Ask the Author: J.W. Ocker

“Ask me a question.” J.W. Ocker

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I absolutely love your middle grade horror novels! I hope you write more! I'm a librarian, and the kids at my last school library and in my current public library also really enjoy your work. The Smashed Man of Dread End is one of my favorite scary books to recommend to kids, and I just finished The Black Slide - so good and so intense! What inspired you to write these two books?

J.W. Ocker Thank you, Catherine! For the Black Slide, it was my middle child sliding down a two-story black tube slide at an indoor playground near me. She broke her foot on the way down somehow and ever since that moment, I couldn't shake the idea of an ominous slide that hurts children. As to the Smashed Man, I always wanted to create a different category of monster (one that could show up at a Monster Mash and still fit in, but also be different than the others). I also knew that I wanted to do a basement monster story. So it just took staring at the walls of my basement, seeing a crack in the wall, and figuring out the rest.

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Hello, So Felix Allsey spends most of his first night reading The Humongous Book of Haunted Houses. I was curious if this is a real book or one you made up? Enjoying my stay at Rotter House so far Mr Ocker. Lincoln aka The Temporal Jester

J.W. Ocker Yes! It's on my shelf right now (but I guess I can't upload a photo here). The real version is called The Mammoth Book of Haunted Houses, edited by Peter Haining (c. early 2000s). I guess I just wanted more alliteration in the title.

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Hi! Just finished your Salem book and loved it. Looking forward to reading more of your work. It's clear that you're very much interested in all things macabre and spooky, but I couldn't get a sense of your personal beliefs in terms of the existence of ghosts. Are you a believer/have you had any experiences yourself, or do you just appreciate ghosts as pure fiction? Thanks!

J.W. Ocker Hey Amy! So glad you dug the book. Thanks so much for letting me know and for the question. I do love all things spooky and macabre, for sure, and the short answer to your question is: No, I don't believe in ghosts, and that's almost solely because I've never had an experience with one despite my life being so intertwined with visiting spook spots. That said, I'm sincerely glad that other people believe. I actually wrote a short essay on this topic, if you're interested: http://www.oddthingsiveseen.com/2016/.... Thanks again for the question.

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enjoyed your Poe-land. well done. will you be able to fix the verb on p.234 "had (it) went otherwise.." before the book goes to LoC? heck, while you're at it, fix "whomever owns that tree" on p 331. MB in RVA

J.W. Ocker Thank MB in RVA,

Glad you dug the book. Unfortunately, it's the publisher who is in charge of any corrections, no myself. Here's an interesting article on it from a few years back: http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/...

Bist,

JWO

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