Kat Parrish Interview

1) Tell us about the stories you write/the story you have written for the event.

I write in several different genres and I use different pen names for them. Halloween is a holiday that fits into almost every niche I write. I use my real name for horror and I’ve written a couple of horrific shorts to celebrate the season (y favorite is “Unsanctified”) . For my cozy pen name (Katherine Moore), I write holiday romances. Mostly Christmas but Halloween and Thanksgiving too. (In 2021, I’ll have a couple of Valentine’s Day romances.) I have a sequel novella coming out in October called Halloween Hijinks that’s part of a cozy romance series. And finally, I write UF and PNR under the name “Kat Parrish” and for that, I write stories set on and around Halloween. I have a short novel called Magic in the Blood where the finale is set on Day of the Dead, which is close enough.

2) What do you plan on writing next?

I’ll be in vampire land for the next several months. I signed up for four different vampire boxed sets and the deadlines are one after another. Two of the stories will be set in the universe of L.A. Nocturne, which is what I call my paranormal version of L.A. One will be the first of a two-book series. And then I’m writing a mashup pirate/vampires tale. I’m having a good time. I hope people will enjoy reading them.

3)  Do you believe in ghosts?

Yes. My father—the most un-woo-woo person I’ve ever known, had two ghost stories he told. One, when he was a young Army officer stationed in Germany after WWII, his office was in what had been an old German Army barracks. And every night, when he was alone in the office, he would hear footsteps on the floor above him. Not just footsteps, but a woman in high heels. So one night at a bar he and another guy got to talking and the other guy said—“You ever hear anything strange?” They compared notes and did a little digging and apparently several prostitutes had been murdered on the floor. So that was weird.
But when I was about ten, my father woke up in the middle of the night to see his Uncle John standing at the foot of the bed. And that was odd in itself because my father, like me, slept like the dead and my mother, an insomniac, was such a light sleeper a butterfly fart would wake her up. His uncle had come to say goodbye. He was relating the dream to us when the phone rang. It was his stepmother, telling him his uncle had died.
And one last one…About a month after my father died, I was in what had been his bedroom and suddenly (and I know how this sounds), his scent was all around me. Like a lot of old, sick people, he smelled a certain way—that medicinal smell. It was HIM. And I just sat on the bed and kind of breathed him in. And then it went away.
So yes, I definitely believe in ghosts.  
 
4) What is your favorite thing about Halloween?

My memories of being a kid and trick or treating with my friends. I love Fall anyway and I clearly remember Halloweens with the big full moon and the scudding clouds like something out of a Spielberg movie. I liked the candy (though not Bit o’ Honey or Mary Janes) but I liked dressing up and going out with a crowd of my friends (boys and girls) and my little brother even more. One year, a neighbor invited us all in for cider and donuts and to pet his big, fat orange cat. Can you imagine that happening now?

5) How do you spend your Halloween?
​
Generally I’m holed up watching classic horror movies like The Haunting. (I don’t like really scary movies.) There aren’t many kids in the neighborhood, so no one comes to the door trick or treating. Some of my neighbors decorate but most are all “boo, humbug” at this point, just one step away from hanging a sign that says, “You kids get off my lawn.” But just in case, I always get a bag of those little boxes of Milk Duds. They do not go to waste.

Kat Parrish is a former reporter who prefers making things up. She is a fan of fairy tales, a lover of lost languages, and a Shakespeare geek.  One day she hopes to combine all three in a single story, sort of like Einstein’s “Theory of Everything” but with paranormal creatures. She lives in the Pacific Northwest in walking distance of a haunted cemetery.
 

Author Website