Saturday, 22 August 2026

A Scary Interview with Cameron Trost

The Black Beacon Book of Horror 2 will be released on the 1st of October, but in the meantime, the Kindle version is available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads TBR list. To get you pumpkin-spiced up for an unforgettable Halloween 2026, we’re interviewing the contributing authors. Step into the corridors of their dark minds, if you dare!

Hi Cameron,

That classic question to get started. Do you have to be a horrible person to write horrible things?

That is indeed a classic question to hurl at a horror writer, and we welcome it in much the same way as the defenders of a castle would have welcomed a rock flung at them by their foe's trebuchet! Robert Bloch famously said: "I am really a very lovable person, as my friends tell me—or they would, if I had any friends. Deep down underneath it all I have the heart of a small boy. I keep it in a jar, on my desk." I answer this question with a mirror, not a jar. A truly disturbing horror story, or for that matter, a tale belonging to any genre, should not only entertain and enthrall, but also work as a mirror. The horror writer owes it to his readership to explore the darkest depths of the human mind, where primitive impulses and instincts lurk, hidden from sight behind fake smiles and social pleasantries. If you want to throw vampires, cosmic terrors, or a horde of zombies into your fiction as a vehicle to deliver dread to the reader's heart, go ahead and do that, but at the end of the day, you need to be holding a mirror up to show the reader where the horror has always come from since the dawn of mankind. In other words, the only thing horrible about a horror writer is that we get a devilish kick out of sending a shiver up our readers' spines, but once the last word of a story has been read and the shivers have started to fade, we expect our readers to keep asking themselves that question; where is it that horror calls home?   

Which horror writers do you admire—old or new, famous or hidden gems?

As founding editor of Black Beacon Books, the answer is quite simply "our contributors". It's essentially why I began my own publishing house in the first place. There's nothing wrong with reading Stephen King, Graham Masterton, or Ramsey Campbell. These big names are talented writers with wonderful yarns to spin, but readers shouldn't be sheep, reading the same books as everyone else. They should be explorers...in fact, treasure hunters! Get out there and dig up all that hidden talent! You'll have to shovel a fair bit of dirt before striking it lucky, but that's the game. Of course, when you grab your copy of The Black Beacon Book of Horror 2, you'll find only precious gems!

Can you describe your perfect horror-themed night in, out, or away?

I could describe dozens of thrilling ways to get the creative juices flowing and get the skin crawling, but there's one experience I've been meaning to have for years now. My home is now here in Brittany and this ancient land has endless offerings when it comes to mythical landscapes and haunted ruins. Above all, we have some of the world's most magnificent lighthouses standing guard along some of the world's most rugged coastline. I would love to spend a night in a lighthouse, during "the storm of the century" with nothing but a simple meal (perhaps including a tin of sardines), a bottle of whisky, an oil lamp, and a good stock of pens and paper. With the wind howling around the lighthouse and waves crashing against the granite boulders below, imagine the stories my storm-charged mind would summon out of the sea and the sky!     

Are there any urban legends, folktales, or real-life tales of horror that happened (just maybe) where you live or grew up?

Where to begin! Folklore and tales of strange and dark beings drench the soil, possess the granite, and inhabit the woodlands of Brittany. Those of you who have read my work will know this. Dead on the Dolmen, my latest novel, pits Oscar Tremont, Investigator of the Strange and Inexplicable against a villain disguised as the Ankoù, the Breton Grim Reaper. There are legends galore set right here in my very own neck of the woods near Guérande. Merlin himself is said to have visited the area, and a miller (almost) sold his unborn son's soul to the Devil in exchange for a helping hand (claw?) building a windmill. In a land where Neolithic burial chambers stand side-by-side with Nazi bunkers, there are more legends than you can poke a shillelagh (or penn-bazh in Breton) at!  

Do you have any writing rituals?

I don't really. No. I wish writing in a lighthouse during a raging storm could become my ritual! My ideal day getting words down would start with a walk or a jog either along the rugged coast or through the marshes here on the Guérande peninsula, even if the weather is nasty... in fact, as you've probably worked out by now, I love it when the weather is dramatic. That's invariably reflected in my fiction. I'll sometimes jot a few words or ideas down while I'm out, but I have a good memory, so I'll mostly just keep the ideas in mind and know they'll unfurl once I get back home and switch the laptop on. A good mug of coffee in the morning and a drop of top-shelf whisky in the evening gets the awen going! Give me stormy weather, a fire in the wood burner, and a dram of the uisge beatha, and I'll give you a puzzling mystery or a chilling tale of terror. Deal? Sign here _______

Where can we find you online?

Almost everywhere! My full list of links is here: linktr.ee/camerontrost

Goodreads listing: goodreads.com/camerontrost

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