Debbie has a wonderful personal website at http://www.debbiekuhn.com.

And probably the most entertaining newsletter in the business. I'm serious, it's practically a quarterly magazine production.

Hope you enjoy our interview with this horror diva...

Jason Sizemore: For those reading this interview, what about you should we fear the most?

 Debbie Kuhn: My imagination, I would hope.  But if any of you happen to bump into me at a convention, just consider the red hair a warning label – especially if there’s tequila around.

 JS: Your featured reprint, "Red Barchetta," has some R-rated sexual situations. Is sexual tension a common theme in your fiction?

DK: Oh, sexual tension is a wonderful thing, isn’t it?  In fiction, too, of course. 

Okay, now I’ll admit that I write across genres – horror, mystery and romantic adventure, and in all three I have fun putting my characters in titillating situations.    

JS: Fear and sex, they're an inseparable combination. What's some of your favorite examples of these two emotions in the written word?

DK: So many, but Clive Barker immediately comes to mind, especially his earlier works.  And I’ve always been a fan of vampire fiction, which is highly erotic.  Novels by Anne Rice, Laurell K. Hamilton, Poppy Z. Brite, and even Bram Stoker’s “Dracula” would qualify.      

JS: Tell us about the books you’ve written.

DK: Only three so far, though I’m currently working on two others.  In 1997, I finished my first novel, “Barbara Alice,” a supernatural mystery.  However, due to my severe lack of confidence back then, I never even tried to get it published.  I’ve posted it on my website as an e-book, and readers have given it good reviews.

 In 2001 I wrote a romantic adventure called “Mason’s Will,” set mostly in 1993 Afghanistan – believe it or not – about a widow who takes on a mission for her late husband, and of course, she finds love again.  This book is available online everywhere, including Amazon, and in some independent bookstores.  Luckily, I haven’t gotten a bad review so far on this one either – and I swear no money has exchanged hands! 

And then there’s the mystery, “Up the Devil’s Backbone,” which I still haven’t finalized.  The first three chapters appear on my site.  I think it needs more finessing and I’ve set it aside for awhile, but the characters in this story are my favorites, so I definitely won’t forget about it.      

JS: The first time we met, you and I had a lengthy discussion about how fascinating your trip to the Louisville City Morgue was. Did this earn me "cool" points, or firmly entrench me in the "creepy" category?

DK: I had to go to a dinner party after that tour and my clothes still smelled like decomposing flesh.  Obviously, we’re both a creepy kind of cool.  Everyone else I’ve told about that experience has called me “ghoulish.”  You definitely understand me, Jason. 

JS: You're buddies with some of the best writers in the horror genre, including a preacher who writes horror, and an angry man most certainly condemned to eternal damnation. So, if Maurice Broaddus and Brian Keene got into a knife-fight while inside a church, which one would win?

DK: Hey, wait a minute.  Didn’t that already happen last June at Maurice’s church in Indy?  I had to leave before the big event, but I heard there was no winner – the two of them decided to call it a draw so they could race off to their laptops and blog about the experience.

Hehe.  Just kidding, guys.

JS: What book has had the greatest influence on you as a horror writer?

DK: I was ten years old when I devoured Bram Stoker’s “Dracula.”  After that I became a horror fiend to the point my teachers became, uh, “concerned.”  When I read “Salem’s Lot” by Stephen King, there was no turning back.

JS: You live in Kentucky, yet you don't write about horse racing, the coalmine mafia, or Appalachian history. How did you avoid this?

DK: Actually, I haven’t, completely.  I touched on the subject of horse racing in my first book, which takes place in Kentucky.  One of the novels I’m working on now, “Reunion,” is set in Appalachia and the history and culture of the region figures prominently in the book, which is part ghost story, part mystery and part romance. 

JS: What's the creepiest situation you've ever been (in terms of potential supernatural occurrences)?

DK: It happened at Waverly Hills, an abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium here in Louisville.  The long version of the story can be found in the April issue of my newsletter.  I’ll give you the abridged version. 

I toured Waverly one afternoon during a spring thunderstorm.  But some ghost hunter I am – I forgot to bring a flashlight along.  Of course, I couldn’t say no when the tour guide offered to let me descend into The Death Tunnel, which was used to “discretely” transport the bodies of the TB victims from the hospital to waiting hearses.

On the right side of the 500 foot tunnel was a ramp used for the stretchers, and on the left was a flight of long steps, in sets of three, divided by short landings.  Once I got about twenty feet down, things got so dark I had to lean against the cold, damp concrete wall and move slowly, counting the slippery steps so I wouldn’t fall.  (1-2-3 – walk four more steps – 1-2-3.)  I could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but it didn’t help much.

I was more than halfway to the end when I suddenly stepped on something that was covering part of a step, something big and squishy-feeling.  It caused me to lose my balance and I let out an involuntary shriek.  I managed to throw myself against the wall instead of falling forward. 

Immediately afterwards, I heard a soft, reassuring female voice whisper in my right ear.

“It’s okay,” said the woman. 

I froze for a moment, and then turned around.  No one was there.

JB: If the character "Debbie Kuhn" were cast in a horror movie, which actress would you like to see playing you?

DK: God, that really would be a horror flick!  I would have to choose a redhead, and the first person that comes to mind is Alyson Hannigan of “Buffy” and “American Pie” fame. 

“This one time, at the City Morgue…”