I Made a Deal with the Devil by, Mike Lee
Welcome back Roomies…. It’s that time of year again, and as we gear up for the launch of Season 3, we get a sneak peek at the horrors to come with our first preseason episode. A twisted double-feature showcasing a tale by the infamous Mike Lee. ‘I Made a Deal with the Devil’ is not for the faint of heart and will leave you running to hug your children the second it’s over.
Chatting with the author out of Austin, we got to learn about his beginnings and the importance of bringing something to write with at the DMV.
GR: How long have you been writing?
ML: I’ve been writing for almost 3 years now, pretty much since the start of The Grey Rooms
GR: What was it that got you interested in writing? Have you always written horror?
ML: I wrote my first short story as a way to blow off steam. It was a horror, and I was pretty much hooked on writing that after. I’ve tried a few other genres and really enjoy comedy, but I don’t have the drive to write comedy the way I do horror.
GR: What is your favorite kind of horror & why?
ML: I personally like psychological horror because it touches on that part of your brain that makes it feel more real than a fictional situation should feel.
In the studio with Mike Lee
GR: I think it takes a certain kind of mental space to get into the style of horror that you write. Where do you write? Do you have a special space? Or a favorite local haunt that you prefer to do writing in?
ML: I will write just about anywhere I can pull my tablet out. Actually finished writing and edited 1 of the stories used on The Grey Rooms while I was sitting in the DMV. If I had to pick a favorite place, it would be Epoc coffee, here in Austin, Because I’ve probably written more than half of my stories there.
GR: Outside of the Horrors of the DMV, how do your story ideas come to you?
ML: Most of the time they just pop right up, start to finish, and all I have to do is figure out which words to use. Sometimes just an idea will come, and I’ll have to chip away at it upstairs until a full story can be seen, but I definitely prefer the ones that just pop up, neatly packaged as a complete storyline.
GR: You’ve written a few stories for The Grey Rooms now, what’s it like hearing your story produced as a podcast episode?
ML: It’s really cool hearing everything brings the words to life.
GR: The best piece of writing advice to authors just starting out?
ML: The best advice I can give is, get it out. Don’t worry about plot holes or directions that lead nowhere until after you’ve gotten the draft in front of you in your own words. That’s when you can worry about making it read pretty.
GR: What advice would you give to a writer who would be interested in submitting a story to The Grey Rooms.
ML: Jason loves psychological horror too 😉
GR: Haha that he does. What projects are you working on now? Or-Do you have any projects that are recently finished that you’d like to talk about outside of this last haunting episode?
I recently started painting over the quarantine period, so I’ve just been having fun doing that. Although I should really get some new stories written….
GR: Yes you do.
If you’d like to hear more stories from Mike Lee, you can take a peek behind the door and check out these episodes: Falling, I Loved My Human, Pen, and Good Morning Angela.
GR⊗
