PopHorror Let's Get Scared
We love supporting people in the horror community. Everyone has a story to tell, whether it’s through reviews, art, literature, or film. One of our PopHorror colleagues, Joshua Millican, has made a strong name for himself as a horror blogger He decided to step up his game and go beyond reviews to writing brilliant horror fiction. Joshua has written for various sites, travels to several cons, is director of the Crypt TV community, and is now using his incredible talent to write stories that will leave us sleeping with the light on in the horror serial, Deeper Than Hell, on the Morbidly Beautiful website.
Official Synopsis:
Deeper Than Hell tells the story of Sonny and Drew, two heroin addicts living in the tunnels below Las Vegas who go on a bizarre pilgrimage underground. Millican wrote the original serial, which will be published here for the first time, while Wilson provided the extraordinary artwork to accompany the story. Even though we’ve featured creative writing in the past here on the site, this will be our first reoccurring series. And, given the incredible talent involved in this project, we are thrilled and honored to be a part of this.
Deeper Than Hell is a team collaboration by Joshua Millican as the writer, Sean Wilson as the artist, and Morbidly Beautiful as the platform the story is told on. We talked with Joshua about his career and what inspired him to begin writing this disturbingly raw horror story.
PopHorror: Josh, your passion shows through everything you touch. At what age did you become a horror fan?
Joshua Millican: In 1986, 12-year-old Josh Millican officially became a life-long horror fan. That was the year James Cameron’s Aliens and David Cronenberg’s The Fly were released. Aliens thrilled me while The Fly scared the holy shit out of me, but I loved them both. That was it; I couldn’t get enough.
PopHorror: Love that movie! What inspired you to start working in the horror industry and writing?
Joshua Millican: It’s a dream come true. Like most aspiring writers, I worked a jobby-job from 9-5 and blogged in my free time to build a name for myself. It’s not that I decided to work in the horror industry. It’s that I was lucky enough to be able to get enough freelance work to make this my primary source of income. No more 9-5! I love the guys at Horror Freak News for giving me the permanent spot, and I love freelancing for CryptTV and Blumhouse.com.
PopHorror: You’re definitely living the dream that many want, but you’ve earned it! Up until recently, you mostly wrote reviews, editorials, and news. What inspired you to create the horror serial, Deeper Than Hell ?
Joshua Millican: There was a contest on a website I won’t mention: Submit an outline for a 12-part, monthly serial, anything related to horror or dark fiction. I loved the idea, so I put together an outline. I made it to the final round as one of nine total writers, and I submitted a completed first chapter. Ultimately, I didn’t get selected, but I had this killer outline and a completed chapter, so I shopped it to a few sites I really like. Morbidly Beautiful was the perfect home for it. Editor and Chief Stephanie Malone has been so supportive.
PopHorror: Such a fantastic idea! They have a great site, and the layout is perfect for the story. Can you tell us more about the plotline and characters?
Joshua Millican: Yeah, so as we near the half-way point, Sonny and Drew are about to escape from Tabernacle City, an underground community of technophiles ruled by a nefarious cult leader. They’ll continue their pilgrimage downward, encountering more dangerous characters and communities. We’ll discover more about who Sonny was before he was a homeless junkie. There will eventually be an arrival, but whether it turns out to be the Nirvana the duo envisions remains to be seen.
PopHorror: Awesome, I can’t wait! How does this horror serial work?
Joshua Millican: I only work on one chapter at a time, so everything is treated almost like a stand-alone in terms of specific moods or situations. There are 3 acts in every chapter, and every chapter ends on a cliffhanger. But it’s a single, cohesive story, all in first person, so no subplots—although there are plenty of stories within the larger saga. A big part of what sets my story apart is the inclusion of art by Sean Wilson, who inspires me with his nightmarish imagery and ideas.
PopHorror: That’s such a unique and creative idea. Up until now, I had never seen anything like it before. When can we expect the next chapter to come out?
Joshua Millican: New chapters are published on the first Friday of each month, so get set for Chapter 5 on February 3rd!
PopHorror: I have my calendar marked! Do you know how many chapters there will be?
Joshua Millican: Deeper Than Hell will run on Morbidly Beautiful through September for twelve chapters total. While the story will have a satisfying conclusion, there will, eventually, be a 13th chapter that will only be available when the serial is released as a novel. See what I’m doing there?
PopHorror: Yes, I do. [Laughs] Do you plan to do another horror serial after this?
Joshua Millican: Absolutely. Sean Wilson has great concepts for a collection of stories, but I can’t say anything more about that at this time. Stay tuned!
“I might have chosen different thoughts if I’d known I would never see the Moon or the stars again. I might have imagined the Sun rising and setting against the desert sky. I might have imagined meteor showers and lightning storms, eclipses and aurora borealis; one of those super flocks of tiny black birds that swarm and swirl like plumes of smoke; snow-capped peaks and fighter jets flying in formation; an airplane’s eye view of America, a patchwork of green and tan fields broken by rivers and mountains; the Ocean, the Ocean, the Ocean. Instead it was: Dead bodies in bloody track suits; staring down the barrel of a gun; Thaddaeus laughing manically.”
If you’re a lover of all things horror, Deeper Than Hell is something you should be reading. Support your horror community by doing so. Joshua Millican is a truly talented writer who is always helping people out. Sean Wilson is an amazing artist whose work is featured on Death House poster, which is the upcoming horror film with a crazy amount of talent in it known as the “expendables of horror.” Morbidly Beautiful is a fellow horror site that consistently provides quality and unique material. What more do you need to know? Let us know what you think of his story thus and make sure to tune in for each monthly chapter!
