Between_Pages is our grand winner of the Creature of the Week challenge! Last August was the launch of the new event on our message board, alongside Paranormal Debate, and what a winner to have as our first! They're a writer of both paranormal and romance, and here they are to share some wonderful insight ♥
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What draws you to the paranormal genre?
I love the moment when something completely ordinary becomes slightly wrong. For me, paranormal stories are not only about ghosts or creatures; they are about uncertainty. I'm especially interested in what happens psychologically when a character realizes that the rules they believed in no longer apply. I also love that paranormal fiction lets us explore folklore, fear, grief and memory in ways realistic fiction sometimes can't.
Which entry of yours was your favourite and why? It can be a response to either the Paranormal Debate or a Creature of the Week.
It's difficult to choose between Chudail and Banshee. Chudail is special to me because the idea almost immediately grew beyond the original prompt and turned into a full story. It was one of those moments when the story seemed to develop on its own.
Banshee was completely different. My drabble continued what Thomaden and Praiseengland had written before me, so I was building on the direction their entries had already taken and seeing where our combined ideas could lead. I really enjoyed that collaborative feeling. In fact, it inspired me enough that now I want to develop the Banshee idea into a full story too.
What paranormal topics or creatures interest you the most?
Folklore from different cultures fascinates me most, especially creatures whose stories have changed over generations. I'm drawn to ghosts, spirits and entities that aren't simply "good" or "evil." I like supernatural beings that leave room for interpretation — something frightening, but with a history, tragedy or motive behind it.
Which supernatural creature would you most want to meet in real life, and why?
Probably a kitsune — although preferably one that isn't planning to trick or kill me! I love the idea of a supernatural creature that can be intelligent, dangerous, playful and impossible to fully understand. I would probably spend the entire meeting asking questions instead of running away.
What was the first paranormal story you read or watched, and has it had any impact on you?
I honestly don't remember the very first one. It may have been Edgar Allan Poe or Nikolai Gogol. I remember liking Gogol even when people around me — my classmates and even my parents — weren't always sure what to make of him. Something about the strange mixture of reality, absurdity and the supernatural fascinated me.
Later, Stephen King became my favourite paranormal writer. I also became very fond of Michael Crichton, although I know he is usually considered a science-fiction and techno-thriller writer rather than a paranormal one. I think both influenced what I enjoy now: stories where something impossible enters an otherwise believable world, and you keep wondering where reality ends and something else begins.
What paranormal trope do you secretly love?
The moment when a character realizes, "This isn't possible." I love stories where strange things begin very subtly — a sound that shouldn't be there, an object that moved, someone appearing where they couldn't possibly be — and the character keeps finding rational explanations until there are none left.
How seriously do you take the existing lore of a creature when reading/writing a story?
Very seriously — but I don't think lore should become a cage. If I use a creature from a real culture or tradition, I want to research where the legend comes from and understand its important characteristics first. After that, I think a writer can interpret it and build a new story around it, as long as the original folklore is treated with respect.
Do you believe in real-life paranormal experiences?
I'm somewhere between sceptical and curious. I usually look for a rational explanation first, but I also think there are experiences people genuinely cannot explain. And perhaps that space between "there must be an explanation" and "but what if there isn't?" is exactly why I enjoy paranormal fiction so much.
What's a fact about you that might surprise others?
My professional background is in occupational health and safety, and I also work in research and consulting. So a large part of my real life is about evidence, regulations, risk assessment and finding logical explanations — while in my fiction I apparently enjoy creating situations where logic completely fails. 😄
What are some Wattpad authors or books in the genre that you enjoy?
I'm still discovering paranormal writers on Wattpad, so my reading list is growing rather than fixed. One of the things I enjoy about Wattpad is finding writers I probably wouldn't have encountered otherwise, especially through community activities like this one. So recommendations are always very welcome! I tend to enjoy stories that mix paranormal elements with other genres rather than being purely paranormal.
One I've enjoyed is See You On Wednesday by B-Adore. I see it more as psychological horror/mystery than a traditional paranormal story, but the supernatural elements that emerge through Grace's grief make it especially interesting to me. I also really enjoyed A Broken Record That Keeps Playing, which is primarily a romance but has elements of a paranormal world woven into it. I think that mixture is actually what attracts me most — when the supernatural isn't the whole story, but changes the characters' reality in unexpected ways.
I also have to mention rumpapotter's participation in the community activities — it's amazing. I genuinely enjoy reading their prompts and drabbles, and their entries are often among the ones I look forward to reading.
If you're a writer, do you have any current or upcoming projects you want to share?
Yes! I'm currently working on several very different projects. One is a collection of paranormal short stories inspired by creatures and folklore from different cultures. I'm also developing The Department of Unfinished Deaths, a speculative horror story about an abandoned hospital wing and an experiment that discovered something it was never supposed to reach. And I'm working on a fantasy novel about Naomi, a young woman who enters what she believes is a historical RPG — only to discover that it is no longer a game.
Congratulations again, and thank you so much for the interview, Between_Pages! We look forward to all your future projects :)
