HALLOWEEN HAUNTS: When Is the Seed Planted?
by Danielle McPhail
I was never a fan of horror growing up. Blame it on my siblings. Five years or more older than I was, they delighted in scaring the shit out of me. Singing “Lions and Tigers and Bears, oh my!” into the heart of a thunderstorm instead of taking me inside when I was three… Watching Carrie without bothering to put me to bed when I was six… Telling me ghost stories in a tent facing the graveyard when I was ten…
Oh, did I forget to mention? Not only did my backyard butt up against a graveyard, but I was related to what seems like half the people in it. Now if that didn’t make for some interesting dreams!
Yeah, it took me a while to appreciate horror. But Halloween? That is a whole other story! See, while my siblings loved to torment, my mother loved to sew. I had the absolute best costumes every year, all of them handmade originals. And who doesn’t love to play dress-up? I never did grow out of that.
I did grow out of my aversion to horror, though. Don’t get me wrong… I’m still not a fan of the more graphic representations. Of course, I’m not a fan of anything gratuitous… be it language or sex or violence. Too much empathy, too good at visualization. Unless it serves a purpose, it just distracts from the story. But done properly, to effect… Well, let’s just say I have developed an appreciation for psychological horror. Dark, atmospheric. Deep, rich, almost lyrical language that just cranks up the tension. Subtly building to terror. Yeah, that’s where they got me. I LOVE to play with words.
As an author, I have rarely set out to write horror, but damned if it doesn’t find a way of creeping out. And it isn’t all just dark fantasy. Even before I joined the Horror Writers Association, I had amassed enough fiction properly classified as horror for a modest collection. And since joining I have intentionally penned several more.
So, in the end, I have to admit… though I did not enjoy being tormented by my brothers and sisters, in a way I have to thank them for setting the foundation for my darker works…
An excerpt from “Eyes Everywhere”
Danielle Ackley-McPhail
From Abandoned: Asylum, edited by James Chambers, published by Raw Dog Screaming Press, 2026.
I had never heard a sound. Not one. In my entire life.
Until they called to me.
Now I hear their screams. Their muttering of what must be words. Sounds I imagine are a whimper… a moan… crying. But mostly their screams.
They echo deep inside me. In my very cells. And I cannot shut them out.
It begins with a whisper across my thoughts. It ends with a scream ricocheting off the inside of my skull, pounding every cogent thought out of my head. A shiver crawls across my scalp and down my body to my toes until I shudder and shake and slam bruises into my flesh that bloom in deep, dark shades of purple and red, darkening to black. The screams pulse through me until they pour from my mouth, but they are not mine.
Until they are.
The orderlies bind me before sliding a pill beneath my tongue. It takes two of them as my jaw keeps gnashing shut. The bitter taste foams up and fills my mouth. Fills my being. And I am lost, shoved to the recesses of my mind like an afterthought.
I hear their screams as the world goes out of focus around me.
I hear their screams.
Award-winning author, editor, and publisher Danielle Ackley-McPhail has worked both sides of the publishing industry for longer than she cares to admit. Her published works include eight novels and nine short fiction collections. She has also released four books on writing and publishing and three cookbooks. Danielle has served as the editor and publisher of the StokerCon Souvenir anthology for three years, and has compiled around thirty anthologies beyond that, including The Chaos Clock, a volume of eldritch steampunk. Her most recent publication is “Eyes Everywhere” from Abandoned: Asylum, edited by James Chambers and published by Raw Dog Screaming Press. She is a former member of the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers Association and an active member of the Horror Writers Association.
Danielle lives in New Jersey with husband and fellow writer, Mike McPhail and four extremely spoiled cats. You can find her on most social media platforms as Danielle Ackley-McPhail, and her website is https://especbooks.square.site/danielle-ackley-mcphail.