Process Notes:
I wanted to write a ghost story of a sort—the idea that there is no getting away with murder. Conscience always knows, even if no one else does. Confession, judgment, atonement—all matters of the soul—recur eternally, just like Nietzsche said. There are ghosts of conscience, and, in "Cabrona Mala," judgment is rendered via venomous serpent—both a physical and spiritual punishment.
Why do you write horror?
Why write horror? I think that if fiction is a mirror, then horror is like looking at the story from the mirror's point of view. If you suspend disbelief for the length of a horror story and allow that all things are possible—darkness and light, vengeful spirits, monsters, devils, creatures for which there are no names, circumstances imposed from beyond the "mortal veil"—you can have a lot of fun.
STEVE PASSEY is originally from Southern Alberta. He is the author of the short story collections Forty-Five Minutes of Unstoppable Rock (Tortoise Books, 2017), Cemetery Blackbirds (Secret History Books, 2020), and many others. He is a Pushcart and best of the Net Nominee and is part of the Editorial Collective at The Black Dog Review.