P.M. Raymond is an award-winning author from New Orleans, Louisiana who “knows a thing or two about good gumbo, grits, and café au lait.” Her short story, “Double Dutch Dare,” will be in the upcoming anthology The Most Dangerous Games (Level Best Books), edited by Deborah Lacy. She’s also got a short story collection, Things Are As They Should Be, publishing in 2026 from Uncomfortably Dark Horror. She is a 2025 Killer Shorts Screenplay and Horror2Comic Semifinalist, the Sisters in Crime 2024 Eleanor Taylor Bland Award Winner, and 2024 Claymore Award Finalist. Her work has appeared in Punk Noir, Flash Fiction Magazine, and Dark Yonder, among others.
But what scares her? Read on to find out…
What is the scariest thing you remember from childhood?
I remember distinctly when I was young that commercials for horror movies of the time didn’t hold back! The commercials were terrifying. I particularly remember Phantasm, It’s Alive, and Last House on the Left. Specific snippets from these films live rent-free in my head. But the movie that truly scared me, the one I still haven’t watched in full to this day, is The Exorcist.
What are your phobias?
I don’t have any real phobias, but I do have a laundry list of things I dislike! However, I wrote a story about AIBOHPHOBIA, a fear of palindromes, for Flash Fiction Magazine in 2022. If you look closely at the phobia’s name you can see it is a palindrome of the word “phobia.” It’s a very twisty story.
What is your favorite urban legend (or one that’s really stuck with you/freaked you out)?
The Rougarou! The legend traveled from France (where it is called a ‘loup-garou’) to the southern part of Louisiana. This Cajun folklore bad boy prowls the swamps and bayous at night seeking out misbehaving children. Or so the legend goes. The Rougarou is similar to a lycanthrope but not exactly. Although its French name translates to “werewolf” and can transform under a full moon, the Rougarou is more like a humanoid creature with the head of a wolf or dog but the body of a man.
The myth is meant to inspire fear and obedience. Aside from naughty children, one of the Rougarou’s other favorite meals is a Catholic who doesn’t observe Lent properly. Its origin is rooted in Catholicism. This werewolf hybrid suffers no fools!
What intrigues me about the Rougarou is the other ways it is said to shapeshift. It can transform into any white animal like a dog, a rabbit, or a bird. The Rougarou is also spoken of as a curse, something that an individual can be doomed to become. One legend involves an unlucky person bitten by a Rougarou. The unlucky soul will turn into a Rougarou every night for 100 nights until the curse is lifted. It is also said that the creature will knock at your door but can’t enter if there are thirteen stones or coins lining the threshold. There is so much to this Louisiana legend that I am still discovering. The Rougarou and all its incarnations have definitely stuck with me.
Is there anything you are terrified of eating?
This will sound unreal but…I have a fear of eating something that I’m never likely to eat—a live octopus. Hear me out. San-nakji is a Korean dish of raw, cut-up small octopus served while still moving. Sesame oil and maybe some sesame seeds are sprinkled on the tentacles and then—down the hatch. I guess the oil helps the octopus to go down easier, but that doesn’t mitigate the choking hazard. The squiggling tentacles can act like suction cups and stick to your throat and basically choke and probably suffocate you all at once. Not a pleasant way to go. Choking on any food is a VERY big fear of mine, so I would also include marshmallows on this list!
“The squiggling tentacles can act like suction cups and stick to your throat and basically choke and probably suffocate you all at once.”
People often say death is their greatest fear. What are your feelings about death/dying?
As a native New Orleanian, funeral dirges and second-line jazz funeral processions are part of the culture. Celebrating the life that was lived with fanfare and exuberance is the norm. Because there is a zest for life infused into death, I don’t think too intently about my mortality.
What’s something you’ll never do because you’re too scared?
Skydiving! I could never! I’m too much of a control freak to let gravity take the wheel. And I’m afraid of heights so jumping out of a plane and plummeting to earth is simply not for me.
Which evil, murderous persona most matches your personality and why: slow-walking psychotic serial killer; vampire stalking victims in the wee hours of the night; rich megalomaniac with grand plans to take over the world; centuries-old demon witch looking for revenge; or Hyde-like, fueled with rage and no impulse control?
The personas are all great, and I see a little bit of myself in each of them. However, I would say “centuries-old demon witch looking for revenge” is the closest to my heart! Revenge is a core theme in my upcoming interconnected short story collection, Things Are as They Should Be: And Other Words to Die For, from Uncomfortably Dark Horror in 2026. Revenge is also one of the best emotions to play with and have fun with when it comes to unintended consequences. The fantasy is that revenge is sweet and cathartic but in reality, there are downstream ramifications that my crime noir and horror works give me an opportunity to explore.
What’s the scariest thing you’ve ever written?
I don’t usually get scared by what I write but I do make myself uncomfortable on many occasions. One story in particular, “Gotcha”, is the story that readers have most often expressed unease or said it outright scared them.
What’s your favorite horror movie or television series?
Such an unfair question for a horror writer! I love it all! My tastes evolve as new projects release so my favorite changes. Although I could go with the more well known movies that I grew up with like The Shining, American Werewolf in London, or new fare like Get Out or Hereditary, let me leave you with these lesser known films that are brilliant and span time from the 1980s to today—The Changeling (an underrated gem staring George C. Scott), His House (a 2020 release from Remi Weekes of a Sudanese couple feeling the war), and Eve’s Bayou (set in 1960s Louisiana, it takes a measured approach to voodoo and hoodoo, and I wrote an article about it for DreadCentral.com).