A conversation with myself.

I’m still working on figuring out how to do these interviews with my characters so please bear with me. I’ve renamed the post, after all when I interview a character, I’m having a conversation with myself. This week I talk to Susan, the lead character in my novel Cursed.

Susan is a middle-aged woman in her late thirties who takes care of herself and has a positive outlook on life. Slender with straight brown hair kept at an average length. There is warmth in her smile, and her eyes. She seems open and caring to those around her. Yet she carries an aura of sadness, as if there were a weight we cannot see bearing down on her.

RS: What brought you to Porter Mines?

S: My husband died in Iraq.

RS: I’m so sorry for your loss.

S: Thank you. I wanted our daughter, Christine, to be close to his parents who live in Oakland. The farmhouse in Porter Mines was nearby and was listed at a pretty good price. But had I known what I know now, I would never have moved there.

 RS: Why is that?

S: Every small town has its secrets. Most are harmless little tales designed to scare kids. Or secrets everyone knows about. Like infidelity among the members of the council. Or certain people looking the other way when members of the council get drunk. Things of that nature. But Porter Mines was different, its secret is dangerous, even more so for my daughter.

Here Susan becomes visibly upset and struggles to control herself. After a few moments she gets herself under control and wipes away her tears. Christine enters the room, crosses to her mommy and climbs into her lap. She’s a cute little thing carrying a stuffed bunny nearly as large as she is.

S: I mean I didn’t know my maiden name was associated with the founders of the town who lived under this old curse.

RS: What curse was that?

S: According to the stories an old woman in the late seventeen hundreds got sick. The area was mostly virgin forest and there were Indians nearby. The people at the outpost believed she was a witch. They got together and dragged her from her home to burn her at the stake. It was said that with her dying breath she cursed every generation that would stain this land.

C: That’s the witch, but it’s okay, daddy will take care of us.

Susan glances at Christine with an expression of sorrow.

RS: The witch?”

C: She’s real, I saw her, but nobody believes me.

RS: How will your daddy protect you?

Here Christine breaks into a wide smile as she pulls the bunny tight against her chest.

C: He’s here, in my bunny. If you listen real close you can hear his heartbeat. He told me that as long as I had the bunny with me, he would always be with me.

RS: Did you dad buy the bunny for you?”

C: No, he won it. It had to be earned.

RS: Earned?

C: That’s what the man at the carnival said. Daddy said it would be cheaper to just buy one. But the man at the carnival said it had to be earned.

RS: What had to be earned?

Christine shrugged as she twisted around in her seat to look up at her mom.

S: He won the bunny at a roadside carnival the day before he shipped out. I got so mad at him because he spent so much money to win it. But looking back I was wrong. The bunny helped us get through the worst of everything after he died. It was a constant reminder of his love for us.

C: Yeah, that’s what I said.

RS: What about your parents Susan?

S: My father died when I was young, and my mother passed several years ago.

RS: I sense you were not close with her?

S: Not at all, she’s the reason my brother killed himself. She started listening to a TV preacher and made me and my brother’s life miserable.

RS: I’m so sorry to hear that. It looks like you’ve adapted.

S: You can’t live in the past.

RS: So true. Is there anything you’d like to share with our readers before we go?

S: If you have children, listen to them when they tell you things that seem made up. They see things we can’t, they believe things we’ve turned our back on, and because of that the night holds a danger we cannot see.

Cursed

Like many small towns, the history of Porter Mines was woven in a tapestry of dark secrets. One centered on a witch, who vowed with her dying breath to claim vengeance against those who wronged her. A ghost story rooted in grisly truth. 

Can Susan protect Christine from a wrath even death couldn’t tame?

Or will her only child fall prey to the curse of Porter Mines?