Horror is a multifaceted kingdom reeking of rotten corpses, blood-drenched secrets, scary figures, and gothic literature. Within the crevices of the cracked walls are stories waiting to be discovered and told to curious mortals.
Author Gwendolyn Kiste has created tantalizing stories and summoned the possible answers to questions horror fans crave. In the 2022 novel Reluctant Immortals, she merged the lives of Lucy Westenra and Bertha Mason, two female characters from gothic literature who fight to claim their destiny, free from Dracula and Rochester’s toxic shadows. She has explored juxtapositions of beauty and monsters, calm places, and dark fantasies in her collection And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe.
The three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author is lifting the candelabra to the dark corners of old ghost stories and opening a new passageway where secrets have patiently waited to be discovered. Gwendolyn Kiste joins us to discuss her latest novel, The Haunting of Velkwood, which hit bookstore shelves earlier this month.
How did you get into the horror genre when you first began writing?
I’ve always been a horror fan ever since I was a kid. From there, I got to be a teenager, and I got really into slasher films and ’70s and ’80s horror. I loved Stephen King’s short stories, Richard Matheson, and Shirley Jackson. All of the gothic literature, the Brontes, and everything of that sort. As I got older, it was Hammer Horror, Universal horror, Ray Bradbury, Edgar Allen Poe, and then really just branching out from there. There’s never been a time in my life where horror hasn’t been there.
In the book, Talitha asks investigator Jack why he is so interested in ghosts and solving the mystery. His response is that his aunt raised him on ghost hunting. Have you personally had a paranormal experience that inspired you to write this book?
I don’t know that I’ve ever had a paranormal experience that would have inspired this book. I did some ghost-hunting adventures and stuff like going to haunted places with a medium as a teenager, in my twenties and even later than that. But I’m not sure that there has been a ghost experience, sadly. I have had a few things that have happened while writing.
I remember one time when I was writing my collection, I had just finished a story, I was walking by the end of the hallway, and there was this pillar of light that I kind of looked at, and it just vanished. I was so tired because I’d just been writing, and I ignored it, “I don’t have time for ghosts right now.”
There’s a curiosity about abandoned houses and abandoned streets. On Velkwood Street, we get a glimpse of how everything can seem perfect on the outside, but behind closed doors, everyone has their own struggles and stories.
Yeah, very much. That was definitely something I was thinking about – going inside and really seeing that from kind of the insider’s point of view as opposed to like you said, more of like an outsider.
Your previous books have themes of strong female relationships, is that something that’s important to you?
Yeah, that’s definitely something I’m always thinking about, having those strong female relationships. I try to explore all of those types of relationships. Even in this book, there’s Talitha and her sister Sophie, and there’s Talitha and Brett, and then Talitha and Grace and Brett and their dynamic. This book, in particular, kind of runs that gamut. There’s a strong sister relationship, a strong romantic relationship, but also strong friendships because I feel we don’t get enough of that in literature.
I always craved that growing up. I always say, “Write what you want to read,” so that’s what I want to read. I want to read about these relationships that can be complicated; they’re not always happy and easy, and you know, not sunshine all the time. Especially in horror, we can really explore those difficult aspects while still saying these are good relationships or meaningful relationships, even if they’re not perfect.
Another theme is finding oneself. In your book, Talitha struggles with the idea of trying to be “normal.” As a writer, do you think you help readers understand who they are while reading a book about a character like this?
I certainly hope so. I certainly hope that my work reflects that experience of trying to figure out who you are and where you belong in the world, or if you can carve out your own place to belong rather than, like you said, trying to be quote-unquote “normal.” I feel like that’s something horror fans understand because a lot of the time, we’re kind of the genre fans, that other people are like, “eww, horror? Really?” So I feel like a lot of us do feel like outsiders and are trying to find that place to belong.
I liked that I didn’t know where the story was going. It’s not an ordinary ghost story. It’s for horror fans and readers who want to get lost in a little mystery or find themselves. Is there anything you want readers to know about The Haunting of Velkwood?
I feel like it’s absolutely a ghost story, but it is also a ghost story that really does explore what ghosts mean to us. What do each of us find in our own ghosts, and how we can face up to those ghosts, and face up to that past.
Do you ever think that some of your stories could exist in an alternate universe? Horror is often based on our nightmares or paranormal experiences, but do you ever think it could be reversed and it might exist somewhere else?
[Laughs] I love that concept! I almost hope I didn’t accidentally create a ghostly neighborhood somewhere, but I definitely feel like this is something that could exist in some spooky alternate universe of a place where a whole neighborhood just disappears. Like you said, there are abandoned houses and abandoned towns sometimes, so it’s not like that doesn’t happen in a way in our dimension. I can imagine there’s a dimension where this is taken to the next level.
The Haunting of Velkwood is now available for purchase. You can discover more about Gwendolyn Kiste’s writings and book tour by visiting her website. Read the book review by FANGORIA’s Ahlissa Eichhorn in Volume 2, Issue #22.
