Boo Rhodes is a horror author. (And yes, that’s her real name.) Boo Rhodes is also host of a horror podcast called “Scary Story Time”. I had the opportunity to interview her just as she was making major changes to her horror podcast.

 

Tamara Wilhite: How did you end up starting a horror story podcast?

Boo Rhodes: I’m going to give you the brutal, honest truth. Before I started the podcast I had never been published before and I was terrified of sending stories to magazines and publishers. In the past, I worked as a technical writer at a computer company and had worked on a few books as a freelance technical editor for a small publisher. Computers were never my passion even though technology comes easily to me. I’ve been reading and watching horror since I was a young child and I figured that I might as well begin writing about something I loved. The podcast was my way of breaking into the market without the waiting game.

 

Tamara Wilhite: Are all of the stories in your podcast your own? Do you ever narrate anyone else’s work?

Boo Rhodes: In the beginning, I combined creepypasta and scary stories from Reddit with my own stories because finding the time to write with a full-time business and kids is really hard to do and high frequency of releases is better for a podcast. My youngest is now in college so I have more time to write on my own given time away from my primary business of web development and hosting. I separated the two podcasts and I do still update the Creepypasta and Scary Stories podcast almost daily, but as time evolves my primary focus will be my own stories on Scary Story Time.

 

Tamara Wilhite: Do you do horror novel reviews or movie reviews in your podcast?

Boo Rhodes: I thought about doing that for some time, but I found it difficult to critique the artwork of another person. I will give a thumbs up on a video or let someone know I really enjoyed a story, but I rarely give a bad review. I don’t even give a thumbs down on a video or a bad review on Apple podcasts if I don’t like a story. Unless someone comes to me for personal advice it isn’t really my place to critique another person and to do it in public only to humiliate someone isn’t my game.

 

Tamara Wilhite: Are you earning a living from your horror writing and narrating? If not, what else do you do?

Boo Rhodes: Not quite yet. I have a primary business with web hosting and design where I do maintenance and support on websites as well as sell web hosting space.  With updates in technology, it’s getting difficult to make money in such a market. One day I hope to sell that business where I only write and podcast full time.

 

Tamara Wilhite: You’re the author of “Scary Story Time, Volume I”. I believe you contributed to “Days of the Dead Presents Nevada Necromance”. Where else have you had short stories published?

Boo Rhodes: I’ve never had any other short horror stories published. I’m beginning to get over my fears and branch out. I recently sent one to a popular horror podcast and I have started to look up horror magazines and publishers for submission queries. The difficult part is deciding to give the rights away to a story instead of putting it on the podcast. A few markets allow me to do both, but most shy away from new reprints. I was quite honored to be included in the “Days of the Dead Nevada Necromance” as my first official published anthology piece. I hope to find more markets like this soon.

 

Tamara Wilhite: What are the biggest influences on your work?

Boo Rhodes: I believe the biggest influence in writing is being a reader of Stephen King for as long as I can remember. My first story was Carrie at a young age and then followed with Salem’s Lot. I was fascinated by the way he can just go from one type of horror novel to another. The fight between good and evil is my favorite topic and I owe that one to the book of Revelations in the Bible. The Apocalypse really is a horror story in itself. The church I belonged to as a young teen would show crazy dystopian movies to the congregation. Instead of being scared, I found a new type of horror movie to love. The biggest influence for me, however, was watching “Creature Features with Bob Wilkins” when I was a little kid. My oldest brother would sneak up with me on Saturday nights and we would watch movies from Dracula to Night of the Living Dead. I was 6 the first time I watched the latter and fascinated by the movie.

 

Tamara Wilhite: And what do you do for fun?

Boo Rhodes: Writing is my fun when I’m away from the other business. I also enjoy riding horses and ice skating yet have no time to do either. I enjoy playing the piano and spending time with my family. The current Covid-19 pandemic is a horror story in itself and has made it difficult to do anything fun outside the home. Oddly enough, I recently have decided that sawing the trees down and doing the landscaping in my backyard as outside fun for now. I do enjoy taking pictures of random oddities, bugs, birds, and nature using my iPhone.

 

Tamara Wilhite: You combined your Creepypasta Scary Stories with the Scary Story Time content into a single channel recently. What else are you currently working on?

Boo Rhodes: I actually separated the podcast into two different ones because people were getting confused as to which stories were written by me. I also have two other podcasts that I plan to work on in the future when time allows. Creepy True Scary Stories is where people can send in their stories for me to read and Midnight Monsters is the other which will become a weekly paranormal and conspiracy theory podcast. I used to listen to Art Bell on Coast to Coast AM and the topics fascinated me. I’m personally not a conspiracy theorist, but connecting the dots on the theories people come up with is a crazy hobby that I love doing. The ideas they come up with are truly amazing.

 

Tamara Wilhite: What would you like to add?

Boo Rhodes: I’d like to tell others who are interested in writing to just start. I hear from people who tell me they want to write something so badly but feel they aren’t good enough or they don’t have the time. I even get offers to ghostwrite other people’s stories, which I will not do. I think if people just take an hour or two out of their day where they can have complete silence to just start writing or typing then anyone can create a masterpiece of their own. Even if English wasn’t their best subject in school there are tools out there that can help them and writing groups filled with people eager to help and not judge. Just do it.

 

Tamara Wilhite: Thank you for speaking with me.

Boo Rhodes: You’re welcome, and thank you for the interview. I really appreciate the time you’re taking to do this. I quite enjoyed it.