Dissecting Bryce Thayne
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 and speculative fiction writer, Bryce Thayne, to spill his writing secrets and learn more about his forthcoming short read, Train To Anywhere.
Welcome Bryce!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Bryce Thayne writes horror and speculative fiction, along with anything else that invades his mind and refuses to leave.
By day, Bryce is a Mixer driver, travelling the roads with audiobooks and landscapes for company. He is an avid Stephen King collector and a guitar player. When he isn’t working or writing, he can usually be found with his wife and their twin girls, Acadia and Beverly, and cat Cuthbert wrapping himself around their ankles. Their little ka-tet resides in central Utah.
Over the past few years, Bryce’s work has appeared in Black Sheep Magazine, as well as Stygian Lepus Magazine. Most recently, he was featured in Black Hare Press’s Thorns anthology.
Bibliography
“Season 26,” Edition 12, Stygian Lepus Magazine, 2024
“The Scrapbook,” Edition 29, Stygian Lepus Magazine, 2025
“Come Back Home,” Edition 20, Stygian Lepus Magazine, 2024
“Select an Item,” Freedom Fiction Journal, 2025
“House of Doors,” No. 1, Black Sheep Magazine, 2023
“Hope,” Thorns, Black Hare Press, 2025
Connect
Amazon: www.amazon.com/author/brycethayne
Goodreads: www.goodreads.com/user/show/183027873-bryce-thayne
Threads: @bryce_thayne_author
Instagram: @bryce_thayne_author
Facebook: @bryce.thayne
Tell us about yourself. When did your passion for reading and writing start?
I grew up in a small Utah town, where if you told anyone that I would be a writer in any shape or form, they’d laugh. You wouldn’t catch me dead with a book. Unless it was for school. I hated reading so much that I’d cheat on my book reports…okay, I only cheated on one. It wasn’t until college where I picked up IT by Stephen King. I devoured it in two months, then I read The Stand. And, well, I kept going and going. Books became a huge part of my life, and eventually I decided to give writing a shot.
What drew you to your preferred writing genres?
Horror stories and stories that just break your heart have always been an interest of mine. As a kid, I would stare at the Stephen King books my dad had on the shelf with the covers just stealing my breath. As well as watching horror movies as if it were going out of style. Me and a good friend of mine watched the first Grudge and tried to force ourselves from not getting scared. It never happened. As I got older, the stories of fear and hard times never stopped grabbing me. They always will.
What’s your favourite part of the writing process?
The first draft. I know lots of writers who love the second or third, but I love just knocking out the words without thinking too much about what is working and what isn’t. At the time, the story is perfect…at least in my head.
Do you write for entertainment, or is there a deeper message in your stories?
Little of both. I love stories that are just fun with no real “message”, but I love it when a story just makes you think or can relate to you. I try to do both, because with both, you can get a perfect mix. Like a good meal.
Do recurring themes appear in your stories?
Mental health. Whether it be depression, grief, fear of life, etc. It always pops up. Those are topics I can write about and relate to far too easily, and writing about them is healthy. That, and I think it can help others.
What’s brewing? What are your next big writing goals?
I have at least two novels I’m hoping to sell! A third that is still going through the second draft, but I really hope to have some more of my works out there for people to enjoy!
ABOUT TRAIN TO ANYWHERE
TRAIN TO ANYWHERE by BRYCE THAYNE
LAUNCH DATE: 28th MARCH
WEBSITE: blackharepress.com/products/
BUY LINK: books2read.com/Anywhere-Thayne
The train promises a better life. It never mentions the price.
Edward Cutter is drowning—at work, at home, and inside a life that no longer feels like his. When a missed train strands him late one night, he’s offered an impossible alternative: a way out, no questions asked.
What begins as a chance to escape spirals into something far more dangerous. Success comes easier than it should. Doors open. Problems disappear. But every gain carries a weight Edward can’t quite name—and the sense that someone, somewhere, is keeping score.
As the lines between choice and consequence blur, Edward is forced to confront an unsettling truth: the life he stepped into carries a debt he doesn’t understand, and the bill is coming due.
Train to Anywhere is a dark, unsettling descent into moral compromise, supernatural dread, and the cost of wanting more than you’re willing to earn.
What sparked the idea for this book?
Ideas are funny for me. It’s never a plot that comes to mind, but a scene. I can’t say exactly where I was, but I know it was around 2021. The scene of a man standing alone on a train platform in the dead of night, when a mysterious train pulls up. Then a mysterious man stepping off and offering an idea of a lifetime. The scene plagued me, and I knew that it had to come out.
What challenges did you encounter to finish it?
Oh, boy. What a journey this story has been. I originally wrote this story when I just started taking writing seriously. It was full of way too much passive voice and just bad writing. After a year or so, I came back to it and spruced it up. But even then, it never felt “right”. But the story kept coming back, as if the story itself refused to let go. I came back to it again, changing major plot lines and changing how characters acted. Eventually, someone saw the story's potential and helped me, hence why it’s even coming out at all. This story is barely a resemblance of what it started out as, but boy, is it ever much better.
Why did you choose the Salt Lake as the setting of this book?
I know Utah, though I don’t know Salt Lake that well. I’ve been there a thousand times as a kid and an adult, but never spent too much time. So, it really came down to a half Write what you know and Make it up as you go. The area I grew up (and still live) is small and has no trains. It did once, but not like this. Either way, Edward’s job and connections wouldn’t make sense here, especially in the fifties. So, Salt Lake knocked on the door and gave me a way to write comfortably.
How did you come up with the stars/MCs of this book?
The characters usually just flow for me, at least when the character works. Edward is unlikable but relatable in a lot of ways, which is what was needed. You couldn’t love the guy, but you couldn’t hate him either. Someone respectable and great in every way wouldn’t do what he does. But someone totally unlikable would probably do much worse, which wouldn’t work. Edward fit the mold the story demanded. Then you have the mysterious man. I just love teasing demons that are nothing more than pure chaos.
Which of your characters do you relate to the most? Why?
Edward, without a doubt. I feel like we all have a little bit of Edward in us. Life is full of challenges. It’ll throw you down, beat you down, and yet you still have to get up and get on. How many times have all of us stared at our car out the living room window, thinking, “I could just go. See where the road takes me. Start over and forget this mess.” We never mean the thought, but it’s in all of us.
Is there a particular message that you hope readers will take from the book?
Life is never as bad as we think. And really, the grass is never more green on the other side. Sure, there are challenges and struggles, but it’s your life, and that’s something to be grateful for. Another life doesn’t mean better.
What’s your favourite scene?
The meeting of Edward and the Mysterious man. It’s pure fun! The teasing, the wording, and of course, the deal.
THE STITCH UP
What’s your writing Kryptonite?
Never enough time.
What one thing would/did you give up to be a writer?
Free time.
How many half-finished and unpublished books do you have right now?
4.
What’s the weirdest thing you’ve researched?
Explosions.
What book from your childhood do you remember the best?
Goosebump series
Thanks for chatting with us, Bryce. This interview is all stitched up.
Learn more about Bryce via the links provided, and remember to add Train to Anywhere to your TBR list.
Want more? Catch up on all the Dissecting Author Interviews on the Black Hare Press website: https://blackharepress.com/