Eric Woods, Author

Author and Poet LaShane Arnett lives in Southern California with her family and is the author of The Sadie Reed Series. The series, which includes novels The Pain Eater and The Magic Man, is highly recommended for anyone who loves paranormal thrillers. LaShane’s work has appeared in various personal print-only journals including Jeremy R. Richey’s Soledad.

Her first published book, Go Ask LaShane, is a collection of short stories and poetry. She also recently published the follow-up, Go Ask LaShane Volume 2: My Human Experience. She is a lover of paranormal, horror and thrillers.

Follow LaShane Arnett!

Website: https://www.lashanewrites.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/lashanewrites/
FB: https://www.facebook.com/lashanearnett/
Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/19506626.LaShane_Arnett
Threads: https://www.threads.net/@lashanewrites
TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@lashanewrites

Questions:

1. Tell our readers a little about yourself and your writing (including publications).
   Hi I’m LaShane Arnett. I live in California with my beautiful family. When I was about twelve years old I was introduced to the poets of the beat generation and fell in love with the eccentricities of creative writing. From that day forward I dreamed of being a published author. In 2017 all my kids were either out of the house or graduated, self-publishing was high on everyone’s radar, and the idea for my first novel, The Pain Eater, pretty much assaulted me. I dove head first into writing my MC, Sadie’s, story and learning every facet of the self-publishing world and here we are, four self-published books later. I absolutely love self publishing and the dreams it has allowed writers, like myself, to fulfill. 
   I write poetry and  dark fiction. My dark fiction series has two books to date: The Pain Eater and The Magic Man. I have two books in my  poetry series, Go Ask LaShane: Decades of Ramblings. and Go Ask LaShane Vol 2 My Human Experience which won Best Indie book 2024 for Poetry. 
   I have an essay in Jeremy Richey’s Art Magazine Soledad titled – “Forever Love a Psychedelic Furs memoir.” I have two short stories featured in Harriet Everend’s Horror Anthology Horrorscope: A Zodiac Anthology Volumes 3 and 4 and a short story featured in L. Stephenson’s Violent Advents: A Christmas Horror Anthology coming out next week. 
   
2. What writing projects are you currently working on? 
   Right now I am working on a reflective short story about parallel realities—a sci-fi horror short. I love that reflective can be an aspect of horror. Most horror stories delve into the realms of the human circumstance and pull out that which we tend to suppress, and it does it with lots of gore and blood. Beautiful.
   
3. Are you a daytime writer, a mid-day writer, a nighttime writer, or just someone who writes when the mood hits you?
   I am a true pantser and write when the mood hits. When I first started writing, many, many moons ago, I wrote every day, all the time. The pen was fused to my hand—a welcomed addiction. I wrote tons of poetry and short stories… Then A.K. (after the kids came), I had to find the time, and with four babies in diapers, I rarely had it. Now that my kids are all grown, I write whenever I am compelled to write. 
   
4. Do you have a writing “Bucket List” (goals you want to accomplish as a writer)?
   No, I really don’t have a “Bucket List” only because I like to write without constraints. I find that if I put a goal, or any kind of expectation on my writing, I tend to stress too much and it doesn’t have the same voice, or cadence that I love to create.
   
5. Who is your favorite author and why?
   I love many authors for many different reasons. I love Charles Bukowski for his unapologetic poetry; Stephen King, well he truly found the eternal spring of stories and tells them so intricately well. I love the beat writers for introducing me to the rhythm of writing poetry without rhyming. Pablo Coelho’s novels for they are fables rich in meaning and moral lessons; NK Jemisin’s unmatched voice and Maya Angelou’s wisdom. Dean Koontz is one of my favorite writers because while his writing isn’t poetry, he writes horror in that lane; I admire Toni Morrison for revealing the ancestral wounds of my people and I have an awe induced love for the Dyachenko’s because of the creativity they have dipped into with their books. And of course there are so many indie authors and non-fiction authors I love as well.
   
6. How many books do you read in a month? What are your favorite genres?
   So, truth be told, I am not a fast reader. I tend to marinate in the author’s voice and style and story-telling, so I get lost in the books I read and it takes me awhile to find my way out, so to speak. With that said, I’d say maybe two a month—especially if the book has any kind of world building. Now it’s a different story with poetry books. Those I can read much faster. Even though I tend to marinate in each stanza, I will and can read at least four or five poetry books a month.  My favorite genre(s) are poetry, dark fiction/thrillers, horror, sci-fi fantasy and mysteries.
   
7. What was the first horror movie you ever saw?
   My first memorable horror films were Psycho and The Birds. Both because I can’t remember which one I saw first. But I remember watching those and THEM when I was very little. I grew up on horror movies. My parents would take me and my siblings to the Grindhouse double features to watch movies like Zombi, The Exorcist, Night of the Living Dead, etc. Probably a reason I live for B-rated gems like,The Children, Mother’s Day, It’s Alive, and most Tromaville Movies.
   
8. What is your favorite horror movie?
   My favorite horror movie is another hard ask. I love horror movies for different reasons. I love psychological horror more so than jump scares. Psycho, Rosemary’s Baby, Altered States, Candy Man, Suspiria (old and new), Hereditary, Get Out and It Follows. I love all of Dario Argento films. I love ground breaking horror films like Evil Dead, The Blair Witch Project, Alien, The Thing, Mother, Old Boy (Park Chan-wook) and Silence of The Lambs. Oh, and the Smile franchise has won me over. I think Parker Finn is an amazing script writer, definitely one to watch. 
   
9. What is the worst horror movie you have ever seen? 
   I’d have to say Swamp Women by Roger Corman is one of those campy, old and terribly bad films that I love to hate. Runner-ups would be the It’s Alive movies and Toxic Avenger which are bad, but good fun. 
   
10. What advice would you give to someone who wants to be a writer? Don’t think about it, just do it. Write. Write. Write. Give in to your surrealistic passion, you magnificent creator of worlds. It’s the only way to live a truly authentic existence.