01/17/2026 Fall & Winter Author Spotlight Series: Paul Lubaczewski

This series will be showcased on my Patreon first, every Friday this fall and winter, through early 2026. If you are not a patron, look for the new author spotlight to appear here on the blog every Saturday! These will be for incredibly talented, but lesser known, authors that truly deserve a spotlight on their work!

As is our mission here at Uncomfortably Dark, we want to be a community support and while how we do that may change over time, we will always find a way to shed light on the many wonderfully talented people in this space. Please check out their interviews, click on their links, and check out their work for yourself. I promise you will not be disappointed.

This week, we have Paul Lubaczewski for our Author Spotlight. Paul is a great author in this space and has a broad range of works with extreme horror, bizarro and dark comedy, as well as some mainstream tropes and concepts. If you like just a bit unhinged and off the wall, you'll love his work.

MEET PAUL LUBACZEWSKI

Introduce yourself in 4 sentences or less.

I am Paul Lubaczewski. I am known mainly for horror comedy, but I've written straight horror, punk horror, even high fantasy. I've published eight novels, three collections, and edited a horror comedy anthology. My short stories have been numerous and published all over the place including Weirdbook and the MacMillan middle grade anthology The Haunted States of America.

Describe your style of writing in 2 sentences or less.

Horror comedy? If Carl Hiassen and Terry Pratchett developed a partnership to write horror. Otherwise? All over the place as the mood takes me.

What is your favorite type of horror to write?

My writing really follows my mood, so today it might even be splatterpunk, but usually being a smart aleck is my raison d'etre.

What is your favorite book or character you’ve written so far?

Answer subject to change, but right now it's Bob Carey, I love a befuddled fish out of water.

Who are your top 5 favorite authors ?

Jeff Strand, Christopher Moore, Robert McCammon, Poe, Brian Lumley.

What most inspires you to keep writing when imposter syndrome hits the hardest?

I try to remind myself of what I've already achieved. Every step was something I would have killed for once. First it was, "If I could only sell a short." That became "If I could only sell a novel." Just looking back and reminding myself, all of it seemed impossible once. So, buck up little soldier and keep trying.

Is there a genre, sub-genre, or trope you’ve not written, that you’d like to try?

I mean, with shorts at some time, I've hit just about all of them at one point or another. I don't really want to write the Great American Novel. Most of the previously proclaimed great American novels get foisted off in a classroom; they're rarely read for joy. I'd just like to keep making books that people feel happy about having read.

What is your hope for your writing career for the next five years? As in where do you see yourself?

I honestly never know. I just keep trying to write something new and interesting and let it all fall where it may.

Pitch your current WIP in three sentences or less.

Two men are sucked through a portal in a Dollar Store into a world where all of our great horror tropes come from. Will they survive? Will I make fun of a bunch of horror tropes in the process? Maybe, who knows, I'm still working on it.

Where can we find you online and where can readers see you next?

I can be found on Facebook, linktree, but my website is https://lubaczewski.wordpress.com/

The next book that's being shopped is "Chad the Bro of Dracula" which serves as both an amazingly accurate biography of Vlad the Impaler, and a horror comedy full of vampires and things.

Bio:

Paul has lived all over the country before settling in Appalachia over fifteen years ago with his wife Leslie and their son. He also has two adult children living in his native Pennsylvania. He is the author of numerous novels and collections and more on the way. Paul is a member of the Horror Writers Association, appearing on the panel for horror comedy at the 2021 and 2023 Stoker Con. He has a dark and serious horror side, but he has also never answered the question, "Is everything a joke with you?" correctly once in his entire life.