CANR
WORK TITLE: THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE: https://www.gwendolynkiste.com
CITY: Pittsburgh
STATE:
COUNTRY: United States
NATIONALITY: American
LAST VOLUME:
RESEARCHER NOTES:
PERSONAL
Born c. 1984, in New Philadelphia, OH; married Bill Homan.
ADDRESS
CAREER
Writer.
AWARDS:Recipient of Bram Stoker Award several times; Lambda Literary Award; Bram Stoker Award for first novel, Horror Writers Association, and This Is Horror Award for Novel of the Year, both 2018, both for The Rust Maidens; Bram Stoker Award for short nonfiction, Horror Writers Association, 2019, for “Magic, Madness, and Women Who Creep;” Bram Stoker Award for short fiction, Horror Writers Association, 2020, for “The Eight People Who Murdered Me.”
WRITINGS
Contributor to periodicals, anthologies, and journals, including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Vastarien, Shimmer, Black Static, Interzone, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy; also author of Pretty Marys All in a Row and The Invention of Ghosts.
SIDELIGHTS
Gwendolyn Kiste is an American writer of horror. She has won the Bram Stoker Award several times for her short stories and novels. Kiste has also published stories in a range of periodicals, anthologies, and journals, including Lit Hub, Nightmare, Vastarien, and Best American Science Fiction and Fantasy. In an interview in Nightmare, Kiste discussed her genre preference, revealing: “My preference is definitely for horror stories. I love all forms of speculative fiction, but because I grew up with a father who would recite Poe from memory—anytime, anyplace—horror is like my comfort food.”
The Rust Maidens
The Rust Maidens is set in Cleveland in 1980 as its recently closed mills left many people unemployed and Lake Erie was toxically polluted. Newly graduated Phoebe, however, is more concerned about many of the girls in her neighborhood, who were becoming monsters. Tourists and doctors flocked to the neighborhood to witness their transformations. Phoebe and her best friend, Jacqueline, try to figure out what is happening to the girls, believing that they know more than they are revealing.
In an interview in Geeklyinc, Kiste shared how she came up with the idea for her debut novel after expanding a concept from a short story she wrote called “Reasons I Hate My Big Sister.” She shared: “I wanted to do something different with the metamorphosis. I love the body horror subgenre so much, and I’ve always felt like it works best when the bodily transformation is not only done in an unusual way but also tied in directly to the themes and setting of the story.” Booklist contributor Becky Spratford stated: “With a cast of teenage characters, a strong coming-of-age theme, and a 1980 setting, The Rust Maidens will appeal to teens,” particularly followers of the Stranger Things television series or the Welcome to Nightvale podcast.
Boneset & Feathers
With Boneset & Feathers, Odette was the only survivor of her family when her fishing village was attacked by the witchfinders. Ever since then, her neighbors have blamed her for every unexplained calamity. When a young witchfinder returns specifically to kill Odette, she must evade death yet again. Her friend, Anna, is wounded by a poisoned knife, leaving Odette no choice but to travel to the capital to save her. This leaves her susceptible to all manner of dangers.
A contributor to Publishers Weekly exclaimed: “Though light on backstory, the heavy atmosphere is enough to pull in readers.” The same critic opined that this novel “is sure to please.” Booklist contributor Nell Keep observed that the author “effectively creates an intense quasi-Jacobean world … and ably depicts a culture of fear, despair, and wonder.”
Reluctant Immortals
Reluctant Immortals centers on the survivor stories of Lucy and Bee, who became immortal after their relationships with Dracula and Edward Rochester. Lucy has spent 70 years guarding the ashes of Dracula, while helping Bee deal with the captivity her husband subjected her to. They live in a run-down Hollywood house with barely enough money to survive. However, their uneasy worlds are upturned when Jane Eyre appears at their front door.
Booklist contributor Lucy Lockley suggested that “fans of Gothic horror with a literary twist will be delighted.” A contributor to SFFWorld concluded that “the premise was intriguing and the execution of the themes intertwined with brisk plotting made for an enjoyable read. Where I would have liked a little more background/explanation was just how Rochester and Bee became immortal…. That said, Kiste’s story is more concerned with the characters at the forefront of the novel and how they deal with the trauma and abuse and can forge a strength to deal with those terrors and friendship in a shared situation with those terrors.”
The Haunting of Velkwood
In The Haunting of Velkwood, one block of a suburb disappeared behind a veil into another dimension. Only three young women were spared as they had left the neighborhood to return to college the night before it happened. Some twenty years later, the women are still coping with that traumatic past. Talitha is tempted by paranormal researcher Jack, who asks her to try and communicate with her younger sister behind the veil. She realizes that the vicinity is full of ghosts that force her to deal with the traumas of her past.
Booklist contributor Spratford mentioned that the novel “is both an atmospheric, character-centered story … and an ode to the forgotten women who” can save the world. A contributor to Publishers Weekly reasoned that “the plot is fast-paced but somewhat predictable, and the scares never pack a true punch.” A Kirkus Reviews contributor found the novel to be “atmospheric,” despite the setting being “predictable.” However, the same critic concluded that “a character-driven novel that employs a metaphor for the time warp of trauma and women refusing to stay silent about abuses they’ve undergone is a worthwhile undertaking.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Booklist, October 15, 2018, Becky Spratford, review of The Rust Maidens, p. 33; October 15, 2020, Nell Keep, review of Boneset & Feathers, p. 36; July 1, 2022, Lucy Lockley, review of Reluctant Immortals, p. 30; December 1, 2023, Becky Spratford, review of The Haunting of Velkwood, p. 115.
Kirkus Reviews, March 1, 2024, review of The Haunting of Velkwood.
Publishers Weekly, September 14, 2020, review of Boneset & Feathers, p. 72; January 8, 2024, review of The Haunting of Velkwood, p. 32.
ONLINE
Author Interviews, https://writerinterviews.blogspot.com/ (March 4, 2024), Marshal Zeringue, author interview.
Deeper Black, https://brianfatahsteele5.wixsite.com/ (November 19, 2018), author interview.
Fangoria, https://www.fangoria.com/ (March 19, 2024), Leticia Lopez, “Abandoned Streets and Self-Identity.”
Geeklyinc, https://geeklyinc.com/ (April 9, 2019), Christina Ladd, author interview.
Gwendolyn Kiste website, https://www.gwendolynkiste.com (April 18, 2024).
Hellnotes, https://hellnotes.com/ (December 10, 2018), Gordon B. White, author interview.
Kendall Reviews, https://kendallreviews.com/ (May 18, 2018), Gavin Kendall, author interview.
Line Up, https://the-line-up.com/ (March 30, 2024), Leticia Lopez, author interview.
Monster Complex, https://www.monstercomplex.com/ (April 5, 2024), author interview.
Nerd Daily, https://thenerddaily.com/ (March 23, 2024), Elise Dumpleton, author interview.
Nightmare, https://www.nightmare-magazine.com/ (September 1, 2015), Kevin McNeil, “Author Spotlight: Gwendolyn Kiste.”
SFFWorld, https://www.sffworld.com/ (March 7, 2023 ), review of Reluctant Immortals.
Times Reporter, https://www.timesreporter.com/ (July 12, 2020), Nancy Molnar, “New Philadelphia Native Wins Third Bram Stoker Award.”
Author Spotlight: Gwendolyn Kiste
by KEVIN MCNEIL
PUBLISHED IN SEP. 2015 (ISSUE 36) | 1184 WORDS | RELATED STORY: TEN THINGS TO KNOW ABOUT THE TEN QUESTIONS
Can you tell us a little bit about your writing process and what inspired “Ten Things to Know About the Ten Questions”?
I spent five years in university research labs, coding and analyzing surveys. That probably sounds boring to a lot of people, but the analytical part of my mind really loved it, and I thought it would be fun to write a piece with a psychology questionnaire as a framing device. It took a while and a couple false starts to find the right story to tell this way. In my opinion, any time a writer uses an unusual format, it can come across as gimmicky, so it was important to me that the questions were fundamental to the storytelling process.
An idea finally started to coalesce after I watched Peter Weir’s Picnic at Hanging Rock, which was based on a book by Joan Lindsay. Although that work is pure fiction, the topic of real-life disappearances has terrified me ever since grade school, when my history teacher described the founding of Roanoke Colony and then basically told the class, “Oh, and by the way, everybody vanished, and no one knows why.” As if that was somehow an answer. In writing this story, my goal was to create that sense of the unknown coupled with an all-pervading paranoia about why something was happening, even though, like Roanoke, there are no clear-cut answers.
You have experience writing fantasy and horror short stories as well as screenplays. Do you take a different approach when working on one versus the other? Do you have a preference for a particular form or genre?
My preference is definitely for horror stories. I love all forms of speculative fiction, but because I grew up with a father who would recite Poe from memory—anytime, anyplace—horror is like my comfort food.
In terms of process, I started in screenwriting, and I like to think it’s helped my fiction because now I’m conditioned to imagine a scene from every angle. My approach to both forms is quite similar—coming up with a concept, developing characters, revising a work at least four or five times—but these days, I’ve moved away from screenwriting. I enjoyed it, but I always produced and directed the films too, and if I’m completely honest, I’m not great with people. Consequently, that made me a terrible director, since I was perpetually disgruntled on set. Fiction makes my life easier since my performers are never late and don’t forget their lines. At least not usually . . .
Was this story particularly challenging to write? If so, how?
Yes and no. The questionnaire was the easiest part to write. I had that done in an hour or two. Also, developing Vivienne and Tally was an incredibly joyful process. They are two of my favorite characters I’ve written so far, and it almost felt like an honor to “meet” them. But finding the central story was difficult. Initially, I had a huge amount of material, and I wanted to expand the world. In early drafts, there were lots of extra scenes, including one toward the end that had Vivienne meeting someone who had vanished and returned. I liked the idea, but it took the thrust of the story away from her friendship with Tally. Ultimately, once I forced myself to trim all the extraneous pieces, the story came together very quickly.
As I read this story, I found myself rooting for Tally and Vivienne and bothered that the people in their lives found them to be deviant. Fear of the other—anyone or anything different—is common in today’s society. Is this a theme you feel strongly about?
Fear of the other is a theme that fascinates me and one that comes up again and again in my work. This stems in part from my youth spent as a Shakespeare-spouting, fishnet-wearing punk rocker who thought that living in a small cornfield town in Ohio was akin to being exiled to the Tower of London. I didn’t understand then—and I still don’t understand—why people have such a problem with those who are different. From a social psychology standpoint, I get the in-groups and out-groups and desire to preserve a “clan” mentality, but human beings are capable of moving beyond our evolutionary roots. We can embrace life in all its wonderful permutations if we let ourselves. But that nagging fear of something different too often stops us.
To comfort myself when I was growing up, I always believed I’d someday find a group of people who would understand me, as though they were all hiding in one place like the bee people in Blind Melon’s “No Rain” video. Obviously, though, there are no bee people hippie-dancing in a field, not that I’ve found in my travels anyhow, but I think that wherever Tally went in the story that maybe she found the bee people there. That could be the start of a horror story unto itself, but hey, it sounds like home to me.
I like how open the ending feels. I was left questioning the fate of these characters, but felt hopeful that Vivienne would ultimately find peace. Why did you choose to end the story at this point?
My personal favorite stories have always been ones that leave some interpretation up to the reader. Two of my go-to writers—Ray Bradbury and Shirley Jackson—possessed an uncanny knack for calculating the precise moment to end a story in order to maximize the gut punch. But they often left things in a nebulous place. You’re never sure if their characters will be able to move beyond the trauma of the past. For example, I love the last line of Bradbury’s “The Lake,” the story from which I borrowed the name Tally. No matter how many times I read it, I still feel nauseous when I’m done.
All that said, as a writer, I rarely finish a story on a sour note. I’m a total sucker for a happy ending, so in this case, I believe Vivienne and Tally find each other again. They suffered enough, so they earned their bliss.
Is there anything else you’d like to share about this piece? What’s next for you?
The psychology nerd in me hopes that readers take the test in the story and calculate their score. If anyone does, I’d love it if you’d find me on Facebook or Twitter and share what number you got. I was a thirty-two. Well on my way to deviant status, but not quite in full bloom yet.
As for what’s next, I always say there’s a novel in my future somewhere, but I enjoy short fiction so much that as long as I’m writing, I’ll be happy. Maybe even as happy as a hippie-dancing bee.
Kendall Reviews interviews Gwendolyn Kiste, author of ‘And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe’ and ‘Pretty Marys All in a Row’, we chat writing, music, inspirations & cat museums.
18th May 2018 Gavin Kendall Reviews Interviews 0
Gwendolyn Kiste is the author of And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, her debut fiction collection available now from JournalStone, as well as the dark fantasy novella, Pretty Marys All in a Row, from Broken Eye Books. Her short fiction has appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Shimmer, Black Static, Daily Science Fiction, Interzone, LampLight, and Three-Lobed Burning Eye as well as Flame Tree Publishing’s Chilling Horror Short Stories anthology, among others. You can find her online at gwendolynkiste.com
I took the liberty of ordering Bloody Marys, seemed appropriate…
Bloody Mary Brunch GIF by Absolut Vodka - Find & Share on GIPHY
KR: Could you tell me a little about yourself please?
I’m a horror and dark fantasy writer based in Pennsylvania. My debut collection, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, came out last year through JournalStone, and was recently nominated for a Bram Stoker Award. I also have a dark fantasy novella, Pretty Marys All in a Row, out with Broken Eye Books. As for my non-writing life, I live on a 30-acre former horse farm with my husband and two cats, all three of which help me to hunt (mostly unsuccessfully) for ghosts on our property.
KR: What do you like to do when not writing?
You mean, there are things in life other than writing?!
Seriously, though, most days, it does seem that I spend the vast majority of time at my writing desk. Fortunately, my husband helps me to keep a balance. He and I tend to find weird places or events to occupy our free time. Cat museums, Mad Hatter tea parties, brunches with owls: there’s always something wonderfully bizarre going on in the Pittsburgh region and just beyond, and we’re fortunate enough that we can make time for all things strange in our life.
KR: What is your favourite childhood book?
Well, the very first book I learned to read was The Berenstain Bears’ The Spooky Old Tree. I was around three years old, and I was very proud that not only could I read at that age, but also that I was reading a creepy book. Or as creepy as they come for that age range anyhow. So that one will always be a favorite.
Beyond that one, many of the books I read when I was a kid were intended for older readers. Poe and Bradbury were huge childhood favorites of mine, and obviously remain huge influences to this day.
KR: What are you reading now?
I’m a big fan of anthologies, so I’m working my way through two fantastic ones right now: Sycorax’s Daughters and Looming Low. Both books have been nominated for awards and featured in Best of lists or anthologies. The tables of contents also include some of my favorite authors writing today: Eden Royce and Lori Titus in Sycorax’s Daughters, and Brooke Warra, S.P. Miskowski, and Nadia Bulkin in Looming Low. It’s always such a joy to pick up a book that has so many stories from authors you already love, and it’s also so much fun to discover new work from authors you haven’t read yet.
I’m also rereading a couple recent poetry books that I really enjoyed: A Collection of Nightmares by Christina Sng and I Am Not Your Final Girl by Claire C. Holland. The former won the Bram Stoker Award for poetry for last year, and the latter already has my vote for best poetry collection this year. I’m certainly not a poet myself, which just leaves me more in awe of writers who can do so much with so few words.
KR: What is your favourite album, and does music play any role in your writing?
Wow, it’s really hard to winnow it down to one favorite album. But if I had to choose, at least at the moment, it would be a three-way tie with Houses of the Holy from Led Zeppelin, Moondance by Van Morrison, and Hejira by Joni Mitchell. I wasn’t born until the 80s, but for some reason, that doesn’t stop the 1970s from being huge in terms of influence for me.
Music definitely plays a role in my work. There’s the obvious way in that I often listen to music while writing, but more than that, a number of my stories found an initial kernel of inspiration in songs, or specifically the emotions certain songs conjured for me. The last story in my collection is called “The Lazarus Bride,” and it was inspired in part by the Zeppelin song, “Tangerine.” More recently, I wrote a dark fantasy story that appeared in Mantid Magazine, and that one came from listening to the Florence + the Machine song, “Which Witch?” I’ve also written a couple stories that use music playlists as a wraparound, so music has certainly wormed its way into my work in so many ways over the years.
https://giphy.com/gifs/florence-and-the-machine-welch-WGLF1aDHHvgYw
KR: Who were the authors that inspired you to write?
Shirley Jackson and Ray Bradbury are probably the two biggest inspirations for my writing, especially in terms of getting me started as an author. I also adore Angela Carter’s The Bloody Chamber. I’m not sure I would be writing darkly twisted fairy tales today if not for her guidance. As I already mentioned, Edgar Allan Poe is a big one for me too. My dad is a huge Poe fan, so I’ve been familiar with “The Raven” and “Annabel Lee” and “The Tell-Tale Heart” since I was a kid, to the point that it feels like Poe’s characters are dysfunctional members of my own family!
KR: Do you work to an outline or plot or do you prefer to just see where an idea takes you?
With short fiction, I’m more likely to just see where an idea goes. There might be a bit of planning along the way, but with shorter works, I’m more eager and willing to go on the ride, even if I have no clue where it will ultimately lead.
When it comes to longer fiction, however, I like to outline everything. I won’t hold myself to every single step in that plan, but I do feel that it helps me to have a detailed guide of where I’m headed. Longer works, especially novels, are such a huge commitment, and I’m much happier as a writer if I know from the start that I have some kind of plan. That way, I’m less likely to get lost in the proverbial forest halfway through a project.
KR: What kind of research do you do, and how long do you spend researching before beginning a book?
I have a background in research, so this is one of my favorite parts of being a writer. I love digging for answers online and in libraries, trying to find out more about topics, especially the really strange things that fascinate me. Now with so many newspapers being scanned and available online, I’m always pleasantly surprised at how many specifics I can find about topics with just a few well-placed clicks. Each project is different, but I usually like to spent at least a week or two researching. What kind of research can be a surprise, even to me. For example, for my upcoming novel, I looked into everything from baseball schedules in 1980 to the life cycle of cicadas and midges. All in a day’s work for a writer, I guess!
KR: Describe your usual writing day?
I really don’t have a “usual” writing day. From one week to the next, my process somehow always feels vastly different, which can be a bit disorienting anytime I try to explain to someone what I did with my day. However, on “good” writing days, we’ll say, I spend an hour or two researching whatever project is currently in progress or coming up next. Then hopefully, there will be three or four hours of decent writing time as I move forward on a story draft. There’s probably also a couple hours total on social media in there too, checking out what other writers are up to and bookmarking articles or stories to read later.
To be honest, though, writing still seems like magic to me. Stories might languish for hours, days, or months before I suddenly look at the document after a good writing session, and the story’s done. I’m not even always sure how it happens, but somehow, it does. Again and again. So as long as that magic doesn’t run out, I’m happy.
KR: Do you have a favourite story/short that you’ve written (published or not)?
This is always such a tough question! Right now, I would say that it’s probably my dark fantasy story, “Songs to Help You Cope When Your Mom Won’t Stop Haunting You and Your Friends.” It appeared last year in Black Static, and writing it definitely felt like coming home, in part because it was one of the first times I’ve ever written about Ohio, which is where I grew up. As the title suggests, this is one of those stories that used a playlist to help unfold the emotional conflict of the main character’s haunting.
Also, elements of this story helped to inspire my forthcoming novel, The Rust Maidens. I’d had an idea for the book rattling around in my head for over a year, but it wasn’t until I wrote “Songs to Help You Cope…” that I realized how to bring it all together. So that story is certainly close to my heart.
KR: Do you read your book reviews?
I do, actually. Perhaps I shouldn’t, but it can be an interesting experience. What surprises me the most is how much I’ve learned to be able to take reviews (mostly) in stride. When I was younger, I was never all that great at taking criticism, but now fortunately, I’m better at processing it. Not everyone is going to like your work, and that’s completely okay. Plus, it’s always a wonderful thing when someone has read your work at all and taken the time to share their thoughts. So long as it isn’t mean-spirited, a lot can be learned from reading reviews, and it’s been a very good experience for me overall. At least so far!
KR: Any advice for a fledgling author?
Just keep going. It’s a tough industry, and sometimes a cruel industry too, but we need new voices in literature, perhaps now more than ever. So even when it gets difficult (and it will always get difficult at some point), just keep writing. Keep polishing stories you’re proud of. Keep sending those stories to markets. Keep networking and building relationships with other writers. Keep going.
KR: What scares you?
Loss of identity is a big one for me. A disintegration of self, either mentally or physically. This is probably why body horror appeals to me so much as a writer. It explores both elements: how our flesh and bone as humans can betray us, and then also how that betrayal affects us emotionally.
This might sound a bit strange, but just everyday living can be really scary too. Getting through a day in a world that can be so cruel and so dark is terrifying unto itself. On social media, I’m always making jokes about my existential dread, but it’s a real thing for so many of us these days, and for me, that’s scary in ways that most monsters will never be.
KR: E-Book, Paperback or Hardback?
Paperback for sure. I love the experience of holding a paperback book, how it conforms to your individual grasp, and feels like yours. It’s also so easy to tuck a paperback in my bag and carry it with me wherever I go. Plus, of course, there’s that great book scent! That being said, I am slowly warming up to ebooks, especially with how convenient they are. And naturally, I love a hardback as well. I mean, what book lover doesn’t?
I Love Reading Gilmore Girls GIF - Find & Share on GIPHY
KR: Can you tell me about your latest release please?
My last book release was my dark fantasy novella, Pretty Marys All in a Row. It’s about the Marys of folklore: Resurrection Mary, Bloody Mary, Mary Mack, Mari Lwyd, and Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary. I loved the idea of how this name of Mary was used so frequently in the stories we tell each other, so I decided to put these characters together and explore their otherworldly origins.
Mary, Mary…
Always hitchhiking the same lonely highway, she calls herself Rhee, but everyone else knows her as Resurrection Mary. And when she’s transported home each night to the same decrepit, nowhere mansion, she’s always got her sisters.
Call her name three times, and Bloody Mary appears. In the poisoned garden, Mistress Mary, Quite Contrary. Downstairs, Mary Mack, forever building her own coffin. And brooding with her horse skull, the restless Mari Lwyd.
They are the Marys, embodiments of urban legend and what goes bump in the night, every child’s nightmare. But as the walls between their realities start to crack, the shadows threaten oblivion.
To save herself and her sisters, Rhee must unravel who the Marys are before the darkness claims them.
KR: What are you working on now?
I’m currently finishing up the edits for the novel that I mentioned, The Rust Maidens. Based mostly in 1980, it’s about a group of girls in a Cleveland neighborhood who are slowly turning into the rust and rot that surrounds them. There’s body horror and coming-of-age, and it’s also a bit of a twisted, gothic fairy tale in its own weird way. That should be out later this year with Trepidatio Publishing, an imprint of JournalStone.
Otherwise, I’m working on more short fiction. I just finished up a couple new short stories, and I have a few more that I’m hoping to polish up in the next month. My blog also features interviews with writers and roundups of submission calls, so I’m usually pretty busy with that, too. It seems like something is always going on in the publishing world, and I’m just glad if I have a chance to catch my breath!
KR: You find yourself on a desert island, which three people would you wish to be deserted with you and why?
Oooh! This is a super fun question!
You can choose…
a) One fictional character from your writing.
I’ll go with Rhee or Resurrection Mary, the protagonist from my novella, Pretty Marys All in a Row. She’s one of my favorite characters I’ve ever created, and I also think it would just be very cool to hang out with a ghost and ask her questions about the afterlife.
b) One fictional character from any other book.
I’ll have to go with Merricat Blackwood from We Have Always Lived in the Castle by Shirley Jackson. I feel like I didn’t know fictional characters could be so incredible until I discovered Merricat. Of course, if she gets bored or scorned on the deserted island, she might poison the sugar bowl, but that’s okay; that’ll just ensure that I don’t overdo it on sweets anyways.
c) One real life person that is not a family member or friend.
Hanging out with Shirley Jackson would certainly be fun, though it might be awkward for Merricat to meet her maker. However, if the real-life person still has to be living, I’ll take a pass on that last one. With a well-dressed ghost and a surly murderess on my island, it might be crowded enough already!
KR: Thank you very much Gwendolyn.
You can follow Gwendolyn on Twitter @GwendolynKiste
Monday, March 4, 2024
Gwendolyn Kiste
Gwendolyn Kiste is the three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, Reluctant Immortals, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, Pretty Marys All in a Row, The Invention of Ghosts, and Boneset & Feathers. She's a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin and Ignotus awards.
Originally from Ohio, Kiste now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts.
Kiste's new novel is The Haunting of Velkwood.
My Q&A with the author:
How much work does your title do to take readers into the story?
I feel like the title of The Haunting of Velkwood definitely sets the stage for what sort of book this is. You immediately have the imagery of The Haunting of Hill House, to which this novel definitely pays homage. Plus, the word Velkwood isn’t immediately recognizable, so it establishes a little bit of mystery right away.
This book was very different for me because usually, I know exactly what I want to call a work fairly early in the process. With this novel, however, I never quite clicked with a title during the writing process. I believe the working title that I sent to my publisher was The Velkwood Girls. It was decided that was a little vague, so we went back and forth on some options before The Haunting of Velkwood was suggested. Since I’m such a huge Shirley Jackson fan and this novel owes such a great debt to her work, it really seemed like the ideal title for the book. So big thanks to Jela Lewter at Saga Press for suggesting it!
What's in a name?
For me, names are always such an exciting part of the writing process. For the eponymous Velkwood, I remember coming up with that one very early on. It was a word I’d never heard before but somehow felt familiar at the same time. In particular, I wanted something that sounded unusual and earthy and maybe even a little spooky. Plus, with the title of the novel being an homage to The Haunting of Hill House, Velkwood is bit of a nod to the Blackwood family from Jackson’s other classic novel, We Have Always Lived in the Castle.
As for my main character Talitha, I briefly knew someone years ago with that name, and I always thought it was so unique. I don’t know that I’ve come across it again since then. Talitha seemed like such a singular character in the novel, someone who’s become isolated from the rest of the world, so it seemed appropriate to give her a name that also didn’t fit the mold and separated her from other people. As for Brett, I’ve always thought it was such a lovely name for a girl. More specifically, Ava Gardner played the character of Lady Brett Ashley in the Hemingway adaptation, The Sun Also Rises, and I couldn’t help but imagine that my character of Brett has some of that fiery Ava Gardner energy, so that felt like the perfect choice for her.
How surprised would your teenage reader self be by your new novel?
Probably not too surprised. I’ve always been a huge fan of horror, so the fact that I’ve written a novel about a ghostly neighborhood would probably be right up my alley during adolescence.
Mostly, though, I think my teenage self would just be so incredibly thrilled that I’m a writer for a living. It felt like a difficult, nebulous goal when I was young. I wasn’t sure how you could even navigate the publishing industry and make that career a reality. It’s been so exciting to be able to become a writer. Even with its ups and downs, it’s such an incredible honor to spend my days like this.
Do you find it harder to write beginnings or endings? Which do you change more?
I probably change my beginnings a bit more than my endings. Especially with The Haunting of Velkwood, I tinkered with that first chapter a bit to make sure that the reader gets to know Talitha right away and also to ensure that you’re pulled into the central mystery of what happened to her and the neighborhood where she grew up.
On the other hand, I knew very early on how I wanted the book to end. To me, it felt like the last chapter, even the last two chapters, were the only place these characters could end up. So writing the ending was much easier for me, even if it’s a fairly emotional finale. I was really dedicated to seeing these characters through the last of this ghostly mystery.
Do you see much of yourself in your characters? Do they have any connection to your personality, or are they a world apart?
I definitely see a lot of myself in my characters. I sometimes think that most of my characters are segments of my own psyche in one way or another. In The Haunting of Velkwood, Talitha definitely represents how much I’m always trying to move forward from the past, even if I don’t always succeed as much as I’d like. Brett represents my determination to keep going, no matter the odds. And the supporting character of Enid is the part of me that always felt like an outcast growing up.
What non-literary inspirations have influenced your writing?
I’m a big fan of photography, so I definitely look to people like Cindy Sherman, Bill Owens, William Eggleston, and Jo Ann Callis for inspiration. I’m also a tremendous fan of film, so I’m always watching movies for inspiration as well. I adore David Lynch, Sofia Coppola, David Cronenberg, and some of Terence Malick’s early films as well as lots of horror cinema, including Hammer horror, the Universal horror movies, and Val Lewton’s films. Truly, though, I can find inspiration anywhere—from a walk in my backyard or a trip to the art museum or just a drive to a new place. There’s so much inspiration lurking everywhere; sometimes, I feel like I just have to open my eyes and find it.
Visit Gwendolyn Kiste's website.
The Page 69 Test: The Haunting of Velkwood.
--Marshal Zeringue
The Rust Maidens.
By Gwendolyn Kiste.
Nov. 2018. 252p. JoumalStone, paper, $ 17.95 (9781947654440).
In the summer of 1980, the future looked bleak in Cleveland. Mills were closing, leaving many unemployed, and the lake was so polluted it could catch on fire. But to new high-school graduate Phoebe, the main problem is that in her neighborhood, young girls--many of them her friends--are turning into grotesquely beautiful beasts. Phoebe recounts this strange tale in 1980 and in the present, allowing readers to see Phoebe struggle with the events of that horrifying summer both as they happened and in the far-reaching aftermath. Award-winning short story writer Kiste (And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, 2017) makes her full-length debut with this dramatic and absorbing novel full of compelling contractions--it's realistic yet supernatural, terrifying yet beautiful, infuriating yet redemptive. This is a tale of friendship, monsters, and growing up, a lyrical and character-centered story filled with danger and horrible consequences following in the tradition of horror with a strong coming-of-age theme as seen most recently in Children of the Dark by Jonathan Janz (2016), Disappearance at Devil's Rock by Paul Tremblay (2016), and Hex by Thomas Olde Heuvelt (2016).--Becky Spratford
YA: With a cast of teenage characters, a strong coming-of-age theme, and a 1980 setting, The Rust Maidens will appeal to teens who enjoy TV shows like Stranger Things andpodcasts like Welcome to Nightvale. BS.
YA RECOMMENDATIONS
* Young adult recommendations for adult, audio, and reference titles reviewed in this issue have been contributed by the Booklist staff and by reviewers Nancy Bent, Michael Cart, John Charles, Colleen Mondor, Jane Murphy, Michael Ruzicka, and Becky Spratford.
* Adult titles recommended for teens are marked with the following symbols: YA, for books of general YA interest; YA/C, for books with particular curriculum value; YA/S, for books that will appeal most to teens with a special interest in a specific subject; and YA/M, for books best suited to mature teens.
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2018 American Library Association
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Spratford, Becky. "The Rust Maidens." Booklist, vol. 115, no. 4, 15 Oct. 2018, p. 33. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A559688126/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=2aaae21e. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Boneset & Feathers
Gwendolyn Kiste. Broken Eye, $19.99 trade paper (172p) ISBN 978-1-940372-57-0
Dead birds falling from the sky are the first sign of trouble in this dark, witchy novel from Kiste (the Rust Maidens series). When the witchfinders tore through Odette's village five years ago, she was the only one of her family to survive. The last witch in her village, she's been estranged from her neighbors and blamed for all strange occurrences ever since. And among the witchfinders, her escape from the pyre has become something of an urban legend. When a young witchfinder returns to her village hoping to prove himself, he sends Odette's tremulous existence spinning out of balance. Though she narrowly evades death yet again, her best friend, Anna, is injured by the witchfinders poisoned knife and falls ill. To save her, Odette must travel to the capital. More trouble is ahead: the witchfinders are gathering for an unknown purpose, strange children dog Odette on her journey, and supernatural shadows congeal around her, ready to whisk her away. Though light on backstory, the heavy atmosphere is enough to pull in readers, and Kiste's vivid descriptions bring Odette's desperate story to life. This gfim tale of magic and resilience is sure to please. (Nov.)
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"Boneset & Feathers." Publishers Weekly, vol. 267, no. 37, 14 Sept. 2020, p. 72. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A638847148/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=526ea9ac. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Boneset & Feathers. By Gwendolyn Kiste. Nov. 2020.172p. Broken Eye, paper, $19.99 (9781940372570).
This slim novel follows Odette, a witch who famously survived the witchfinders' brutal visit to her village by being somehow immune to flames. A few years later, the now fire-skinned Odette is forced back into the village she fled by her need for supplies, only to become enmeshed in another wave of persecution as a new, young witchfinder arrives. Torn between her own traumatic past and her desire to protect the few ex-witches still left in town, Odette must try and use the sorts of painful and vicious magic her mother always tried--and failed--to teach her. While this power may help protect the town, its consequences will send Odette on a journey to the hated capital and the headquarters of the witchfinders. It will also make her vulnerable to a mysterious and hungry power lurking in the village's nearby woods. Kiste (The Rust Maidens, 2018) effectively creates an intense quasi-Jacobean world where witchfinders rule, and ably depicts a culture of fear, despair, and wonder among the persecuted witches. Recommended for historical fantasy fans and general readers alike.--Nell Keep
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Keep, Nell. "Boneset & Feathers." Booklist, vol. 117, no. 4, 15 Oct. 2020, p. 36. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A639876185/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=c380357d. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Reluctant Immortals. By Gwendolyn Kiste. Aug. 2022.320p. Saga, paper, $17.99 (9781982172350); e-book, $11.99 (9781982172367).
Dust and decay, ashes and disembodied voices. Following Boneset & Feathers (2020), the award-winning Kiste delves into the never-changing existence of two misunderstood, undead survivors of intimidation and violence. Because of their unfortunate relationships with two manipulative, self-centered men--Dracula and Edward Rochester--Lucy and Bee are literally and figuratively cursed with immortality. Relegated to secondary-character status in classic literature, they are the victims vilified in print and film. Both would say the stories in which they are recorded are hardly true recollections of events and are blatant misconceptions of what they suffered. For seventy years, Lucy has been guarding the ashes of Dracula, keeping them in separate urns and helping Bee deal with the cruel aftereffects of the captivity imposed by her husband. In 1967, they live in a run-down house in Hollywood, getting by with a barely working automobile and the last of the money from Lucy's pawned dowry jewels. Nevertheless, everything is fine until Jane Eyre shows up on their doorstep. Fans of Gothic horror with a literary twist will be delighted. --Lucy Lockley
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Lockley, Lucy. "Reluctant Immortals." Booklist, vol. 118, no. 21, 1 July 2022, p. 30. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A713750905/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=0d11de20. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
The Haunting of Velkwood.
By Gwendolyn Kiste.
Mar. 2024. 320p. Saga, $26 (9781982172374).
Kiste (Reluctant Immortals, 2022) presents what is sure to be one of the most original and riveting horror novels of 2024. Twenty years ago, a single block, deep in the suburbs, slipped into its own dimension, locked behind an inaccessible veil. Everyone was lost save for three girls who had returned to college the night before. Talitha, now 40, has never recovered from the trauma of that day, but when a researcher entices her back to try to make contact with her little sister, Talitha stops running from Brett, Grace, and their shared past in order to finally move forward and allow the ghosts to rest. The Haunting of Velkwood is both an atmospheric, character-centered story that lays bare the horror of suburban malaise, exposing its dark underbelly encrusted with monsters both real and supernatural, and an ode to the forgotten women who are powerful enough to save themselves and even the world, especially if they band together and let love pull them through. This is reminiscent of Kiste's award-winning, heartbreakingly beautiful debut, Rust Maidens (2018), and fans of titles as wide ranging as Sarah Langan's Good Neighbors (2021), Daniel Kraus' The Ghost That Ate Us (2022), and Lucy Snyder's Sister, Maiden, Monster (2023) will love getting trapped in the Velkwood Vicinity.--Becky Spraford
Copyright: COPYRIGHT 2023 American Library Association
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Spratford, Becky. "The Haunting of Velkwood." Booklist, vol. 120, no. 7-8, 1 Dec. 2023, p. 115. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A777512529/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=bd84140e. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
The Haunting of Velkwood
Gwendolyn Kiste. Saga, $26.99 (256p) ISBN 978-1-982172-37-4
The propulsive if underbaked latest from Bram Stoker Award winner Kiste (Reluctant Immortals) aims to shed light on the terrors lurking beneath everyday suburbia but falls short of the mark. Middleaged Talitha Velkwood was, in the 1980s, one of three friends to escape their small neighborhood--now known as "The Velkwood Vicinity"--before, in "a cosmic anomaly," it inexplicably "went from a nothing neighborhood to a literal nothing... it wavers in between, there and not there, like some kind of ghoulish Brigadoon." Now paranormal researcher Jack convinces Talitha to go back, sure that only she is capable of crossing the border. What she finds there is a street full of ghosts ready to bring her back to the traumas of her youth. Kiste delivers some truly uncanny imagery in this strange suburban wasteland, but the eerie atmospherics often fail to take on larger meaning. One of the Velkwood neighbors, for example, is always shown conversing with a frog in varying states of decomposition, but, beyond its weirdness, the significance of this remains opaque. The plot is fast-paced but somewhat predictable, and the scares never pack a true punch. This is best suited for Kiste's die-hard fans. (Mar.)
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"The Haunting of Velkwood." Publishers Weekly, vol. 271, no. 1, 8 Jan. 2024, pp. 32+. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A781166282/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=cb1a4378. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
Kiste, Gwendolyn THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD Saga/Simon & Schuster (Fiction None) $26.99 3, 5 ISBN: 9781982172374
In an oppressive 1980s U.S. suburb, forgotten women locate their power and rescue themselves.
Talitha Velkwood, a stagnant middle-aged woman, is plagued by the tragic and mysterious disappearance of the suburban neighborhood where she grew up 20 years ago. This cosmic anomaly, in which everything and everyone on this single block vanished behind a seemingly uncrossable veil, left behind only three college girls--Talitha, Brett Hadley, and Grace Spencer. In a world obsessed with spectacle, it's no surprise that the mysterious circumstances of the Velkwood Vicinity caught the attention of occult theorists, some ill-intentioned tabloid journalists, and now a sympathetic paranormal researcher named Jack. He theorizes that only the three women are capable of crossing the border, and when both Brett and Grace reject his offer to try it, he approaches Talitha, convincing her to go back for her younger sister. What she finds is a street full of ghosts ready to plunge her back into the traumatic past she tried desperately to run from. Somewhere between real life and the supernatural, Talitha must confront the reality that past and present are always intertwined, no matter how hard you work to erase it. After all her years of running, Talitha turns back for another moment with her sister and a reconnection with her estranged friends to repair the Velkwood Vicinity and heal themselves. While the haunting is original and atmospheric, the dark history of Talitha's suburbia has a predictable underbelly, leaving the scares a bit hollow and the emotional peak at a disappointingly low elevation. On the other hand, a character-driven novel that employs a metaphor for the time warp of trauma and women refusing to stay silent about abuses they've undergone is a worthwhile undertaking.
Kiste fights for friendship and love to pull her characters through.
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"Kiste, Gwendolyn: THE HAUNTING OF VELKWOOD." Kirkus Reviews, 1 Mar. 2024, p. NA. Gale General OneFile, link.gale.com/apps/doc/A784238354/ITOF?u=schlager&sid=bookmark-ITOF&xid=526a16da. Accessed 5 Apr. 2024.
RELUCTANT IMMORTALS by Gwendolyn Kiste
Rob B March 7, 2023 0 Comment
There are forgotten characters in all of literature, or maybe minor characters who had impact on the story in which they appear, but are then cast off after their purpose of driving the plot has been served. One might even say they become an afterthought. In Gwendolyn Kiste’s Reluctant Immortals, two of those kinds of characters get the spotlight: Lucy Westenra (one of Count Dracula’s first victims) and Bertha Mason, the little known first wife of Jane Eyre’s husband, Edward Rochester. Lucy and Bee (as Bertha has re-christened herself) are alive, and if not well, surviving, in 1960s California. Their torturers(?). Murderers(?) are still looming like a black cloud over their “lives.”
Reluctant Immortals is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.
Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion, Reluctant Immortals is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they bravely claim their own destiny in a man’s world.
Lucy and Bee are surviving with the barest of means in California after having fled Europe. They live in a ramshackle mansion, have a beaten-up Buick and go to the movies every night. Fortunately, they’ve grown friendly with the owner of the drive-in movie theater which gives them a nightly distraction from the darkness through which they’ve suffered. Lucy is still a vampire and in Kiste’s world, she can be killed and return to the land of the living. Lucy is also lugging around urns containing Dracula’s ashes. The Master still whispers to her, tortures her mentally, and has some kind of hold on Lucy. Somehow, Bee has become immortal as well. She also hears Edward Rochester whispering to her.
Dracula is trying to reestablish his physical form in the world and Lucy fights at each turn to prevent this from happening. Along the way, Lucy and Bee meet up with some people who very much represent the late 60s flower power mindset whilst trying to finally break free from their tormentors.
I came to this book a fan of Kiste’s Rust Maidens. Having read the original Dracula and consuming various media adaptations of the Vampire, I had some familiarity with Lucy. I knew she was a minor character. As for Bee…I’ve tried to read books by the Brontës and … I’ll just say they did not mesh with my reading sensibilities. (Wuthering Heights along with James Joyce’s A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man were the books I was required to read in college that I hated the most). Which is to say that I had zero knowledge or connection to the character of Bee, so the fact that Lucy was the main character worked in my favor.
The book is very much about women who are victimized by powerful, charming, sadistic men and how these women fight to get their selfhood back. They live with a trauma that has changed and shaped them profoundly, but they still eke out an agency for themselves. I found Lucy to be a magnetic protagonist, especially since she told the story from her first-person point of view. She was convincing in her struggle to overcome the mental and spiritual chains in which Dracula kept her tied and wrapped. What I found fascinating was that Bee and Lucy were living together for the better part of the 20th century, yet they still kept their stories of mental and physical torture secret from each other. They lived their lives day-to-day seemingly in an almost-Bohemian lifestyle.
I found Reluctant Immortals to be a compulsive read, I consumed it over the course of a couple of days. Kiste brought the novel to a great climax and conclusion, with an inventive take on how Lucy is able to return to the land of the living. Of course a novel featuring side-characters from Dracula and Jane Eyre wouldn’t be complete if the main characters from those novels didn’t feature at some point. Dracula, I’ve already mentioned. Jane shows up and I’ll just say things don’t get easier for Bee and Lucy with her around. Jane’s complications were just short of annoying and served as another challenge for Lucy to overcome, essentially showing how victimized women can sometimes be less helpful to other victimized women than one would hope.
The premise was intriguing and the execution of the themes intertwined with brisk plotting made for a enjoyable read. Where I would have liked a little more background/explanation was just how Rochester and Bee became immortal. There’s a mild reference to what was keeping them alive, but I would have appreciated a paragraph explaining it in more detail. That said, Kiste’s story is more concerned with the characters at the forefront of the novel and how they deal with the trauma and abuse and can forge a strength to deal with those terrors and friendship in a shared situation with those terrors.
© 2023 Rob H. Bedford
Recommended.