Spooky Tales to Raise the Hairs on the Back of Your Neck

It’s that time of year. What is the scariest short story or novel you read? The scariest that you wrote and why?

Brenda here.

This might be hard to believe seeing as how I write crime fiction, but I don't do well with scary when I'm watching tv and movies or reading other people's work. Maybe my imagination takes me places it shouldn't, but creepy stuff keeps me up at night and makes me mighty uncomfortable, particularly if based on a true story.

I think I'm okay with writing scary scenes because I'm in control of what happens. Even at that, I've had to take breaks and go for the odd walk when something awful is happening to one of my characters. 

The second book I wrote for middle grade is called Hiding in Hawk's Creek. I placed my fourteen-year-old protagonist Jennifer Bannon in a cottage alone during a storm in the wilds of Northwestern Ontario. That freaked me out as I wrote it. Here's a sample:

I turned back toward my bedroom, thinking about getting into my pajamas and    pulling the quilt over my head. The cottage seemed to rock in the wind, and I wanted to be somewhere snag and safe. I opened the bedroom closet and reached for the fleecy green pajamas, the ones covered in panda bears that looked perfect for such a story night. Without warning, a wild knocking started at the back door.It was so unexpected that I screamed as you do when somebody sneaks up on you. Then I stood perfectly still, clutching my hands together against my mouth with my heart pounding so hard, I thought it would come out of my chest.

Okay, so writing for kids is less scary than creating suspense for adults, but still...

I'm trying to think which of my books for adults is the scariest, and I can think of scenes and situations, but I can't pick just one novel. (I'd be interested to hear what my readers would choose!)

I've always had a fear of going into the basement at night when alone in the house, particularly in my childhood home, which was big and creaky when the wind howled. Here's my fears put into In Winter's Grip, my first standalone adult mystery.

I looked back into the shadowy depths of the basement and pictured the layout .... I took tentative steps down the dark stairwell, picking up speed as my eyes adjusted to the gloom. The smell got worse as I got closer to the bottom, and I put a hand over my mouth. By the time I reached the bottom step, dread had begun stealing up my legs and arms. It was all I could do to keep moving forward. I felt along the wall until my hand landed on the wall switch....

All that to fetch a bottle of wine from the cellar.

As I pen my twenty-fifth novel, I continue to disturb and scare the bejesus out of myself. I'm thinking this writing is keeping me off the psychiatrist's couch. Here's one final snippet from Blind Date, first in the Hunter and Tate Mysteries:

She waited in a brilliant shaft of moonlight pouring through the window, tree limbs swaying black shadows across her face as she stood anxious and shivering in the cold apartment. There was a clink outside on the landing, and she pivoted. She’d left the lights off but could see well enough in the murky light to the door. Her heartbeat picked up speed and she stepped closer, aware suddenly of her nakedness. Carefully, silently, she lifted the dangling chain and eased it into the slot. A woman’s voice began speaking into her ear, asking which patient she was enquiring about. She moved back into the shadows, grabbing her raincoat from the wall hook as she passed by. “Danny Tate,” she whispered and watched in horror as the door handle slowly turned.

As for which book is the scariest that I've read in the recent past, that award goes to Kathy Reichs first published work Déjà Dead. Based on a real live serial killer case, Reichs builds the suspense to edge-of-your-seat level. All I wanted to say to her protagonist Temperance Brennan was "stop working alone at night in an empty office building... and don't even think about looking for bodies buried in the woods on the way home..." But then, what would be the fun in heeding that?!

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