Interview With Nancy Scuri & Read An Illustrated Story

The Horror Club speaks to writer Nancy Scuri, who is one half of the team that works on the site www.twosentencehorrors.com . Nancy has also kindly provided us an illustrated short story, which you can find below:

Tell us about yourself?

I’ve always loved books and stories in general, horror in particular. This surprises people when the first meet me, because I don’t seem to be “the type,” whatever that is. I’ve never set out to write horror; it’s just how my mind works. My mom got me started when I was very small, with re-runs of Dark Shadows and Creature Feature on Saturday afternoons, so we can all thank her for how I ended up. Two Sentence Horrors started as a bit of a goof. I saw this awesome zombie art on Google+. I shared it, and the artist, Byron Rempel, and I started chatting online. It all started from that.

What is TwoSentenceHorrors.com?

TwoSentenceHorrors.com is the main page for all things TSH. It has every illustrated story Byron and I ever published. It also has links for books, upcoming events, and pretty much everything you need to know about us.

Why horror? 

Why not horror? Growing up, I’d watch Hammer films with my mom. She’d check out Stephen King books from the library for me. I managed to get a hold of her copy of The Exorcist. It was a magic childhood. Seriously, though, it just makes sense to me. Like Stephen King said in On Writing: “I was built with a love of the night and the unquiet coffin, that’s all. If you disapprove, I can only shrug my shoulders. It’s what I have.”

Why only two sentences?

A few years ago, a friend sent me an article about two sentence horror stories from Reddit. I figured I could do better. I’ve learned over time that it’s not so simple to keep up without repeating yourself. I enjoy it, though. For the record, I do write other things: poetry, short stories, a few novellas. I’m currently working on a novel.

Why did you decide to have illustrations with it?

As far as the illustrations go, I started posting two sentence horror stories on Wattpad. I thought it would be cool if I could turn them into something shareable on Instagram. Byron was kind enough to offer his work for my use. We eventually decided to create the website and go from there.

Congrats on your 300th story. How does that feel?

Great, actually. We publish a new story twice a week every week. We’ve never had to republish anything, and we’ve never missed a day. For the past few months, we’ve continued with the two sentence horrors, but now they they link into a larger story over the course of a month. Each is self-contained, but turns into a larger story arc. I’m really proud of how this is all turned out.

Have you ever thought of developing the stories further?

Yes! The first project Byron and I ever did together was ‘Thirteen Stories and Paintings’. One of the stories is ‘Debbie Does the Apocalypse’. She is featured in flash fiction, and the universe she’s inspired includes short stories, two novellas, a graphic novel, and at least three novels.

Would you ever include other writers on the site? Maybe start up an ezine?

Byron and I have discussed this. Part of the issue is that he’s in Canada and I’m based in the US, so setting up an ezine would be an international endeavour. Bringing in other writers/artists is a possibility, but we’d want to be in a position to pay them properly. Maybe in the future…

What are the plans for 2018?

We plan to continue bringing the illustrated horrors on our website. We have a Patreon page that has undergone a redesign, and we’re offering signed, hand-made books and other goodies. We’re also working on the next edition of One Bite at a Time, our compilation of stories and art. I’m working on longer stories, so there’s plenty of good stuff in store.

Check out a sample of Nancy’s work, which was illustrated by Byron Rempel, below:

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