Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard will be released early next year, and it’s my pleasure to share this interview with fellow contributor, Priscilla Bettis. Full details about the haunting anthology are provided at the end of the interview.
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There’s a cemetery at the end of our road. It gets full sun and has a beautiful view of the Blue Ridge Mountains (I live in Virginia), so no, not creepy at all. On the other hand, if there was a dilapidated, Gothic-style house with a family graveyard in the back overrun with dead thorn bushes, then yes, that’d be very creepy!
Has a real-life cemetery, grave or headstone ever ended up in your stories?
One time, to feed my creativity, I explored a cemetery blindfolded. All my other senses were on high alert. I was able to pepper different stories and poems with my observations, how freshly turned soil smells, how a granite tombstone is devoid of warmth . . .
Have you ever seen a ghost? Tell us about the experience.
Does hearing a ghost count? I was home alone, snuggled up on the sofa and lost in a book. The door at the end of the hallway creaked open. We have a cat who nudges doors open, so I wasn’t frightened. Sure enough, the tick-tick of tiny claws on the wood floor grew closer. Then the sofa cushion next to me pulled away from my thigh as if the cushion had been depressed. I patted my lap, inviting the cat to sit. Then I remembered: our cat had died three days prior. I finally looked up from my book. No one was there.
What do you personally, as a reader, like about anthologies?
Anthologies are great, especially if they’re full of ghosts.:-) When I read an anthology, I always find a wonderful, new-to-me author.
As a writer, what are your literary influences?
Andy Davidson because of his poetic Southern Gothic prose. When I grow up, I want to be Andy Davidson. And Jo Kaplan for her atmospheric, contemporary Gothic settings. When I grow up, I want to be Jo Kaplan, too!
What are you currently working on?
I am working on the final touches of a Southern Gothic novelette, The Hay Bale. It will be released on the 10th of January, 2022. (I gave myself chills writing that creepy story!) I am also editing my literary horror novella, Dog Meat, which will be published by the fantastic folks at Potter’s Grove Press in 2022.
Thanks for your time, Priscilla. I'm looking forward to reading your tale.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Priscilla Bettis read her first horror story, The Exorcist, when she was a little kid. Priscilla snuck the grownup book from her parents’ den, and The Exorcist scared her silly. From that moment on, she was hooked on horror and all things deliciously off kilter. As an adult, Priscilla turned to engineering physics, a wonderful profession, but what she really wants to do is write . . . or die trying, probably at the hands of a vampiric wraith. Priscilla shares a home in the Blue Ridge foothills of Virginia (USA) with her two-legged and four-legged family members.
Website: priscillabettisauthor.com
Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/Priscilla-Bettis/e/B08R97Z63M
ABOUT THE BOOK
Among the Headstones: Creepy Tales from the Graveyard edited by Rayne Hall, presents twenty-seven of the finest - and creepiest - graveyard tales with stories by established writers, classic authors and fresh voices.
Here you'll find Gothic ghost stories by Robert Ellis, Lee Murray, Greg Chapman, Morgan Pryce, Rayne Hall, Guy de Maupassant, Myk Pilgrim, Zachary Ashford, Amelia Edwards, Nina Wibowo, Krystal Garrett, Tylluan Penry, Ambrose Bierce, Cinderella Lo, Nikki Tait, Arthur Conan Doyle, Priscilla Bettis, Kyla Ward, Edgar Allan Poe, Paul D Dail, Cameron Trost, Pamela Turner, William Meikle and Lord Dunsany who thrill with their eerie, macabre and sometimes quirky visions.
You'll visit graveyards in Britain, Indonesia, Russia, China, Italy, Bulgaria, Thailand, USA, Australia, South Africa and Japan, and you can marvel at the burial customs of other cultures.
Now let's open the gate - can you hear it creak on its hinges? - and enter the realm of the dead. Listen to the wind rustling the yew, the grating of footsteps on gravel, the hoo-hoo-hoo of the collared dove. Run your fingers across the tombstones to feel their lichen-rough sandstone or smooth cool marble. Inhale the scents of decaying lilies and freshly dug earth.
But be careful. Someone may be watching your every movement... They may be right behind you.
Purchase Link: mybook.to/Headstones
The ebook is available for pre-order from Amazon at the special offer price of 99 cents until 31 January 2022. (After that date, the price will go up.) A paperback will follow.