Interview: Discussing the Horrors of SOMETIMES I SCARE MYSELF with Author Jeneva Rose

"Not all nightmares come from sleep. Some come from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jeneva Rose. This deluxe hardcover edition of her new horror collection features tarot—card sprayed edges and hauntingly gorgeous endpapers."

With her new horror collection, Sometimes I Scare Myself, set for release on September 22nd, I caught up with Jeneva Rose to discuss the inspirations behind her new scary stories, her horror influences, and much more:

What inspired you to take on your first pure horror novel with Sometimes I Scare Myself?

Jeneva Rose: Horror has always been one of my favorite genres, so Sometimes I Scare Myself felt like I was finally giving that side of my imagination a place on the page. I’m constantly coming up with dark, strange ideas that might not have enough legs for an entire novel but are too much fun to ignore, and this collection gave me the perfect place to explore them. It was also a chance to write in ways I don’t always get to with my thrillers—to get weirder, darker, funnier, gorier, and for the first time, supernatural. 

How did your love for horror movies and books shape the concepts behind these three stories?

Jeneva Rose: I’ve consumed so much horror that I know the tropes pretty well, and with this collection, I wanted to take some of those familiar setups and flip them on their heads. Never Kill the Medium leans into horror comedy, where the supernatural threat isn’t necessarily the scariest part—it’s how people respond to it. The Nightmare House explores postpartum anxiety while tapping into haunted-house horror and the idea that the place you’re supposed to feel safest can become the thing you fear most. And All Curses Are Final plays with the rules of a curse and the helplessness of knowing exactly what’s coming but being powerless to stop it. I wanted each story to feel familiar enough that you think you know where it’s headed, only to take you somewhere you weren’t expecting. 

What early horror movie and/or novel made the biggest impact on you?

Jeneva Rose: For books, it was Lois Duncan. I devoured everything she wrote when I was young and was hooked on that feeling of being unsettled while also needing to know what happened next. I can draw a pretty straight line from those books to the stories I write today.

For movies, A Nightmare on Elm Street made a huge impression on me. Freddy Krueger terrified me, but I was also fascinated by the concept. The idea that the one thing you absolutely have to do—sleep—is the thing that makes you vulnerable to his terror. It’s so simple, yet so brilliant. I think that combination of a great hook and genuine fear has stayed with me ever since.

Do you have a preferred horror subgenre that you love reading or watching the most?

Jeneva Rose: I’m more like a hungry hungry hippo when it comes to horror (can you tell I recently watched the movie Hungry?). Slashers, supernatural, haunted houses, curses, psychological, horror comedy—I’ll take all of it. I’m less loyal to a particular subgenre than I am to a great premise. If you give me a concept that makes me think, “Oh, that’s so messed up and so brilliant,” I’m probably in.

I do have a soft spot for horror comedy, though. There’s something so fun about laughing one minute and being terrified the next. Send Help, Abigail, Shaun of the Dead, The Cabin in the Woods, and Tucker & Dale vs. Evil are perfect examples of that balance for me.

Who are the horror creators or artists you admire most?

Jeneva Rose: There are so many. Wes Craven and Sam Raimi are legends for a reason. James Wan has created some of the most memorable horror franchises, and I’m a huge fan of Mike Flanagan and the way he can create something both terrifying and heartbreaking at the same time.

Then there are filmmakers like Zach Cregger, Parker Finn, Danny and Michael Philippou, Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett who keep finding new ways to surprise audiences in a genre where we think we’ve seen everything. I’m also really excited by Curry Barker and how creators like him are finding their own paths into the genre.

Can you tease "Never Kill the Medium" and discuss any research you may have done into séances and the occult? Ever taken part in a séance before?

Jeneva Rose: Never Kill the Medium follows a group of friends who hire a medium for a séance during a birthday dinner, and it goes horribly (and very bloodily) wrong. I’ve never participated in a traditional séance, but I did have a reading with a medium at a friend’s bachelorette party after the male strip show was canceled due to low ticket sales. I was extremely skeptical until he started telling me things he had no obvious way of knowing. He knew I’d recently moved, that I’d lost my mom at a young age, and even that I was pregnant when I was only a few months along and not showing. 

"The Nightmare House" deals with postpartum anxiety alongside the house's dark history. How did you balance real-world psychological struggles with the supernatural?

Jeneva Rose: The Nightmare House was the first story I wrote after having my son. I started the collection when I was around nine weeks postpartum, and I was dealing with postpartum anxiety myself, so that part of the story came from a very real place. Those early weeks can already make you question your instincts—what’s normal, what’s anxiety, what’s actually worth being afraid of. I wanted the supernatural elements to heighten that uncertainty rather than overshadow it. The horror comes from knowing something is wrong while having every reason to doubt yourself.

For "All Curses Are Final," what inspired the cabin and the mechanic of a curse being lifted only at the time of sale?

Jeneva Rose: The idea came to me while I was watching Oddity. There was a sign in the background of the oddities shop that essentially said the items were cursed until point of sale. It was just set dressing and had nothing to do with the plot, but I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I thought, what if that was the whole story? From there, I imagined a cursed item ending up in someone’s bag without ever being purchased—and therefore never having its curse lifted. That tiny background detail was all it took for the rest of All Curses Are Final to start taking shape.

Any other teases for our readers of the terrors that await them in Sometimes I Scare Myself?

Jeneva Rose: Expect séances that take a deadly turn, a house that may or may not be trying to drive its newest resident insane, cursed objects, terrible decisions, dark humor, and plenty of blood. The only thing they all have in common is that once things start going wrong, they go very wrong. Hopefully readers laugh, squirm, lose a little sleep—and maybe scare themselves, too.

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Not all nightmares come from sleep. Some come from #1 New York Times bestselling author Jeneva Rose.

Three horror stories.

A dinner party. A quiet house. A roadside stop.

You’ll recognize the setup.

You won’t recognize what comes next.

Never Kill the Medium

A thirtieth birthday dinner turns deadly after someone hires a medium for a playful séance. When the ritual spirals out of control and the medium dies, the guests cover it up—unaware that leaving the séance unfinished has allowed something dark to cross over.

The Nightmare House

The Dalton family moves into what they believe is their forever home, in the quiet town of Tillington—until the house whispers, the neighbors watch, and no one believes the one person who knows something is wrong. Newly postpartum, Kristin Dalton soon uncovers a horrifying truth: Every family who has lived in this house has died or disappeared.

All Curses Are Final

On the way to a remote winter cabin, a group of friends stops at a roadside store with a hand-painted warning: “All items cursed. Curse lifted at time of sale.” They laugh it off—until one of them discovers an item in her bag she never paid for. As a storm traps them inside the cabin and bodies start to pile up, paranoia takes hold and suspicion turns inward.

Learn more about Jeneva Rose and Sometimes I Scare Myself at: https://www.jenevarose.com/sometimes-i-scare-myself