Sharing Nightmares

The Unveiling|| Gavin Hetherington

With the month of October drawing near and the official launch of the Sharing Nightmares Anthology just around the corner, it's about time we unveiled our guest authors contributing in this project.

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Hi, I'm Gavin Hetherington, author of the Abyssal Sanctuary series. I began as an indie writer and self-published my first book, Remnants of the Damned, in October 2013 before moving to Wattpad in May the following year. I managed to win two Silver Awards for Horror Fiction at the Readers' Favorite Book Awards and Global eBook Awards in 2014, and most recently, a Gold Award at the Global eBook Awards in 2016 for the sequel,Ashes of the Innocent. I'm fortunate to have been a staff-picked Featured author recently, and I will be appearing on a panel at the upcoming WattCon in New York City alongside popular Wattpad writers.

TELL US ABOUT YOUR MOST POPULAR HORROR BOOK?

My most popular is the first book in the Abyssal Sanctuary series,Remnants of the Damned. The first book introduces a group of five young adults that work at the Pandora Cafe in the secluded town of Lakefield View. Someone they know has been slaughtered right in front of them, but they have no idea who killed them, thus starting a chain of events for each character as they encounter their own demons, killers, witches, cannibals, monsters, and so much more. The book is split into sections, one for each character, and a 3-chapter climax where they all come together against their common enemy.

WHAT SCARED YOU MOST, BOTH AS A KID AND AN ADULT?

As a kid, I was very easily scared - to prove that, I will reveal that I cried for 3 nights straight after watching Scary Movie at the age of around 8. And yes, I mean the parody movie. I somehow managed to watch a horror movie or two as a kid (my mother really should have paid attention to what I was watching), and the opening scene of Jaws terrified me so much, I couldn't go into the ocean at the beach and I had nightmares for months. The dark didn't scare me though, but as an adult, I have more of an imagination, so I'm now more scared of what my mind conjures up in the darkness. So I guess I'm scared of my own mind! Also, spiders, and if anybody has me on Snapchat, they'll know I've been attacked by dozens of spiders this summer alone!

YOU ARE FIRMLY SET IN THE REALMS OF HORROR, WHAT THRILLS YOU ABOUT THE GENRE?

What thrills me about the genre now is what terrified me so much as a kid. It was the suspenseful music of Jaws that kept me up at night, yet it is the suspense that I thrive to master in my works. The uncertainty and build-up, all in the hopes of a good pay-off, that's what thrills me about the genre. Horror relies on reaction, because you cannot have Horror without that emotive connection with the reader. They need to be able to feel it, and it can be the hardest genre to write in because of that. You can either write it so right, or so wrong, and it's the challenge that keeps me writing in the Horror genre. It excites me.

HAVE YOU READ ANY STORIES HERE ON WATTPAD THAT'S GIVEN YOU THE CHILLS?

I have read a few Horror stories on Wattpad that have all given me the chills, though I really do wish I had the time to read more. Among the select few that I've read, Apryl Baker's(AprylBaker7) The Ghost Files is always a favourite of mine. I checked out Kelly Anne Blount's(KellyAnneBlount) Captured and was truly thrilled by it, from beginning to end. A couple of months ago, I read a novella by Finn H. Arlett(Finnyh), titled The Folveshch, and it seriously blew me away. One of the most isolating reads of any author on and off Wattpad, I was very creeped out by it.

WHAT'S YOUR TOP 5 THINGS TO DO FOR HALLOWEEN?

Well, the past couple of years, when I started University in 2014, I've been dressing up and going to Halloween parties - and getting very, very drunk. Last year, me and my housemates went out as dead Disney princesses, and I went as Elsa from Frozen (because Frozen is love, Frozen is life). The photos are on my Instagram if anyone ever need see haha. So dressing up is key. I absolutely have to read at least one scary story (despite my hectic University reading list), so this year it will be the Gothic novel A Sicilian Romance by Ann Radcliffe. I love to watch horror films too (way more than when I was little), so a bit of Halloween and Texas Chainsaw Massacrewouldn't go amiss. Every year, I watch Hocus Pocus too, because I know every line the Sanderson Sisters say because it is one of my favourite films ever, and then I end Halloween with The Nightmare Before Christmas, to close the spooky season and look forward to the festive season.