I write spooky fiction. My mother and grandmother told ghost stories to their children. As a small child, I loved Enid Blyton, but even then I especially loved the Magic Faraway Tree where every time you climbed the ladder at the top of the tree it brought you to a world above the clouds. These worlds revolved, and were often downright scary, or worse, seemed lovely only until you tried to leave.
When I was 11, I discovered Stephen King through his vampire novel Salem’s Lot. What appealed to me about his work was not just the supernatural, but the fact that his stories were populated by ordinary people in realistic, commonplace worlds. He wrote about childhood as a magical place where everything is possible, good and bad. He wrote about strange little towns, like Derry and Castlerock, in Maine, where people lived ordinary lives, turning a blind eye to horrors and to death itself.
Robert Louis Stevenson muses on this topic in his essay Aes Triplex.
We have all heard of cities in South America built upon the side of fiery mountains, and how, even in this tremendous neighbourhood, the inhabitants are not a jot more impressed by the solemnity of mortal conditions than if they were delving gardens in the greenest corner of England.
People live on the slopes of volcanoes because life carries on. In war zones, children have to be fed. In the midst of civil strife, people go to work.
A real world example of the volcano principle is what happened on the distant island of Tristan de Cunha in the South Atlantic in 1961. The volcanic islands of which Tristan is part, are British overseas territories and the archipelago is the most remote inhabited one in the world. In August 1961, the volcano erupted, causing earthquakes and landslides. By October, the entire population of the island was evacuated to England. Although some adjusted well, by November of 1963, 249 out of the 264 islanders had resettled Tristan da Cunha, proving that home, no matter that it is on the side of a volcano, is where the heart is.
I soaked up family ghost stories, read widely, and lived in a town which has seen both great success and deep recessions. I still live here and I love historic New Ross. In the middle ages, the town was one of the most important in the country, with heavy river traffic and extensive trade. In the early 13th century, before the Augustinians came, an order of monks called the Fratres Cruciferi or Crutched Friars had an abbey in the town. They were granted the right to levy charges on ships using the port.
Corruption ran through the order and after many disputes over the high charges, the townspeople rose up against the monks. Following a battle, several townspeople were killed and three monks drowned in the deep, wide river. The order was driven out, but as they left, the abbot put a curse on the town, that three people a year would die by drowning as retribution for his lost brothers.
The pope supported the monks and removed the sacraments from the town as punishment. It wasn’t until a monk of the much diminished order of the Crutched Friars returned in 1945 to bless the town that the curse was finally lifted. Everyone in the area knows about the curse, even if they don’t know the history of its origin.
With ghost story telling parents, the influence of the master of horror, a home town with a history of a curse, and an active imagination drawn to the gothic, how could a voracious reader grow up to be anything but a horror writer?
I consider myself lucky to be Irish and to live in a country with thousands of years of myth and legend, history, both bloody and brave, and a dedication to storytelling. What a treasure chest of inspiration! Most writers hate to be asked where they get their ideas, because ideas come from exercising the imagination, living, and practising the craft. It’s hard to give a snappy answer.
Stephen King has talked about a drain in his imagination where strange things get trapped and can’t run through, or a basement where there are noises that he likes to investigate.
I don’t look at the world and see horrors. Instead, I look at the world and imagine people overcoming horrors. Because we are mortal, we live a precarious life on the edge of a volcano. It’s a miracle of life that we find joy. For me, it is a miracle that there is a way in every life and every story to find where the heart is, and live there.
- Dark Wood Dark Water, Tina Callaghan's debut novel, a young adult supernatural thriller set in Ireland, is published by Poolbeg Press and will be available in all good bookshops from September 1st
