James Miles talks about his stories

With my story, “Lockdown and Macabre,” the two biggest inspirations were The Tell-Tale Heart by Edgar Allan Poe and the works of Richard Laymon.I wanted to explore the emotions and paranoia brought on by isolation but push the idea further.  If we did not have family or friends to keep us grounded how would we cope with the fear of the outside world? The setting was easy to write about and the first-person narrative was  a throwback to Poe.

My second story, “Samhain,” was my chance to write a full-on horror epic within a few pages. Halloween is my favourite holiday and the mythology and history is fascinating.  The idea of a lockdown being the catalyst for unleashing ancient evil gave me plenty of room to amp up the gore and atmosphere.  Adding the staunch curfew and the enforcers was just me taking the real-world response to the pandemic to the extreme. Adding the supernatural and gore was my way to present the horror as otherworldly in a real-world-styled setting.

James Miles is an English writer who was the first to submit a story to the Anthology project! He is the father of two, so when he is not being dad and introducing his kids to the wonderful world of books, he is dreaming up tales of the macabre.   When he is not reading or writing he enjoys boxing and walking.

James can be found on Facebook (Facebook.com/jamesmiles), Amazon (Author James Miles) and Twitter (JamesMiles).