Girls & Monsters - An interview with Author Anne Michaud

She who likes dark things never grew up. She never stopped listening to gothic, industrial and alternative bands like when she was fifteen. She always loved to read horror and dystopia and fantasy, where doom and gloom drip from the pages.

She, who was supposed to make films, decided to write short stories, novelettes and novels instead. She, who’s had her films listed on festival programs, has been printed in a dozen anthologies and magazines since.

She who likes dark things prefers night to day, rain to sun, and reading to anything else.

She is Anne Michaud....

Lisa: Welcome to my little corner of cyberspace Anne!!! I'm in the throes of reading your book. I'm loving it! Creepy, thought-provoking,enjoyable morsel of literature. Tell me, what sparked the idea to write Girls and Monsters?

Anne: I had a bunch of short stories either rejected by magazines or that were supposed to be part of anthologies that never saw the day, so instead of having them locked up in my computer, I decided to expand them into novellas. Actually, I got the idea after writing Misery of Me (Tattered Souls volume 2, Cutting Block Press), since I loved writing novellas, I decided to changed them all and group them into one collection.

Lisa: An ingenious way for us all to enjoy your dark tales - all nestled between two covers.

Now, the "Girls" of Girls and Monster face some pretty scary creatures, tell me what monster do you fear most?

Anne: Man. After wars, rapes, murders, hate and abuse, I think Man is the biggest monster of them all. What we can do when we're angry, how easily we can turn into monsters ourselves, this is what truly frightens me.

Lisa: No truer words could ever have been uttered.... How about  the tales told in this collection of dark fiction, were any inspired by strange, yet true, events?

Anne: Well, Death Song and We Left at Night were both dreams I had a couple years ago, which makes them true in my life. I had a crazy neighbor growing-up, so the monster in A Blue Story wasn't hard to find. Black Dog was inspired by my first time in London living there, where I stayed in a youth hostels with a Churchill statue across the street. And Dust Bunnies is a mix of The Cure's Lullaby and Christiane F's (young Berliner prostituting for heroin), which could be considered true events – and sad, for sure.

Lisa: And would you say there's a message, in the stories featured in Girls and Monsters, that you hope to get across to your readers?

Anne: YES! Girls can be strong, can fight, don't need boys or adults to be in charge. Girls don't have to conform to society's perception of what they can and cannot do; they can be whatever they want. I want the girls who read this to understand we all make mistakes, we can all be weak at times, but in the end, we can kick butts.

Lisa: GIRL POWER!!! LOVE IT!! Any plans for Girls facing other supernatural entities?

anne: Of course, dear friend. I'm finishing up a soft sci-fi collection of novellas called Girls & Aliens, and the next one will be Girls & Ghosts. Dark and creepy would best describe these collections, methinks.

Lisa: Can't wait!

Well Girls and Boys....

She blogs http://annecmichaud.wordpress.com

She Facebooks: http://www.facebook.com/annecmichaud

She tweets @annecmichaud

Buy GIRLS AND MONSTERS on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B00CCQ1Q6W

Girls & Monsters Goodreads page: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17335353-girls-monsters

ATTENTION.....ATTENTION......THERE'S A GIVEAWAY!!!

Giveaway Softcover copy + The Monster Collection Skellies, 5 pieces handcrafted by the author: 

** Giveaway link for people on Wordpress: http://www.darkfuse.com/contact/view.php?id=10891"  

The winner will be announced during the LIVE CHAT on release day, April 30^th at 9PM east http://www.darkfuse.com/events.html

Thank you so much Anne for dropping by and allowing us to be part of your BLOG TOUR! 

Girls & Monsters

I can't believe it's been so long since I've posted! Things have been crazy hectic yet creative and positive, but more about that in another post...

This post is dedicated to a writing friend of mine with a collection of dark novelettes scheduled for release mid-April.


A giant spider, a killer mermaid, a mad neighbor, zombies and a very dark soul - monsters, everywhere.
Wanna see what girls can do to them? Check out this collection of 5 dark novelettes.



Death Song Excerpt

Something catches in the back of my throat. I

hide my face in my hands to quiet the sobs. But then,

something ain’t right. Air moves around me and I

stop. I look between my fingers, but the blur of my

tears thickens everything: the bathtub, the towels,

and someone on the floor.

A woman’s in here with me, door still closed and

locked. An exhale, like after a deep swim, and a smell,

like the swamp close to my empty home. A chill runs

down my back, I wipe my eyes, rub and scratch them

to see more clearly. And I do.

Two gray hands scratch the floor tiles, nails green

with algae, putrid flesh sagging on her legs, arms

and torso, hair so long and wet and heavy, it drags

her down. Diluted, impossible to focus on, like little

waves rippling over her body from head to foot, seaweed

in the water. Scales and fins, mermaidlike, little

knives, those are. And they scrape the floor, like a

fork on a plate. It’s her—Limnade.

She opens her mouth of scissor-teeth and the rotten

smell of fish wraps around my throat like two

hands trying to choke me.

“You can’t be…” I don’t finish my breathless

thought and jump backward, knocking over the dish

of decorative soaps. Blurry waves, vision impaired,

out of focus, unreal. She crawls toward me, eyes unblinking,

lethal, hands inches from me: my legs refuse

to move, as my body feels like stone. Frozen,

hypnotized, a statue. Then I hear something coming

from within her…

A melody, reminding me of something lost, tickles

my ears. It drags on until the sweetness turns sickly,

vibrating into a full-on super-scream, hyenalike,

enough to pop my ears and make them bleed. Her

large mouth deforms her face into one gap of black,

the cry so high and strident, I scream from the pain.

Limnade stares at me, everything but her fades

away—Jo’s nice bathroom, Jo’s new life, Jo himself—

none of it matters anymore. Her fingers brush my

forehead, they’re cold and sticky like clams. And I let

the darkness take me away.

About the Author:

She who likes dark things never grew up. She never stopped listening to gothic, industrial and alternative bands like when she was fifteen. She always loved to read horror and dystopia and fantasy, where doom and gloom drip from the pages.


She, who was supposed to make films, decided to write short stories, novelettes and novels instead. She, who’s had her films listed on festival programs, has been printed in a dozen anthologies and magazines since. 


She who likes dark things prefers night to day, rain to sun, and reading to anything else.

She blogs http://annecmichaud.wordpress.com


She tweets @annecmichaud

Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/book/show/17335353-girls-monsters Please don't be shy to click 'want to read'

I can't wait to sink my teeth into these juicy stories....

Review to come!