Chad Anctil Interview Published on: 16, Mar 2026

What led me to horror was Stephen King, so at least there’s a New England connection. I loved reading from an early age and read well above my grade level, so I moved from ‘The Hardy Boys Mysteries’ to ‘Cujo’ and ‘Salem’s Lot’ by second or third grade - I’m GenX, and we didn’t have a lot of supervision in our media consumption. From there, I started reading Clive Barker, and then by high school, I had found Mr. Lovecraft and his particular brand of horror. It all shaped my ideas and my writing in different ways - King with his supernatural theatricality, Barker with his dark, unsettling prose and broken characters, and Lovecraft with his cosmic horrors and terrors that could drive men mad. It’s all a part of how I write.

I’m drawn to them because they’re the places so many people avoid and ignore. There’s a certain terrible beauty in an abandoned mill, a shuttered amusement park, or an empty shopping mall. They’re naturally unsettling; they create a fear response in people just by existing, and I love that. Walk through an empty airport terminal at 3 am, when half the lights are off, and all the stores are closed, and you feel that fear creep in, that ancient, ancestral part of your brain telling you something isn’t right. Abandoned places are cold reminders that things don’t last. Stories end, but in ending, some stories get a new beginning.

Not as much as my experiences outside the submarine at that time. Yes, serving on submarines gave me a lot of inspiration for deep-sea horrors, but it was my time above water in places like San Francisco that stoked my creativity the most. Life on a submarine is intense, as you say, so it doesn’t leave a lot of time for creativity or daydreaming about my next story.

Five years ago, I would have said no - the digital world and the dark unseen worlds I write about were completely separate. In recent years, however, with the rising threats of AI and the effects of social media and digital propaganda on every aspect of our lives, I’m seeing many more parallels. I’ve even written a few stories about AI and the horrors it could bring about. As both a writer and a cybersecurity engineer, I see the threat that’s growing out there, and it is terrifying. Who needs Cthulhu when you have OpenAI and Anthropic and Grok out there, growing and affecting people’s minds more and more every day?

My experiences in underground arts scenes and DJing goth and industrial clubs introduced me to so many people and experiences that are just this side of supernatural. I’ve been friends with people who live as vampires, a collective who makes art out of bones, and a woman who writes poetry in her own blood. I’ve attended clubs where participants are suspended, their flesh pierced by dozens of surgical needles in a ceremony that is both sacred and profane. Each of those experiences is the starting point of a hundred stories–or the ending.

I was watching a movie called ‘Lights Out’. It’s a supernatural horror about a vengeful ghost who attacks from the darkness, and at the end, as the credits roll, you see all these police and ambulances showing up after the big final battle, and I thought to myself, ‘What are these guys going to do?’ Horrific things happened, people died, even police officers died, and there’s no rational reason for any of it, no suspects, no explanation. What are the police going to do? That’s where my idea for a secret police force that knows about the supernatural world started. A small group dedicated to fighting the things that go bump in the night. A series grounded in reality, at least more than most I’ve read, but still exciting, a tense blending of monsters, magic, and police procedural. ‘The Rookie’ meets H.P. Lovecraft.

I love Providence! I have worked and lived in and around Providence for decades, and it means everything to me. It does have such a rich and unique history, ‘The Creative Capital’ they call it. For horror fans, Lovecraft lived here, Poe visited and courted here. The architecture is beautiful, the history of fighting against religious persecution, it’s all part of this amazing tapestry that’s unlike any other city. As far as my series, Providence just made sense–it’s got old-world beauty and modern excitement, and its history is full of ghosts. Rhode Island has a rich background of supernatural tales. I try my best to make Providence herself another character in this series.

The differences are huge, and my success as a short story writer was, in a way, accidental. Writing and publishing novels takes a VERY long time, in my experience, and in between novels, I like to keep my skills up and keep writing, so I would write little stories for my website or just write down ideas I had in my head. I never planned to go any further because I was focused on the novels. Then, a few years ago, I saw a call for submissions for an anthology with a Halloween focus, and I had just finished a short story called ‘His First Halloween’, about an actual monster going trick-or-treating. It was accepted into the anthology, and the publisher really liked it, even used excerpts from my story in some of the advertisements, and so I was hooked. Since then, I’ve had well over 30 stories accepted by a variety of publications, and it just makes me happy to share them. I’ve made a lot of great friends in horror anthology circles, as well.

Probably? I’ve always been creative and enjoy finding unusual outlets for my creativity, so I’ve tried a bunch of different things over the years. If I enjoy them, I keep with them; if I’m not into it, that’s OK too (you should see my collection of guitars I don’t play). People should explore things that interest them without being afraid they won’t be good at it, or worry about what other people might think. My writing is just one more aspect of my creativity needing an outlet, and it’s one I enjoy very much.

Right now, other than Ai, it’s also themes of indoctrination. People get so caught up in something that they can lose themselves. We see it so often today: kind, seemingly normal people, husbands, coworkers, who undergo this metamorphosis into something cruel and barely recognizable. People shunning their family and friends to live a false life online, talking to digital ghosts who are incapable of giving them a real human connection.

I like to start off with a normal, recognizable location or scenario, something anyone can relate to, but then I twist it, I add a hint of the supernatural, a taste of horror lurking just beneath the surface. It’s the difference between walking across the parking lot at night and walking across the parking lot at night with the lot lights off, and a strange scraping sound just barely audible as you’re walking to your car. You don’t have to start with a monster–Jaws made yellow plastic barrels terrifying.

Absolutely. I’ve already talked about Providence, but one of the other cities I love the most is Edinburgh. We’ve visited there a few times, and I love how ancient it all feels. Those stone streets hold so many stories; tales of ghosts and ancient legends, plague doctors and beheadings in the dark underground. It’s incredibly inspiring. Recently, I wrote a story set in a dark forest for the anthology ‘Bewitched Whispers’, and I made multiple trips to a local woodland for inspiration. Weather can affect my writing, too. I find it harder to write dark horror on a bright sunny summer day, but give me a rainy afternoon in October and I’ll spin you such a tale!

The most surprising lesson is that writing a book is the easy part! Getting published, getting your book in front of people, and getting them to read it; that’s a completely different skillset. As an author, even a traditionally published one, I have to do a lot of my own marketing, set up events, reach out to bookstores, libraries, and podcasts, as well as continue writing. I have a saying - ‘Being an author is 10% writing a book, 90% telling people you wrote a book!’

I’m very excited for the future of Providence Supernatural Crimes Unit! Perspective Publishing has been great to work with, and they’re as excited about this series as I am! Book two, which is titled ‘Possession is Nine-Tenths of the Law: A Providence SCU Novel’, will be released this October and follows the Providence SCU team as they deal with a series of demonic possessions as well as an uneasy alliance with the church. Book three is already written as well, and that’s going to be another exciting dive into the dark supernatural underbelly of Providence. Beyond the Providence SCU series, I have short stories coming out in a number of new anthologies from Signus Magnolia Collective and more. I’ll also be at the NecronomiCon weird fiction convention this August and Rhode Island Comic Con in November, supporting the release of Providence SCU Book Two.

It has been a very positive experience overall. I have been able to connect with other authors in my genres, as well as connect with readers. The opportunities to promote my books have been great.