My Cookbook of Writing

Monday, January 25, 2016

Family Mythology: The Story behind The Soul of a Stillborn

In the 1930s, several members of a close-knit family purchased summer homes in a village not far from Moscow. A series of mystifying events took place in the life of one of the sisters. She couldn't have anticipated that one day I, her Russian-American great-granddaughter, would make the decision to write a novel based on the family mythology, a story so strange that only the Dark Fantasy genre could accommodate its eerie vibe.

Vishenky's Legends and Ghost Stories: Are you brave enough to experience them?

Posing as a folklore-tour guide, Valya Svetlova takes a group of American college students and their professor, Chris Waller, to her summer home in the Russian village of Vishenky for a few nights of supernatural phenomena. Personable, attentive to her guests’ needs, she works hard to appear a perfect hostess. Valya doesn’t want anyone to discover she harbors selfish motives when it comes to one participant, the only person who can refute a wicked tale declaring her a stillborn resurrected by a paranormal entity, a puppet in someone’s horror show destined to perish in the otherworldly dimension.

Within hours of their arrival, Valya learns that the students, too, foster some dangerous agendas. Her nascent feelings toward the handsome professor inhibit her ability to control the supernatural manifestations and her inquisitive guests. When her unforeseen affection turns Chris into a target of the malevolent forces, Valya faces the excruciating reality. It’s no longer in her human power to ensure her guests’ safety. But to keep Chris and the students alive, Valya must brush off her humanity and become something she fights so desperately to prove she is not. A soulless monster.