Creepy Crawleys

John & Jane have just moved into a sprawling old Colonial house in New England. When they are welcomed by their neighbors in a strange way, the newlyweds must confront the reclusive old couple and their disturbing gesture.

 

Publication: Northern Haunts: 100 Terrifying New England Tales
Publisher: Shroud Publishing
Publication Date: October 2008

 

WATCH THE BOOK TRAILER:
Check out the mini book trailer I made for Creepy Crawleys

 

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INKLINGS: About Creepy Crawleys

My Motivation:
Despite never having been to New England, I was determined to submit a piece to the Northern Haunts anthology. Shroud Publishing is considered the crème de la crème of horror fiction, and I knew that snagging a spot in Tim Deal’s stellar anthology would be a great way to get my publishing career started.

Other than a few poetry submissions to (and subsequent rejections from) Prism International, this was the first time I had sent my work out into the publishing world.

My Idea:
I came up with this idea after reading about an old superstition about eating spiders in pats of butter to ward off illness. Being arachnophobic, this both grossed me out and intrigued me. And knowing how many other people out there hate or fear spiders, I knew that this piece would definitely cause a reaction. What else can you ask for?!

The Story
This piece actually turned out to be a bit more of a challenge than I had previously thought.

700 words. That was all the room I had to tell this tale. 700 words to work in plot, character, and the right creep-to-gross-out ratio.

My first draft was double that. It started with a scene that was inspired by a middle school end-of-year party at Lori Hawthorne’s house where someone killed a spider with a hammer in Lori’s backyard. Ah, the memories.

That part had to be cut, unfortunately, as I realized I had to start the story much later. The good thing is I already had a vision (or should I say “heard”) of exactly how the story would end. I could literally hear my own voice in my head reading the story aloud and the final line…”And when Mrs. Crawley…” well – you get the point. I can’t very well post the final line here, no matter how many of you are immediately-turn-to-the-last-page-of-the-book readers. You’ll just have to read it for yourself. Then let me know what you thought of it!

The Acceptance:
I found out that my story was accepted after a camping trip where our tent was bombarded with countless (seriously! I’m talking nests here people!) Daddy Long-legs. At the time, I was overwhelmingly terrorized by the disgusting little creatures – but in hindsight, I look at it as a sort of skin-crawling tiding of what would soon be great joy.