One thing you have to know about Christopher O’Halloran, author of the upcoming debut novel Pushing Daisy, is that he is a good guy. Not just a nice guy; he’s a thoughtful, affable person, optimistic, friendly — you get the picture. I mean, look at him; he even has a kind face. Which is why it’s hard to see how he wrote such an effective asshole, the protagonist of We caught up with O’Halloran last week to discuss Pushing Daisy, and his jerk of a protagonist, Roger Darling.
A CANADIAN WRITER OF HORROR
Christopher Roman O’Halloran lives in Abbotsford, British Columbia, a small dairy production town outside of Vancouver. So, he’s Canadian, and certainly lives up to the niceness stereotype. He says his home doesn’t have much of a horror scene, but it does tend to be socially conservative, which can be scary in its own way. He works at the local dairy factory, which among friends has earned him the moniker “Milkman.”
He grew up watching the Disney Channel, but was still drawn to horror. “We are drawn to the creepy,” he says, reflecting on how his own son — 5 years old — was enrapt watching him play the virtual reality game, Five Nights at Freddy’s. “It’s in our DNA.” He told me about two horror movies he remembers watching as a kid: Friday the 13th Part VIII: Jason Takes Manhattan, and Freddy vs Jason. “I probably watched them too young.” The rooftop boxing scene in Jason Takes Manhattan was seared into his brain.
Being Gen X myself, I agree, that a lot of horror-enthusiasts watch horror films “too young.” It’s a defining aspect of my generation. “I’m not Gen X,” O’Halloran reminds me at one point in the interview. If you watch the video, you might see me die a little on the inside. I was afraid to ask what generation he was, because if it turned out he was Gen Z, I may have visibly withered.
O’Halloran is drawn to horror because of the “tremendous stakes” the genre provides. Which makes sense; it’s not just life or death, it’s a deeper, darker, supernatural set of stakes, which can border on the cosmic.
When asked whether he’s a horror-enthusiast first, or a writer first, he says he’s a writer first. Even though he mostly writes horror, he would not classify himself as a “horror writer.” Why not? “Cowardice,” he says, laughing. “But it’s the closest you’re going to get.”
Despite his coynesss, he has a legitimate foothold in the horror genre, with dozens of published stories in publications like Cosmic Horror Monthly, The No Sleep Podcast, Tales to Terrify, Uncharted Magazine, Dark Matter Ink and The Dread Machine (RIP). His horror is in the collections Bloodlines, Four Tales of Familiar Fear, AHH! That’s What I Call Horror, Pentacles: The Year of Tarot, Welcome to Your Body and The Earth Bleeds at Night.
He’s also published in some HOWL collections, like HOWLS from Hell, HOWLS from the Dark Ages and HOWLS from the Scene of the Crime. He edited HOWLS from the Wreckage. If he’s not a horror author, I’m not sure who exactly should be considered one.
We spent a lot of time talking about how to introduce horror to kids. He has two boys, the oldest is five. I have two girls, the oldest is twelve. He wanted to know how I managed to get my kids comfortable with horror. My advice is generally to gauge their ability to tolerate suspense, monsters and gore, which can all be explored without actually watching a horror movie. Also, it’s better to start with horror books; In a Dark Dark Room by Alvin Shwartz (author of Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark) is a great place to start for any child.
I did brag that my twelve-year old is interested in the classics, so we’ve watched Halloween and A Nightmare on Elm Street so far (the originals, of course). And my eleven-year old won’t watch scary films, but has read Horror or Weenies by Emily C. Hughes, so she probably knows more about the classics than I do.
As a father of small children, though, O’Halloran doesn’t have much time to watch scary movies. He spends more time playing virtual reality scary games, like Five Nights at Freddy’s, Ghosts of Tabor, and Phasmophobia. VR games bring the scary to a whole new level, he says. “Pant-shittingly scary!” But playing with friends, of course, eases the tension. As part of his promotion of the book, O’Halloran has been playing with other horror gamers, like Jolie Toomajan and Timaeus Bloom.
He also reads a lot. On the job at the milk factory, he listens to audiobooks. Recently, he loves the book Five Little Indians, the debut novel by Canadian indigenous author Michelle Good. And if there’s any single author he’d like to recommend, it’s Tananarive Due. Not just her recent book The Reformatory, but also African Immortals series. While reading the first book in the series, My Soul to Keep, he felt emotionally wrecked. “It just broke me,” he said.
Fun fact: O’Halloran is not a fan of the thumb-up emoji. He sees it as a passive aggressive, dismissive emoji. And he would never be dismissive.
HAUNTED HOUSES
Pushing Daisy follows Roger Darling as he deals with the death of his wife, who, from beyond the grave, haunts his house. O’Halloran is interested in how you would haunt a non-traditional space, like a townhouse, which has a lot of shared space and shared walls. “Not like the typical Victorian mansion.” In the book, O’Halloran definitely proves that a condo can ooze creepiness just as effectively.
He was inspired by a visit to his in-laws’ house, what he describes as an old, old house with basement. “It just feels off,” he says, eyes widened. He recounts his brother-in-law describing the spirit of a woman sitting in the corner. “Don’t look at her,” O’Halloran told him. “She wants you to look at her. Don’t look!”
O’Halloran recalls visiting other haunted sites, including the Whaley House in San Diego. While at StokerCon last year, he and a group of friends took ghost tour of the city, and while in the Whaley House, video showed him being assaulted by what he described as “orbs of light,” leaving him with an ache in his knee. Luckily, a kind friend was there to exorcise the ghost using an obsidian stone.
UNLIKEABLE PROTAGONISTS
Roger Darling is an asshole. One of the least likable characters I’ve read in a while, but he’s still quite compelling. O’Halloran admits he really wanted to explore what makes someone an asshole. “Curmudgeons” is a nice way for him to put it; people who have “eccentricities” or are “brisk.” “There is a reason why people are mean,” he suggests. Trauma? Shyness? These are things he eagerly explores in his book.
Daisy Darling, his dead wife, was nice — maybe too nice. And Roger’s new friend, Mei, the young woman managing the townhouse complex, is also a little too free with her kindness. They serve as foils to Roger Darling. Perhaps these dynamics are what you need to bust a ghost these days. “There’s a middle ground,” O’Halloran explains, who admits that he’s a little more like Roger than it appears. Both, for instance, play the guitar.
What does the author think the theme of Pushing Daisy is? “You can choose kindness,” he says. Amen to that, Mr. O’Halloran. Even in the face of poltergeists, of blood, of viscerally horrific images; even in the face of horror. One can choose kindness.
You can watch the full interview below:
Pushing Daisy will be released on May 15, 2025, from Lethe Press. You can pre-order it now from any place where books are sold. If you read it, please review it on Goodreads.
Author’s Note: It occurred to me that Christopher O’Halloran is the “president” of the HOWL Society, and honestly I don’t know what that means. The idea that we have a leader seems comical to me. But, if anybody was going to be the HOWLS face to the world, we couldn’t do better than him. Since I don’t get paid, and he can’t tell me what to do, I don’t see any particular conflict of interest.
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Peter Ong Cook
Peter Ong Cook has published stories in 2 HOWLS anthologies so far: HOWLS from the Dark Ages and HOWLS from the Scene of the Crime. His short fiction can also be found in Cosmic Horror Monthly and the anthology Trouble In Paradise. His husky resembles a wolf, the wolf featured in the HOWLS logo, but receives no royalties. The husky would just spend it on the dog-equivalent of booze.
