What if your deepest trauma gave birth to the monster that saved you? In this revealing and powerful episode, we sink our teeth into a transformative conversation with a horror author and former teacher who quite literally wrote his way through pain—by creating werewolves.

After surviving a devastating car accident that left him with a broken back and a new reality filled with PTSD, nightmares, and cognitive setbacks, our guest found traditional therapy wasn't enough. What helped him claw his way out? Horror. Writing. Monsters. And a full moon’s worth of metaphor.

We explore how horror stories—particularly werewolves—became a vessel for healing, expression, and identity. From early literary love affairs with The Hobbit and Tales from the Crypt, to sneaking horror flicks as a kid, to launching a publishing press for authors seeking catharsis through darkness, this episode shows how horror isn’t just scary—it’s sacred.

A Werewolf Saved My Life

What We Talk About in This Episode:

• How a real-life trauma led to the creation of therapeutic monster fiction
• Why werewolves are the perfect metaphor for mental health and transformation
• The evolution from fantasy reader to horror writer
• Growing up on Poe, Price, and Friday the 13th
• The damaging effects of book banning—and why horror should be in the classroom
• Why horror helps kids process anxiety
• How creative outlets can be more effective than traditional therapy for some
• Launching a new horror anthology series, Dead Avenue, to showcase healing through fear

Links & Resources:

🐺 Visit Reader2Writer.com to explore books and the new Dead Avenue anthology

📚 Interested in writing horror as healing? Keep an eye on Reader to Writer Press for future submissions

🎧 Follow Horror Heals for more stories where the shadows offer shelter

HH Brian Hershey

Corey and Kendall: You see me rush to mute for a second. You can keep talking. 'cause it's probably that they're, they've discovered the male person, you know, outside or something. They're therapy too, so. Yeah,

Brian Hershey: Yeah. I actually have a dog that's downstairs. I mean, fortunately I got the door closed and everything else, but we'll see. I get it.

Corey and Kendall: if we, if we didn't have hours with us, they would be loud

Brian Hershey: Yeah.

Corey and Kendall: for sure. So

Corey and Kendall: Hey Brian, welcome to the Horror Heels podcast.

Brian Hershey: Oh, thank you for having me.

Corey and Kendall: Absolutely. So how do you relate to our theme of, uh, horror movies and horror culture and all things horror being positive for our mental wellness?

Brian Hershey: Oh, wow. I mean, uh, that's a, a deep loaded question, but, uh, also very important one. Um, as a, an author, um. And a former English and reading teacher. Um, I just know that books and writing offered, uh, very safe spaces for people to. Explore things that either have happened or if it could happen, what would I do?

It was truly a situation that I experienced where. I closed my eyes one day and woke up and everything was different. Completely different. And I was in a world of pain and this was just a, a result from a very bad car accident where I ended up with a broken back and, um, it took a long time to get back up to what would be considered a.

And 'cause there was no way that I could do it. Having titanium rods being installed halfway up my spine and on top of like internal bleeding and sprains, ankles and knees and broken bones elsewhere that I didn't even find out were broken until you know, a couple of days later, you know, like you go to stand up and realize, oh yeah, that's right.

My toes are broken. And you know, so it just, and so there was a lot of rediscovering and like. Talk about ground zero and all you can do is look up. Um, but I again, started to turn to writing as therapy, but just writing about what I was experiencing was not necessarily enough. I had to confront the fear.

Because my brain's just not functioning anymore. Um, I can't concentrate, I can't, uh, remember things properly because there was the swelling that was, uh, in the frontal lobe, uh, portion, and it was just. It was causing all kinds of deficits. And so it was scary to realize that this could be like a permanent condition.

You know, mental health and horror and how it can help you and stuff like that. So it opened up a, a, a door that like I didn't, never thought that I would ever go through. I thought I was gonna be a children's book writer.

So.

Corey and Kendall: Interesting. Do you recall that aha moment when the werewolf popped into your head?

Brian Hershey: Oh yes, very much so. It, it was almost kind of like it, it was a Saturday morning, even just drinking coffee. And I just remember thinking to myself, God, I just, I feel like a werewolf. I just had came, uh, came off of a, a full moon and I'm, I'm sore. I'm just, I'm anxious, I'm, I'm, what has happened? I gotta piece things together.

Very early on, like in the, the, the Middle Ages, and they would have to live on the outskirts of town because they were, they, we didn't have medicine, we didn't have these diagnosis. We, people were saying, well, they, they're a victim of witchcraft and they're crazy and they have to live on the outskirts.

Well, if you live on the outskirts, you're gonna grow. Facial hair. 'cause you're not gonna be clean shaved and, and, and you're not gonna bathe properly. You're not gonna, and it's just gonna exacerbate and get worse and worse. And so somebody sees that and goes, oh my gosh, that's like a man wolf, a werewolf.

But, uh, how we treated mental health, how the authorities of the time treated mental health. Um, the churches were brutal. Uh, to people if you, you had mental health. I mean, they, they didn't know anything about the science and only, uh, relied on what they could read from, from a scripture and, um. It had no effect.

It had no help. They weren't helping people. They were just outcasting people, you know? And so that's largely where a lot of people say, Hey, silver comes from that, that line of thinking, uh, of it was a pure metal. It was, you know, you have to get rid of that, that evil that is inside of you. So,

Brian Hershey: Oh yeah, I, I totally agree with you on that one. I mean, there are some times where wow, we just went back to the dark ages again. You know, and it's just did we not learn anything

Corey and Kendall: I know. Well, we tend to jump around chronologically during these just because something will pop up and, and, but I want to ask this first before I forget it, but were you feeling like the. Therapy that you were being offered for your emotional, you know, um, situation after your accident was not helpful, or how did you go from, you know, here's what traditional, you know, therapy is like after an accident like this to where, um, you're healing yourself through writing

Um. I was going into teaching, which was kind of an accelerated path now because of, uh, you know, I was originally gonna take some time and go into the Coast Guard and I was gonna go into teaching, but I realized that, um, I. Being a very creative, I always said, you know, I'm a hyper creative individual and being a creative individual and not having the proper outlet for that creativity creates neurotic behavior.

And there, the therapy was just trying to say, it's okay, let's do this now. I mean I had to go through like speech pathology and, and, and everything else. Uh, just because I was trying to remember things and I couldn't, so there was a different type of therapy in that regard, but in terms of counseling, it was just like it's, I understand your intention.

I understand what you're trying to give me, but it's not helping. I had to go through, uh, I went through three different, uh, individuals until finally somebody actually said to me as I was learning about you know, horror and writing and putting it together. One of the, she was a clinical psychologist and she was brilliant.

She says, okay, let's go with that. Let's start writing that. I want to see what you can produce. And so it just, again, the whole door opened up and she says, but I'm not gonna tell you what you have to write. I'm not gonna, you have to do it yourself. You have to explore and say, okay, if this monster fits you, how does it fit you?

How does this, you know, and tell me a story about it. Develop a story, develop an alter ego, so to speak, because if you don't like it, you can delete it, you know? And if it comes out and it's too scary, at least we've identified something and then, you know, you can deal with it in a, in a different way. Or we could deal with it in a different way.

Seeing like the different traumas that like children and other teachers and and so on and so forth had experienced, uh, doing home visits and seeing wow, there are some really tough scenarios, uh, out there and it just, uh, it, it just launched itself even further in, I was like. Okay, this is how I need to, to deal with this.

This is how I have to process. This is how I have to do it. And it's it only took a couple of times to actually go to the clinical psychologist before. I'm like, no this is my therapy. This is how I have to do it. I can handle it from here. You know? And it's like this book right here was the one that really kind of came out after that.

So, so that's kind of how it unfolded.

Corey and Kendall: Okay, good. What, uh, did your wife and your loved ones think about this type of therapy? U you know, utilizing the, um, essentially the werewolf character, you know, as a form of healing?

Brian Hershey: I think a lot of my, my, uh, family members are very sarcastic, so the, the, they, like my aunt said to my, my father at one point in time, he used to be such a good kid, you know, it's like what happened to him? But everyone's just like, where, where's, where's the next story? Where's the next, you know, we, we want more.

And of course, my brother, he's a horror enthusiast too, so it's just like, he's yes, please write more. You know,

Corey and Kendall: Yeah.

Brian Hershey: it's I want more stuff. I wanna, I want to hear what you have to say. And, you know, so. But yeah, it was initially it was huh, you wanna do what? But then it was Okay, now I see the value in it. So.

Corey and Kendall: Awesome. Well, let's flash back to young Brian. 'cause I imagine if you're gonna go into, uh, if you're gonna become an English teacher, you're probably a voracious reader. As a, as a young. Man, uh, what did you start off with and when did you start being introduced to, um, writing?

Brian Hershey: Um, horror writing, um, came much later. Um, I fell in love with, uh, fantasy stories as a kid. The Hobbit was, was one that I just was like, oh, this is amazing. This is wonderful. And that's kind of how I really got into the world of reading and things like that. Um, but. My brother and I used to sneak downstairs at night.

Or, you know, if my parents had, you know, were, were watching something that was spooky, we would sneak in behind the chairs and watch from around the corner of the couches and, you know, so it was a lot of that stuff. If we had a, you know, a, a friend do come over for sleepover, we would stay up all night trying to watch like the, the scary films.

And we just loved being scared. It was, it, it gave us permission. To be scared and something that's whoa, man, I shouldn't have seen that at that age. I mean, 'cause that really stuck with me, um, to this day where it's I still watch it go, whew. You know, that, that gives me the chills. Um, but I really didn't start reading a lot of horror until I was late high school and into early college years.

And so I was like, okay, well there's something here. I mean, he's just devouring books left and right, and he's a ferocious reader. But, um, it was when I, I went into college that all of a sudden I was like, this is a really cool genre and I'm gonna have this right alongside fantasy and mystery. And it was just like, this is fun.

You know, so, and I just wanna be surrounded by books on, on all levels and, you know, um. I was a little bit, it's funny 'cause like I did read like Fierce Street from RL Stein when I was younger, but I was, I'm old enough that like Goosebumps came after me. So it's just like a lot of people say, oh, I learned, I fell in love because of goosebumps and everything else.

I was, I, after me, I had Fierce Street. Is is what? So you know, I mean, being in my mid forties now which is yeah, there, there was. If you were reading like something that was horrific, it was like Steve, it was Steve King, it was Ann Rice, it was Peter Strub. It was, you know, Clive Barker. I mean, it was these individuals and parents were kinda like, nah, I don't know if you really wanna read that.

My brother being older, he would sneak and, and read and stuff like that. And so that, that's kind of how that unfolded.

Let's put that way.

Brian Hershey: Grim fairy tales,

Corey and Kendall: Yes, there was some, there was some, there was some blood and stuff happening, you know, uh, grandma did not farewell against, uh, the. So, um, and that sort of leads me to something that we've talked about several times on this show is that, you know, we're big horror enthusiasts. I love going to the conventions and I'm, we're seeing more and more like young kids dressed as Chucky or you know, the Billy from saw and that sort of thing.

Sometimes they're gory.

Brian Hershey: absolutely. And uh, I think a. And now that I'm now thinking back, some of my earliest exposure to horror was Edgar Allen Poe. Um, because again, it was like the collection was out there. It was considered classic literature. I mean, it was gothic literature, but at the same point in time it was, I.

Readily available. And as we would take, uh, trips and we would be driving at night, my dad would slide in the cassette tape of Vincent Price, reading Edgar Allen post's stories and Wow. I mean, talk about being immersed in, into that. I mean, um, so it was exciting in that regard. But to your point, kids are very resilient.

Kids from all of that is actually more detrimental. Um, and again, when somebody, when a kid would come to me and say, oh yeah, Ms. Hershey, I've seen that before. I'm like, well wait a minute. How do you see that? Rated R and everything else. And I'm then I think back to my own. I'm like, okay, yeah, you've been, you were sneaking just like I was.

I don't like that. Uh, but maybe they like the classic monster. Ooh, the vampire. Oh, what a, you know, swabs, seductive kind of force, you know, and those tropes and archetypes and everything else exist today. I used to tell my students all the time, I said, you're being affected by a vampire now. It's called your cell phone. It's draining your life force, you know, and so when they can make that kind of connection in a metaphor, then it's less scary, but it also helps with their own mental processing.

You know, front and center.

Brian Hershey: You know, uh, I think that honestly that's the true evil, I mean, to, to ban books.

They banned them. It was punishable by death, you know? And. The more you ban, the worse things become. They don't have exposure to literature. They don't have the ability to ask questions and have productive debates and conversations. They, the only thing that ever happened to me from reading band books is I got smarter and more empathetic.

Corey and Kendall: there's a goal.

Brian Hershey: Like, I wanna send my books to them saying, Hey, this is a.

Good book to have in a classroom and put them on the band book list. Boom. I'm national bestseller. Let's go.

Corey and Kendall: Yeah, great because

Brian Hershey: So yeah, go. Go right ahead. Controversy breed, sales. Go ahead. You know,

Corey and Kendall: That, that segues nicely to my next question, which is, um, where, where can, um, our listeners find your books? Where would we, where can we

Brian Hershey: anywhere.

Corey and Kendall: them? Yeah.

Brian Hershey: Yeah. I mean, if you wanna go to, uh, Amazon, if, if that's your, your means of, of shopping, it's on Kindle, nook, Barnes and Noble, you know, so, uh, you, you can go anywhere to, to order. Um, I like to direct people directly to my website, uh, reader to writer.com, uh, just because they typically have the best prices.

You can go straight to the printer. And so that's probably the best one to, uh, best way to go

Corey and Kendall: we'll put that into the show

Brian Hershey: do have to have a little plug. Avenue Volume one. Okay. It is out. It is available. It's hard back. Okay. This is an ongoing, um, series that we, that we have decided to launch. And, uh, again, it really kind of goes with the whole premise of horror has helped me tremendously.

Um. And there's other authors out there that feel exactly the same way. It's not just about, oh, I like to write it and I just wanna make money, or something like that. That's part of it. Um. But there's a lot of people that write this because it is exactly what we've talked about this whole time. It's therapeutic, it's great, and I wanna be able to offer that opportunity for other authors, uh, to have a safe space to write that stuff, but also have somebody who.

But beyond that, it's like you've got a lot of people that are suffering and they're trying, so let's give 'em an outlet. That's what Reader to Writer Press is about. It's from readers to writers. So Dead Avenue is our first launch the traditional, you know, publishing realm and everything else.

So it's a lot of fun. Great. Eight stories. You know, death finds us all on Dead Avenue,

Corey and Kendall: Yeah, we'll be sending out the, the good vibes for success and, uh, yeah, just it's. I think we, you know, we try to, with the show like sledgehammer over the head, over and over again, the message that whether you're a writer or an artist or, um, a cosplay, what have you, you know, whatever your outlet is like there, you know, there, there are, um, there's camaraderie available.

Brian Hershey: it. It is. I mean, it's, it's a, a classic genre for a reason. Um, it exists for a reason, and we've been writing stories and telling stories around campfires and, and since the dawn of, you know, humankind. So with, with that being said, it's like it's not gonna go away. You can't ban it. You can't, you know, it just, if you ban it, it's just gonna become better, you know?

Corey and Kendall: Right, right,

Brian Hershey: So it it just like you do, you can't ban romance, you can't ban all of those other, uh, genres and stuff that can potentially be controversial. But controversy is good. You want to have a voice of dissent. You wanna be able to have people who can read this and say, let's talk about it. And when somebody says, Nope, nope, it's just gone.

That's bad. That's really, really bad. And yes, we are a good community. I love going to the horror conventions you know, a patron, but also as a vendor. Um, I love talking with people, so yeah, I agree with you a hundred percent on that.

Brian Hershey: Ooh. Ooh, that's a good question. God, I have so many of them. Uh, but do you know, I know something though. I I, I'm very much a. Traditionalist and, uh, I have two, if I, if I'm permitted to say two, um, Jamie Lee, Curtis, and Halloween is just classic and my gosh, I grew up watching Halloween, every Halloween and, you know, all that type of, so of course I, I fell in love with her a long time ago.

Um, but then also Sigourney Wave Aliens. I mean, what an incredible. Franchise, but Alien and Aliens were just fantastic movie making, fantastic storytelling. And, um, I, I truly say that aliens is probably just as good if not better than the first one. And that's rare. Um,

Corey and Kendall: are

Brian Hershey: when,

when

you have a, have a franchise, that's rare.

But a lot of that is because Sigourney Weaver's character was just spot on. Perfect.

Corey and Kendall: Yep.

Brian Hershey: so I, I, I have loved her for a, a long time. That was one of the first movies that scared the pants off of me too.

So, you know.

Corey and Kendall: I love that combination of sci-fi with the horror aspects. I love it.

Brian Hershey: Yeah, absolutely. I.

Corey and Kendall: Awesome. Well, this has been a great conversation, Brian. Thank you so much for being open with your story, and we're going to, uh, you know, push people to this website and yeah, enjoy the rest of this spooky season.

Brian Hershey: Well, thank you very much for having me. I, I absolutely adore being here and you, you both do the same. Enjoy the rest of the spooky season. Thank you

Corey and Kendall: Thank you. Thank you. If we could get you to.