Hi Everyone!
We are happy to welcome another Horror novel to Inked in Gray!
Cavendish House is a queer modern gothic novel about an asexual psychic medium who must return to the site of her first case, and favorite ghost, only to discover that everything she knew about the dead was dead wrong.
We had the opportunity to interview Kathryn and learn more about Cavendish House, sans spoilers, of course 😉
What inspired you to write Cavendish House?
This is probably going to be an overlong response, but you asked! I had taken a seven year hiatus from writing and during that time my niece, who was in middle school then, asked me to write a novel for MG readers. Now, I did try, but things kept getting too creepy for kids so I gave up. But I really missed writing, it had been a huge part of my life for such a long time and I didn’t want to stop. So, I kept the challenge of writing a novel but this time targeted an adult audience. I spent three years reading novels written by women, BIPOC, and queer writers only and took fiction writing workshops with Golden Crown Literary Society, a nonprofit organization for WLW writers and readers where I met Finnian Burnett who challenged me to write a flash fiction story. I failed at flash fiction spectacularly but Finn’s challenge turned into this novel!
Can you tell us a little about your writing process? What do you do when you confront that mischievous minion “writer’s block?”
I am a pantser who wishes she could be a plotter. My friends are plotters and they amaze me but, I learn who my characters are by dropping them in a scene and seeing what they do. That’s just how it works for me. The stories I’ve plotted don’t get finished because I already know the story. So, for me, I enjoy the process of figuring things out with my characters. And yes, they do things I don’t expect or want them to do and I end up trashing scenes and chapters but that’s just how it goes.
When confronted with writer’s block, I do writing sprints with my friends. Most of the time the accountability works. I also try to write first thing after waking up because otherwise the world gets in the way and I don’t get anything done on my books. Which isn’t good for me because I can get crabby when I don’t write.
Were there any major influences for you as a writer?
Poetry and philosophy. More specifically the poet Stacy Doris and my MFA cohort at San Francisco State. In Stacy’s workshops I started incorporating scientific theories and theoretical threads into my poetry. My first book, RIGHT NEW BIOLOGY, is a purposeful mistranslation of Freud’s Civilization and Its Discontents. And my second, fault tree, is a sci-fi inspired treatise on what might happen if sound had mass and the words we spoke took up physical space. What would that mean for human society and for each of us as individuals? I enjoy the exploration that poetry allows and I especially love to meander through sentences. It is a very different relationship to language than fiction in terms of responsibility to the reader. With poetry, I expect the reader to have autonomy over the text—to bring themselves to it to make meaning. With novels, there’s still an exchange with the reader, but the shared meaning needs to be more closely aligned or the story will fall apart. I love both challenges.
Without any spoilers, is there a character who holds a special place in your heart?
Eliza Cavendish, a lesbian in her 30s in the Washington Territory of the 1870s. She’s sophisticated, resilient, beautiful, and power hungry during a time when women were not supposed to be in power. She’s also dead in Cavendish House. I’m pretty obsessed with her so obviously writing a prequel to tell more of her story.
If your book had a soundtrack or theme song, what would it be?
Probably something along the lines of Lorne Balfe’s Black Widow score or acoustic St Vincent songs. At least, those were my main listens while writing it.
What is your favorite trope?
Forced Proximity. In Cavendish House I really wanted the characters to feel secluded despite being in a city—so a self or house-imposed forced proximity.
What was a memorable moment for you when you learned language had power?
Even when learning to talk I was very particular about words. At 3, whenever asked to do something I didn’t want to do, I’d respond with “I can’t want to.” So for me, I think the bigger surprise or obsession was when I realized words held weight but no actual mass. I bet people would be more careful if they did…
So what are you reading now? What’s on your TBR List?
Right now I’m reading the script for Get Out by Jordan Peele, Consecrated Ground by Virginia Black, The Devil Take Me Home by Gabino Iglesias, and several screenwriting books. I’d love to adapt Cavendish House for TV. It would be a dream!
My TBR pile is very high right now so I’m only listing a few: When the Reckoning Comes by LaTanya McQueen, Nuclear Family: A Novel by Joseph Han, At the Gate by Trey Stone, and I’m counting down the days for Murder Road by Simone St. James to be released.
What else have you written and where can we find them?
Four poetry collections: RIGHT NEW BIOLOGY, fault tree, Temper & Felicity are Lovers, and Obscenity for the Advancement of Poetry.
You can buy them on Amazon or, if you are opposed to Amazon, Small Press Distribution and Omnidawn directly. Amazon has the wrong cover for Obscenity which drives me crazy because my niece did the actual cover and it is amazing.
About Kathryn L. Pringle
Kathryn L. Pringle studied parapsychology at the Rhine Education Center and is a certified paranormal investigator (which is her plan for retirement). Raised in So Cal and schooled in the Bay Area, she currently lives in Durham, NC. A Pilates enthusiast and tattoo lover, she dreams of finishing her dragon sleeve one of these days. She is also the author of four identity crises called poetry collections. Among her literary distinctions are the Besmilir Brigham Award for Temper & Felicity are Lovers and the Omnidawn Book award for fault tree, as well as a Lambda Literary Award finalist. Her work has appeared in several publications and anthologies. But she has always been obsessed with ghosts.
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