Curbside Curses follows a group of people, all of whom purchased one item or another from an estate sale that was unknowing to them or the sellers to be cursed. What was the inspiration for this collection of short stories?

I had been writing and submitting short stories to several anthologies when one day I was driving around my town and saw a yard sale. With my mind in potential story mode, I thought, “Hey, that would be a good story.” I then was talking to a close author friend of mine, Stuart Knott, telling him about my idea when it came to me that it could be a cool anthology collection. He thought it was a great idea and said, “Hey, you should do it”. I had only been published in other anthologies and hadn’t taken on self-publishing myself yet, so I was intimidated thinking about it. But he believed in my idea so much that he kept bringing it up and encouraging me to follow through with my idea. After making him promise to help me and answer my questions (he has self-published several books), I decided to go for it.

What intrigues you about the horror and paranormal genres that led you to write this book?

I didn’t even read horror until the end of 2022. I can’t even watch scary movies, they give me nightmares. But I stumbled across a few indie author horror books and I was hooked. No nightmares and I just found the genre to be so diverse. And indie books in general are so refreshing. No cookie cutter plots shopped to the masses. Just pure creativity and imagination. I have always wanted to write for a long time. I fell in love with children’s literature when I was in university and always thought I’d be a children’s author but horror just grabbed me. I wrote some flash fiction using some monthly horror prompts and found I was fairly good at packing a punch with a twisted ending into a short amount of words. So I just started writing and submitting to anthology calls and getting published. My story “The Missing Gold Ribbon” in Terrorcore Publishing’s Doors of Darkness anthology was well-received and one I’m very proud of. And Caleb, the editor and owner of Terrorcore made the whole process very hands-on and collaborative for the contributing authors. We were involved almost every step of the way. So long story short, after being a part of six or seven anthologies at that point I saw how they were run, how the authors were treated and I was able to take what I liked about the different processes and apply them to how I wanted my anthology to run. I established House of the Macabre as my own little imprint and involved my authors as much as possible. It was really important to me to do right by the authors. I wanted to produce a book they could be proud of. Something they were excited to take to conventions and signings to show off.

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

I knew I wanted it to be different from other anthologies. I wanted it to stand out and I knew I wanted them all connected to a single yard sale and that I would write a framing narrative around them through the prologue and epilogue that would offer some insight into how the objects were all cursed. It makes it read more like one story rather than just a regular collection of stories on a general theme. I think it came together very well.

What is the next book that you are working on, and when can your fans expect it to be out?

I have another anthology call I’m preparing to drop this summer with House of the Macabre and I am working on a collection of dark poetry that I’m shooting to release next Valentine’s Day. But I currently have a short story due to be released in October with Terrorcore Publishing’s Doors of Darkness: Volume 2 and I’m writing another short story as we speak for another submission call.

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