He writes about things that go bump in the night

By Casey Gillis

Published: June 23, 2008

When Jason Farris greets you at the door of his Fort Avenue apartment, he apologizes for the noise.

“I’ve got the TV and the radio on,” he says sheepishly. “I like background noise.”

The Appomattox native especially likes it when he’s writing. The budding author, 29, published his first book of short stories, “The Apparition and Other Tales of the Supernatural,” in March and is already at work on a couple follow-ups, including a Western mystery.

“I like to write with the TV on very low, to where I can hardly hear it.”

It sets the mood for his often-dark stories, says Farris, who works as a production assistant at WSET.

“I think the best time to write is midnight,” he adds, because he can “find inspiration. … You can kind of put yourself in that (spooky) environment.”

“The Apparition” runs just under 50 pages and features four short stories that fall into the horror and psychological thriller genres. Locally, it can be found on the shelves at Givens Books and Barnes & Noble.

“It’s not a very thick book,” Farris says with a laugh. “But it’s a start.”

The stories are a mix of new and old ones, like the title story, which is about a traveling man who encounters a ghost. Farris wrote it years ago and revamped it for the book.

“Some of them have been sitting around since college. They were collecting dust,” he says. “I wiped them off, reread them and rewrote them.”

The other three tales are “Forgotten Harvest,” in which a man, after moving into his new house, suspects a murder may have been covered up there; “Remember,” in which a man is visited by a deceased former love; and “Stable,” in which a man’s life is ruined by an ill-fated romance.

Farris says he can’t promise that any of them end happily.

“I really like stories that end badly,” he says. “Not because I like bad things, but because most people expect things to end (happily), where the character finds out what’s going on and fixes it.

“It’s good to have that different thing happening.”

Growing up, Farris was attracted to dark stories and mysteries written by greats like Edgar Allan Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Washington Irving.

“Those kind of guys seemed the most interesting,” Farris says. “The stories moved quickly.

“(But) they don’t have to have blood and guts. Just a history and a backstory, and a character (who) has to figure it out.”

As a child, he always had ideas for his own tales swimming in his mind.

He still does, and inspiration often strikes at the most inconvenient times.

“It happens when I’m in the car, and I don’t have anything to write with,” Farris says. “I have to keep repeating it to myself until I can get something to write with.”

Or he’ll be walking down the street and, after catching the end of someone’s conversation, a light bulb will go off.

After that, he says, the story “just carries me where it wants to go.”

Four questions for Jason Farris

What was the first story you ever wrote?
It was probably something in grade school (that had) to do with kingdoms and swords and wizards. Stuff like that. I was really into that. I did a lot of writing after school. My parents had an old Commodore 64 computer, and you could only play a few old school games and type (on it). I would type out stories. Some of them would be ridiculous.

Are you a perfectionist?
Yes. If it doesn’t go the direction I want it to go in, I just want to throw it away. But I was always told not to throw it away. You learn from the mistakes you make.

Who are some horror writers you look up to or whose work you enjoy reading?
I like a little bit of Stephen King. A lot of people say that. I also like Chuck Palahniuk. I’m reading a book by him now called “Lullaby,” about an ancient poem that when it’s thought or read out loud, it can kill anyone who’s around. I also like the old masters. (Sir Arthur Conan) Doyle and (Edgar Allan) Poe. (Poe) was the first one who inspired me to write.

What’s your favorite Poe story?
”The Black Cat”