Tags
Catherine Cavendish, Dracula, Edgar Allan Poe, Halloween, Horror, Horror fiction, Horror writing, Linden Manor, Night of the Demon, Samnhain Publishing, Saving Grace Devine, Stephen King, The fog, The Monkey's Paw, What Waits in the Shadows
Hey…hey..hey fellahs, what did we say about Hamstah Dicken’s manuscript? Are we going to bring out a picture of it?
EXACTLY.
Yes today as the Spooktacular continues 
I’m thrilled to welcome a real, live horror writer. AND, not just any old one but
——cos I do. And I also get to welcome a lady who has been on a roll this year, the super talented Catherine Cavendish who writes it the finest horror tradition.
What she drew in the Spooktacular was the seven questions. And since she writes horror, what else would they be about BUT horror.
1 Why do you write horror?
When I was a child, we read The Monkey’s Paw by W.W. Jacobs at school.
I could have only been about nine
I loved the way it scared me – deliciously. Then, when I was around twelve or thirteen, I started reading Dennis Wheatley – The Devil Rides Out, To The Devil A Daughter,
The Satanist and The Ka of Gifford Hillary were early favourites. I’d read in bed at night and be too scared to switch the light off! As the years went by, M.R. James,
Edgar Allan Poe, Daphne Du Maurier, Anne Rice, Stephen King and James Herbert were added to my authors of choice. Horror became one of my two favourite genres (along with historical fiction). So, when it came to my own writing, it is probably only natural I should want to attempt to reproduce on paper what I most enjoyed reading myself.
2 Ignoring the hamstahs, how would you describe your blend of horror?
My horror tends to be of the ‘creep up behind and scare you’ variety. While there can be violent scenes in my books, you won’t find many mutilated body parts or excessive gore. I think that’s because I tend towards the more traditional Gothic horror style. You will often find a creepy, haunted house or bleak, ancient landscape in my stories, but rarely (never so far) someone going on the rampage with a chainsaw!
3 Where do your ideas come from?
Anywhere or everywhere. A chance remark led to the title, and then plot of Cold Revenge; a spooky walk-in cupboard in our flat inspired The Demons of Cambian Street. A nightmare provided the basic storyline for Saving Grace Devin, and the inspiration for Linden Manor came from the competition brief supplied by Samhain Horror Publishing’s Executive Editor, Don D’Auria. When he announced that he was looking for entries for the Gothic Horror competition last year, he wrote, “Come with me into a world of isolated mansions, ruined castles, guttering candles, dark shadows, and of course…creeping horror…” I immediately thought of a house.
A dark, forbidding, Gothic pile of a house, set at the end of a broad avenue of lime (linden) trees. Then, an image of a mature student, researching ancient local nursery rhymes for her dissertation came into my mind, swiftly flowed by the opening lines of an odd little ditty, “Run and hide, Far and wide, Run and hide from the Scottish Bride…” A story was born.
If you look at the other winning novellas in the What Waits In The Shadows anthology– Blood Red Roses by Russell James, Castle By The Sea by JG Faherty and Bootleg Cove by Devin Govaere, you can see we all stuck to the brief!
4 Fav horror film?
Now, this is a tough one. I usually prefer the old films – frequently in black and white – so atmospheric. One I never tire of is Night of the Demon, adapted from a short story by M.R. James,
but I also loved the John Carpenter classic, The Fog and…it’s a pretty long list actually!
5 Fav horror story?
This is even harder! Pretty much anything by the authors I listed earlier, but I also love Susan Hill’s The Woman In Black among many, many others.
6 Fav interpretation of Dracula onscreen?
For me, Christopher Lee brought the right combination of gravitas and kitsch to the role.
7 Halloween plans?
Well, I’ve just had my broomstick serviced (it flew through its M.O.T.), my pointy black hat is back from the dry cleaners, and I’ve told all the spiders to build tidy cobwebs (you should see what happened when I gave them a cup of coffee!). So, let’s party! Bring your own cauldrons of course…
Four original novellas of Gothic horror! Enter if you dare four worlds of chilling Gothic horror. Feel the oppressive heat on a plantation in the Old South, where the spirits of the dead do not rest easy. Smell the salt air in a dilapidated coastal restaurant on the Chesapeake Bay, a restaurant with a very deadly past. Explore a British manor house, but remember, what you find may have been looking for you. Hear the pounding surf beyond the stone walls of a looming castle that shouldn’t even exist. But regardless of the setting, no matter what you may think you hear or see, the truly terrifying thing is…
…What Waits In The Shadows
Buy Links:
You can connect with Cat here:
Thank you so much for inviting me here today, little hamsters. Oh – and Shey of course!
You are aye welcome Cat. I don’t know if the hammies behaved. But they now seem to think they are going to you Halloween celebrations.
They are busy polishing their broomsticks. I wouldn’t worry too much though. They will probably eat them.
Then they will cry about it.
Aw bless their little furry faces. Of course they can come along. They can eat the pumpkins!
Great, fun interview. I enjoyed finding out more about Catherine’s work and the sort of horror she writes. 🙂
Elaine, lovely to see you. Cat writes classy and classic horror. And it’s great that she’s on such as roll with it. She also has a brilliant blog, lots of fascinating ghost stories.
Thank you, Elaine!
Thank you, Shey!
You are welcome my doll, when you are and do have these things. I love all your creepy stories on your blog and I love your books.
I truly enjoyed the interview here, Shehanne, regardless of the hamsters interrupting … (on the contrary, they are so clever aren’t they?)… But it is true that one of them eat part of Catherine’s manuscript!. No way!!. 🙂
I hope you have a great week ahead. Best wishes to you!, Aquileana 😛
Thanks Aquileana. No, they didn’t eat my manuscript. Hamstah Dickens became ravenously hungry one night and scoffed down his own epic tome – I think it was ‘A Tail of Two Hamsters’ but I’m not quite sure.
Hee hee…yeah, Aquileana they got it in their heads that Cat was going to look at one of their manuscripts after one of her visits, alas but it was all chewed and full of misspellings. Hamstah Dickens has never got over it. Lovely to see you. Hope you have a good week too. x
Hi Shey & Catherine 😀 Brilliant interview Shey. I misread in #3 “a spooky walking cupboard in our flat” Catherine. Sorry ! 😉 xox ❤ ❤
An easy mistake to make Ralph – especially with all the spooky goings on in our flat. It is indeed a strange cupboard, anything is possible…
Well, what is it they say re proof reading..the best laid plans of mice and hamsters. And the dudes were climbing wall yesterday after a storm left them with no internet. But telling you now, if this is Cat…this could well be a walking cupboard. Strange things surround this mighty lady! Hugs Ralpha, hope all is good in your world xxxxx
Great interview! These posts must be so exhausting for you to make, but they’re always awesome 😀
Lol, they take a bit of time just getting the pix edited and uploaded but so long as I still manage to get the writing done , it’s ok. You’re a buys girl too. Hope your writing is going well today. xxxxx
Thanks, Misha. I love Shey’s blog too. She makes all her guests look good! And those little hammies do deserve their own week. there, I’ve said it!
Sorry, Mishka. I misspelled your name!
I don’t need to make my guests look good. They ARE good! xxxxxx
that kitty pic is just sooooooo cute
I loved the fact it was sort of NOT spooky. Hugs
lol yeah i kept reading and looking seeing if she would change to a monster farther down but she was still the same lovely kitty 😛 thank u for preserving her beauty and innocence .
hugzzz 🙂
AWWW. Nah, I thought a strangled meow at the end of the dah de dahh was enough. She has such a nice way of looking at the camera there, I wasn’t going to make her horrible. xx
Indeed not. Shey knows there will be no monster cats on my watch! This one is such a cutie – especially in her little pointy hat, sitting on that pumpkin.
Why Cat…..not even the hammies would dare put a monster cat on your watch. xxx