READERSVOICE.COM: Which non-fiction books have you enjoyed eg biography or crime or history, or anything else?

LAZY M: I’m really interested in music, so I’ve read a lot of biographies about my favourite artists. Heavier than Heaven (Kurt Cobain), Mystery White Boy Blues (Jeff Buckley) and a few others. I also read a really interesting book about the history of the samurai in Japan. We were never taught about that side of history at school, so it was a fun topic to learn about.

RV: What started your collecting of true spooky stories? I know you had one of your own stories on another Youtube channel. Was there an experience you had, like Dr Horror’s visit to a serial killler’s house, or particular stories you’d heard that started you off?

LM: I’m somewhat of a night owl, and I really enjoyed listening to Creepypasta narrators in the early hours before I went to sleep (and I still do!) Eventually I stumbled across a “true horror story” video, and I began binge-watching those too since I found them so horrifying. However, back then there weren’t many true horror narration videos, but I was always hungry for more. So I figured that other people must be thinking the same way as I was, and I thought that instead of waiting for somebody else to fill the gap that I could try my hand at it. People seemed to enjoy my content, and the rest is history!

RV: One story about someone’s mother’s escape from Ted Bundy, the serial killer, ended with her no longer trusting what anyone said about who or what they were. This is probably a good lesson to learn, what with so many narcissists running loose in the world. What did you learn from these stories?

LM: Trusting your instincts. Plenty of the stories involve people sensing that something just felt “odd” or “wrong”. Those feelings might be subconscious warning signals, and it’s better to be safe than sorry. Also, I think these stories really serve as a reminder of the precautions we all know we should be taking, but often times forget about or ignore. Things like travelling in groups, never leaving your drink unguarded at a bar, etc. People, especially young people, tend to have an invisibility complex, but as all of the experiences I narrate show, bad things could not only happen to anyone, but they also happen often. I think reading all these stories has actually made me a little more paranoid than I used to be. It might be a good time to invest in some Dobermans.

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– copyright Simon Sandall