A Scary Interview with Robert Runté

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 Robert,

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

I like John Linwood Grant’s An Unkindness of Shadows, Ain’t No Witch, and Occult Detective Magazine--though those might be more weird than horror, per se? And of course, I have to mention Premee Mohamed, the Canadian author whose The Butcher of the Forest (to take just one example) is blindingly brilliant.

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

The local museum is said to be haunted (it started out as the local hospital), as is the old 1900s-era theatre where my kids attended acting camps. Does that count? I’ve written a few stories based on my family’s history with ghosts, though none of those were strictly horror—mostly just encounters with recently dead relatives announcing their passing a continent away from where they passed, before word reached us in the more conventional ways.

Do you have any writing rituals?

I need a specific tea to write. For several decades, it was David’s Tea’s (Montreal-based Canadian chain) “Chocolate Chili Chai”, but they discontinued it, leading to a long dry period for my creativity. I experimented with two dozen other brands’ variation on the theme, but nothing else came close. I eventually found Creative Tea & Herbal Products’ (Elora, Ontario) “Chocolate Chili Pepper” which I have grown to love even more than the original David’s Tea. Unfortunately, Creative Tea is strictly a wholesaler, so I have to go to McQuarrie's Tea & Coffee Merchants in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, about 8 hours from where I live. The round trip is worth the drive for the boost to my writing output. The rest of the time I drink teas my almost-son-in-law brings back from his trips to China.

Would you share something about yourself that your readers don’t know yet?

I need people to understand that I am not mansplaining. There is no gender bias in me; I pontificate at everyone equally. Pontification is not just a professional hazard as a retired professor, but reflects that as neurodivergent editor and author, I’ve done deep dives on a great number of ridiculously obscure topics as part of my job. Consequently, I know stuff. If I am spouting, unasked, on some topic you do not wish to hear about, you can stop me using the magic phrase, “Will this be on the test?” (That works to deflate most educations mid-spiel.)

Where can we find you online?

I’m still on Facebook (Dr.Robert Runte), though the medium is becoming so toxic, it’s driving more and more of us elsewhere. My websites are SFEditor.ca, EssentialEdits.ca, and I blog at “I’m Not Boring You, Am I?” at https://runte.blogspot.com/ My Amazon page is https://www.amazon.com/stores/Robert-Runte/author/B07CZ12GNL