Christopher Slatsky’s stories have appeared in The Year’s Best Weird Fiction vol. 3, the Lovecraft eZine, Nightscript vol. 2, and elsewhere. His debut collection Alectryomancer and Other Weird Tales (Dunhams Manor Press) was released summer of 2015. He currently resides in Southern California.
1. What inspired your story in Shadows & Tall Trees 7?
As clichéd as it may be, my story was based on a dream about my (long deceased) grandparent’s home. That and the anxiety parents and children all too often have over failing to adequately communicate their goodbyes was the impetus.
2. Can you recall the first story you ever read that made you think “I want to be a writer!”?
The earliest story that sparked the writing bug would have to be Poe’s “The Black Cat”. There was something more to it than the gruesome crime as depicted, something profoundly uncanny in the dread-soaked atmosphere.
3. What scares you?
Not much. The universe will inevitably collapse and decay, the metabolic tantrum that makes me an organic automaton will continue for a few more decades hopefully. No phobias, no ghosts, no gods, no supernatural antagonists to afflict me. I do have tremendous anxiety over the well being of my wife and children. That fear is omnipresent.
4. You can take five books to a desert island: which ones do you choose? 
Of course I’ll change my mind once I set foot on the island, but here goes: You Will Never See Any God (Krause), Giovanni’s Room (Baldwin), The Invisible Man (Ellison), Blood Meridian (McCarthy), and City of Woman (Landes).
5. What’s next for you?
Besides my story in Shadows and Tall Trees v. 7, I have others awaiting publication in Darker Companions, Would But Time Await: An Anthology of New England Folk Horror, and Looming Low.