This Hallowe’en, check out a chilling collection of stories from North American authors, compiled and edited by Laura Callender of Collaborative Writing Challenge fame.
Tony Stark has included a tale in The Grim Keepers, entitled Remus. It is an accounting of the events that transpired following the pivotal incident of the founding of Rome… in this story, Remus, trapped on the edges of life following his murder, uses the magical time of All Hallows Eve to settle accounts with his brother Romulus.
Below, find the interview regarding the Anthology- Many thanks to Virginia Carraway Stark for the interview opportunity!
Interview with Anthony Stark about his upcoming short story in The Grim Keepers anthology available October 23!
1. What is your favourite part about writing scary fiction?
My favorite part about scary fiction is the more subtle, spiritual aspect of horror. I like finding the place where culture meets horror and expanding that membrane, making myths and legends meet the modern day.
2. What inspired your story for The Grim Reapers anthology?
My inspiration for this story is, of course, the Roman legend of Romulus and Remus. With the fading of the year, the plight of Remus the famous ghostly brother seemed fitting. I combined it with oriental ideas of Yang and Yin, because in the old myths, demigods didn’t just die that easily… So I asked, what happened to all the life Romulus stole, and what dark place would that have left his brother?
3. What scares you most?
The things that scare me most are stories without beauty, hope and redemption. That’s not a good scary, either, but a horrible terror. The current obsession with worlds and movies that are post-post apocalyptic in nature, where everything is FUBARed and a ‘happy’ ending is merely some twisted form of survival for another day, that scares me. It scares me just as much that people eat up these bleak tales as that people can think to make them, let alone make them into gigantic movies. So much energy goes into them; like any creative product, it propagates itself in the world. That is truly scary.
Look for a link to the anthology to be posted on StarkLight Press later this month!
– Tony Stark,
Publisher and CEO,
StarkLight Press.