What's the most improbable but true thing about you?
That I survived my 20s?

Why did you choose to submit to Horror Over the Handlebars?
I would never miss a chance to write about Connecticut - the scariest state of all.

Tell us a little about your story, “Ouch” and its genesis.
You know, kids are mean. That’s the thing about them. People write stories about kids and they’re always innocent and noble, but - and I say this as a parent - a lot of kids are the worst. (Not my kid, my kid’s great.) If you want to write a story that rings true to a kid, you should acknowledge that it’s rough out there. I wrote a story about bad kids.
Also aliens.

Tell us about “No Rider in the Flesh and Bone” in Horror Over the Handlebars and what you liked about it.
I remember the intense relationship I had with my bike as a kid. And I also remember the complicated feelings all kids have about moving away from their childhood toys - the guilt and the sense of betrayal. We can't help but anthropomorphize our prized possessions; our imaginations are too explosive not to. Charles Montgomery captures that transition beautifully in "No Rider in the Flesh and Bone." Of course, this is a horror anthology - so the bicycle's gonna have something to say about it too, in a story that made me think of Stephen King's Christine with bikes.

If you could time travel, where would you go, what would you do, and why would you do that?
I would go back to the Zoom call I had last week where I told a client I loved them as we signed off. I would like a do-over on that. I don’t even like that client.

Who would you bring back from the dead for one hour and what would you do with them?
I would bring back my uncle, a talented poet who never got to read any of my stories. He would hate my stories, so that’d be funny. But he’d be happy I wrote them.

What's your favorite piece of art? Could be music, writing, sculpture, painting…
I think the best novel ever written is Middlemarch by George Eliot, which taught me that most of us are just here for the ride, and that’s okay.

What are you most proud of creating?
I should probably say my kid, but I wrote a rap about my genitals in 8th grade that was honestly super good.

What's next on your literary horizon?
I have pieces coming out soon in Weird Horror and Fantasy & Science Fiction, and I’m currently finishing up a story about murderous dolphins.

Where can readers connect with you online?
I’m on Twitter @dantonsix and online at sashabrownwriter.com. This has been such a fun project to be part of - such a quirky theme that inspired so many awesome stories. Thank you for including me!