KEVIN QUIGLEY

Drawn to the Flame

About the story:
- "Drawn to the Flame" is pulled right out of a pathological terror I have of moths. As nearly as I can figure, this phobia came from a confluence of events: a story I read in a young adult anthology when I was twelve about butterflied taking revenge on a cruel lepidopterist; the movie version of "The Silence of the Lambs", in which the chrysalis of a moth is lodged down a dead woman's throat; and a real-life gypsy moth scare in my town when I was young. A therapist once suggested I try immersion therapy with moths and I stopped seeing her.

The idea for the story:
- I had just read "Something Wicked This Way Comes" (I think the allusions are pretty much super obvious in my story) and I was eager to capture the carnival menace of that story in the creepiest way I knew. I drew on my own greatest fear and began the story during a snowstorm when I was the only one at work and things were slow. I finished writing it in a single afternoon - the quickest turnaround time for a story I've ever written. It was a really boring day at work, and this helped me escape the drudgery for awhile. I will say, though, that I typed some of the moth-attack scenes with my eyes half closed, unable to believe what I was writing. This is one of the few times I've ever scared myself when writing.

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