Interview with Lincoln Cole, Author of Last Light in the Dark (Last Light Book 1) – NewInBooks

What’s the story behind the story? What inspired you to write this book?

Most cosmic horror hands you a monster that wants to devour or conquer. I kept circling a harder question: what if the thing coming out of the dark isn’t malevolent at all — what if it simply doesn’t understand death, and it’s trying to “save” us the only way it knows how, by merging with us? Last Light grew out of that inversion.

I dropped a rescue team onto a moon base that’s been turned into something organic and wrong, then gave the entity a single fragile bridge to humanity: an eight-year-old survivor named Kate, who can hear it when no one else can. I wanted the terror to come not from a creature in the dark, but from the slow realization that the horror is reaching toward us out of something almost like loneliness. That’s a scarier — and sadder — kind of dread to me.

If you had to pick theme songs for the main characters of your book, what would they be? (Meant to be fun. Skip if you need to!)

Commander Rylee Voss — “Whatever It Takes” by Imagine Dragons.
Marcus Reeves (the witness keeping a record as everything falls apart) — “Bloodbuzz Ohio” by The National.
Kate Morrison (the child at the center of it) — “My Demons” by Starset.

What’s your favorite genre to read? Is it the same as your favorite genre to write?

I read widely, but I keep coming back to dark sci-fi, horror, and urban fantasy — the same waters I write in. Jim Butcher’s Dresden Files has been a long-running favorite of mine. The books that unsettled or hooked me as a reader are exactly the ones that taught me how to do it to someone else.

What books are on your TBR pile right now?

Jim Butcher is always near the top — I’m overdue on the latest Dresden Files — with Adrian Tchaikovsky and Peter Watts stacked up right behind it.

What scene in your book was your favorite to write?

Without spoiling anything: a quiet moment, fairly early, where the team first understands that Kate isn’t just a traumatized kid — that she’s listening to something none of them can hear. The horror there isn’t a jump scare; it’s the adults realizing the youngest person in the room is the only one who grasps what they’re up against, and that it’s already too late to protect her from it. Those small, dread-soaked character beats are always my favorite to write, more than the big set pieces.

Do you have any quirky writing habits? (lucky mugs, cats on laps, etc.)

I draft to whatever gets the blood up — atmospheric film scores, rock anthems, anything inspiring playing loud while I work. The soundtrack sets the tone before the words do.

Do you have a motto, quote or philosophy you live by?

“Earn it.” Whether it’s a character’s redemption or a story’s ending, nothing should come for free — the payoff has to be paid for.

If you could choose one thing for readers to remember after reading your book, what would it be?

That the bravest thing a person can do isn’t to destroy what they fear — it’s to understand it, even when understanding costs them everything. If a reader closes the book and sits with that for a minute, I’ve done my job.