the most popular series at the time was Fear Street by R.L. Stine (who later created the Goosebumps series). Each novel played out like an 80s' slasher flick with the main character typically being a female teenager who is either being stalked by a killer or has stumbled into a supernatural plot involving the Fear family.

In 2014, R.L. Stine brought back the Fear Street series with Party Games. Now available from St. Martin's Press is the fifth installment in the relaunch series, titled The Dead Boyfriend: A Fear Street Novel.

Set in the fictional Shadyside, Ohio, the novel centers on a teenager named Caitlin, who is thrilled to be dating the new boy in town, Blade. Despite the objections of all her friends, she quickly falls in love with him. Sadly, Blade doesn't feel the same for Caitlin. After a brief public argument, Caitlin kills Blade in self-defense. With no witness in sight, she flees the crime scene, hoping she can get away with the murder.

Unfortunately, this is a horror story, so things don't go quite as easy as Caitlin thought it would be. It seemed Blade had another admirer - Deena Fear, a descendant of Simon Fier (Fear). The girl has never been popular in school, mostly thanks to her Gothic looks and cold-hearted attitude. Her obsession with Blade goes way beyond the grave when she uses a little bit of witchcraft to bring him back from the dead.

Halloween Night is just over a week away, and there's no better time than the present to order your last minute decorations for your yard, class Halloween party, or for whatever you are planning for Oct. 31st.

For me, I decorate the yard each and every hear with spooky decorations, such as foam tombstones, zombie ground breakers, plastic rats, plastic spiders, hanging ghouls, and air-blown characters (2 Frankenstein's monsters and 1 witch). The only thing that could make the scene even creepier would be a little bit of fog.

With so many different fog machines on the market, I was overwhelmed with which one I should try. Eventually, I went with the 1byone Halloween Fog Machine, which retails for $39.99. There are seven different sizes and styles of fog machines on www.1byone.com, but I thought the 400Watt Fog Machine would be the perfect fit for what I need for Halloween Night.

The fog machines measures 9.84 x 7.54 x 4.49 in. It uses a power source input of AC 120V 60Hz and uses a 5A, 125V fuse. The tank holds up to 300ml (0.079 gallons). (Only use water-based fog solutions). The fog output is 2000CFM (cubic ft per minute). It comes with a 6.5ft wired one-switch remote control.

The fog machine come nicely packed in a simple black box with the lettering and illustrations in white. The actual machine is tightly stored inside the box. The only assembly required is for the metal handle, which takes less than a minute to put together.

I highly recommend reading the instructions before testing the fog machine out. Like I already mentioned, make sure to use a water-based fog solution (or otherwise known as fog juice or liquid).


To use the machine, you need to untwist the tank cap and pour in whatever desired amount of fog juice that you want to use. Replace the cap, making sure it's tightly secure. Place the machine on a flat surface. Plug the AC cord into an outlet. The machine will take several minutes to heat up, up to five minutes.

Once the machine is ready, it will spray out a blast of fog from the nozzle. The it will stop and reheat before it will release any more fog will be released.

2. Enter the link to your terrifying tale in the haunting list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in a curse).

 

3. Visit other haunters in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new creeper.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
 

One of my hidden talents is cross stitching, so I would probably make bookmarks that features a jack-o-lantern with the words "Happy Halloween!" on them.

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2. Enter the link to your terrifying tale in the haunting list below (enter your Blog Name and the direct link to your post answering this week’s question. Failure to do so will result in a curse).

 

3. Visit other haunters in the list and comment on their posts. Try to spend some time on the blogs reading other posts and possible become a new creeper.  The purpose of the hop is to give bloggers a chance to follow other blogs, learn about new books, befriend other bloggers, and receive new followers to your own blog.
 

Yes, I would go into the library to get the book, but once I find it, I will be running out the building as fast I can.

Linky List: