Summer's Hollow Q&A

As part of All Hallow’s Grimm 2013 over at Pagan Culture, I’m giving away a signed copy of my book. Magaly’s post for the giveaway entitled: “Summer’s Hollow on the Bayou” really captures the essence of my book. As part of her post and consequently my giveaway, Magaly asked her readers to ask me about my writing process. I got some great questions (that I answered in the comments on her blog) that I wanted to share with you:

Q. Is the town based upon a real town?

A. The town is actually a hybrid of a couple of towns from both fiction and reality. My best friend from middle school grew up in this small farming town in Washington State. I wanted to embody that with the charm of a Puritan town in the Northeast.


Q. How does previous readings/characters fit into your life/writings… and do you have a favorite horror book or writer you are inspired by?

A. I draw a lot from both literature and pop-culture in Summer’s Hollow. I have some references to Buffy, Scream, Carrie, and various other horror movies/novels. I adore Poe, King, and Cornwell for their abilities to paint vivid pictures in your mind. Weirdly enough though the biggest inspiration for Summer’s Hollow came from my favorite novel of all time: “The Scarlet Letter.” I carry a copy of that book around with me wherever I go.


Q. What is the approximate length of time difference between poor Mary’s predicament and where Rylie’s story starts?

A. There’s about 200 years difference between Mary and Rylie’s existence.


Q. Did you become a reader at a young age? Were you drawn to any certain genres or did you read everything you could get your hands on?

A. I did! I started reading when I was young and found myself mostly drawn to fantasy and scifi growing up. Once I got to an that age I could read at a higher level I started to read the classic novels. I also found that I had a love for Shakespeare. Of course my love always lies with horror. Essentially you hit the nail on the head: I read whatever I could get my hands on – except romance. Never could get into it.


Q. Do you find yourself meeting people and filing them away to become future characters?

A. This happens all the time and not just with characters, but settings, or even events. I find myself participating in things and thinking “this would be great in my story…” A lot of the times I see people that have a unique feature (physically or otherwise) and I find myself enthralled by it and have to put it into a story. Sometimes this does come off as a little creepy if I’m just staring a people. People watching is one of my favorite activities.


Q. How do your characters come into existence? Do you chose them or do they choose you?

A. This kind of goes in line with the last question. I definitely find qualities in people to use for my characters but ultimate it’s as I write that my characters become who they are. They do in fact most of the time choose me. This is especially true about their names. For example in my second published work: “Deal with the Devil” I was going to name my main character Kris (before she turned into the vampire Aer) but she decided that she was going to be named Jordan. I found myself writing a scene between her and a customer and they called her Jordan. I had to stop and realize that it meant that was her name now. Though in that case the point was really her name didn’t matter before she became a vampire.

If any of my readers have any other questions please feel free to ask them in the comments below!