The following is an interview with Bram Stoker Award-winning author Christa Carmen regarding the recent release of the novel, How to Fake a Haunting, through Thomas & Mercer. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Carmen about her shared creative experience in bringing the story and characters to life on the page, what readers may take away from the story’s themes, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent release of How to Fake a Haunting! What are you most excited for readers to experience with this chilling twist on the haunted house story?
Christa Carmen: Thank you so much! And to properly convey what I’m most excited about with regards to what readers will experience with this novel, I’ll have to start with a little backstory: From 2010 to 2014, I worked at a methadone clinic, and during that time, I was always struck by the idea that if a patient began methadone treatment, there existed the potential for tremendous repercussions down the line. Despite it being a very appropriate treatment for many, and an effective harm reduction strategy, using methadone to recover from opioid addiction was a decision that could echo throughout one’s life. In a lot of ways, methadone is a treatment that seems lifesaving in the beginning, and like liquid handcuffs by the end. Methadone patients can build outrageously successful lives in recovery, then discover, in trying to get off methadone, that those lives have been built on a foundation of cards.
As their mental health counselor, watching these patients grapple with the consequences of a decision to get on this treatment two, five, ten years previously felt like witnessing a fragmentation of their very selves, like they were at this specific junction because of a single medication, a single decision, and they would have been at an entirely different junction if not for that single decision made in desperation, in the space of a single shaky breath. Rarely can we pinpoint the moment in which the Butterfly Effect is set in motion, but in these instances, I felt like we were looking back along a very clear path, and seeing in startling clarity, the initial shuddering of the monarch’s wings.
I mention this because the experience of working at that clinic, and of my own journey into and out of substance abuse, was very much a catalyst for How to Fake a Haunting. Lainey Taylor isn’t in any sort of mental health treatment or recovery, but she did believe, unequivocally, that she was the best person to care for her daughter, the one who’d help her daughter forge the brightest future, only to discover that a single decision could set things on a path where that might not be the case. I love the idea of exploring choices and analyzing how those choices echo throughout the next two, five, ten years of our lives. Terrifying? Potentially, yes. But also eye-opening and riveting and enlightening.
BD: How would you describe your creative process in crafting this poignant story and characters?
CC: How to Fake a Haunting came on the heels of two other novels set in Rhode Island. The Daughters of Block Island takes place at White Hall on Block Island, and Beneath the Poet’s House is set at 88 Benefit Street in Providence, which was the home of Sarah Helen Whitman, onetime fiancé of Edgar Allan Poe. The events of both these novels are unable to be divorced from their settings, but with How to Fake a Haunting, I had set out to tell a story that felt like the inverse of “setting influencing narrative.” (The question I’d asked myself was: What if it wasn’t the past or bad bones that caused a house to be haunted but bad guts, what it consumed, what lived within it… inhabitants that were parasites of sorts, transforming the constitution of their host?)
There was a very specific moment of inception for this book. My husband and I have been married for nine years this October, and like many couples (or maybe just many people once they reach a certain age), we tend to occasionally (ahem, often) spend so much time choosing a movie to watch, that by the time we turn it on, one or both of us falls asleep. On this particular evening, my husband swore he wasn’t tired; we chose a movie, and not five minutes later, he was asleep.
Annoyed, I decided to head in and get ready for bed. But before I could, an idea hit me like a horror movie jump scare. I grabbed his cell phone, and took a picture of him sleeping on the couch. I think maybe I was planning to show him the picture in the morning, like, “I told you you’d be the one to fall asleep!” Instead, I texted the picture to myself, walked into the kitchen, and then stormed back into the living room loud enough to wake him. “Why did you just text me a picture of yourself sleeping?” I asked. Disoriented, he replied, “What? Why would I text you a picture of myself sleeping?” But I doubled down, narrowed my eyes, and said, really cryptically, “You mean, you didn’t just text me this picture of you sleeping from your phone?” Needless to say, he was suitably freaked out, and eventually, I caved and admitted to the prank. When the time came to get working on a new novel, I thought of the playfulness of scaring your spouse, and how the idea of faking a haunting could be really fun, which morphed into questions of why someone would want to commit to a fake haunting, and things took off from there.
BD: Our readers always like to learn more about creators and what drives and inspires them. Are there any creators or media that greatly influenced your creative process or that gave way to the genesis of this story?
CC: My literary inspirations include Emily Dickinson, Mary Eleanor Wilkins Freemen, Charlotte Perkins Gilman, Sarah Helen Whitman, Shirley Jackson, Agatha Christie, Mary Shelley, Margaret Mitchell, Sarah Waters, Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Frank M. Robinson, Sidney Sheldon, R.L. Stine, Jennifer McMahon, Harper Lee, Cormac McCarthy, Edgar Allan Poe, Michael McDowell, Blake Crouch, Emma Cline, and Lauren Groff.
Additionally, some contemporary women in horror that I love reading are Gwendolyn Kiste, Stephanie M. Wytovich, Nadia Bulkin, Ania Ahlborn, Jac Jemc, Alma Katsu, CJ Leede, Rachel Harrison, Christina Sng, Elizabeth Hand, Nancy Holder, Anya Martin, Erin Sweet Al-Mehari, Carmen Maria Machado, Kelly Link, EV Knight, Laurel Hightower, Belicia Rhea, Marisca Pichette, Jessica Wick, Damien Angelica Walters, Caroline Kepnes, Ruth Ware, Sarah Pinborough, K.P. Kulski, Jessica McHugh, Annie Neugebauer, Hailey Piper, Kathe Koja, Claire C. Holland, Laurel Hightower, Victoria Dalpe, Tamika Thompson, Leanna Renee Hieber, Andrea Janes, Sarah bgb Faye Ringel, Mary Robles, H.Y. Hsu, Lee Murray, Gene Flynn, and L.E. Daniels.
I’m probably forgetting at least a hundred amazing women, but I try to post regularly in support of women, trans, and nonbinary writers whose work I admire.
BD: What makes Thomas & Mercer the perfect home for this story?
CC: I love that T&M isn’t afraid to mix genres; historic thrillers, mysteries with gothic elements, thrillers with horror-centric plotlines, etc. I really felt like I could lean into my horror background while still crafting a story with a fast-paced, thrillery narrative arc. They were happy to support a book that has plenty of things in common with my previous two novels in terms of genre, but that went in a surprising new direction, at least for me as a writer! Hopefully, readers enjoy all the ways in which How to Fake a Haunting differs from my previous work.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums – no matter the genre. How do you feel that this story may connect with and impact readers, and what, if any, conversations do you hope that it may inspire ?
So, a confession: I’m the worst kind of horror writer… one who does not believe in ghosts! I guess I shouldn’t say I don’t believe, I’ve just never experienced anything supernatural. I’m open to being proven wrong, however! Not just open, willing! Suffice it to say, a Ouija board to me is little more than a cool conversation starter or fun piece of home decor. There are others in my house (ahem, my husband!) who don’t share my opinion of Ouija boards, however, so my spirit board ownership is limited to a Ouija cheese board. It’s quite adorable, if I do say so myself, and none of the cheese has ever levitated and flown off, so I suppose it can’t be too haunted.
BUT I love the idea of ghosts representing things: secrets, the past, regrets, future selves, past selves. I also love the idea of hauntings going in both directions: Can your future self haunt your current self? Can your past self haunt your future self? Can your current self haunt your past? I think all these directions of self-hauntings are possible, so maybe a Ouija board is incidental, and the most haunted object one can own is… a mirror. Certainly, the characters in How to Fake a Haunting would agree.
BD: Are there any projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
CC: At present, I’m hard at work finishing up my fourth novel and putting a second short story collection together. As far as upcoming projects go, my short story, “The Clearing,” is part of Lindy Ryan and Stephanie M. Wytovich’s HOWL: An Anthology of Werewolves from Women-in-Horror, out November 4th. I also have a story, “Comeback Kid,” in The Rack II: More Stories Inspired by Vintage Horror Paperbacks, edited by Tom Deady, out October 14th, and several other stories in anthologies, as well as an editing project, that I can’t announce just yet.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about How to Fake a Haunting and your other work?
CC: Anyone interested in updates can find me online at my website, www.christacarmen.com, Facebook, Instagram, and Bluesky.
You can also catch me, along with co-host Matthew Brockmeyer, on Murder Coaster: A True Crime Podcast, which airs weekly wherever you listen to podcasts.
Finally, you can join my Substack for updates on events and news about my books, as well as recommendations for legend tripping and literary tourism across New England, insight into my creative process (i.e., “What’s a better method to overcome sticky plot points, outlining, or witchcraft?” and “Will my latest WIP treat me gently, or will I end up scribbling on a roll of easel paper with Crayolas at 2 a.m. in an attempt to visually represent pacing versus character development in some sort of deranged x-y graph?”), and general horror-related commentary, like what books I’m reading or what films I’ve managed to sneak in on Shudder after regaling my daughter with enough spooky bedtime stories to make Alvin Schwartz go cross-eyed.
