GET YOUR HEARTS HAUNTED TODAY
Lucas Mangum, author of many wonderful horror books, has finally become a ghoul with today's release of his latest novella: Haunted Hearts. This is a cozy coming-of-age Halloween novella with emo vibes. Over on Goodreads, people have been losing their minds about it all month, and for good reason.
Here is what Lucas Mangum had to say about the book's publication:
I wrote the first draft of Haunted Hearts in the middle of the pandemic, when the isolation had become too much, even for an introvert like me. I channeled a younger - perhaps more social - version of myself. It's grown a lot since its early incarnation. I worked on it on and off over the last four years, and it went through two editors (including Max, who ultimately published it).
This book is a nightmare - but it's also, as early readers have pointed out, a cozy read. It's a story of toxic relationships, of creativity, of ghosts and monsters, and of the joyful melancholy of Halloween.
Today is the day, friends. Find Haunted Hearts in all the book places.
For Moon Boy, adulthood is coming no matter what. Even if he spends most nights drinking forties in the cemetery with his band, even if he drops out of community college to pursue multiple women for different reasons, and even if he can still see the ghost house rise from the quarry at midnight, he can’t stop the inevitable. When his sister goes missing on opening night at Kip Creeker’s Trail of Terror, Moon Boy’s already overcomplicated life takes a frightening turn, and his grasp on reality starts to slip.
Haunted Hearts is a coming-of-age horror tale about those who fight growing up and the ghosts that haunt them.
Still curious to learn more about the book before hitting that ORDER button? Do not fear. We have a handy little trope graphic for you below:
If you aren't sold by now, there's no saving your soul.
Purchase Haunted Hearts
Webstore | Bookshop.org | B&N | Amazon
Want to hear more about the book? Scroll below for an exclusive GHOULGAB interview with the author and our publicity ghoul Mindy Rose...
mindy: welcome to the interview! my last interview was max a couple of days ago and i am going to try to not bring any of that rancid deranged energy into this
Lucas: 😂
Lucas: Be as rancid or deranged as you'd like. We're all mad here.
mindy: lmao
mindy: okay lemme lean into this uhh
mindy: if i tell you to imagine something grotesque and vile what pops into your head?
Lucas: The other night, a possum walked up to my garage door, took a shit right next to it, and ran away. I think this creature and I are enemies now.
mindy: first of all if you are enemies with a possum i cannot be your friend
mindy: secondly this is a fascinatingly tame answer
Lucas: Well, yeah, I was going to describe the contents of my daughter's diaper this morning, but I didn't want her finding this interview when she's older and being like, "ugh, dad!" Oops.
Lucas: I have nothing against possums, but I'm not sure how else to interpret this one's communication style.
mindy: i think probably there was no motive other than the possum was suddenly taken by the urge to shit
Lucas: You're right. Once could mean nothing.
mindy: but if he keeps coming back and shitting in front of you then we should examine whether he has a grudge
mindy: or was perhaps sent there by someone who does
Lucas: I considered that. There's probably a story in there somewhere with it being spooky season and all.
mindy: please keep me updated if he returns
Lucas: I absolutely will.
mindy: the thought of someone holding a grudge but they're only mad enough to ask their possum friend to poop in your yard repeatedly is very quaint
Lucas: True, unless it escalates somehow. More possums, more droppings, giant possum, giant turd, etc.
Lucas: I do like the idea of a quaint curse, though.
mindy: right? it has a certain charm
mindy: actually that's a great lead-in for my next question
Lucas: The Murder She Wrote of curses or something
mindy: a lot of reviewers have called haunted hearts cozy horror, do you feel that's accurate, do you vibe with that term etc?
Lucas: Yeah, I was definitely taken aback at first, partly because I had left Twitter before the whole thing around that term happened, so I wasn't entirely sure what it meant. I asked my partner what she thought or if it sounded too off-brand for someone like me who came from the splatterpunk world. She said, "You put on horror movies to fall asleep. I think it's plenty on-brand."
Lucas: Plus, I knew Haunted Hearts was different from most of my other stuff, so it was easy to make peace with that term - especially since it was being used in a positive light by these reviewers
mindy: yeah i think people tend to get very caught up in what their own personal definition of a term like that is rather than what is the intention of the person that's actually using it
mindy: i can think of several authors off the top of my head who i know would throw an absolute fit over someone using that to describe any of their work rather than focusing on the fact that it was being used in a positive light
Lucas: Writers can be a defensive lot, and I'm sure I have my moments, but I dunno. I know I write horror, but beyond that, I try to leave the subgenre labels to the readers.
mindy: i think that's probably pretty healthy
mindy: i think readers can definitely focus too much on labels too instead of just the brass tacks of "this is what i liked about the book"
mindy: which as a reader is what i prefer to hear about from other readers? how do you feel about reviews in general from the author side of it?
Lucas: I try not to read them, but that all goes out the window when I'm promoting a new title because that's when I need to post more often, and I don’t want to just be like, "hey, buy my book," every post. I do try to use those filters, so I don't run across anything negative. I don't mind feedback, of course, but it's one thing to get notes from an editor like Max or constructive criticism from a pre reader, and something completely different to read some stranger picking apart something you pumped your heart and soul into.
mindy: 100%
mindy: i had a situation recently where someone tagged one of my author pals in a negative review and said that authors should be "grateful for constructive criticism" and it blew my mind so i hope that's not something you run into often
Lucas: At that point, it crosses over into unsolicited advice, right?
Lucas: That's the best case scenario. Worst case, it could be something incredibly cruel.
mindy: agreed!
mindy: max said i should ask how it feels to be a tiktok celebrity
Lucas: Hahaha, I wouldn't know, but I have had some nice successes recently thanks to that platform. I'm still not totally comfortable with it yet, as talking on camera is a bit of a challenge for me, but I've started making videos on Clipchamp and reading over stock horror footage, and I tend to enjoy that much more. I guess I'm still figuring out what works.
Lucas: There are some great folks on there, though, and they are hungry for what we do. For someone who's been at this for 12 years, it's a relief knowing these readers are out there.
mindy: what's your relationship with 'coming of age' type horror and what made you go in that direction with this book?
Lucas: I think growing up when I did when there were all these movies like Monster Squad, Goonies, and later Small Soldiers - then reading Stephen King's It at 15 - it was inevitable that I'd hold a soft spot for those types of stories. So, I always wanted to write one myself. What I did differently was in the ages of my characters. There are so many (great) coming of age books with 10-12 year olds, but what about late high school, early college age kids? I think a lot of us never mentally move past that age, or if we do, it happens much later. So, with Haunted Hearts, I hoped to maybe shed some light on why that might be.
mindy: yeah absolutely, i know i definitely feel like i haven't moved past the age of 17 so that's a really cool way to come at that concept
mindy: have you ever been part of a diy haunted house attraction or is that just a general area of interest for you?
Lucas: It's something I always wanted to do, but I've never been part of one personally. A lot of my friends have, though, so I was able to internalize a lot from them. It's a fascinating world, somewhere between drama club and a sideshow, with a lot of camaraderie, a sense of having gone through something with your peers at the end of every October.
mindy: okay well that makes it sound amazing
mindy: is there anything about the book itself or the writing process that stands out that you'd like readers/potential readers to know?
Lucas: Yeah, this was a damn difficult book to write. Every book has its challenges, but this one was unique in that it took almost four years working on and off and considerably more rewrites than I normally do. There were times it went unopened on the hard drive for months because I thought I was done with it, but I kept going back.
Lucas: I'd do it all again because I care about this story. Its characters haunt me, much like they haunt each other.
mindy: well shit, that's very sweet
mindy: i actually think maybe that's where we end this
Lucas: ❤️
Purchase Haunted Hearts
Webstore | Bookshop.org | B&N | Amazon
Lucas Mangum is a Splatterpunk Award-winning author of Snow Angels, Saint Sadist, Pandemonium (with Ryan Harding), and Gods of the Dark Web. San Diego-born and Philly-raised, he now lives in Austin with his family. For more info, head to LMHorror.com.