Andy Astle asked Matt Shaw:

I would like to imagine that you are a nice human being in real life. That being the truth, do you have to get yourself into a different persona to write such sick and twisted books?

Matt Shaw People say I am a nice person when they meet me at conventions. They say they were expecting me to be a psycho but that's not the case. I prank people (in a harmless way), I muck about, I laugh, I like to entertain, I donate money to charity, I surprise readers who struggle with money with a PayPal present, I've taken readers out for dinner as a thank you for supporting me, I help others write and publish them, or show them how to publish themselves... I do all of this because I can and I believe in paying it forward. Oh and I also just purchased a pug so... I can't be that evil :P
That being said, I believe we all have a darkness within ourselves. Writing horror helps me purge it from myself and feel a better, cleaner person.

Sometimes, when I write horror, it can put me in a bad mood until the book is done. I go to some dark places with my work and it's not always comfortable but, if it were, I think the stories would be weaker. If I am uncomfortable, the reader will be - and that's what we look for in horror, right?

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