Debut Novella Available Now! "The Ghosts of Echo Canyon"

Ghosts aren't the only things that haunt the hills of Echo Canyon... And things aren't always what they seem at the popular Los Angeles destination.
 
Happy-go-lucky Louisa is an avid hiker.

When she hears about a trail that will take her up to the old, abandoned ruins of the Echo Canyon Hotel she can't wait to go.

She quickly learns though why the mountaintop doesn't stay occupied by the living for long.

Bizarre phenomena, peculiar strangers, and unusual sensations are only the beginning of what Louisa encounters. But despite several warnings, for some reason she is compelled to continue visiting the site and her new friend, Helen.

Will she survive this particular adventure, or will she become Echo Canyon's latest victim?

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    I've always been a huge fan of horror and the paranormal. 

    Despite being an easily frightened child, I have fond memories spending the summer with friends conjuring up stories about Bloody Mary and other ghoulish phantoms. During the day, I found those stories exciting. Even now I still get goosebumps remembering some of the crazy things we came up with.
  
    At night though, it was a whole other story. 

    Every shadow caste on the walls from the lights outside my window brought terrific thoughts of menacing ghosts coming into my room to do me harm. When the old toilet down the hall ran at night, I was convinced that it was a monster attempting to escape. I never dared sleep with my feet exposed to the night air (no matter how hot it was) for fear that the vampire under my bed would be able to pull me off and down deep into his hidden nest. 

    Needless to say, I was a frightened child, but I still sought out the stories. 

    I was always on the waitlist at my school's library to check out the next volume in R.L. Stein's Goosebumps series. And I was also always around to watch programs like Tales From the Crypt and movies like Creepshow with my dad. Those tales of terror only further fueled my love of the genre.

    As I got older I fell in love with Stephen King's The Shinning and Salem's Lot. The academic in my very much enjoyed Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. 

    It wasn't until I was an undergraduate studying 18th and 19th century British literature that I found the literary roots of some of my favorite contemporary tales. I was taking a class on the Aesthetic and Decadent movements in 19th century England (think Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley) when I was first introduced to the father of weird horror--Arthur Machen. I think I read The Great God Pan in one sitting, it just captivated me that much.

    Though I hold the memories of my undergraduate foray into classic horror dearly, I really found the stuff that got me excited when I was in graduate school. 

    I had wanted to continue my studies in British Literature, but had all but abandoned that one year in when I realized that there really weren't too many professional opportunities in that field. I switched over to Comic Book Studies instead; which admittedly looking back probably didn't have that many professional opportunities either--especially from an academic standpoint.

    Anyway, I forged on nonetheless and (re)discovered my specific love of short tales of terror. These were the classic EC and Harvey comics from the 1950s. The men (and woman) who wrote and drew those books I hold to be the true masters of horror storytelling. Now that's my own humble opinion, but anyone who could capture such visceral fear in just eight pages is a narrative genius, as far as I'm concerned. Even today, I am hard-pressed to find anyone who can do what those teams did.

    That's a short look at how I came into the horror genre and the kinds of books and tales that I find most influential. 

    I make no claim to be a "real" author or even a good author, but a few months ago, I was struck by the notion that I wanted to write something. We were right at the beginning of the COVID-19 situation and I think that I was struggling to deal with everything happening in the world and the industry that I love. I needed an outlet. A tale to tell that would take my mind off of the horrifying realities that we were all living. That story is The Ghosts of Echo Canyon.

An early draft of the cover

    The Ghosts of EchoCanyon is really near and dear to me because it encapsulates so many things that interest me and came out of such a raw moment in my life. It is based on a location that I find to be one of the most beautiful in all of the Los Angeles area. The mythology of the location in the story showcases my love for Los Angeles history (even if the history in the book is virtually pure fiction). But most importantly it is the kind of horror story that I rarely come across. The kind of horror stories that I would like to see more of.

    I don't want to give away anything in the book, but if I had to describe the type of horror novella that The Ghosts of Echo Canyon is, it would have to be Lovecraftian. It captures the weird, the unexplained, and the primal horror that is honestly all around us.

    I think fans of Lovecraft and Machen would enjoy this book. It draws influence from those authors, but also has a bit of Algernon Blackwood. It's a modern story so I wanted the writing to be nice and tight. Something that anyone could pick up and read--similar to how I first came to read authors like R.L. Stein and Stephen King. 

    That said, though, it is my debut novella so I could be absolutely wrong. 

    Regardless though, what I can definitely says is that it is a work of passion. If you do give it try I hope that you do like it! And if you do pick it up, I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts. 

Thanks for reading!
Caitlin A. McCabe