An Interview With Collin Armstrong

You’ve been working in the entertainment industry for years as a writer with several major TV networks; what inspired you to write a novel?

I actually started writing the book during the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns. I’d lost a very promising TV job and was spending my days watching my two young sons and freaking out at night that I might never go back to work. I felt like I needed a project—at first, it was just something to occupy my mind —and I happened upon all of the development notes I had on the Polybius concept; I’d tried to develop it as a film several years earlier. As I was going through everything, trying to figure out why the idea never quite clicked in that format, I started to realize that the space a novel would afford might solve some of the storytelling problems I hadn’t been able to reconcile. I’d never written a book, but I dove in and gradually found my way.

Did your writing process change while working on Polybius? If so, what were the major differences?

There’s a lot of self-discipline involved in writing, so just making myself sit and do the work was a constant. The way I approached outlining was similar as well—going sequence by sequence, identifying major turns and any details I wanted to make sure I covered. My daily goals shifted to reflect the format—I wasn’t trying for ten pages, I was trying for 2,000 words—but overall, the process was largely the same.

Urban legends and government conspiracies go hand in hand with psychological thrillers, but what inspired you to use the Polybius legend?

I first heard about the legend in the mid-2000s, and it ticked all these boxes of personal interest. I’m a gamer, and I’ve been one since the Atari days. I’ve also been fascinated by urban legends since reading Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark as a kid. And while I’m not a conspiracy theorist myself, some of them make for really interesting revisionist history.

I’d also been looking for a way into telling a coming-of-age story but as a reader/viewer/fan, I find I need some heightened aspect for me to engage with an idea.

The legend accommodated all these things—young people on the verge of big changes in their lives, thrust into the middle of solving a mystery that accelerated the loss of innocence they’re set to undergo; it created a space where I could tell this kind of story with much bigger stakes, while incorporating concepts of interest to do with technology and government skullduggery.

Polybius has been compared to The Walking Dead and Stranger Things due to its mixture of tension and dread set in the bright atmosphere of the 80s. How do you balance camp and horror so your book is fun and scary?

I felt like it was important to ground as much of the story as I could in some sort of objective reality. When I settled on the paradigm that this was going to be an origin story for the legend, I set a rule for myself that there weren’t going to be aliens or ghosts or anything else involved that would bump too hard against the real world.

That mindset extended to the characters. I wanted them—as much as possible—to feel like real people reacting to unreal things, and I think there’s humor inherent in that sort of dichotomy. I also grew up reading a lot of Stephen King, and while most of his books are exceedingly dark, they’re also infused with this sort of wryness, both in his authorial voice and in the points of view of his characters. That was something I wanted to try and capture myself.

The period setting grew out of the decision to tell an origin story—it needed to be set in the early ‘80s. I was too young to be there during the golden age of the arcade but was able to experience that culture as it started to decline in the early / mid-90s. I didn’t want to stuff the book with pop culture references, but just give enough to normalize the era for readers.

If you could adapt Polybius to film or TV would you?

I certainly wouldn’t say no to an adaptation, although it might be a challenge for me at this point because the story is sort of fixed in my mind in a certain way that doesn’t directly lend itself to the screen. So much of what happens to people after they play the game is internalized.

Setting contributes so much to the tension in Polybius, do you think it would have been as effective if it was set in a city?

I don’t think the story would’ve been as effective if it had been set in a city. Given how the game works in the story’s world, a smaller/closed environment made more sense. Even if you don’t play the game, you’re liable to encounter someone who has. Their behaviors changed as a result and it unsettles you, you become more nervous and paranoid as a result, back and forth until the town becomes a pressure cooker ready to blow. This feeling would’ve been harder to achieve in a city, where people are naturally more anonymous and less likely to feel the effects of someone else’s state of mind.

Do you have any favorite horror tropes? Least favorite? If so, what are they and why?

I love a good explainer character—the spooky old woman/man who our protagonists track down, who reveals some disturbing piece of the puzzle they’ve been trying and failing to fit together. They’re a real highwire act to write well so the art of trying to give just enough to keep your story moving and to deepen the reasons why your characters ought to be afraid represents a fun challenge. Explainers tend to be people who possess dangerous/forbidden knowledge, too, which means they’ve likely lived an interesting life.

On the flip side, figuring out how to get cell phones out of the picture is honestly very annoying. The solution here was easy, though—just set your story in the early ‘80s!

Now that you’ve got your first novel under your belt, what other kinds of worlds or genres would you like to explore?

Growing up—and even to this day—I think I read more science fiction than horror. Books and collections of short stories by authors like JG Ballard, Frank Herbert, Harlan Ellison, and Leigh Brackett are in constant rotation for me. I’d love to try my hand at science fiction.

I also have longstanding interest in politics, and I think it would be interesting to set something in that world.

What advice do you have for aspiring authors who want to get traditionally published?

It’s going to sound very clichéd, but you have to write, both to improve your craft and because you never know when you’ll meet someone who can change your fortunes. You need a sample that shows what you’re capable of and why you ought to be taken seriously, and you won’t have it if you haven’t written it. Don’t try to chase markets or trends, just find a character, idea, or world that you’re passionate about and write.

Lastly, I like to end on a fun note. What is your favorite urban legend/conspiracy theory that you may or may not believe in?

I should probably say Polybius, but I’ll go with one I used to hear about growing up—the chimera house. Every Halloween, kids in the small town where I grew up would talk about a traveling haunted house attraction that popped up someplace remote, usually in an abandoned multistory building. You’d pay a lot to get in but each floor/section of the house completed, you’d get some money back. As you progressed, the experience would grow more intense to the point the performers inside the house could actually harm you. So, by the end, you’d literally be running for your life! Every year we’d hear rumors about one, but of course we could never find it. I’m not sure I believe it, but I do believe it could make a good jumping off point for another horror story…