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 Sam,
That classic question to get started. Do you have to be a horrible person to write horrible things?
To write them, no. To do them, yes.
Which horror writers do you admire—old or new, famous or hidden gems?
Can you describe your perfect horror-themed night in, out, or away?
Probably spending the night somewhere said to be haunted, and where horrible things are meant to happen, or have happened. Preferably deep in the countryside or underground, and beginning with a trip to the nearest pub, where the locals will try to warn you off.
Are there any urban legends, folktales, or real-life tales of horror that happened (just maybe) where you live or grew up?
Yes, the Buckland Shag, a hairy great beast that reputedly perched on a boulder in the Shag Brook and occasionally roughed up passing farmers returning home at night from market days, having refused the general advice to stay in town and travel in the morning. It sounds rather like an innkeeper’s invention, or an excuse offered to their wives when they returned home soaked, intoxicated and penniless after carousing their earnings away, but it was taken seriously enough for the local vicar to have the stone uprooted, carted to the coast and thrown off a cliff. After which there were no further sightings of the alleged Shag.
Do you have any writing rituals?
No, just tea. Lots of tea.
Where can we find you online?
Website: https://www.sam-dawson.co.uk
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/sam.dawson.31924
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/21686706.Sam_Dawson