Interview with Laura Binnie

"Horror is a genre that always surprises me, there is so much novelty"

Laura Binnie is a writer based in Kildare, Ireland, where she lives with her family, a menagerie of animals and the creaking bones of a very old house she is slowly bringing back to life. On her Substack, The Pale Horse, she explores horror cinema, folklore, and writes short horror stories. She’s working (very slowly) on her first novel. Away from the page she hunts for vintage clothing and makes a great apple crumble.

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25/09/2025, 20:27 - Laura: Hi Finbarre, ready whenever you are 💫

25/09/2025, 20:28 - Finbarre: Just getting set up - today we’re using the gorgeous The Urban Tarot deck by Robin Scott https://www.robinscottart.com/projects/the-urban-tarot/

25/09/2025, 20:29 - Laura: Oohhh! 😍

25/09/2025, 20:31 - Finbarre:

You may not say that when you see one of the cards that’s in store for you today, Laura. Hi, welcome to Tarot DMs. You’ve caught me at the end of working day, so I’m a little frazzled, but still with us. And I’m saying hello all the way from Nottingham into the depths of Ireland. Where abouts are you?

25/09/2025, 20:32 - Laura:

Well, Finbarre, you’re on the same wavelength as me because I’ve had an insanely busy day. I live in Caldera in Ireland. It’s a little away from Dublin. And yeah, I’m in my office at the moment at the back of the house.

25/09/2025, 20:32 - Laura:

25/09/2025, 20:33 - Finbarre: Who is that incredibly handsome wooden chap with the enormous grin? Looks like something from a Covid fever dream!

25/09/2025, 20:34 - Laura: I have NO idea who or what he is. He cost me €2 from a charity shop. I think he’s great. Hopefully he isn’t haunted or something lol.

25/09/2025, 20:34 - Laura:

25/09/2025, 20:34 - Finbarre: Definitely something

25/09/2025, 20:34 - Finbarre: Without further ado I have your cards all ready

25/09/2025, 20:34 - Finbarre:

25/09/2025, 20:35 - Finbarre: Now with it being DEVIL SEASON that kind of gives away the first one you’ll get, which is...

25/09/2025, 20:35 - Finbarre:

25/09/2025, 20:35 - Finbarre: This rather louche looking fella

25/09/2025, 20:35 - Laura: I think he’s quite handsome. Shame about his chair.

25/09/2025, 20:36 - Finbarre: Good looks aside, he’s probably the kind of chap you’d see on any Feeld profile. Right, so your question. One moment...

25/09/2025, 20:38 - Finbarre:

So what are your inner shadows and entanglements or obsessions you meet in your creative process.

25/09/2025, 20:38 - Laura:

I hope I can articulate myself properly. I love the card I haven’t seen this deck before, so it’s very different from the devil I’m used to seeing.

So I write a lot of short horror stories. I write about horror movies, I write about horror literature, and folklore, but I also write short horror fiction. And for me, that’s probably the most creative aspect of my work. Something that like comes up again and again for me, and that I like to kind of explore through horror is mental illness and poor mental health. And part of that is, I guess, OCD and obsessiveness. And I have a story called The Embroiderer and that kind of digs a little bit deeper into that. I find horror like a really amazing space to explore those kind of shadows, like I quite enjoy kind of leaning into them and looking at the darkness.

25/09/2025, 20:39 - Laura: The Embroiderer

25/09/2025, 20:41 - Finbarre:

Without any spoilers, I’d love to know how an embroiderer could be part of a horror story. The only parallel I can think of is, say, Odysseus’s wife, Penelope, in her home, frantically making this beautiful tapestry of a husband’s face while these men ransack and ravish their way through her home, just waiting for her to finish. Waiting for that final stitch and then she will be there. So that’s the only example I can think of. Can you tell me a little bit about the story?

25/09/2025, 20:43 - Laura:

I hadn’t really heard of that Penelope from the Odyssey, but it’s interesting because it’s... So I guess embroidery, I used to work in the fashion industry and I used to do a lot of embroidery work and hand embroidery. It’s very, like, it’s very methodical, kind of thing and you can get very lost in it. I mean, it’s similar to knitting and things like that, but, you know, there is... Yeah, you can get kind of lost in it, like, I’ll say. And it’s a very kind of tactile way of working, but the story is essentially... I’m trying to think how we could say this without too many spoilers: it’s letters from a girl, from the Victorian time, right? And then engagement proposal has gone horribly wrong. I’m going to continue on the next message.

It’s got horribly wrong and as a way of coping she begins to create this really beautiful embroidery for her father by way of an apology because she feels like she’s she’s shamed him. But she starts to run out of thread for the embroidery she becomes completely obsessed with this embroidery and she starts to use her own hair for the embroidery and it basically descends into quite grotesque body horror. It’s kind of an obsession with the embroidery and obsession with making something really beautiful for her father. But also she’s sacrificing herself to make this really beautiful piece of art. I think I might have spoiled that a little bit!

25/09/2025, 20:44 - Finbarre: I love the subtleties in this card that are soo easily missed, the figured etched into the grime on the wall behind, the lightest representation of infernality, there is so much going on here.

25/09/2025, 20:45 - Laura: It’s great. I like the cigarettes... the horns on the wall.

25/09/2025, 20:47 - Finbarre:

My wife is occasionally inspired to create artistic projects and last year it was these little spider web thingies for the mantlepiece for Halloween, which will be coming out again soon

25/09/2025, 20:48 - Laura: Gasp!

25/09/2025, 20:48 - Laura: That’s very impressive.

25/09/2025, 20:48 - Laura: That’s stunning- she’s very talented

25/09/2025, 20:50 - Finbarre:

Ridiculously and sickeningly so, my house is a temple of crochet is the only way I can put it. She has crocheted the designs underneath the lamps. When it comes to Christmas there will be an entire crocheted mantelpiece cover covered in snow and decorated with Christmas designs and yes she’s currently in the process of making me a jumper which is not particularly unusual. But the jumper itself is… she said to me give me a design anything you want I’ll make your jumper and I said I want this particular crisp packet design from the 1980s and she’s done it and in the next couple of weeks it will be finished. It’s taken her eight months or so to knit and it is a work of genius slash madness.

Speaking of genius slash madness, when it comes to the horror genre is there… is it the negative aspects the addictions, the unhealthiness the self destructive behaviours in horror, the gore… is that the pull? Is it what drew you to the genre?

25/09/2025, 20:52 - Finbarre: (I ask, as outside of a few zombie films I’m usually too squeamish)

25/09/2025, 20:53 - Laura:

So first off, your wife sounds amazing. I like have such admiration for people who can knit. I can’t knit at all. My family can’t know. But I love that kind of craft and it’s such a sign of love. Like it’s, you know, for someone to put that much time into something. But like I collect hand knit jumpers. Again, I can’t knit. I don’t know if the patience for it strangely, but I much prefer embroidery, but yeah, I love knitting. But onto horror, I guess.

I adore horror. And I think why I love horror is I like the honesty of it. You know, I think that like, you know, in life, there’s good and there’s bad, obviously. And I think that within the horror genre, there’s a lot of like… things are kind of allowed to be bad. They’re allowed to be miserable. They’re allowed to be complicated and messy. And you don’t see that a lot in other genres. You know, it really explores like the dark kind of side of humanity. And like, you know, often when I kind of speak about horror, it makes me sound like I’m some kind of weirdo who likes it really dark. Also, I really don’t. I’m actually like, I’d say a total softy. And I find that with a lot of horror fans that we’re just quite soft, but I like to kind of confront the darker things. And I think as well, horror as a genre…. It always surprises me. I think there’s much more novelty.

There’s a lot of things that you’ve never seen before in horror. There’s more exploration within it. Similar to sci-fi. There’s no real rules in horror. You know, it can be as messy and complicated as weird, as you like. And that’s what makes it interesting and even better.

25/09/2025, 20:57 - Finbarre: Just before we move onto your next card, the wild card we’ll pick from the deck, what is the must-see film you’ve watched in this year you’d recommend?

25/09/2025, 20:58 - Laura: Bring Her Back- an incredible meditation on grief. It’s also really bloody scary. 10/10 from me.

25/09/2025, 20:59 - Finbarre: I’m always up for a good movie, my To-Watch pile is worrying small this year! I’ll pop the link in here and get that for this weekend. Oooo, it’s an A24 too https://a24films.com/films/bring-her-back

25/09/2025, 20:59 - Finbarre: Right. Next card, are you ready? I’ll shuffle the deck and drop one on the plate when you type “stop”

25/09/2025, 20:59 - Laura: Yeah I think A24 always have pretty solid films.

25/09/2025, 20:59 - Laura: Stop

25/09/2025, 20:59 - Laura: Did i do it too early?!

25/09/2025, 20:59 - Laura: Haha

25/09/2025, 20:59 - Finbarre: Aha! OK, that is uncanny but here goes

25/09/2025, 21:00 - Finbarre:

25/09/2025, 21:00 - Laura: Well now there we go

25/09/2025, 21:00 - Laura: !

25/09/2025, 21:01 - Finbarre: Prince of Cups, the card of emotional intensity, expression, subtlety, secrecy and artistic craft.

25/09/2025, 21:02 - Finbarre: Again, visually this is *chef’s kiss* and I would happily have it in a frame. OK. When have you found yourself swept along by an idea, something that felt more like a calling than a plan?

25/09/2025, 21:03 - Laura: I’m trying to pinpoint onw thing tbh because that’s kind of the story of my life lol

25/09/2025, 21:05 - Laura:

So here I’m trying to pinpoint because like a lot of what I do at the moment I guess it’s not always like this, but at the moment like I’m really putting a lot of time into writing and I think that it kind of feels… actually even going back to the last card it feels a little bit obsessive sometimes. Like it feels like I just have to do it or that the story has to come out, I guess. It’s definitely not a plan. There’s a book that I’m writing at the moment is my first novel, I guess, and I started writing it actually when I was working in a call center. A few years back and on the breaks between calls which were very short I had a notebook beside me and I just started writing the story.

And then I kind of left it for a couple of years and it’s gone back out and it’s starting to kind of take shape but yeah certainly not a plan to like you know… I don’t even know what it fully is yet to be honest with you.

But it feels like I don’t know… the idea like it keeps coming to me in little bits and pieces and either even through little short stories I feel like “Oh that kind of like feeds into the book as well”.

So that’s kind of a project that I’m working on at the moment that doesn’t feel planned but it feels like something that’s just coming to me. I’m trying to put a little bit of structure around it at the moment.

Otherwise I get nothing done, but yeah, that’s like yes I guess the moment one thing that I’m kind of just going with the flow on.

25/09/2025, 21:08 - Finbarre:

I have visions of you, sat, maybe I don’t know at a wedding or a job interview or wherever you can think of. And then suddenly you get that mote of inspiration shining through and you dash out of the room, pen in hand. Desperately looking for a piece of paper. That sounds wonderful, the idea that you’re downloading bit by bit, all of the information that’s going to go eventually into the story. Who knows when it will emerge! How far roughly do you feel that you’ve got into the story? Have you got any sense of, I don’t know.... I mean, you mentioned years have progressed. Does that feel like, you’re maybe halfway in or if you have just no idea?

25/09/2025, 21:11 - Laura:

So I have a notebook full of random like scenes kind of. or things that might happen or visuals. And then on my laptop I’ve got folders with the characters and there’s a fair few characters in it. And so it’s like, I tell you what it is, it’s just like I’ve thrown a load of stuff into the bowl. And the metaphorical bowl and it’s all there, but I need to kind of make a cake out of us. So it’s a lot of ingredients at the moment. And I’m in a writing group and they’re really good for like helping me to structure. So like I’ve kind of, I’m not even halfway to be honest with you, Finbarre. But I think I can kind of, it’s starting to emerge. Like it is starting to emerge, but I have a lot of work done, but I mean if I was to show it to you, you’d be like this is gibberish. To be honest.

25/09/2025, 21:12 - Finbarre:

Pictured. The process?

25/09/2025, 21:12 - Laura: Yeah like literally hahaha

25/09/2025, 21:15 - Finbarre: I can’t wait to discover what emerges from this mad little cocoon, I’m intrigued! We’re almost up to your last card now, this one was picked by my last interviewee - the poet Aurora Hart. Don’t worry, you’ll get your chance to bring your own mischief in a just a moment.

25/09/2025, 21:15 - Finbarre: Ready for your third card?

25/09/2025, 21:15 - Laura: Yes!!

25/09/2025, 21:15 - Finbarre:

25/09/2025, 21:16 - Finbarre: Diligence, patience, reliability, a grounded sort working towards tangible results. All very wholesome and very much not The Devil there

25/09/2025, 21:17 - Finbarre: Before your proper question, tell me about something scrumptious you’ve eaten this week

25/09/2025, 21:18 - Laura:

I love this question. I’ve been eating loads this week because the weather has gotten cold and it’s my favorite time of year for cooking. So I made a really nice stew like an Irish stew. And then I also made an apple crumble because we’ve got apple trees out of our back. And we harvested the apples the weekend so I made a really yummy apple crumble with fresh cream and a stew. It’s just the best for when it gets cold out.

25/09/2025, 21:19 - Finbarre:

Now you were speaking my language. Now the stew… All the more for you but the apple crumble is one of my favourite dishes. Especially when the apples are fresh. You’ve got lashings of custard on there and maybe, even occasionally, if I feel really fancy throwing an handful of blackberries in there as well. Yeah, I know exactly what you mean and it is so easy. I mean it’s probably just as well that we’re wearing larger jumpers this time of year because bring out a tray of crumble and it’s all going to go.

25/09/2025, 21:20 - Laura:

Yeah, it’s like so indulgent. But I remember years back someone said to me that in winter you have to put on your winter coat. As in like you have to eat a load and as you say, wear really baggy jumpers. I think it’s like quite an indulgent time here like you know especially when it’s things like a crumble and homemade stuff and really warm. I don’t know. Warming things. I mean, I’ll never say no to that personally.

25/09/2025, 21:22 - Finbarre: Between the crumble and Gourmet Chef up there, my stomach is rumbling and I’ve already had dinner. Right, your last tarot question.

25/09/2025, 21:22 - Finbarre: How do you steadily, patiently advance your projects - even when progress is slow?

25/09/2025, 21:25 - Laura:

It’s a good question. I think that just a lot of things in life can go quite slowly whether you want them to or not. Like an example for me would be maybe we have been… sorry my cat is outside meowing. We’ve been renovating, we bought an old house ten years ago and we’ve been renovating it for those ten years. And you just have to keep going. I don’t know. I think like we’ve always really visualized the end, you know, like I have like a very clear image in my mind of what I wanted to look like or and I’d say the same for like the book. Like I don’t, you know, I’m not like a reading methodical planner. Like that’s just not the kind of person I am at all. I’m like maybe a little bit chaotic sometimes. But I think just having you know, kind of a north star I guess. I think honestly like one of the most freeing things I’ve ever done for myself in life was to stop rushing things and to just like really take step back and try to enjoy the process and certainly renovating a house will force you to do that because things just take a lot of time, you know.

And I would say that as well what creative projects they just kind of take the time that they take. And sure it can get frustrating but I feel like since I’ve kind of let that part of myself go, life has gotten an awful lot easier. And so yeah I think just like hold on to like your north star, what you think you want it to be and that’s kind of what I do I think.

25/09/2025, 21:28 - Finbarre: I love that idea, that navigating to that fixed point is all that matters and the distance between here and there is irrelevant.

25/09/2025, 21:30 - Finbarre:

That is both very wise and has got a big smile on my face, thank you. As has the fact that what of my children is outside just blowing their nose like a hurricane. So apologies, you can hear that. Right. So now that we’ve finished your third card, you get to pick the third card for the next person. So this can be done any which way it could be a bolt of inspiration. You just think of the first card that you can think of. You could be mean and wicked and think of a quite a difficult card to answer if you were so inclined or if you’re lovely and generous, you might give them a nice one alternatively. If you have a deck of tarot cards, could you pick one out and take a picture of it?

25/09/2025, 21:30 - Laura: I think even if the end isn’t entirely clear, the *feeling* might be. So, just keep heading in that direction. Isn’t the saying it’s the direction, not the speed?

25/09/2025, 21:31 - Laura:

I told you, even though I like horror I’m actually a big softy. I’d never give the next person something terrible. And seeing as I speak about north star, I’m going to give them The Star. And I do have a deck here in front of me, so I send you through a picture of it. The Star is actually one of my favorite cards. I think it’s really beautiful. And I think it’s really hopeful.

25/09/2025, 21:32 - Laura:

25/09/2025, 21:35 - Finbarre:

Somebody out there is going to be so glad you picked that one. I have to say that if I pull a single card out, it’s one of the ones, probably the top five cards that you have in the back of your mind that you’re going to think “please please please!” about. You know, you have such, such wonderful optimism after the abject disaster of The Tower the card immediately before it. You have such, I don’t know, vivacity and vim! Thank you so much for being on Tarot DMs and could you pop in a link for your Substack, The Pale Horse just below.

25/09/2025, 21:36 - Laura:

25/09/2025, 21:36 - Laura: Thank you so much for having me!

25/09/2025, 21:36 - Finbarre: --- and scene! ---