We spoke to horror writer, Mir Rainbird, about our latest story, Don’t See Me Again Tomorrow. There may be minor spoilers ahead so we recommend you read the story first.

Q1. This story really hit a note with me, purely because I don’t see very many horror tales that talk about love and light (and poetry). How did this tale come about?

I’m not sure how the poetry got in there! You might think, given how apt the imagery is, that I wrote those poetry fragments for this story, but in fact they’re from an unfinished piece I started years ago, and I’d forgotten them until I was writing that scene in “Don’t See Me” and needed some lines. I found them in an old notebook.

I can tell you the specific genesis of the story, though: horror author Gemma Files sometimes posts sketches of strange creatures or cryptids. There’s one with a person who looks mostly normal except for having slit-pupiled eyes. I saw it and started thinking about eye contact and how it is normalized—or not; lots of cultures or individuals find it uncomfortable. And of course as a writer I communicate with people who don’t see me. These eyes/eye contact/communication themes are where I started and the other elements appeared as I wrote.

This source of inspiration is a bit funny because Files writes extremely intense and well, horrifying, horror, and mine is much softer. So if you come away from my story disappointed that it didn’t cause you visceral revulsion or give you nightmares, do try Gemma’s work!

Q2. Do you have any favourite poets?  

This is like being asked my favourite author or artist or film — I could keep going indefinitely. I’ll mention a few who’ve been most influential: St Vincent Millay, Emily Dickinson, John Donne, Dylan Thomas, Rubén Darío, cummings, Miyazawa, Hopkins, Hafez, Neruda, Szymborska, Poe, Yeats…

Q3. How would you describe your writing routine?  

I start writing after I feed the cat and make tea, but before I check email. I make myself write for at least ten minutes so that I don’t get to the end of the day and feel badly that I’ve written nothing. I’m a freelance researcher and editor so sometimes I’ve very busy and other days I have extra hours for my own writing.

Q4. How much of your time do you spend writing short stories versus other projects?

It’s been increasing over time! I used to write some nonfiction, and work on novels (which I rarely finished because I’d get a new idea halfway through) and only write short fiction if I saw a submission theme that really inspired me. Then it was split about 50/50 between long and short fiction for a while. The past year or so I’ve been mainly writing short fiction and poetry. If you’re interested in writing but haven’t really tried, I think drabbles (stories of exactly 100 words) and structured poetry are good exercises. There’s an anthology titled Poisoned Soup that asked horror authors to write about their morbid childhoods and trying to distil childhood and family and first experience with death into so few words was challenging.

Q5. What other works do you have on the go? Anything you’d like to promote?

I have a short piece coming out in Old Moon Quarterly Volume 10 (March or April, I think) that I’m really proud of. It was inspired by Irish mythology, and I wanted it to have a rhythm reminiscent of a certain type or oral story-telling. It probably took longer per word to get right than anything else I’ve written.

I’ll also have a short story in the horror anthology “The Shadows That We Carry”, which is a fundraiser for charity MacMillan Cancer Support, in honor of author Matt Mason, who passed away late last year. This should be available in April.