Dissecting J.J. Segwis
Welcome back to the Black Hare Press Dissecting Author interviews, where we dissect an author each month to find out who they are, what they write, and what keeps their creative juices flowing.
Today, we slice open horror writer J.J. Segwis to spill his writing secrets and learn more about his short read, A Mother's Love.
Welcome J.J.!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
J.J. Segwis is really bad at writing biographies. Fortunately, he is marginally better at writing stories.
He finds true horror exists in the mundane—the nagging awareness of the world’s slow decay while shopping for groceries, the fleeting curiosity of a neighbor’s darkest secrets during quick greetings at the mailbox, the damnable shadow that simply won’t stop peeking from the bathroom while he’s trying to sleep.
When not reading or writing, he spends his time gardening, cooking, wishing the void would stop staring back, and tending to a small zoo’s worth of animals.
He’s received Honorable Mention in the Writer’s Digest Annual Writing Competition.
Bibliography
A Mother’s Love, Black Hare Press, 2026
Suburbia Abattoir, Graveside Press, 2026
Connect
Website: www.jjsegwis.com
Bluesky: @jjsegwis
Facebook: JJ-Segwis-Is-Writing
Threads: @jjsegwis
Instagram: @jjsegwis
X: @jjsegwis
Tell us about yourself. When did your passion for reading and writing start?
Like many who deal with the cold, bleak horror that is an attempt at a writing career, I was ensnared early in my youth. I wrote my first story I think around first grade. In retrospect, it wasn’t very good, though. Throughout the years, the bug has never left me, and I’ve devoted what time I can find to bettering myself at the craft.
Do you write for entertainment, or is there a deeper message in your stories?
It depends. The need for simple escapism and the need to expand one’s views of the world; they both have their valid places. I’m as much a fan of diving into a deeper, more complicated work like Such a Fun Age as I am of flipping on Star Wars and disconnecting. Since I consume both, I tend to also write both.
Where do you find inspiration for your stories?
The ideas typically spring up out of nowhere. I’ll be having a perfectly normal interaction with someone, or doing a completely routine task, then I have this idea of something absolutely horrible happening in that moment, and a story builds around that. A healthy trait, I’m sure.
What’s brewing? What are your next big writing goals?
Well, I’ve got a few other pieces I’m looking for homes for. I had another novella that was meant to be released this year as well, but there were issues with the publisher, so I had to request a reversion of rights. Right now, my goal is to get homes for the stuff that’s already written. Not to say that I don’t have a few other drafts and outlines going at all times.
What does literary success look like to you?
Honestly? Having enough financial success that I can write full-time. It feels gross to assign ‘success’ in art to a dollar amount, but such is the world we live in.
Do you have a writing buddy/s or belong to a writers group?
I do belong to a small writers’ group, and have for several years now. It’s absolutely critical in my opinion. Between getting honest criticism that pushes your stories–as well as the craft of your writing itself–to the next level, to sharing in joint knowledge when it comes to navigating the business side of this, to just having people who can genuinely commiserate with you when things get rough; I don’t know how anyone becomes a successful writer (however they personally define that) without one.
Do you have a furry friend writing assistant ie dog, cat, bird, Hellhound, and how do they help you achieve your writing goals?
I’m not overly fond of animals. I only have three dogs, three sugar gliders, two snakes, two fish tanks, three aquatic frogs, two newts, one turtle, and one tank of crawfish, shrimp, and aquatic crabs. As far as how they help me achieve my writing goals, they mostly assist by waiting until I’m in the deepest writing flow possible before coming up with new and inventive ways to interrupt me.
ABOUT A MOTHER'S LOVE
Title: A Mother's Love
Author: J.J. Segwis
Buy Link: books2read.com/Mothers-Love-
BHP Link: blackharepress.com/products/a-
Launch Date: 11th APR 2026A Mother's Love
In a world devoured by monsters, one woman must confront the most dangerous truth of all: what she owes her child before the end arrives.
When the sky over Florida erupts in fire, Marissa’s last argument with her husband becomes the least of her regrets.
A military experiment has broken containment, mutating animals into ravenous, nightmarish predators. Chaos consumes the coastline. In the desperate evacuation from a cruise ship, Marissa watches her husband die saving a stranger—and is left alone in a city tearing itself apart.
Haunted by guilt, grief, and an unbearable truth she has never spoken aloud, Marissa sets out through blood-soaked streets and ruined neighbourhoods to find her young son. Along the way, she forms a fragile bond with another survivor, forcing her to confront the kind of woman—and mother—she has been running from for years.
As civilisation collapses and monsters swarm closer, Marissa is pushed toward a reckoning far more terrifying than the creatures hunting her. Survival is no longer the only thing at stake.
A Mother’s Love is a brutal, emotionally charged apocalyptic horror novella about regret, sacrifice, and the terrifying realisation that redemption may come too late.
What sparked the idea for this book?
My wife and I took a short cruise and left our toddler behind (in the care of others, mind you—the judge did warn us about ‘free-ranging’ our children any longer). As we were sailing back, we were discussing how excited we were to see her again, and the dark idea of ‘what if we weren’t’ popped into my head. Naturally, the concept of an apocalyptic event then followed.
What challenges did you encounter in finishing it?
Initially, I tried to force it into being a much shorter story. Doing so drained it of tension and also led to practically nonsensical character swings. I finally had to let it breathe to finish it correctly.
Why did you choose Tampa as the setting of this book?
Simple: I’m from Tampa, specifically Port Tampa (south of the Gandy). I decided to just write the streets I knew by heart, changing a few details here and there as was necessary. It was the easiest way to give it a feel of realism, allowing me to focus on the events occurring around the characters.
How did you come up with the stars/MCs of this book?
Despite my answer to the first question, Melissa is not really based on my wife. She did go through several changes. First, she was far too cold. Then she became too ‘sympathetic’--she went through her change too early and too fully. I was striving to write a real character, with a genuine flaw that’s believable, and to react to the situations around her as genuinely as we could conceive of. Hopefully, I’ve at least come close.
Which of your characters do you relate to the most? Why?
Tracy. Let’s be honest, I’d be [redacted] my pants in their situation, too.
Is there a particular message that you hope readers will take from the book?
This story was definitely meant to lean more towards escapism, but if anything, ‘embrace what you have while you have it’ would be something I hope folks take from this.
What’s your favourite scene?
Spoiler alert: John’s death. The first big reveal of one of the monsters followed by a character death, and then an immediate break in the story--I felt like that was the moment the story truly kicked into gear. It’s one of the few, maybe only, scenes that never went through any significant revisions. Came out in the first draft and aside from a few tweaks in the prose, that was it.
THE STITCH UP
What’s your writing Kryptonite?
Mental exhaustion.
What one thing would/did you give up to be a writer?
Nothing, yet.
How many half-finished and unpublished books do you have right now?
2 novels, 3 novellas, and a few short stories are unpublished; 1 half-finished novella and 1 short story are in the works.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve researched?
Too many things!
What book from your childhood do you remember the best?
Where the Red Fern Grows.
Thanks for chatting with us, J.J. This interview is all stitched up.
Learn more about J.J. Segwis via the links provided, and remember to add A Mother's Love to your TBR list.
Want more? Catch up on all the Dissecting Author Interviews on the Black Hare Press website: blackharepress.com/blogs/