A Horror World Conversation with Bob Freeman
By Steven E. Wedel

Bob Freeman is a man of many titles. Don’t believe me? Go visit his Web site, Bob Freeman’s Cairnwood Manor, at www.cairnwood.net. His titles are listed there … author, artist, supernaturalist and blogger. You have to dig a little deeper, but there you’ll learn he’s also a husband and father.

Yeah, but it’s that supernaturalist title you want to hear about, right? We’ll get to it. First, we’ll ask him to talk about that first career listing, the author bit.

Horror World: Bob, thanks for taking time out of your busy schedule to talk to Horror World. Tell us what made you want to become a writer?

Bob Freeman: It seems to me that storytelling is hardwired into my brain, and I think that’s true for most writers. We’re born with a need to spin yarns and weave worlds from whole cloth.

HW: Tell us about the Cairnwood Manor books. It’s an ongoing series involving vampires, werewolves and witches, right?

BF: That it is, but at its heart, and what I hope to show over the course of the series, is that it is really about the internal struggle of divining your true purpose and embracing that destiny. At center stage is Michael Somers, who discovers that he has been born into this legacy. How he deals with that, the discovery of the Cairnwood Curse, and how he embraces it and reshapes it, is the thrust of the initial trilogy.

HW: The new book in the series is KEEPERS OF THE DEAD. Can you give us a summary?

BF: A sinister cabal seeks to awaken an ancient evil and unleash it upon the world, to bring about an apocalyptic rebirth and herald in a new age of darkness. Michael and the Wolves of Cairnwood Manor, along with the Knights of the Circle of Nine Skulls, are intent on not letting that happen.

HW: Would we need to read the first Cairnwood book to understand the new one?

BF: Not at all. I made a point of throwing the reader headlong into this one, but I was careful to bring them up to speed fairly quickly. I do think that anyone who reads Keepers first will want to go back and read Shadows Over Somerset afterward though. It’s a fun world to play in, and I think it’s the type of world that readers like to be submerged in.

HW: What might we see from Cairnwood Manor in the future?

BF: I’m working on the third installment, In Time’s Shadow, now and as much as I’d like to tell you about it, anything I say would be riddled with spoilers. It’s certainly the more Gothic of the three and really climbs into Michael’s head and explores the bestial side that is in all of us.

HW: Tell us about some of your other fiction writing.

BF: As the president of Indiana Horror Writers, I’d be remiss if I didn’t talk about our latest project, Dark Harvest. Dark Harvest is an anthology of thirteen tales, all written by members of IHW, myself included, and I’m really proud of it. I have two novella length stories in it, The Book of Secrets (which ties into the Cairnwood Universe) and Born Again.

You can find me this Fall in the Michael Knost edited Legends of the Mountain State 2.

Also, I just completed a “paranormal detective” novel that deals with angels, demons, and black magic that I thoroughly enjoyed and am eager to start shopping around.

HW: What is it about horror that interests you? Have you considered any other genre?

BF: Is there another genre? Horror gives you so much room to play, with so many different sub-genres to dip your fingers into; it’s tailor-made for the types of stories that grow inside my head. Whether I dress them up in science fiction, dark fantasy, or sword and sorcery, my stories always have horror at their core. Horror gives you the freedom to explore raw human emotion and dissect what it is that makes us tick as human beings.

HW: You’re an artist, too. Personally, that disgusts me, as I have no talent there but wish I did. Which came first, the words or the images?

BF: I suppose that since I could draw before I could read or write, the pictures came first, but I’ve always viewed art as just another extension of storytelling… you’re just using a different palette.

HW: What are your aspirations as an artist?

BF: Oh, I have no aspirations beyond having fun with it. It’s a hobby, nothing more. I enjoy capturing the tone or mood of a written piece and giving birth to a visual representation of that work. It’s a great way to flex my creative muscles in a different way. It’s also a great catalyst for my writing. In fact, I often create a mock cover of something and then write a story around it. Art’s just another tool in the arsenal.

HW: Okay, Bob, what is a supernaturalist?

BF: Well, Supernaturalist is a term I coined to throw a blanket over my varied interests in the occult, paranormal investigation, UFO chasing, monster hunting, and psychic research. I’ve had a lifelong obsession with the strange and unusual and that led to my chasing an anthropology degree back when I wore a younger man’s clothes.

HW: Do you make money at it, or is it something you do to help people?

BF: Oh, there is no money in it, except from the occasional article I write about one of my investigations. In the most recent issue of Doorways Magazine you can read about my explorations into a haunted IOOF Lodge in rural Indiana, for example.

There is often an element of helping people involved, but to be honest, I think you’d find that most people are in it for the thrill of the hunt, the delving into the shadows and coming out unscathed and enlightened as to what’s happening just beyond the pale.

HW: How close is your ghost hunting to what we see on shows like “TAPS”?

BF: I think TAPS is a fair representation of modern ghost hunting. My own research and investigation has certainly changed a lot over the course of the twenty-five years I’ve been involved in it.

HW: You’re a member of the Aleister Crowley Society. That means you’re a fan of the Ozzy Osbourne song, right? haha Talk to us about Crowley, the man and the myth, and your interest in him.

BF: Crowley was a complex individual, both brilliant and degenerate, illuminated and infantile, genius and despicable. He advanced the art and science of magick in such a way as to make it palatable for the modern age, but he had a mean streak in him and could at times be impossibly cruel to those closest to him. He was an extraordinary poet and author, an accomplished mountain climber and explorer, and a noted chess player.

Aleister Crowley’s dual nature fascinates me. He was a true Renaissance Man and his own worst enemy. In a very real sense, he showed me the way toward a door that he was ill prepared to open for himself.

HW: Besides Crowley, who has inspired you in your various careers? How?

BF: Robert E. Howard for his kinetic energy and visceral world building, Umberto Eco for his thoughtful and cryptic prose, Katherine Kurtz for her rich and vibrant imagination, Dan Curtis for his sense of dark romance, Richard Matheson for his sheer brilliance, Frank Frazetta for his unbridled passion and unfettered fury, and Jimmy Page for the power, mystery, and Hammer of the Gods.

HW: Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

BF: I’d like to think that in ten years time I’ll be able to devote myself to my craft, expressing myself to the heights of my creative potential, and through doing so, provide a comfortable life for myself and my family.

HW: Anything I should have asked and didn’t?

BF: Well, I would like to add that I get a lot of love and support from my wife Kim. None of this would be possible without her faith in me. And my son Connor reminds me every day just how magical life can be. Family is the cornerstone. It keeps me grounded and that’s what gives me the freedom to let my spirit soar.

HW: Thanks for your time, Bob. For those wanting more information, be sure to visit Cairnwood Manor or, better yet, buy Bob’s books!

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