Successful horror author visits hometown

It was a full house at the Marshall Public Library in Pocatello Thursday night as it welcomed back a successful hometown author.

Bracken MacLeod is a horror/thriller author originally from Pocatello and Thursday night, he was back in the Gate City for a reading and book signing.

“I think of myself as an accidental horror writer,” MacLeod described his move into the horror genre. “I started out with an intent to write crime thrillers and mysteries. A couple of people I knew asked me if I could write, like, a horror short story for their anthology and I did, and it just kind of ballooned from there. It snowballed when I found out I was fairly natural at writing in that genre.”

MacLeod has published three novels and several works of short fiction. His books include Idaho-inspired “Mountain Home,” “Come to Dust” and “Stranded.”

“Stranded” also sold its television rights and is currently in the works to become a t.v. show.

MacLeod’s work was also nominated in 2016 for the Bram Stoker award by the Horror Writers Association.

MacLeod has been a martial arts instructor, a university philosophy instructor and a trial attorney but he said he was always a writer and came to back to his passion to make it into a career.

MacLeod grew up in Pocatello, graduating from both Pocatello High School and Idaho State University. He said he’s thrilled to be able to come back to his hometown, especially the library where he spent a lot of time growing up.

“The library was kind of my refuge,” MacLeod described. “When I was a kid, I was into short and nerdy things. I was into Dungeons and Dragons and you know, fantasy literature and I would come to the library all the time to find new books to read because I couldn’t read enough. And my friends and I would come here and play games and kind of use it as a sanctuary. This was a place we came to be ourselves.”

He said his advice to aspiring authors is that if you want to write, and to write well, that you need to be a voracious reader. He adds that you have to read every genre, not just the one you want to write in so that you can be a well-rounded and knowledgeable writer.

MacLeod’s books are sold in local bookstores and on Amazon.