It’s a pleasure to introduce Amanda Casile, a writer and speech pathologist who crafts stories that linger in the mind long after the last page is turned. Having moved from the West Coast of Canada to the New York suburbs with her family, she now channels her experiences into speculative horror.

While her work explores dark and unsettling themes, our conversation revealed the thoughtful and insightful person behind the stories. We discuss her creative process, the influence of parenthood on her writing, and why she believes horror is an inherently political genre. She also shares her hopes for greater diversity in the field and the authors who have inspired her.

Please welcome Amanda Casile.

Please tell the readers a little bit about yourself.

I’m a writer and speech pathologist living in suburbia with my two daughters, husband, and adorable black cat. We moved from the West Coast of Canada to the NY area a few years back, so that’s been a bit of a trip getting used to everything. In my spare time, I love running, hiking, writing (obviously), and travel. I write mainly speculative horror these days, but have dabbled in sci-fi and fantasy, as well as creative nonfiction.

Which one of your characters would you least like to meet in real life?

Oh gosh. Most of my characters are awful, but interesting enough I’d probably like to meet them at least once! Actually, there’s a character in the novel I’m shopping around right now who is so incredibly self centered and delusional; I don’t think I’d enjoy meeting her very much. But everyone else, come to the character party, you’re all invited!

Which of your characters is your favourite?

Oh this one is also a toughy. There’s a grandmother character in Broken Trail who I think has incredible energy. She’s definitely a contender for my favorite character. I also really like the awful father in my story “Lure” that came out in Quill and Crow’s Brackish Harbor anthology. He was super fun to write. And, now that I’m thinking about it, he’s another that I’d prefer not to meet. Last contender for favorite character is probably the MC in the novel I’m shopping. She’s fierce, organized, and very impulsive. I am only impulsive, so I envy her the other two! She’s a very fun character to both write and read. (I think? I hope!)

Which of your books best represents you?

Another great question, and an interesting one because as readers you will only know Broken Trail since it’s my only published novel at this point. Broken Trail does represent me quite a bit. The hiking, the MC who’s terrible at making decisions, the two daughters. But I think the two pieces (one novel called Altered and a novella called Dead Beats) actually represent my writing better. But I think we as writers always think our newest piece is our best work because we learn so much in between writing each one!

Other than the horror genre, what else has significantly influenced your writing?

In my teens and twenties I read a lot of fantasy and sci-fi, so I have always loved books with a bit of a speculative or other-worldly element to them. I think that influences my current horror writing a lot. And, it sounds cliché, but I think parenthood has also been a huge influence on my writing. From the transformative body-horror experience of pregnancy and birth, to the normal everyday stresses of caring for another human, to the crazy maelstrom of emotions you experience as a parent . . . so many things. It manages to find its way into even the least maternal of my work! 

The term horror, especially when applied to fiction, always has such heavy connotations. What’s your feeling on the term “horror”, and what do you think we can do to break past these assumptions?

Hmm. My feeling on the term horror is that it is so, incredibly broad and in some ways subjective. Most people can agree that a bloody slasher is horror, but it also encompasses slow burn gothic stories and psychological horror stories without any body horror at all. It can apply to things just skirting the edge of dark fantasy. I think horror is anything that confronts a fear, and since people’s fears vary so widely, horror will also vary. I love it as a genre because it can be used as a lens to examine big, real world problems.  

Should horror be political?

See above. Absolutely yes! I think it’s almost impossible for horror to not be political. Horror gives us a way to safely confront what scares us. Right now especially, there is a lot of scary political shit going on in the world, and I think it’s no surprise that horror is growing more popular by the day.

I also think it can be a vehicle to illustrate to those not entirely aware or believing of the political issues we’re facing currently, just how bad things really are and how bad they can get if left unchecked. Honestly, I think all writing is political. Just the action of putting your thoughts into words and distributing that to the masses—it’s how revolutions get started.

Why do you think so many people enjoy horror?

Like I said above, horror allows us to confront fears in a safe way. There’s a certain thrill in taking a risk and doing something scary. Reading a book or watching a movie lets us achieve that thrill without actually putting us in harm’s way. (Although I have read a few novels that I am pretty sure could have given me heart attacks! So maybe it’s not as risk free as I thought!)

What, if anything, is currently missing from the horror genre?

I think wider diversity rep. Definitely the genre has improved in this area even over the past five to ten years, but I think we still have a long way to go. Many awards still go to predominantly white men, and BIPOC, queer, and disability rep is still low in the overall genre pool. Publishers need to realize that readers want that. We crave diverse books, so I really hope we see the horror genre continue to expand in that area.

What new and upcoming authors should we take notice of?

Tanya Pell is out there kicking ass with her novella Cicada, and Her Wicked Roots will release in October. Definitely one to keep an eye on because I happen to know she’s cooking up a ton of other amazing stories. 

Rae Wilde is another author I cannot get enough of. Her unhinged sapphic romp I Can Fix Her nearly killed me in a good way, and she should have another novel coming out soon that I cannot wait to get my hands on!

I’ve also read ARCs from Emma E. Murray and LL Madrid over this summer, and both were freaking fantastic. Both are authors to keep watching!

And I met Chelsea Conradt by chance at Stokercon this past year, right before her debut, The Farmhouse, released, and I have to say that was one of my favorite books this year. So, another one to watch.

Lastly, if you like more dark fantasy over horror, I highly recommend Alethea Lyons’ Seer of York series for incredibly rich settings, awesome stories, and really excellent character development and dynamics.

And who would be on your Mount Rushmore of horror?

Oh gosh. I’m going to out myself as a fangirl here, but Rachel Harrison is a 100% autobuy for me. She may be the only author for whom I own all of their books. Besides her . . . I might chisel out Nat Cassidy, since I freaking loved When The Wolf Comes Home, E.K. Sathue because Youthjuice is one of my top reads of all time, and Delilah S. Dawson because Guillotine (need I say more??).

Are there any reviews of your work, positive or negative, that have stayed with you?

I have actually been overwhelmed by some of the ARC reviews of Broken Trail. When I wrote it, I figured I’d just be grateful to have someone read it at all, but to hear that people are reading it and loving it has just made me . . . want to explode. In a good way. (See? Horror author over here.) 

I think one of the first reviews that was not from an acquaintance or online mutual of mine said something like, “I could NOT put this book down. Even now, I’m still afraid.” And that right there got me, because this is a person who doesn’t even know me, doesn’t care what I think of their review, and they loved my book. I’m just grateful to have my words in print, but to have someone read it and like it is incredible.

What aspects of writing do you find the most difficult?

I am an incredibly scattered person, so creating a routine and sticking to it has been the toughest for me. I write very chaotically. Like sometimes I’ve gone weeks without writing anything real only to turn around and pound out 7000 words in one day. Lately I’ve been giving myself grace and trying to find a happy medium. Clearly the chaos works for me, so I don’t fight it, but I do still try to make sure I get at least a few words down every week to keep the story momentum up.

Does writing energize or exhaust you?

Both! It really depends on the scene I’m writing. If it feels like pulling teeth, I come out of the writing session feeling defeated. But some days the words just flow and the story forms around me to such a vivid degree that I’m basically just writing what I see. Those times I definitely come out energized.

What’s your best advice for new authors about social media?

Oh, I am the last person to give advice about social media. I am addicted to it. I am awful at it. I guess my advice is to have a plan and follow it. Don’t be on it too much. Don’t stress if you take a hiatus. Just do as much as you enjoy, but set limits for yourself too. Don’t do what I do!

How do you balance making demands on the reader with taking care of the reader?

Wait, we’re supposed to take care of our readers? No one informed me of this when I applied for the job. I hope my writers cry and hide under the blankets. But I think that’s what they want, if they pick up my books, so in a way I guess I’m taking care of them?

All jokes aside, I do think my stories have heart. They go deeper than what’s on the surface, and they typically resolve in a somewhat satisfying way. In this way I think I do take care of readers. I drag them through the dirt and exhaust them on the way, but in the end, they feel all that much better for it. 

Writing is not a static process; how have you developed as a writer?

Over the past twenty years I’ve gone from writing Twilight fanfic to writing deep and dark original stories. So that’s quite an evolution I think! Joking again. But in all seriousness, I think the biggest thing that has evolved is my relationship to my writing.

Yes, my prose has improved and my process has improved. But the biggest win for me is that I can look at my writing and see it as a marketable, viable work of art (even though, of course it is never good enough and constantly requires 1000 rounds of editing!) For years—maybe even a decade—I wrote without any real plan to publish. And it’s only been very recently that I realized that publishing is an option for me and my art. That’s been huge.

What’s the most surprising thing you learned while writing your books?

That writing isn’t necessarily better when it’s a solitary endeavor. I think I initially gravitated towards writing because of my introvertedness and social anxiety. So I thought it was a great way to be alone with myself. But I have formed so many amazing relationships through writing. I never really thought that was possible. I now love sharing with other writers and joining up to be each other’s teammates while we’re all working towards our own personal wins.

What does literary success look like to you?

Did you not see above? I got a positive review from a stranger! I’ve made it! 

Realistically, literary success to me would be being able to support myself through my writing. Maybe seeing my book in an airport. Seeing a stranger on the subway reading one of my books. All of those things would be a dream for me.

What is the best piece of advice you ever received regarding your writing?

The best writing advice I’ve received wasn’t even related to writing. Years and years ago a close friend of mine was talking to me about making decisions in life, and he said, “No matter what you choose, it’s the right choice.” And his point was basically: commit.

If you commit to a decision or to a particular plot point, it will be the right one. There is almost never an absolute right and wrong choice in life, and that’s even more true in plotting. So, rather than waffling in the middle, it’s better to pick one and run with it. It’s like Mr. Miyagi said: “Walk on road, hm? Walk right side, safe. Walk left side, safe. Walk middle, sooner or later get the squish just like grape.” 

Do you have a favourite line or passage from your work, and would you like to share it with us?

To this day, one of my favorite lines is the final line: “I hope you aren’t thinking this will be a survival story. Some of us didn’t survive, and those who did, well . . .”

This is a line of dialogue that sort of book-ends the novel and makes things go a little bit full circle. I hope the reader gets chills when they read the last line, because I got chills writing it! We *almost* cut it from both the initial chapter and the end, but ultimately decided the book was stronger with it, and I’m so glad we did.

Can you tell us about your last book, and can you tell us about what you are working on next?

Broken Trail, my debut, is coming out December 9, 2025. I am so excited about it because it was a book so close to my heart. It’s a woodsy horror novel that includes themes of motherhood, friendship, generational grief, and misogyny, among other things. A lot of me was poured into this novel. From the main character (who definitely does not commit to her decisions! Mr. Miyagi would have a hard time with her) to the woodsy setting, to her relationships. I took a lot from personal experiences and then kind of twisted and embellished them. So I love this book because it’s like loving a picture of me taken with a funhouse filter. 

Right now I’m shopping around a novel and a novella that I am even more excited about. Altered, the novel, is an Arctic horror and centers around Machie, a marine biologist whose lifelong dream has been to go overwinter at the North Pole to study what happens to the zooplankton for those dark, cold months.

She arrives on her mission two years late and with a lot of baggage, though, due to a car accident that killed her girlfriend and left Machie in a coma. Things don’t go as well as she had hoped, though, because her first week out on the ice, she finds a dead body with her own face, and no one believes her. As more strange occurrences pile up without any acknowledgment from her fellow researchers, she starts to question who she can trust.

And the novella is a sort of campy horror set in the ’80s that follows Katharine, a talent agent in LA who’s just trying to make it in a male dominated industry. To get ahead, she comes up with an ingenious idea: reanimating the corpses of dead actors in order to have cheaper, more easily controllable talent. As you can imagine, hijinks ensue.

If you could erase one horror cliché, what would be your choice?

Mental illness as a reason for bad behavior. The whole “Oh, the killer did it because of his split personality!” or “She did that because of her anxiety.” We need strong characters that make their own decisions (and are accountable to them!) *and* maybe have mental illness, but not using the illness as the whole basis for their character.

If your partner was going to leave you for another author, which author would you like them to end up with and why?

Oh my goodness! What a question. Um, I wouldn’t want my partner to leave me for anyone? There isn’t a single author he should leave me for, because I’m the best author for him to be married to.

What’s the one question you wish you would get asked but never do? And what would be the answer?

Hmm. Something I’ve never been asked but do think about a lot is what colors I associate with each of my books.

With Broken Trail, I think of dark greens, sepia, and blackish brown.

For Altered, it’s white and red.

For Dead Beats, it’s black, red, and (somewhat inexplicably) yellow.

And for the secret project I’m drafting currently, it’s blue, yellow, and the darkest black.

Broken Trail by Amanda Casile

“I was riveted right up to the chilling last page.” —Jennifer Thorne, author of Diavola

“A deeply immersive, disturbing, and addictive read.” —Lee Kelly, author of With Regrets and City of Savages

This trail will break you . . .

After criminal psychologist Clara’s divorce shatters her family, she retreats into her work. But, instead of finding comfort there, Clara develops a growing obsession with one patient, a young woman accused of murdering her boyfriend on a remote hiking trail. Desperate to discover what happened and to mend the bonds between her and her estranged daughters, Clara makes an ill-fated decision: to hike that very same trail, with her family in tow.

Once they hit the trail, however, violent visions plague her dreams, and when a close encounter with a mysterious presence splits them apart, what began as a family bonding trip becomes a battle for survival. Clara must confront her own demons and the thing that prowls the forest to find her family and get them out alive before the forest claims them all, for good.

For readers who enjoy Wonderland by Zoje Stage, The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon by Stephen King, and Insomnia by Sarah Pinborough.

Amanda Casile

Amanda Casile has been writing stories for as long as she can remember. Her mother still keeps a two paged story about a lonely unicorn that Amanda penned in kindergarten and read for show and tell. Since that first public reading, Amanda has continued writing and has published several short stories.

Broken Trail is her debut horror novel. Despite having always enjoyed reading and writing, Amanda pursued a different but related career in speech pathology. In her practice, she has focused in part on literacy and narrative structure, and she loves seeing kids “click” with stories for the first time. When not writing or teaching kids to talk, Amanda spends time with her own nice kids and her two naughty cats.

Author website: https://www.amandacasile.com/

Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Amanda-Casile/author/B0DQ5YRN64

Author’s Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/bookishduck_author

Interviews on Ginger Nuts of Horror

If you’re a fan of horror literature and cinema, then you absolutely need to check out the horror interview section of Ginger Nuts of Horror.

Firstly, the interviews feature a diverse range of authors, filmmakers, and horror enthusiasts, allowing readers to gain a multifaceted understanding of the genre. Each interview is an opportunity to explore the creative processes, inspirations, and personal stories behind the minds that produce some of the most chilling and thought-provoking works in horror today. From seasoned veterans to up-and-coming talents, the variety of voices ensures that readers can find something that resonates with them.

Moreover, these interviews often delve into the nuances of what makes horror such a compelling genre. Contributors share their thoughts on the psychological aspects of fear, the societal influences on horror trends, and the ways in which horror reflects cultural anxieties. This deeper exploration not only enriches one’s appreciation for horror stories but also fosters discussions about broader themes, such as identity, morality, and existential dread.

The interviews frequently touch on practical advice and industry insights. Writers and creators often share the hurdles they faced in their careers, tips for aspiring horror writers, and the realities of getting published or produced. This wealth of knowledge is invaluable for anyone looking to navigate the sometimes challenging waters of the horror genre. Readers interested in breaking into horror writing or filmmaking will find a treasure trove of wisdom that could pave their path toward success.

Lastly, the community aspect of Ginger Nuts of Horror cannot be overlooked. Engaging with these interviews allows readers to feel connected to a larger community of horror enthusiasts. Comment sections and social media interactions often follow, enabling fans to discuss their thoughts and engage with both the interviewees and fellow readers.

In conclusion, the horror interview section of Ginger Nuts of Horror is an essential resource for anyone interested in the genre. It provides rich insights, guidance, and inspiration that can deepen one’s appreciation for horror while fostering a vibrant community among fans and creators alike. Don’t miss out on the chance to delve into the minds of your favorite horror creators!