Welcome to a special stop on the Spooktacular Seductions Blog Tour, complete with exclusive author responses to a spooky question.

Halloween has come and gone, but the days are still getting shorter and the nights are getting longer. What scares you?

Each of the authors in the Spooktacular Seductions anthology was asked the following question:

What is the scariest creature you can think of? (Real or imaginary. Spiders, zombies, one you made up in your head, etc.!) What would you do if a ___ snuck up on you in the middle of the night?

And here is what they said:

Linda Carroll-Bradd, author of Bewitching Gypsy

I hate snakes—all types—and I’m not sure I could be as strong as Indiana Jones and deal with them. If one snuck up on me, first I’d try to get as high and then as far away as possible. Are they scared away by screams? Because I could try that too.

Christy Thomas, author of Where Angels Tread

The scariest creature to me are the Vampires portrayed in Christine Feehan’s, Carpathian series novels. They can appear handsome, luring women to them, but they are ruthless, bloodthirsty, men that only want to kill.

If a Vampire snuck up on me in the middle of the night, I’d expect a visit from Samael, the Angel of Death. (You can read Samael’s story in Where Angel’s Tread.)

Havva Murat, author of Encantado

My story revolves around a mythical creature that I would definitely be afraid of: a giant Amazonian sea snake (or in some versions a dolphin) that can take on human form and seduce/lure humans underwater and even inflict insanity. Snakes send me squealing in general, but supernatural underwater snakes are on another plane entirely.

Michelle Ziegler, author of Garden of Souls

Well, I think spiders win.  Granted I’m afraid of Zombies and do wonder if I should prepare incase the Zombie apocalypse comes.  If a spider snuck up on me in the middle of the night I would scream loud enough to make up the neighbors. I’m not sure that I wouldn’t have a heart attack honestly.

Echo Shea, author of If This Be Madness

This can change at any minute, but for right now I’m going to go with zombie. The idea of someone coming up behind me, rotting flesh clinging to sinew and bone, reaching out with softened, bloated hands, rancid breath at back–makes me a tad bit squeamish. First instinct says, I’d grab a frying pan and whack him with it–though I don’t know what it says about my cooking that the undead would obviously sneak up on me in the kitchen or why I’d be cooking in the middle of the night. I guess it’s just a heck of a lot better than having that thing creep up on me in bed–in which case I would pull that iron clad cover over my head. After all, nothing can get to me beneath linen.

Lisa A. Adams, author of Spooky Hollow Cafe

The absolute scariest thing I can even possibly imagine is a GIANT cockroach. You know, like the size of the spiders in the forbidden forest of the Harry Potter series. If ever a cockroach of that size even existed, I’d probably die. But, having one sneak up behind me in the middle of the night? Let’s just say, I wouldn’t handle it quite as well as Ron did.

Lily Carlyle, author of Ghost of a Chance

Zombies scare the crap out of me. I’m pretty sure that if one snuck up on me in the middle of the night, I would react like I do when I have nightmares: try really hard to scream but only a whisper comes out, with my feet rooted to the ground so all I can do is stand there wordlessly, watching the zombie creep up on me…

As for me? I agree with Lily and Echo, that zombies are definitely the worst.

What about you? What scary creatures frighten you the most? And what would you do if you saw one? Let us know in the comments below. Oh, and sweet dreams. Don’t let the vampires bite…. (Unless they ask nicely first.)

😉