A Spooky Interview with Em Starr

Samhain Screams will be released on the 17th of October—but the Kindle version is available for pre-order today at just $1.99 instead of $3.99. You can also add the anthology to your Goodreads list. Our aim is quite simply to make Halloween 2025 the spookiest ever with this anthology featuring twenty scary tales handpicked by Greg Chapman and Cameron Trost. Do you dare peek into the troubled minds of our contributing authors?

Hi Em,

What does Halloween mean to you and how do you celebrate it?

Growing up as an Aussie kid in the 80's, the closest I got to Halloween was watching Michael Myers on Betamax. I had no real understanding of the season, other than the superficial elements like pumpkinheads and trick or treating... and the idea of trick or treating conjured images of angry adults who thought it was appropriate to scream at kids in costumes to stop the neighbourhood from becoming too "Americanized". It was many years later that I learned the true roots of Halloween (Samhain). The cycle of life and death, the thinning of the veil; things us horror lovers tend to think about all year-round. Suffice to say, I'm not so much into the costumes and candy as I am the deeper, quieter meaning. That's why this Halloween, you'll find me celebrating quietly at home, writing horror, reading horror, and watching Halloween films with my dogs.   

Without giving too much away, is there a story behind your contribution to this anthology?

Public transport terrifies me. I am crazy hyper-vigilant, and something as simple as riding a train leaves me exhausted from endless "what-if" scenarios. What if this person beside me is a bad person? What horrible secrets might they be keeping? What awful things could they have done? Originally, I wrote this story based on that premise—the vulnerability of sharing confined spaces with strangers—but it felt incomplete. So I rewrote it and set the story on Halloween night, when the physical and spiritual worlds are permeable, and it all fell into place.    

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

I am obsessed with the 1987 film The Lost Boys. I can recount the entire script, word-for-word, as well as the killer soundtrack. It's less about fangirling and more about the profound connection I had with it as a kid. Because of that film, I had an epiphany at twelve years of age that changed me forever. My real name is Em, but the "Starr" part of my name is a homage to TLB.

What are you working on at the moment? What are you writing?

I am taking the rest of this year to finish my debut novel, Cactus. It's a pearler and I can't wait to share it! After that, I'll be penning more short stories, with a view to putting together a collection of Coastal Chills.

Thanks for playing along! 

A Glimpse of the Ghostly: Em Starr

The Black Beacon Book of Ghosts will send shivers up your spine this Halloween. The Kindle version is already available for pre-order at just $1.99 instead of $3.99 and you can add the anthology to your Goodreads "want to read" list today. The anthology will be officially released on the 11th of October 2024. To get you in the mood and give you a little insight into the workings of their minds, our contributing authors are sharing their own haunting experiences with you. Read on, if you're not fainthearted!

The House in Charlotte Street

I often wonder if writers are literary conduits for the other side, like an antenna that's tuned in to the whispers of those who came before. If the muse is found by lifting the veil, glimpsing life through another's eyes, piecing together the jigsaw puzzle of a semi-shared reality—that would make us the ultimate ghost writers, right?! 

It's a theory that I'm yet to dismiss for two main reasons. First, when the muse visits it feels absolutely other-worldly. Second, because I believe in ghosts. I've lived in various haunted houses throughout my life. My first home in Newport was riddled with paranormal activity – my mother still talks about our house in Charlotte Street, that was always cold and had a foul smell no matter how much incense she burned; how the manhole was always open no matter how many times my father closed it, how she woke to a presence so strong by my cradle, she was too scared to breathe. I wonder if those spirits followed us to the next house, where I vividly remember my imaginary friend, Schuey, telling me his mother Magda wouldn't let him play. Was it a coincidence they both had Old Teutonic names, which, as a four year old, I'd never heard before? I'm pretty sure I was experiencing something supernatural. Look into the eyes of this kid and tell me she's not hanging with a ghost or two! 

Since then, I've seen shadowed figures in empty halls, felt breath on my face cold as winter, and fingers on my shoulder as real as my own, but nothing feels more "cross-connected" than tapping into a solid writing sesh. Who knows—maybe my story, Red Dirt, is the afterlife account of a real housewife from rural Australia, who has been waiting for her story to be told.