Sheri White has lived in Maryland all her life and has the crab-picking skills and the big can of Old Bay in her pantry to show for it. Her stories have been published in many anthologies, including Be Very Afraid (edited by Edo Van Belkom), Decadence 2 (edited by Monica J. O’Rourke), Once Upon an Apocalypse (edited by Scott Goudsward and Rachel Kenley), and Fresh Blood, Old Bones (edited by Kasey Lansdale). Magazine appearances include Lamplight, The Sirens Call, Devolution Z, and Beware the Dark. She is the editor of the UK magazine Morpheus Tales. Find her on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/sheriw1965.
ABOUT THE BOOK:
Sacrificial Lambs and Others is Sheri White’s first collection. From quiet horror to bloody violence, these flash fiction pieces and short stories are chilling and emotionally visceral. You will find people teetering on the brink of sanity, dark farms, creepy carnivals, weird kids, and Armageddon. These stories will stay with you long after you’ve closed the book.
Did something in the real world inspire Sacrificial Lambs and Others?
My stories are inspired by my childhood. I was raised by abusive parents. In addition, my mother became a “born-again Christian” when I was 12 and suddenly everything I did or thought assured my eternity in hell, which was going to happen when God destroyed the world in the year 2000. I spent years in a constant state of fear of dying in an apocalypse and burning in hell.
What is your favorite scene in the book?
My two favorite stories in the collection are “Scarecrow Night” and “Things Happen Here After Dark.” They were fun to write and actually creeped me out as I wrote them. Scarecrows unsettle me. What if you see one move out of the corner of your eye while you’re in the pumpkin patch? And carnivals at night are definitely spooky. Everyone knows that!
What was your writing process like as you wrote Sacrificial Lambs and Others?
Since these are short stories, they were mostly written for specific submission calls or contests. I don’t have an office or a desk; I write while sitting in my recliner with my laptop. Usually a dog or cat is sleeping next to me.
What was the best thing that happened during your promotion of the book?
The best part of having my collection published is that my mother-in-law, who was my best friend and mom, got to see it and hold it before she passed recently from cancer. She was my biggest fan and always read everything I wrote. After she passed, my father-in-law gave me a folder of everything I had emailed her to read, printed out. She also kept every small-press magazine and anthology I had stories in.
What do you have planned next?
I’m still writing mostly short stories and have several subs out I’m waiting to hear about. But I’m also planning a memoir based on the trauma I suffered from my parents, which, while not in the horror genre, is still dark.
You can pick up a copy of Sacrificial Lambs and Others on Amazon at https://amzn.to/2N8a0bg.
Angela Yuriko Smith’s work has been published in several print and online publications, including the Horror Writers Association’s Poetry Showcase, volumes 2-5, Christmas Lites, volumes 1-6, and the Where the Stars Rise: Asian Science Fiction and Fantasy anthology.
Next Sunday, September 16, I will show some of my favorite photographs from 199 Cemeteries to See Before You Die at one of my favorite cemeteries in the book, Colma’s Cypress Lawn Memorial Park.
