Interview with P.L. McMillan
community, space/cosmic horror, deepest fears
P.L. McMillan is my hero! She’s bold, hosting her own YouTube series of author interviews called PLM Talks, co-hosting Dead Languages Podcast, and hosting book releases, including my book release for The Cellar Below the Cellar (for which I was rather nervous)! And she is a visual artist, and she has a disturbing merch shop, and I can’t believe she balances so many projects! There are more I haven’t even named. But above all this, she writes rich and lovely horror and gothic tales. Among her other projects, I’m a fan of her novella Sisters of the Crimson Vine, folk horror about a very strange convent. And now she’s released a collection of short stories called Whims of the Night Winds, and she was kind enough to answer some of my questions about it. Here we go!
What’s been your journey as a writer? How did you get here?
Through much suffering and rending of the hair!
As with most people, I started writing really young. I was obsessed with R.L. Stine and aspired to be him so I wrote a lot of short horror stories in elementary school, illustrating them with many red pencil crayons, and resulting in a stern call to my mom from the school.
It wasn’t until I was in my mid-20s that I decided to start trying to get published. And really, it’s been a bumpy journey that I wouldn’t change for the world. Writing can be such a grueling gauntlet but all of it served to help me grow and improve my craft. And I’m still learning. Still growing. Still challenging myself.
Some highlights have definitely been finding online communities on Discord that have allowed me to maintain friendships with other writers, attending cons to talk shop and just having a blast, and finally finishing my first novel and querying for agents.
So honestly, I got here through suffering and rending of hair. Just kidding, I treasure my hair.
Did you enjoy writing your novel more, or do you prefer writing short stories? What themes do you find yourself returning to?
Oh jeez, Ivy haha. This is such a triggering questions, as I procrastinate my next long form project.
Switching to long form has been such a trial. Short fiction is so easy to me now, compared to long form. It took me a couple years to finalize my novel, ugh. And now I probably need to write another one? Gross. I will write another one though. One: because through practice, things become easier. Two: Carson Winter (Fellow cohost of the Dead Languages Podcast) would never let me live it down if I didn’t.
As for themes: I love a good femme protagonist with anxiety and self-doubt. I often explore identity, toxic friendships, torturous family dynamics, and the feeling of never being good enough.
Also space. All horror, all the galaxies. That’s not really a theme, I know. Don’t look at me like that, Ivy, I can answer however I like!
It’s true! Which authors and genres have provided the most inspiration to you?
I grew up reading a lot of Lovecraft, King, and a lot of classics. Many people wouldn’t know but The Count of Monte Cristo is my favourite novel. I’ve read it maybe thirty times now? As such, I started reading a lot of older horror as well – Blackwood, Jackson, Poe, M.R. James, Gilman, Stoker, Shelley. I loved the feeling of older, dusty shadows, of worlds of uncertainty and fear, of despair and fear.
Of course, I cannot fail to mention R.L. Stine, from whom I took inspiration for my penname: P.L. McMillan. I had all his Goosebumps and Fear Street books. He was the one who kicked everything off. I loved the worlds he created, the suffocating world of the Fear Street lore.
You do a lot of work in the writing community to get the word out about indie books, from hosting book releases, as well as The Dead Languages Podcast hosted with Carson Winter, and your YouTube channel PLM Talks. What have you gained from your conversations with other writers?
I love learning about how other authors craft their fiction, where they gain inspirations (like those legends of Baba Yaga you shared!), and what struggles they have faced. It makes writing feel less alone to know there are others sharing in the pain! Haha. But also the joy.
I started doing launch parties for friends mainly and slowly it expanded to a larger audience. It’s something I love doing because these authors truly deserve their moment of recognition after all the hard work they’ve done bringing their vision to life.
As for the podcast, I feel like I have learned so much just from the conversations Carson Winter and I tackle. He and I have such different views on the craft and genre so I am always learning and growing. I really admire how seriously he takes honing his craft and pushing himself to new challenges and I truly believe he’s been helping me as well.
What are some of your stories that you’re most proud of? Can you link us to a few online?
Oh this is a fun question! I’ve written a ton of short fiction and it’s one of my favourite mediums. Though that could be because it is also the medium I’ve had the most experience with and, thus, it’s easier for me than a novel.
“Wandering But Not Lost” is a story I wrote for Ryan Marie Ketterer’s body-themed anthology Welcome To Your Body (2024). I had a lot of fun working in the various myths that have been created in the medical field around femme bodies. Like the Victorian idea that a womb could wander around a person’s body causing all sorts of chaos. In my story, the uteri go even further – completely leaving a person’s body to live in a pool of water in a cursed town.
“(>executeRelease_)” is another one I had fun with and is featured in Howls from the Wreckage: An Anthology of Disaster Horror (edited by Christopher O’Halloran, 2023). It features a city besieged by AI operated delivery drones that look like massive spiders and corrupted by a sloppy software update. The story was inspired by a short video I found online of a guy shoving a screaming cicada into a spiderweb. A giant spider with way too sharp of angles comes out of nowhere and starts spinning the screaming bug up into a web cocoon. All I could think of was how terrifying that would be.
“Ascension” appears in Apex Magazine, Issue 152 (2026) and is a space horror that explores how obsession and ambition can drive someone to the brink of madness. On a faraway planet, a door opens in a Tower only during an eclipse. Hundreds of people line up for a chance to climb it and face God, to find glory and riches. The main character, Sam, just wants to be able to compete in her favourite sport again. At the time I wrote this, I was watching a lot of climbing accident videos by Adventures Gone Wrong on YouTube. It seemed crazy to me the lengths people would go to scale a mountain, risking their lives to ascend a mountain for nothing but glory. I can understand the passion, the drive. I think all writers have that. Even the despair when faced with failure or just the lack of recognition, success. So I tried to translate that into a story.
Finally, I want to call out a recent epistolary short story I created for my latest collection, Whims of the Night Winds. It actually connects back to Howls from the Wreckage. Originally I had the idea of Earth being devastated when the Moon suddenly revealed itself to be a giant hypnotic eye. I just didn’t think it would work as a conventional story. In the end, I wrote it for my newest collection and created it as a collection of documents, paired with custom linocut prints I carved myself. It’s called “MOONSTRUCK”. I had a lot of fun creating it, from the linocut to the formatting to the stories within each “document”.
You’re also a visual artist! Is this as much fun for you as writing? When did you get into it? How has it felt to have your artwork included in magazines and anthologies?
Yes! I do digital art, as well as traditional and linocut. It’s just as fun, but in a different way. Drawing is a more immediate way to gain validation and serotonin, but I have more confidence in my writing.
I was really into art when I was younger but absolutely hated art class in junior high school so I quit. When Covid hit, I got my hands on a second hand tablet and started drawing again.
From there, I did a lot of free art for the Howl Society anthologies, which then translated to commissions for other zines and anthologies, which is such an ego boost.
It feels great for sure. I love expressing myself through art, and I’ve been migrating more to physical media – I made a linocut cover for my latest collection, Whims of the Night Winds, and a watercolour cover for an upcoming release from Salt Heart Press.
What do you hope people take away from your stories?
For many of my stories, I am sharing my deepest fears and anxieties. One of the biggest compliments I received was after a live reading when someone approached me to tell me they really related to how the main character experienced anxiety.
So I guess I want people to enjoy my fiction and to know they aren’t alone.
What question would you like to be asked? Please answer it!
Oh a good one would be: what do you want to see more of in the horror genre?
I want more genre mixes! Sci-fi horror, fantasy horror, sci-fi horror, sci-fi horror. Oops, I guess I just want more sci-fi horror and space horror?
Also another good easy question could be, what was the last horror movie you watched and what did you think?
Mine would be Lee Cronin’s The Mummy. 3/5. It was fine but relied way too heavily on gross bodily functions than strengthening the characters/plot. I wanted more lore, less puking. Lord.