Last month, the website City Girl Who Loves To Read interviewed me about the haunted lake and creepy village in my novel Drowned Sorrow. Here's the interview in case you missed it.
Why did you choose the setting of Moonlight Creek?
Moonlight Creek is a remote town where water has become a supernatural element that can think, move, and kill. The imaginary village - with its haunted lake and worn-out, musty buildings - is literally alive and thus one of the characters in Drowned Sorrow. Old Saybrook and Chester in Connecticut (which were also the filming locations for the movie Let's Scare Jessica To Death) fit the description and formed the basis for Moonlight Creek.
How is this village a fundamental part of your overall theme?
Water and its symbolic meaning (cleansing, rebirth) is the main theme of Drowned Sorrow. Everything in Moonlight Creek reminds us of this topic: the lake, rain, leaking walls, damp atmosphere, and shops that sell nothing but water.
How do you transport the reader there through your writing?
In order to have a constant feeling of impending doom, it was important that readers understood Moonlight Creek was alive and breathing; the organic feel of the village had to be present on almost every page without being repetitive. The best way to do this was to make the village part of the action.
How do you introduce them to an area they may not be familiar with?
The reader discovers Moonlight Creek the same way the main character does. Because Megan visits Moonlight Creek for the first time, she initially gets an overall feel of the place before the vague menacing atmosphere slowly turns into something more specific and sinister.
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About Drowned Sorrow:
A story of suspense, mystery and water... Lots of water...
Megan Blackwood has just lost her son in a terrible accident. Now she has come to Moonlight Creek with her teenage daughter, Jenna, hoping that a change of scenery might help to put their lives back together. But something odd is going on in Moonlight Creek. When rain falls over the village, its inhabitants commit grisly murders, leaving the place deserted with the first rays of sunshine. Beneath the lake's surface, an eerie presence watches... and waits... Waits to reveal a tragic past drowned in mystery and fear. One that doesn't bode well for visitors. By the time Megan realizes that her daughter's life is in danger, it might already be too late.
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