Polly Campbell is the author of You, Recharged: How to Beat Fatigue (Mostly), Amp Up Your Energy (Usually), and Enjoy Life Again, (Always), and three other books. We first met when she invited me to be a guest on her podcast Simply Write w/Polly, where she gives practical, inspirational, and real advice for writers and creators. Find her at simplywrite.substack.com, on Instagram @PollyLCampbell, and at https://pollycampbell.com.
And find out what terrifies her right here…
What is your greatest fear?
Easy. My child going missing. Like just having her out there in the world, without knowing where, or who she is with, or if she’s OK. Nightmare.
What is your weirdest fear?
Oh well, it’s that age old classic movie The Wizard of Oz. I mean, doesn’t this family favorite freak everyone out? Yeah. I really do not like that movie, not the actors dressed up like characters, nor the green melting witch, nor the flying monkeys, nor Munchkins. The whole thing is very creepy. I didn’t show it to my daughter because I refuse to watch it with her.
What is your favorite urban legend?
Totally the story of Bloody Mary. But is it a legend or truth? The story where you can repeat the name Bloody Mary in the bathroom mirror and conjure the ghost of the woman. Oh yeah. Heard about her as a child, and it sticks with me today.
Do you have a recurring nightmare?
Yes. There is a big creature energy, traipsing across the lower hills toward me. Looks like an angry Bigfoot, and it has been showing up in my dreams since I was a young child. I could always see him coming, down from the mountain, over the hill, across the river until he hit the field, and then found me wherever I was in a bed, or a shopping cart, college dorm room, car, even my first apartment. He would always find me and scoop me up and take me away, but we never got to an end. He just separated me from my life. This creature dream has followed me, but now I’m less afraid, because while it gets me every time, I’m never injured and I always wake up at home. Also, he is pink. But a very menacing pink.
“Looks like an angry Bigfoot, and it has been showing up in my dreams since I was a young child. I could always see him coming, down from the mountain…He would always find me and scoop me up and take me away. Also, he is pink. But a very menacing pink.”
Have you ever had any paranormal experiences or premonitions?
Once when we were touring the Portland Underground, tunnels used historically to capture and hold—Shanghai—men and women who would then be drugged, carried aboard ships and used as unpaid labor aboard, I felt cold air blow by me and a very strong scent. I didn’t know what it was but the word horehound kept jumping into my mind. I asked the guide about it later, asked her if she knew what it was, and she did. She told me, based on records, one of the young women who had died while held in the tunnel prison used to love horehound treats brought by her captors. A fact the guide hadn’t shared on tour. The story gave me chills and huge empathy for this young girl who was held. But also, totally fascinated me.
What scares you most about the writing process?
Hitting send on a manuscript or article. My breath catches every time.
What is your greatest fear as a writer?
That I’ll never be able to do it. That I will empty of ideas or the ability to write them. Yet still I will be compelled to sit down each day to write, and have nothing. To sit down ready to work and not have anything to work with. Ever.
What’s your favorite horror movie or television series?
I’m more of a crime or suspense series type. The series Ozark was one of my all-time favorites. Though I did love the movie Barbarian.
What’s the scariest place you’ve ever been?
I was a teenager on a cranky old interstate bus, more like a brightly colored school bus, on a narrow mountain pass in Colombia when the drug trade was at its peak and Americans were not popular. The last thing I was told when I got on was to keep my head down and not do anything to draw attention. The bus was stopped in the middle of the night by military rebels. We were ordered to get off and stand in a line alongside the road while they went through our papers and passports. I stuffed my passport into the seat before I got off so I couldn’t be identified or my passport stolen. As the militants came down the line, the bus driver started yelling at these men, who were all holding guns. Just started looking at his watch and screaming in Spanish, words that I could not understand. The soldiers stopped abruptly halfway down the line of passengers, turned off their flashlights and let everyone back onto the bus.
I just remember feeling very young and vulnerable and isolated and female and it was very scary.
What’s creepier: clowns, dolls, or wax figures?
Oh clowns. No doubt. They can get away with all kinds of shit.