This Tri-Cities horror author likes to make you cry. He’s on the N.Y. Times scary list
Horror author T.J. Tranchell was born to scare people.
His birthday, after all, is Halloween.
His first paid job as a teenager was in a haunted forest.
And last week the Kennewick author got an early 41st birthday present when he found himself on a New York Times book list.
The “50 Scares, 50 States” list highlights the scariest novels set in each state.
He couldn’t believe he’d made the same list as authors like Stephen King.
“It was not even a consideration,” Tranchell told the Herald. “I had no idea — they don’t tell you these things.”
The instructor at Columbia Basin College in Pasco was perusing the Times story to see who was listed from his home state of Utah, which he uses as a backdrop for his horror stories, when he stopped cold.
His novel “Cry Down Dark” was chosen along with books by Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Chuck Palahniuk, who grew up in Burbank and is the author of “Fight Club.”
“I cried for five minutes,” Tranchell said. “I have no idea how the Times writer found my book.”
“Cry Down Dark” is a gothic ghost romance story of unrequited — or at least lost — love. Tranchell’s main character is a successful TV writer who never got over his college love. She moved on and married another, but later dies. He buys her childhood home with dreams of reuniting with her postmortem.
“It’s not just a scary book, it is a tearjerker,” Tranchell said, who believe that is what makes the book stand out.
He doesn’t write extreme horror, with gore and graphic details about abuse and torture.
Instead, Tranchell told the Herald that his books mess with people’s emotions, creating a sense of dread all while confronting fear.
“I’ve had a number of people who have told me it made them cry instead of scare them,” he said.
“Cry Down Dark” and his other novels can be purchased on Amazon, at publisher Byster Press’s site or at the Adventures Underground bookstore, 1391 George Washington Way, Richland.
For more information, go to tjtranchell.com.
This story was originally published October 28, 2020 at 12:48 PM.