Steven LaChance Blog

I’m four chapters into Zombie Road now, and this book is stirring up a flood of memories. Writing it feels different from anything I’ve done before. If I had written this years ago, before Confrontation with Evil, it would have been a completely different book. That experience changed me. It made me a better researcher, a more patient writer, and it taught me something invaluable: never accept a story at face value.

While working on Confrontation, especially while digging into the real story of the boy behind The Exorcist, I saw firsthand how deeply false narratives can take root. Stories become “truth” simply because they are dramatic or easy to believe. People repeat them until they feel unshakable, but when I pulled those threads, an entirely different picture began to emerge. That process taught me to dig deeper than ever before, to follow every detail, every contradiction, until I understood what really happened—or at least as close as one can get. That mindset is shaping every page of Zombie Road.

From the very start, I created clear rules for myself. When it comes to researching the paranormal, I do not rely on paranormal television shows, ghost hunting groups, paranormal writers, or tour guides as sources. That is not meant as an insult to anyone, but over the years I’ve learned that much of that material is shaped to tell a specific story, not to explore all sides of a mystery. My job is not to convince you of something; my job is to gather everything I can and give it to you so that you can decide what to believe.

This book is an excavation. I’m digging through archives, police reports, old newspapers, land deeds, and photographs. I’m piecing together the lives of the people connected to this road, trying to see them clearly and understand what drew them here—or what kept them away. And then there is the road itself, steeped in legend and layered with tragedy, carrying an atmosphere that is impossible to ignore. It is more than a setting. It is a character with a history and a voice of its own.

Writing this way is slow because it has to be. I want this book to be one where, by the end, you feel I have given you everything I possibly could. Every document, every thread of history, every strange story and shadow of truth I can uncover will be there for you to see. My goal is not to tell you what to believe. My goal is to give you enough to decide for yourself.

That, I think, is the most valuable thing I can offer as a writer. The joy of this work is not in arriving at a simple answer but in taking the journey with you—learning as I go, and inviting you to learn alongside me. For me, that is the reward of the process: not just telling a story but discovering it, piece by piece, together.

Zombie Road is only the beginning. This is the first of several deeply researched books I plan to write, stories that will dig into history, mystery, and human nature just as much as the supernatural. There is exciting work ahead, beyond the fiction, but books like this require patience and care. If I have done my job right, when you close this book, you will carry a piece of that road with you—and maybe even your own conclusions about what walks it.