Carolyn writes and lives way down in Alabama, and while I think she would laugh heartily at my characterizing her as a plucky southern belle, I think it's safe to say she's a very busy southern belle: She writes at least two books a year, teaches writing at a university, runs the Good Fortune Farm Refuge for animals, travels frequently to meet with fans and friends, and, as if that weren't enough, she organizes Daddy's Girls' Weekend, a reader and writer's conference in Mobile, Alabama. (She's even put together a cookbook to raise funds for the animal refuge. I'll put a link here just as soon as it's available.)
Most readers will recognize Carolyn from her popular Sarah Booth Delaney Mysteries. (BOOTY BONES, #14, will be out in May.) But last year Carolyn took on the pseudonym R. B Chesterton, and steered her imagination to the darker side of mystery and suspense--dare I even say the word horror? Why, yes, I do.
Her first Chesterton novel, THE DARKLING, appealed immediately to my own dark little heart. It's a true Southern gothic, with a storied old house, an abandoned hotel, an energetic young governess, and someone or something lurking out in the nasty old woods. And death. There's plenty of that, too.
THE SEEKER, Carolyn's second horror novel, is just out this month. The setting is far distant from the South: Walden Pond in Massachusetts. When Aine, a young graduate student with a troubled past, finds herself in possession of her great-great-great aunt's diary, she prepares to upset everything the world thinks it knows about Henry David Thoreau. She has proof that Thoreau was not alone at Walden Pond--her ancestor Bonnie was there as his confidante, companion, and lover. But the project is fraught with bizarre, ghostly events. Someone is stalking Aine in truly chilling ways. And when local residents begin to die, she's both a suspect and the ultimate target.
Because I am generally plucky and always want to know more about everything, when I was finished reading THE SEEKER I pestered Carolyn with some questions about it. And because she is a friendly, polite, and tolerant person, she kindly answered them.
Welcome, Carolyn!
I love how The Seeker has firm geographic roots...From Ireland to Rhode Island to Eastern Kentucky to Concord, Massachusetts. There's a sense of the Cahill curse spreading from the old world to the new. Given that the US is such a young country, how is possible, do you think, that we very quickly developed such an incredibly rich tradition of dark tales and legends?
I think a lot of it has to do with the people who settled America--so many were hardship cases. And many were persecuted for religious beliefs, which can often lead to dark places. If you believe in good, then you must believe in evil. Then there's the whole genocide of the Native Americans, which is pretty dark. My heritage is mutt, with a lot of Swedish and Scot and Irish. There's such a love of story and the oral tradition associated with the Irish. And Aine Cahill, my protagonist, is of course, Irish. I also think that most people love spooky tales. There's a real delight in being a little bit scared while in a safe armchair with a fire burning bright. The exercise of the dark imagination is very healthy--or at least I think so.
Just recently I read a list of things writers should avoid writing about, and high on the list was academics. Yet you're able to keep Aine, a graduate student, vibrant and compelling all the way through the book. She does engage in a lot of research. Was it hard not to follow her down research rabbit holes, bringing the reader along?
I've heard this all my writing life. Don't write about academics or writers. And I could have constructed the story so that Aine was a writer, digging into the past. But the character had to have a compelling reason to move to Walden Pond and also to dig and dig and dig into the journal. I grew up in a family where education was the ticket to a better life. And I truly believe that. So Granny Siobhan will save Aine through education. She will move her into a life and world where superstitions and dark possibilities are held at bay with knowledge and logic. But that doesn't work, of course. Analytical skills never trump spiritual concerns. A balanced person uses both.
Like so many real people, most of the characters in The Seeker are ruled by fears, superstitions, and accusations from the past. Only Granny Siobhan (and perhaps the enthusiastic Patrick) seems to be determined to move forward. Aine gives all appearances of having shaken the Kentucky dust from her feet, but in truth she struggles with it with every thought. Why can't she and the other characters--I'm thinking of Joe and perhaps the ghost as well-- let go?
The past informs our present and future. I don't know anyone who truly gets over her past. We cope. We manage. We seek the sunshine. But we are the product of our experiences. I'm working on a new book now, tentatively called THE CONFOUNDED , about a man who is shot in the head and loses his memory. So he has the opportunity to begin life completely unhindered by anything he's done or experienced or thought. That idea fascinates me. Aine is just the opposite, as you note. Her links to the past, emotional and genetic (as proposed in the book), bind her to the deeds of her forefathers. Belief systems define us, in all ways. If you believe the world is a place of opportunity, then you seek opportunity in even the most trying circumstances. Aine is raised in superstition and fear, and though she struggles to leave it behind, ultimately it is exactly what defines her.
Creepy toys play a roll in both The Darkling and The Seeker. But in The Seeker, its the dolls that are macabre and over-the-top, and you start with Barbie, queen of them all. What's your relationship with dolls like, and why do they make such delicious horror novel fare?
When I was a child growing up in a big house with fireplaces in every room and a hallway so long and dark it terrified me, I would wake up and think my dolls were watching me. Remember the dolls with blue eyes that you would lay down and their eyes would close. Pick them up and the eyes would pop open.Too creepy for words. I never really played with dolls. I had an older brother, and we played baseball and hide-and-go-seek, and built forts in the woods. I had an outdoors childhood. The dolls creeped me out. I had a few as Christmas gifts from aunts (aho perhaps thought a bit of domestication might be good for me) but I would stuff them under the bed where I couldn't see them--and they couldn't see me! I grew up on Boris Karloff's THRILLER show and others like that. THE TWILIGHT ZONE. My mother and grandmother told scary stories. In THE DARKLING, James Whitcomb Riley's poem, "Little Orphant Annie" plays a role. That poem terrorized me. We'd beg Grandma to tell it and then squeal and hide under the covers with her. Delicious! My house was haunted, too. Every Halloween my mother had big parties for all the kids and we'd tell ghost stories and hunt for the ghost, who allegedly had money hidden in the house. Fun when friends were all around. Not so much fun going down that long hallway (with an attic fan that groaned in the summer) late at night when everyone else was asleep. These are good memories for me. I suppose that says something about my mental health, but I do know that such fare kicked my imagination into high gear. It's the best tool I have as a writer.
The ghost in The Seeker (I won't spill the name!) can appear anywhere, can change its appearance, and even ostensibly manipulate objects and its surroundings. Do you set up rules for your supernatural world and supernatural characters? Are there ever things they aren't allowed to do?
Not in THE SEEKER. I wrote that book in something of a trance (I know that sounds so hokey) but I totally trusted the story and let it lead me. I write a humorous mystery series, The Sarah Booth Delaney Mississippi Delta mysteries, that also has a ghost, Jitty. There are very specific rules for Jitty. She can never, ever help solve the mystery. She is Sarah Booth's subconscious,for the most part. Her role in the story relates to helping Sarah Booth deal with the losses of her past and her relationships with others. (Faulkner said it best. "The past is never dead. It's not even past.") I think Southerns have an acute affinity with the past. Some say because we were a conquered nation. Perhaps. But I tend to think that it's because the South has been an agricultural society for so long. The bond to the land is one that ties a person to seasons and the long stretch of time. Land is something many people cling to and pass down for generations. The current idea of a house as a thing to flip and turn to profit--and then do it again--is so alien to me. To me, a house is a place of memory and experience. But I am old-fashioned that way. And I think the scary books I write are the same--that kind of Gothic chill that is so different from the blood and gore of some contemporary horror. In all of my books, if there is a ghost, it resonates historically and geographically. A ghost is almost the physical manifestation of the past.
Did the historical Thoreau even have a dog to keep him company at Walden Pond? Could you last a couple months there yourself without lots of critters as companions?
I don't think Thoreau had a dog. I'm a long way from being a Thoreau scholar, but I believe he was a solitary and lonely man. He did go home for lunch a lot during his time at Walden Pond, so he had his family and his friend, Emerson. I couldn't live without my animals. They are my family--as aggravating and hairy as they are. It's so funny, though. When writing THE DARKLING and THE SEEKER, I managed to scare myself so badly I had to call my neighbors to come and check the closets in the house and do a walk-around--then have a drink with me until my nerves settled. My imagination is both my greatest asset and worst enemy at times.
Your R. B. Chesterton novels are dark and full of supernatural suspense. What's it like to shift gears between writing them and your lighter mysteries, the Sarah Booth Delaney novels?
I love writing both. They allow me to exercise two different sides of my personality. I love scary things, but I also love to laugh. And I am something of a notorious smart-ass. So I get to indulge that in the Sarah Booth books, and I also get to explore the character quirks and witty (I hope) repartee of the Bones cast. I often write both types of books at once, but I have learned to write the scary stuff in the daytime and leave the evenings for the fun Bones stories.
What are you working on right now, and what's coming out next?
THE DARKLING will be out in trade paperback April 15. I have a short story with the Bones characters, SHORTY BONES, which will go on sale April 9, and BOOTY BONES, the 14th book in that series, will be out May 21. So I'm working on the next dark story, THE CONFOUNDED, and also a synopsis for the next Bones--BONE TO BE WILD. I will be on sabbatical from my teaching job at the university next year, and I intend to write, write, write!
Carolyn Haines was the 2010 recipient of the Harper Lee Award for Distinguished Writing, the 2009 recipient of the Richard Wright Award for Literary Excellence, and the 2011 RT Reviewers' Choice Award for Best Amateur Sleuth. She is the author of more than sixty books in a number of genres. She is an assistant professor of English at the University of South Alabama where she teaches fiction writing.
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