by Timothy Pike

Last year, we were thrilled to feature horror authors (and besties) Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl as they explained the science behind some of your favorite stories.

Now they’re back—just in time for Halloween—to talk about Travels of Terror, their just-released road-trip guide that brings you to some of the strangest, spookiest locations in the United States.

In our interview, Kelly and Meg share why they bonded so quickly when they met, recall an interesting discussion about a movie on their horror podcast, and each pick their three favorite spine-tingling locations from the guide.

Welcome back, Kelly and Meg! For those who didn’t catch your last interview, can you talk about how the two of you met?

Sure! We met over twenty years ago when Kelly walked into the shop I was working at. She had on an X-Files shirt, which was a signal that we were on the same nerdy wavelength. We became friends thanks to that shirt and bonded over our love of horror, theater, books, and of course, The X-Files.

Last month saw the release of Travels of Terror, a road-trip guide full of “Strange and Spooky Spots Across America.” I can only imagine how much fun it was to put this together. How did you come up with the idea?

We do a lot of traveling together, for fun and for work, so it really came from our own experiences. Whenever we’d visit a city, we’d be searching for the best spooky places, whether it be a gothic museum or a unique boutique. We pitched the idea, and Sourcebooks loved it. What a great excuse to travel the country with our best friend!

In the book, you include locations from coast to coast, north to south, and everywhere in between. Did you actually do the whole road trip and visit each location in person?

We did! It was important to us that we spoke from authenticity. We had a pretty tight deadline so we hopped from place to place, and it was such a wonderful adventure. We wanted our readers to know we visited these restaurants and tourist stops—and drank the cocktails we recommend. And there were places that didn’t live up to the hype that we didn’t include.

Ever since we met twenty years ago, we’ve bonded over our love of horror, theater, books, and of course, The X-Files.

Any tense moments along the way?

We’ve been friends for a long time, so we travel well together. But at one point, Meg almost missed the flight to Providence, Rhode Island, as she was procuring snacks. She had to beg to be let on after they closed the doors. Oops. We also encountered a few ghosts which you can read about in the book.

With Halloween coming up, now seems like the perfect time to pick up a copy of Travels of Terror and hit the road. What are your top three must-sees?

Meg: Stay at the Lizzie Borden Bed and Breakfast in Fall River, Massachusetts; visit Edgar Allan Poe’s ghost at the Athenaeum in Providence, Rhode Island; and don’t miss out on seeing the world’s goriest dollhouse at the Peculiarium in Portland, OR.

Kelly: See if you can connect with Elvis’s ghost in Las Vegas, Nevada; visit Vampira’s resting place at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles, California; and see if you can spot the “Tall Man” in Duluth, Minnesota.

What’s one of most memorable discussions you had recently on your podcast, Horror Rewind?

We were both absolutely blown away by the movie I Saw the TV Glow (2024) and found it fascinating that we each had different interpretations of the same film. We believe this speaks to its layered brilliance and recommend others go into it with an open mind.

At the movies: popcorn or candy?

We both say popcorn! And if feeling fancy, Meg will order Milk Duds.

Horror and suspense author Meg Hafdahl is the creator of numerous stories and books. Her fiction has appeared in anthologies such as Eve’s Requiem: Tales of Women, Mystery, and Horror and Eclectically Criminal. Her work has been produced for audio by The Wicked Library and The Lift, and she is the author of two popular short story collections, including Twisted Reveries: Thirteen Tales of the Macabre. Meg is also the author of the two novels Daughters of Darkness and Her Dark Inheritance. Co-host of the podcast Horror Rewind and co-author of The Science of Monsters, The Science of Stephen King, and The Science of Agatha Christie, Meg lives in the snowy bluffs of Minnesota.

Find Meg at her website or Amazon author page, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and X.

Kelly Florence teaches communication at Lake Superior College in Duluth, Minnesota, and is the creator of the Be a Better Communicator podcast. She received her B.A. in theater from the University of Minnesota Duluth and her M.A. in communicating arts from the University of Wisconsin-Superior. She has written, directed, produced, choreographed, and stage managed for dozens of productions in Minnesota, including Carrie: The Musical through Rubber Chicken Theatre, and Treasure Island for Wise Fool Theater. Kelly is passionate about female representation in all media and particularly the horror genre. She is the co-author of The Science of Monsters, The Science of Stephen King, and The Science of Agatha Christie with Meg Hafdahl. They also co-host the Horror Rewind podcast and write and produce horror projects together.

Visit Kelly at her website, and connect with her on Instagram, Facebook, and X.