In my October newsletter (catch up HERE if you missed it) I interviewed Freddie Kölsch about her latest YA horror, Empty Heaven. I loved this book so much – it has queer found family, chilling small-town cult vibes, and a brilliant twist I didn’t see coming. It’s the perfect read for Halloween, and I figured now was the perfect time to ask Freddie 5 Random Questions!
5 Random Questions
1. What’s your go-to Halloween costume?
Oh, for a long time it was Wyatt Earp, with my wife as Doc Holliday! We had the cowboy hats and fake guns around from our first year going as everyone’s favorite non-couple from Tombstone, and the other items (like cool vintage vests and blazers) are lesbian wardrobe staples already. But now we tend to plan out new stuff every year.
2. You have a magic ticket to spend one day anywhere in the world. Where will you go?
It would have to be Pingualuit Crater Lake, which is this gorgeous and perfectly round body of water in northern Quebec. It was formed by a meteorite impact, and has unusually clear water, and I love looking at pictures of it online. But it’s so remote that only like 20-60 tourists manage to visit a year, and the last leg of the trip is nearly sixty miles of wilderness hiking or floatplane travel with a local Inuit guide group as your escort…which is intensive and expensive for everyone involved, so you have to pay a lot to get out there. I absolutely will never go to Pingualuit unless I get my magic ticket, hopefully with a side of teleportation.
3. What’s one talent you have that not many people know about?
I worked in marketing for several years and it made me MISERABLE, but the funny thing is it means I know exactly what publishers are talking about when they bring up things like SEO, targeting, conversions, the sales funnel etc. I pretend to have no idea because I never want to discuss any of it ever again. It also made me very paranoid about how my data is being used, so I always have all cookies/analytics/permissions for everything turned off. Corporations do not in any way abide by privacy settings, I know…but the hilarious part of that is the fact that I get a new fifteen dollar-ish settlement payout like clockwork every few months, because there are so many class-action lawsuits going on for data usage violations at all times.
4. What’s a recent read you’ve loved?
Spoiled Milk by Avery Curran, out next year. It’s a classic boarding school novel…if the cast of said classic novel was entirely made up of lesbians and the school itself was located adjacent to Hell.
5. If you could trade places with any book or movie character for a day, who would you choose?
Bastian Balthazar Bux in The Neverending Story. Specifically the book version. I want to go to Fantastica (aka Fantasia) with all the power of the Auryn for a day, and then bail before I start to lose my memories!
About Freddie Kölsch
Freddie Kölsch is a connoisseur and crafter of frightful fiction (with a dash of hope) for teens and former teens. She lives in Salem, Massachusetts with her high school sweetheart-turned-wife, a handful of cats, a houseful of art, and a mind’s eye full of ghosts.
Her first novel, Now, Conjurers, was published by Union Square & Co. in 2024.
You can follow Freddie on Instagram @cosmicdraculas.
If you missed my newsletter interview with Freddie about Empty Heaven, check it out here.
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