I’m all about what I call Signature Images.
Provoking the imaginations of readers, inciting them to imagine in glorious detail the scenes on the written page, is the sacred duty of the writer. I take it very seriously. Not only should we intimately portray the thoughts and emotions of the characters, but we should construct their circumstances vividly, essentially granting the wish of the reader and provide for them a fantastical escape from the mundane world. This is certainly what I look for in authors, dream weavers who can whisk me away into their wonderful worlds.
Whenever I write, I dwell on the visual aspect. Sometimes I’ll spend hours on a single paragraph, days on getting passages just right. The words must be a conjuring, a spell cast over the reader to invoke the images contained there on the page. There must be literary equivalents of grandiose set pieces in movies. And I must surprise myself in order to surprise a reader.
It took several years to write my novel The Angels of Autumn. It had to be perfect. I had to get everything just right. From fanciful hallucinatory sequences to nightmarish monsters expressed in graphic detail, I wanted to give myself the chills as I wrote them. When I did, I knew the scenes would do their job. I remember clearly seeing those moments in my imagination, brought to extraordinary life in a small Pennsylvania town.
Cradle had to have signature images as well, the bizarre first encounter, the evil phantom in Radley’s house, psychic visions of crooked creatures in the snow, and the lurid charm of the forest. It’s a decidedly adult fairy tale, extremely grim and intensely emotional. What would a young man do when plunged into the worst possible relationship scenario? Would not the very nature of it force him to retreat into the shadows carving out an existence born of heartache? I imagined the darkest possible side of promises undone and presented it with some delightfully lurid signature images to the brave and curious reader.
In the deepest vale of Crepuscule’s Cradle, in the cul-de-sac at the end of Direful Hollow Road, is a once grand Folk-Victorian home known as The Habersham House. It’s a place haunted by far more than rot and neglect – evil dwells here, an evil that craves children.
Eight-year-old Scott Michaels-Greene has a fascination for tales of the strange and unusual, especially local folklore. His favorite story is the one about Habersham House; a ruined old place where many curious children have disappeared.
Hours away from Crepuscule’s Cradle, in Philadelphia, author Radley Barrette has just lost the love of his life to a random act of violence. Amongst his endowments from Danny’s estate is an old house in the backwoods of Pennsylvania, Habersham House. Though grief stricken at leaving behind the only home he and Danny had ever known, he knows he cannot remain in the city. Besides, the isolation may be just what he needs to clear his mind of the writer’s block he’s suffering from.
Crepuscule’s Cradle is not as he imagined. The locals are inhospitable. The skeletal forest surrounding it is as unwelcoming as the town. And the house itself – there is something menacing, something angry inhabiting it with him, and it’s hungry. Radley’s world slowly begins to unravel; the fringes of his reality begin to fray. In the midst of his breakdown, a local boy with an unhealthy fascination for Habersham House begins sneaking around and the evil residing within has taken notice.
Blending fantasy with horror, Crepuscule’s Cradle is the darkest of fairy tales. The morbidity of classic folklore and contemporary style weaves a web of slowly encroaching unease. Radley Barrette’ winter bound home is more than a haunted house, and Crepuscule’s Cradle is more than a mere horror tale. It’s a bedtime story that will pull you into its icy embrace, lull you into a disquiet state, and leave you shivering in the dark.
Cradle is available online at:
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About the Author
Award winning, bestselling author Joshua Skye was born in Jamestown, New York. Growing up, he split his time between Pennsylvania and Texas. Ultimately he settled in the DFW area with his partner, Ray – of nearly two decades, and their son Syrian. They share their lives with two dogs, Gizmo and Gypsy, and a chinchilla named Bella. Skye’s short fiction has appeared in numerous anthologies including Childhood Nightmares: Under the Bed, and periodicals such as The Sirens Call. He is the author of over ten critically acclaimed novels, among them The Angels of Autumn that takes place in the same nightmarish universe as Cradle.
Thank you for hosting Joshua!