| Sarah | So, hi Andy, and thanks for agreeing to be interviewed about horror. |
| Andy | I’m looking forward to it. It’s normally me asking the questions, so to be the interviewee for once and not the interviewer is a nice change. |
| Sarah | OK. I’ll go easy on you! |
| Andy | (laughs) That’s very kind of you. |
| Sarah | I know you’ve published four horror books. Did you always want to write horror? |
| Andy | I’m not sure. I mean, I loved it when I was a kid – you know Doctor Who and scary stuff on TV and I read Dracula when I was eleven or so. I know it always interested me. |
| Sarah | What’s your favourite type of horror? |
| Andy | What do you mean? |
| Sarah | I mean like ghosts or monsters. The Walking Dead or Friday 13th? |
| Andy | Well, I’m not really into serial killers. I don’t really find that scary just kind of a bit sad and sick. But monsters are great and I’m all for a good ghost story. I like stuff with a twist in it – you know something that makes you think. And I like stuff that makes you question things as well. |
| Sarah | What like? |
| Andy | I wrote a story called Snowfall a couple of years ago. It tells a story of when snow starts falling all over the world and in the snow there is something really bad. It kind of takes away people’s identity. They forget who they are and everything around them. They get really frightened and scared like a child lost in a mall. |
| Sarah | What does that question? |
| Andy | Right. Yes. I mean, for me, why I wrote that was, I was trying to think about what’s really scary. Not monsters under the bed type of scary, but the kind of fear that keeps you lying in bed with your eyes open staring at the black ceiling and holding back the tears kind of scary. |
| Sarah | Sounds like a lot of fun! |
| Andy | (laughs) Right. But it’s what interests me. And, I thought that losing who we are is scary. You know it’s an infinite dark universe out there and what if that infinite darkness fills us up and we become nothing. Like death. |
| Sarah | OK. This isn’t the most cheerful interview, is it? |
| Andy | (laughs) I guess not. But that is what is truly scary. We all know we are going to die. That’s bad enough. But it’s when we lose who we are when we are alive. You know Alzheimer’s or dementia – I think that is truly terrifying. Or it is for me anyway. |
| Sarah | Why? |
| Andy | Well, it’s a bit personal. But one of my grandparents, as they got really old, lost their identity to the point that they couldn’t recognize me. We were close – but at that time, seeing them not know who I was or even who they were – it scared the hell out of me. It’s like their whole lives just got turned into something else. It’s like all the times we had spent together had become meaningless. Like it never happened. It’s hard to explain. |
| Sarah | But of course it didn’t. Just because they didn’t remember you, doesn’t mean that those experiences had no meaning. Just because we forget stuff it doesn’t make it less important. |
| Andy | Right. That’s what I tell myself. But still, you know, it’s scary stuff, isn’t it? |
| Sarah | I don’t know. I mean, I know there is a lot of stuff I’ve forgotten about my childhood. But I’m still me. I don’t think memories are all we are. So if we lose them – OK, it’s bad, but it’s not all we are. |
| Andy | I don’t agree. I think without them and without knowing who you are and who the people around you are, then you’re not you anymore. You’re someone else. Someone who can have new experiences, sure. But that’s not you. |
| Sarah | But, is that really horror? |
| Andy | I think so. Especially when it’s happening to everyone. So in my story, it is on a global scale. So imagine it. All round the world people forget who they are. They forget everything. What do you think would happen? |
| Sarah | I see. |
| Andy | Right. And that’s it - so that’s the world I imagine and I tell the story through one young woman’s eyes as she comes to terms with what is happening and tries to save her family and friends. |
| Sarah | Does it end happily ever after? |
| Andy | I’m not telling you that. What? You expect a writer to give away the ending? It will NEVER HAPPEN. |
| Sarah | OK. I get it. So what other ideas have you got about horror? |
| Andy | Well, I think it’s important. I think we need to face our fears and imagine them. It can prepare us for real life. We evolved to be aware of danger and imagine scenarios of how to avoid it. |
| Sarah | What kind of scenarios? |
| Andy | You know – would I climb a tree to avoid the bear or try and run? If a big tidal wave came crashing towards me what would I do? Stuff like that. We need to imagine bad, horrific scenarios to try and come up with solutions. So I think evolution rewards us by making us think about stuff like that. Or, to put it another way, what we now call horror gives us pleasure. |
| Sarah | It can’t just be that. |
| Andy | No. Of course not. We also just love imagining weird stuff – like ghosts and vampires and zombies and vampire-zombies. |
| Sarah | And we love a good story. |
| Andy | Yep. |
| Sarah | Ok. Well, I think that’s enough for now. Thanks for taking time out to chat to us. |
| Andy | You’re welcome. Anytime. |
