S. M. Hallow: Sometimes Stories About Magic and Monsters Are the Truest
In this interview, author S. M. Hallow discusses revising and resubmitting her new gothic horror novel, The Halls of the Dead.
S. M. Hallow’s short story “How to Stay Married to Baba Yaga” was included in the Locus 2023 Recommended Reading List and anthologized in The Year’s Best Fantasy Volume 3, edited by Paula Guran. Other short work can be found in Baffling Magazine, Seize the Press, Taco Bell Quarterly, and We’re Here: The Best Queer Speculative Fiction 2023. Her novella, How to Survive This Fairytale, was published in January 2025 and received a special edition in Rainbow Crate, a book box exclusively for queer books. Follow her on Instagram and Bluesky.
In this interview, S. M. discusses revising and resubmitting her new gothic horror novel, The Halls of the Dead, the inspiration that started the writing process, and more.
Name: S. M. Hallow
Literary agent: Laura Zats
Book title: The Halls of the Dead
Publisher: Harper Voyager
Release date: August 18, 2026
Genre/category: Gothic Horror Fantasy
Previous titles: How to Survive This Fairytale
Elevator pitch: In a magical version of Victorian London, where necromancy is a crime punishable by death, three necromancers pursue resurrection, romance, and revenge with dire consequences, sure to entice fans of Mexican Gothic and Frankenstein.
What prompted you to write this book?
When I first conceived of this book in March of 2021, we were still in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. A year prior, in the earliest days of that first wave, my mother stopped reading obituaries; over 40 people she’d known had died. How do you deal with loss on such a tremendous scale? I learned very quickly that life is short and unpredictable, and since tomorrow isn’t promised, you’d best start working toward your dreams today. There was nothing for me to do but to start jotting down notes. Those notes became this angry, festering wound of a book in which a woman resurrects her lover, who was executed for practicing illegal magic. I wanted to write a world where a spell could bring someone back to life. I wanted to write a world where pain could mean something other than hurting.
How long did it take to go from idea to publication? And did the idea change during the process?
The idea came in March of 2021, but I didn’t start writing in earnest until October of 2021. It’s taken five years from writing that first page to publication, and the idea itself never really changed. In fact, my first chapter remains largely the same! I went into this book with a really clear vision of what it was. Underneath the revenge and the blood and the gore, it has always been about the lengths you’d go to for the people you love the most.
Were there any surprises or learning moments in the publishing process for this title?
Publishing is very slow… unless it’s fast. This book sold after a month on submission, which seemed quick to me, but it took several years to even get to that point. It was another few months before I signed my contract, and then more months before it was time to start editing for publication. This book sold in the summer of 2024, and it’ll be out two years later, in summer of 2026. It helps to have other hobbies to make that waiting time bearable!
Were there any surprises in the writing process for this book?
I didn’t know this while I was writing, but I wrote this book with all its plot events out of order. When I was still querying, Laura Zats asked me to do an R&R (revise & resubmit) for this novel before she would consider representing me. We hopped on Zoom, I listened to her feedback, and I retreated to my writing cave for the next five months to perform a massive story-surgery. I said earlier that the first chapter never changed, and that’s true—but I rewrote and reordered almost the entire rest of the book. With that revision, I ended up adding a third POV character as well, which added so much more depth. It was very, very hard to do, but I like the book so much more now than I did back then.
What do you hope readers will get out of your book?
Catharsis. I wrote this book because I needed somewhere to put the pain before it consumed me. I hope reading this book is as much a release as writing it was.
If you could share one piece of advice with other writers, what would it be?
You have to be willing to tell the truth, even if it feels vulnerable or dangerous or terrifying. Sometimes stories about magic and monsters are the truest stories there are. As long as you’re saying something real about your characters, their lives, their experiences, and the world they live in—even if that world looks nothing like ours—you’ll find your audience.
