Adam Breckenridge is a Traveling Collegiate Faculty member of the University of Maryland Global Campus, where he travels the world teaching US military stationed overseas and is currently based in South Korea. He has eighteen short
story publications and, in addition to Horror Bites, has most recently appeared in Clockwork, Curses and Coal from Worldweaver Press and Mystery Weekly.
NTK: How old were you when you discovered horror?
AB: I think it was the Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark books that first put me on to horror. Those books were an obsession of my childhood and even inspired me to try writing some scary stories of my own, one of which I distinctly remember causing my dad to double over in laughter. I’ve gotten a bit better at the genre since then.
NTK: What is your favorite horror movie?
AB: A couple of years ago a friend asked me for a top twenty-five list and, after a considerable amount of hemming and hawing I finally set The Shining at the number one spot, though it’s not a designation I would take too seriously.
NTK: What is your favorite horror television show?
AB: I think Stranger Things has stood out the most strongly for me. Tales From the Crypt was another formidable childhood experience, though I recently went back and revisited the show, and time has not been kind to it.
NTK: What is your favorite horror novel?
AB: In a pinch, I’d probably say The Turn of the Screw. I remember hating it the first time I read it, but I was forced to read it again for a class on gothic literature I took in college, and it really clicked for me the second time. It’s one I continue to revisit periodically with great fascination and served as a key inspiration for “Deathly Fog.”
NTK: What inspires your writing? How do you come up with your ideas?
AB: I think I have as many answers to that question as I have stories I’ve written, but the most common sources of inspiration are other works I’ve read, either because their ideas inspired ideas of my own or I got pissed off at the wasted potential of a story. Dreams, my experiences with traveling and living abroad, and just idle pondering have all borne creative fruit for me as well.
NTK: Do your characters have free will? Or do you direct their every movement?
AB: I’m always a little suspicious of writers who claim they can’t control their characters. They’re your creation and they’re entirely yours to do with as you please but being able to do that does require you to understand the nature of the characters you created.
NTK: What are you most afraid of?
AB: My phobia is heights. My greatest fear is probably a slow, painful death.
NTK: Have you ever written a horror story about your own experiences?
AB: Not really about my own experiences, no, but I have based a couple of horror stories off of dreams I’ve had. I wrote one based on an anxiety dream I had when I was in my grad program that was so dark and disturbing that I was never able to get it published. The moral of the story is don’t go to grad school.
NTK: Who is your favorite horror author?
AB: I recently discovered the works of Thomas Ligotti and he was a revelation to me. I don’t think I’ve encountered a contemporary horror author who’s done more to redefine what horror can be than he has, though Brian Evenson comes close.
NTK: What does the future hold for you? What works do Horror Addicts have to look forward to?
AB: By the time you’re reading this, my short story, “The Train Up Mount Silence,” should be available to read through Mystery Weekly (and if not, you won’t have to wait long). After that even I don’t know. I’m constantly submitting my work and only time will tell where it winds up so keep an eye out for whatever comes.
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