Horror Novelist Mylo Carbia Talks About Growing Up Spooky
Ghost writer learned the tricks of the trade growing up in a haunted house.
You don’t have to grow up in a haunted house to be a ghost writer, but it sure helps. Mylo Carbia is one of Hollywood’s top ghostwriters. Her debut novel, The Raping of Ava DeSantis, premiered at number 1 when it was rush-released on Amazon to beat black market copies that were selling online.
Carbo grew up in Jackson, New Jersey and began writing to escape the horrors of living in a haunted house. She became a professionally produced playwright when she was 17. Mylo optioned her first screenplay when she was thirty, and signed a three picture deal. When she started writing television and film projects under her production company Zohar Films, she got the reputation of being Hollywood’s No. 1 horror film ghostwriter.
The Raping of Ava DeSantis has been getting comparisons to Fifty Shades of Grey because of several explicit and gruesome scenes. The ghost writer sat down for an exclusive interview to discuss what it was like “growing up haunted.”
What was it like on a day-to-day basis growing up in a haunted house?
Basically, it was hell, pure hell. I never knew what was coming next, where it was coming from or when it would happen. I interacted with both human and non-human entities ranging from Bible-thumping, pissed off Pilgrims to shadow people and demons. Truth is, I didn’t sleep more than two to three hours a night from the ages of about 5 to 13. Instead, I learned to sleep as much as I could during daylight hours after school. I also spent many nights on the floor of my parents’ room. In fact, I still sleep with the lights on to this day. Thank God my husband is so understanding of my unique nature.
You’re a medium, were you the only person in the house who saw the ghosts?
Yes, however my mother is very sensitive to “feeling” spirits and my great-grandmother was one of the biggest psychics in Puerto Rico, so my parents understood me. They were supportive but had no idea what to do about the entities in our home. Once they saw The Exorcist they were too scared to address the problem head on, so I had to find a way to deal with it.
Any idea what caused the haunting of your home?
Several months ago, my seventy-five-year old mother finally admitted to playing with a Ouija board in the house with her housewife neighbors to pass the time. She said they would get together in the kitchen over lunch while the husbands and kids were away, and ask the board questions. She said this daily ‘bored housewife’ ritual took place for nearly a year! And here I always thought it had been the land that was bad – and I still do – but now I see the daily Ouija board sessions opened up a portal the size of Cleveland in my house.
What happened to the house you grew up in?
It no longer exists. My parents put in on the market in 1982 and it took two years to sell it. Once it sold, it burnt down and was never rebuilt. Thirty years later, it remains an empty lot in the middle of suburban New Jersey. Even the address no longer exists. Blows my mind.
Could you communicate with the spirits? Could they communicate with you?
Yes, I had full blown, two-way conversations with the spirits in my house. It was as if they were alive and breathing.
Were you frightened?
I wasn’t afraid of the human ghosts as much; somehow, I got use to them coming into my room. I was deathly afraid of the demons and shadow people though. They are no joke. Smart as hell too. Very intelligent creatures.
How long until you got used to it?
I turned the corner around the age of 10 when my gift evolved from seeing and hearing spirits to mostly being able just to hear them. However, it was through my studies with another medium in my thirties who showed me how to control my adrenaline and blood pressure when faced with a ghost or entity. That really helped me the most. I can now sit in a room with a dead person and not feel an ounce of fear.
Does it feel like living in a two family house?
No, my house felt like living in a bus station. There were multiple entities coming and going all night.
Did you have to decorate for Halloween?
No [laughs], we did not celebrate Halloween beyond the candy begging.
How much of the ghost’s personalities could you sense?
I could fully experience a ghost’s personality as much, if not more, than a living person.
Could you tell malevolence or benevolence?
Yes, it was easy for me to tell who was good and bad just by their physical appearance and the temperature in the room. Human spirits put a chill in the air and gave me goose bumps; demons changed the color of the air to neon green and gave off radiating heat, like a heat lamp. Shadow people gave off a slight breeze, like the way it feels outside before a storm. I know, all very strange, but true.
Was there evolution in the spirit?
No, not that I could tell. They were all pretty set in their ways.
Did these experiences change how you view darkness and what is perceived as frightening or did it play into it?
These early experiences completely shaped my view of religion. I mean, how could I believe that demons did not exist after meeting two in person? The one that spoke the most to me actually spoke in multiple voices at one time (think seven different people speaking all at once). He/She (it could split into multiple beings, then come back together as one again) made fun of me for praying to Jesus for help and even told me Satan’s real name. It was a horrible, ancient word that started with an M sound. I have never once heard it spoken on earth ever since that night, and I will never repeat it until the day I die.
Did you talk to the ghost or read the ghost?
I have full conversations with spirits. They can be quite chatty once they know you can see or hear them.
What do you pick up from people around you?
I cannot read living beings but I do have spirits whisper secrets to me, which can easily bust liars and break relationships. Once I had to go the hospital to visit a sick friend and brought along a man I had been dating for about a month. While I was there, an old Jewish man who had just passed away in the other room, came up to me and whispered that my boyfriend was secretly married and his wife was on holiday in Europe for the summer. Can you imagine the look on my boyfriend’s face when I told him what the spirit just told me? He literally shit his pants. Everyone did.
And yes, it was true. I would always try to keep my ability to communicate with spirits a secret in my personal relationships, but when I would get pissed off, it would always come out in a big way. But the time I met my husband, I told him up front that I saw dead people. He knew what he was getting into within the first 10 minutes of meeting me. Finally, it worked out.
Can you send impressions into people?
No, I have to use good old-fashioned verbal persuasion for that [laughs].
How did it affect your writing and does that continue to change?
There is no doubt in my mind that my early experiences have greatly influenced my writing. I have a unique perspective into what some people don’t even believe exists, so that often comes through as a major responsibility to inform others of what I know. I feel blessed to have come through it all and to have a family that loves and supports me, no matter how crazy things can get in my presence, and I hope to continue to share my stories with the world for as long as my fingers can type.
So what’s next for you?
I have plans to write seven more horror novels over the next five years. I am currently finishing up my second novel, “Violets Are Red” which is about a middle-aged housewife who quietly keeps her husband’s young mistress prisoner in the basement of their Upper East Side townhome. Sort of a modern-day “Misery” with a lot more twists, turns and surprises. I can’t wait to finish and release it next summer.
More information about Mylo Carbia and The Raping of Ava DeSantis can be found at www.MyloCarbia.com, www.RapingAva.com, www.Amazon-Bestsellers-2015.com, www.Amazon-Bestsellers.co.uk.