“Tom Roan’s Widow” by Darin Kennedy originally appeared in Ghost Anthology, 2013, Dark Hall Press. It fit our theme so well we just had to include it. The small town scenes are expertly written, and it is a good reminder as to why being a stranger, unfamiliar with your location and its history, can be more dangerous than you may have known.
Q (Crone Girls Press): Author Interview Question 1: What drove your story for this anthology? Tell us the “story behind the story.”
A (Darin Kennedy): I was reading about a town in Tennessee where the entire old town was evacuated and made into a lake and everyone was relocated to a new town they built from scratch. I kind of wondered what would have happened if someone simply refused to leave…
Q: What does it mean to read and write horror when you’re competing with news headlines (for example, this anthology came about in response to the Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe V Wade)? How has it changed (or not!) your approach to the genre as a writer or as a fan?
A: Horror on the page/screen reflects the horror of life. There is always something horrific going on somewhere. I think what various generations put in their horror is influenced by the news of the day, but whatever is going on in the world is always the fuel.
Q: There are a number of different flavors of horror. Where does your story fit, and what drew you to this particular category?
A: Tom Roan’s Widow is a straight up ghost story. When I first wrote the story, it was literally for a “Ghost Anthology”. It’s been rewritten quite a bit from its original iteration, but I still think it packs a punch.
Q: Why do you write horror? What about the genre appeals to you as an author?
A: My long fiction tends toward contemporary fantasy while my short stuff is usually horror. It just appeals to me in short form. I guess I never quite got over The Lottery.
Q: What’s next in your writing journey?
A: Finishing Book 2 in a new urban/contemporary fantasy series I hope to start shopping around soon.
About The Author
Darin Kennedy is a board certified family physician, a graduate of Wake Forest University, both undergraduate and medical school, in his hometown of Winston-Salem, North Carolina. He completed his residency right at the turn of the century after three years at Carilion Health System in lovely Roanoke, Virginia and went on to serve eight years in the United States Army as an Army Doctor, Flight Surgeon, Family Physician, Residency Faculty, and got to spend most of 2003 and early 2004 in sunny Iraq. It is there he accomplished his other lifelong dream, to become a storyteller, writer, novelist.
In the nearly two decades since his deployment to Operation Iraqi Freedom where he cut his teeth on his first book, Pawn’s Gambit, banging out words on the dentist’s Panasonic Toughbook in between using the laptop to shoot dental x-rays and soldiers using the computer to email home as Internet cafes were not yet a thing that early in the war, he has written and published seven novels – two trilogies and a standalone young adult novel – along with numerous short stories across several magazines and anthologies.
Find him online at: https://www.darinkennedy.com/
As well as on Facebook, his Facebook Group, Instagram, YouTube, and BookBub.
You can also sign up for his newsletter.
Be sure to check out his story in A Woman Unbecoming
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