Trick-or-Treat Thrillers is very proud to present our interview with Sharon L. Higa, the author of the sci-fi thriller Number 6.

Amazon Book Description:

Ida Moreno had a good life. Head Curator of the New York Public Library, lots of friends and acquaintances among her co-workers, a nice, cozy apartment close to her work and the simple company of her cat, Tansy. All that changes in one horrifying moment. Raped and murdered by someone in the middle of the night, Ida’s soul discorporates from her body at the time of death and witnesses the final moments. She’s angry, and her emotional anger ties her to the killer. It’s now up to her to figure out how to use her ‘new spirit body’ to find out who he is and bring him to justice.

Interview:

What gave you the idea for your popular novel Number 6?

#6 was based on an actual murder which occurred many years ago in California. A young nurse was kidnapped, raped and murdered, her body left in the Los Angeles forest. She was found one year later, and a year after that, the two men who committed the crime were arrested on something entirely different. But, the younger of the two confessed to her murder, claiming that he kept ‘seeing’ her everywhere. Now, the professionals and police put it down to his conscience bothering him, but the idea shot into my mind, What if he really had been seeing her for the past two years?   Thus, #6 was born.

What else have you written? Novels? Anthologies?

I have two other novels and one novella out, as well as several anthologies, with JEA Press, Sirens Call Publications, and Dark Chapter Press. I write fantasy action, my “Searchers Inc” series about a shape-shifting detective agency, supernatural thrillers like #6, subtle horror like my novel Horrors and Occupational Hazards (very much along the line of Twilight Zone and Alfred Hitchcock Presents), and mystery/suspense.

What got you into writing sci-fi/horror?

I have an older cousin who began telling me ‘ghost stories’ when I was six years old, and that pretty much got me hooked into horror. I loved the old horror movies, and actually threw a fit when my uncle turned off The Mummy while I was in the middle of watching it. My mom told him to turn it back on, otherwise there’d be no peace in the house. I couldn’t get enough of horror and the supernatural, and my grandmothers, grandfather and a couple uncles obliged me with stories about the towns they grew up in. My dad also shared his tales of the unexplained and I just began writing my own stories down at nine years old. They are all fiction, but sometimes my stories are based on the legends that have been passed down to me by both my family members and others who shared their tales throughout the years.

What is the writing process like for you? What is your writing day like?

My writing process is a bit bizarre, I think. I write waiting at light signals, in grocery stores, at two a.m., four a.m. … heck… really any time my muse strikes, and thankfully, I seem to have never been at a loss for material. *knocking on wood*.

Really, I try to stick to writing 2,000 words a day, regardless of everything else. I carry a notebook with me, and use my laptop at home. I’ve written a couple of novels within two day’s time, but I also have a novel, a mystery/suspense, that I’ve been working on for the past four years. I just have to write and I make sure I write something at least every day.

What is your favorite book (other than your own book, of course) and why?

I’m always stumped with this question, because I cannot say I have one favorite book. I’ve been a reader my whole life, starting with the Webster’s Dictionary when I was three ( Did I mention I was a bizarre kid? *winking*), but the one that does stick out the most in my mind was an anthology I bought and read when I was about eight years old. It’s called “Cold Hand in Mine” by Robert Aikman, and that really put chills up my spine – something that’s not that easy to do, even when I was a little kid. The horror in the whole anthology was subtle, but grabbed your attention and wouldn’t let you go.

What are you doing next?

I actually have six novels I’m currently working on, and I have submitted a novel to JEA Press, which was accepted, called “One Night in the Eternity Of…”

It is about an Asian vampire with narcolepsy. Yes, think of Johnny Depp’s Dark Shadows – it is along that line of horror/dark comedy. I am also working on a western zombie-type novel, a novel about an evil house, a novel about a demon wrangler in Hell, my third book in my Searchers Inc series, (the second book is due out very soon), and a couple of surprise stories I’ve been kicking around and don’t want to let anyone peek at just yet. *wicked smile*

What advice would you give aspiring writers?

Don’t give up, don’t ever stop writing. If you truly love this calling – then write for yourself and know that someone out there will recognize it, when the time is right. It took me eight years from the time I wrote my first three novels and several short stories before I was published, and I never gave up looking for a publisher, or writing the whole time. It’s in my blood and like blood, I can’t live without it.

You can find all of my books on my website:

http://www.leapingunicornliterary.com/

If you click on the book you are interested in, it will take you directly to Amazon.com.