The Occult Detective’s Last Writes with… Matt Cowan

TODAY’S DEPARTING:

It’s Devil’s Night, Hallowe’en Eve, and who better to turn to when mischief, mayhem, and the macabre are in full bloom than the founder of Horror Delve, author Matt Cowan.

Matt is a skilled writer of the sort of fictions we crave all too much around here, and he is a connoisseur of classic horror stories and of the men and women who create them.

As soon as I decided to resurrect Last Writes, I had Matt in mind for our Hallowe’en Chapter. It is an honor to call him a friend and even more so to have him now share with us his Last Writes…

Last Meal

It would have to be a works pizza with extra cheese and mushrooms, an order of bread sticks with double cheese sauces (I really love cheese!) and a sangria to drink.

Last Book

This is extremely hard because because I love reading so much, but as I’m addicted to buying horror anthologies it would probably have to be one of those. I’m partial to haunted house stories, so it would need to have plenty of those in the mix, and considering Ramsey Campbell is my all-time favorite author, it would need to include a story or three by him as well.

Last Movie

This one is tough as well. The first Best of the Best movie is the one I’ve seen the most over my lifetime but that was largely when I was heavily into Tae Kwon Do back in the 90’s. If I were picking a horror film it would likely be either Insidious, The Legend of Hell House or The Mothman Prophecies. I also have a huge love for the Marvel Super-Hero films but for sheer mindless fun I’m going to go with Hawk the Slayer. I know it has many flaws and lots of haters, but I’ve loved it since I first saw it on television as a kid. It’s my favorite fantasy film and just manages to make me smile each time I watch it.

Last Song

I’m not a huge music person in general. I do tend to listen to Tori Amos, Seal and Sarah McLaughlin while writing as their music is often infused with a mournful eeriness I seek to convey in my stories. I guess I’ll go with Sarah’s haunting melody, Out of the Shadows. It has a haunting, life-slipping-away quality to it which seems appropriate for such an occasion.

First person I’d like to meet on the other side

I’ve been blessed in that I haven’t lost any members of my immediate family thus far. There’s my grandfather who I was close to as a child, or someone like Mark Justice who I never got to meet in person but whom I became friends with online. Ultimately, I think I’d go with someone I only ever spoke with once – my wife’s father. He died of Lymphoma back in her home state of Mississippi early on when she and I’d begun dating so I never got the chance to meet him. I talked to him once briefly when she handed me her phone to say hi. He joked with me a little before I gave the phone back. Our interaction was brief but his sense of humor came through and knowing how important he was to my wife makes me wish I’d better had the chance to know him.