Dollar Bin Horror Spotlight - William Malmborg

William Malmborg is a twenty six year old writer from Wheaton , IL that has been penning short stories and novels for ten years. In 2002, he got his first story acceptance from the magazine Black Petals for his story “Red Pickup” and has continued to publish short fiction with magazines and anthologies. This year, he hopes to become an official novelist as well, and is eagerly anticipating a response from Dorchester Publishing about his novel Jimmy. His blog, wlmalmborg.blogspot.com, is a wonderful horror stop for any fan and it puts him in the Dollar Bin Horror Spotlight.

Q: How did you get into horror?

A: My horror entry started early thanks to my Mother and Grandmother who used to love scaring my little brother and me with horror stories and movies. While other kids were read happy little tales of rabbits and chickens having tea parties, we got to hear about people being devoured by demons and crazy serial killers who murdered children. One of our strongest memories is of my grandmother telling us that the former owner of house she lived in decapitated her children one night and then slit her own throat, but was rescued by paramedics and imprisoned in a metal institution, which, of course, she had recently escaped from. My mother also once read us the prologue of Dean Koontz’s Darkfall when we were really young, which terrified us, and then let us watch Halloween one night. Later my brother and I would call that the ‘year without sleep’ because we would lie awake every night thinking about all the scary things that could happen.

Q: How and why did you start blogging?

A: I started blogging in 2007 while my wife Jennifer was waiting for her transplant. My goal was to bring awareness to both of our diseases and to share with the world what it was like to be the husband of someone waiting for a surgery like that, our hearts stopping every time the phone rang because it could be a potential match. The blog was an extension of a website I had built earlier in the year after an anthology publisher suggested I create one so that fans could learn more about me and see what other publications I had appeared in. After Jen’s death I decided to separate my blog into two separate ones, the main one focusing on horror movies and books, writing, and anything weird I happened to stumble across, and the second one focusing on Crohn’s Disease and my experiences with the terrible autoimmune disease.

Q: What are your fav and least fav horror films?

A: Wow, this is hard one. I think my all time favorite film would have to be The People Under the Stairs directed by Wes Craven. I first saw the movie on Joe Bob Brigg’s Monster Vision as a freshman in high school and fell in love with it. The movie taught me that horror doesn’t have to be supernatural and that the most disturbing things in this world are usually man-made. My least favorite film would have to be Rob Zombie’s Halloween. The problem I have with it is that it is actually a good film, which makes it harder to dismiss like other remakes. It also seems like the movie could so easily have been its own story as opposed to being the remake of Halloween, which would have made it a nice addition to the horror genera. Instead everyone wanted to capitalize on the Halloween name, which ticks me off. Give us something new. I also hated seeing a Michael Myers humanized.

Q: What can we expect from your blog in the future?

A: My blog’s future will be pretty simple, especially now that I have found a layout I really enjoy, which will allow me to focus on my posts rather than the background elements. I will continue to write about horror movies, novels and short stories as well as my adventures with writing and any real world topic that catches my eye. I’m also toying with the idea of writing some stories that would further reveal the world I started to create with my tale “Jacob’s Gift” which was published in 2004 by Black Petals Magazine. Many people have asked me what happens next, and I have started some small writing projects that will answer the question, ones which I may serialize on my blog or website.