It’s READATHON weekend and it couldn’t have come at a better time! This one is a little different! We are all sharing soup recipes in the Discord, making soup, being cozy and chatting books all weekend! Come and join us by joining the community Discord!

What’s your favorite soup? And what books are you trying to read this weekend! I’m finishing up Margot’s Got Money Troubles and then I have no idea what I’m jumping into!

It's time for another author interview! Last week we talked with author Julia Jackson about her debut novel Powder & Poison. If you haven't read that interview you definitely should! Along with my interview with Stephanie Rose.

This week help me in welcoming author Kelly Dwyer! Kelly Dwyer is the author of Ghost Mother, a chilling psychological/ghost horror.

The book follows Lilly Bly and her husband as they take on a fixer-upper of a house way out of their price range. After purchasing the house, Lilly discovers the house has a dark history. Strange occurrences begin happening. Lilly begins to wonder if they are real or if they are all in her head.

1. Use this first question as an introduction. Tell us a little about yourself and your book.

My name is Kelly Dwyer, and I am the author of GHOST MOTHER, a psychological ghost story. I'm a graduate of the Iowa Writers' Workshop, and I currently divide my time between Los Angeles, where I grew up, and Wisconsin. I am married with a young adult daughter and a really cute pug named Roman.

2. You released Ghost Mother a year ago. It was such a powerful read. What inspired you to write it?

Thank you so much, Ash. :) The day my husband and I were about to close on our first house, we found out there had been a murder in it. This was in Baraboo, Wisconsin, where the Ringling Brothers were from. Their first cousins were the Gollmar Brothers, who also owned a circus. Our house (a modest Craftsman, not a run-down mansion) had been built by one of the Gollmar Brothers, and when he died, his widow lived there by herself, and used to feed transients during the Depression. One night, during a robbery gone wrong, one of these men murdered her. My husband and I had a decision to make--knowing this, should we still buy the house? We decided that since it happened so long ago (in the 1930s), and since the woman who had lived in the house seemed really nice, we would go ahead, and indeed, we never felt any sort of haunting in the eight years we lived there. But it made me think--What if there had been the kind of tragic murder there that would make someone not want to buy a house? What if someone who bought the house did feel a haunting? What kind of person would that be? It was when I reread Henry James' "The Turn of the Screw" and I started imagining the ambiguity of--is the house haunted or is the protagonist losing touch with reality?--that the novel really came together for me. 

3. I absolutely love the "couple moves to a new house that needs repairs in hopes it'll save their marriage' trope that is featured in Ghost Mother. What are some of your favorite horror tropes? Any favorite books that feature these tropes?

Yes, it's so fun to write--and read--books that dig into tropes or put a new spin on them! When I was writing GHOST MOTHER, I read a lot of haunted house books; I think my favorites, besides James', are The Little Stranger by Sarah Waters, Rebecca by Daphne du Maruier, and The Shining by Stephen King. (See The Most Classic Haunted House books by Kelly Dwyer  for an article I wrote on the subject.) I was also inspired by films like "Rosemary's Baby" and the TV show "The Haunting of Hill House." I think the thing that interested me the most about that trope was the question, "What is haunting you?" Two people--as you say, in this case, a couple--could move into a house, and one person will feel haunted, while the other doesn't sense anything. Is that because one person is more open to the supernatural? Is that because ghosts seek certain people out? Or is it because someone is so haunted by their past--their losses, their traumas--that they are prone to sense a haunting where maybe there isn't one? I don't know, but I love the question, and as a writer, I love the ambiguity involved

4. What was the most difficult part of writing Ghost Mother?

The most difficult part of writing GHOST MOTHER was getting the backstory of the 1950s tragedy in the house right. It had to be compelling. I knew I wanted a nod to the circus, which had been a part of our former house's history. But it also had to be thematically resonant. I wrote three completely different backstories before my agent said, "Yep, this is it." Now, looking back, it seems so obvious, but wow, it took me a while!

5. Were there any scenes or characters that were harder to write than others? Any that were easier?

Getting Jack and Lilly's relationship to feel real and be complicated was a challenge for me. Bobby Shawcross was the easiest character to write! I don't know where he came from, but everything about him--his speech, his voice, his appearance--just landed in my head fully formed. 

6. Were there any scenes that you had to edit out of Ghost Mother that you wish you had left in?

I love this question, because the short answer is, No! I sold GHOST MOTHER at a 100 pages longer than it is now. My editor asked me to make it tighter. She didn't tell me what to cut, or suggest a word count, but I knew I wanted it to be shorter than 350 pages. (I think it came in at 336 by the end.) To cut those hundred pages, I cut any repetitious scenes, started the story moving quicker, and cut out any unnecessary backstory. At the time, I thought maybe those scenes from the past were important so that the reader could understand and sympathize with Lilly, but after I cut them, I realized that I need to write them to understand and sympathize with Lilly, but the reader didn't need to read them. My new mantra is, When in doubt, cut!

7. Do you have any other projects in the works?

Yes indeed! I am working on a new novel inspired by fairy tales, Hollywood, and a mansion with a bg, dark secret. It's a lot of fun!

8. 2025 has been a great year for horror. What have been your top three reads that you've read so far?

Oh, boy. So many--and I'm so behind! I'm reading The Buffalo Hunter now, and it's taking me a while, because I read and reread Stephen Graham Jones' sentences again and again. He's amazing. I also really enjoyed and admired  Witchcraft for Wayward Girls by Grady Hendrix, Hungerstone by Kat Dunn,  The Lamb by Lucy Rose, and--one that was written a few years ago, in 1872, but I just read for the first time--Carmilla by Sheridan Le Fanu. Give me a gothic lesbian vampire story set in an isolated castle and I'm in!

9. Do you have any special routines that help you get ready to write?

I like to set candles, set an intention. Like Proust and Edith Wharton, I write in bed. 

10. If Ghost Mother was ever adapted into a film, do you have a dream cast?

GHOST MOTHER is in pre-pre-pre-pre... production, meaning, my film agent introduced me to a director I really like, and she's interested in writing the screenplay and making the film. I would love to see this novel on the screen, and I feel like there are so many women actors about Lilly's age (37 or thereabouts) who would be amazing in the role: Emma Stone, Jennifer Lawrence, Natalie Portman (think of her in The Black Swan), Anna Taylor-Joy... maybe Florence Pugh wouldn't be too young by the time it was cast. :)  I always pictured Jack as looking like Theo James. Anybody free? 

11. Bonus question from Kelly: I'd like to ask you and your readers a question now, if you don't mind. Do you like horror books about horror movies? If so, what do you like about them? If not, what do you dislike? Do you have any favorites/ any recommendations? 

Thanks for the question, Kelly! I am a huge fan of Hollywood horror! There are several books I just love such as Night Film, Curse of The Reaper, Burn The Negative, Silver Nitrate, and more. I'll drop a few links to posts on my instagram where I showcase some more horror set on movie screens/ hollywood.

Film/Hollywood Horror

Hollywood Horror

Special thanks again to Kelly for taking the time to talk with me! Be sure to pick up a copy of Ghost Mother if you haven't already read it. It was one of my favorites last year!

You can follow Kelly on Instagram or on her website.

I am currently typing this as I sit watching the mountains and the beautiful Joshua Trees. This is my happy place. Christopher and I come here every year for our anniversary (this is our 5th trip), and every year we fall more in love with it. The more times we visit, the less we do on our trips. We are on day 4, and all we've done is go to the grocery store. It's just perfect. We go home on Saturday, so I doubt we will even actually do any hiking in the park. Oops! I'm doing some youtube stuff, yes, but it's just so nice to lay around this outdoor living room with my book and no obligations. Feeling so lucky and grateful for all I have. Currently reading The Bee Sting by Paul Murray. I'm only 180/650 pages in, but I am very interested in seeing where it goes. I've been known to enjoy "books where nothing happens," and this definitely falls into that category. But I'm enjoying it!

Just felt like sharing a little bit about my actual life on here. Once I'm back to reality, more posts and bookish stuff will be coming. For now, enjoy these pictures of the gorgeous scenery I'm surrounded by, taken by my incredible talented husband of 13 (!!) years!

Anyone want to join my ARC team?

Spike is revived multiple times by his dictator uncle, Kairos, living in a reincarnated loop until his parents help him escape.

This is the story of his last life.

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1mUPY07IMgXBn8DKb_UtPnUq7D8zawQyjYFLHngSoQk0/edit?usp=drivesdk

What are the books you won't shut up about?

Guess what I've got for you today...

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I think that's enough to keep it out of the image preview, so....

Okay, so if you don't know the lore here, let me give you a little background. Yes, you are reading that correct, that says this is announcing the 2024 Best of Books winners. In November. of 2025.

I wish I had a reasonable excuse for this, I really do...but I don't. I genuinely can't even tell you why I didn't release this in January like I was supposed to or why I haven't released it in the many months that these images have been sitting in my Canva projects, but from the bottom of my heart I have no idea. Anyway, it has now been almost a full year since we first started the process of nominating books for our Best of Books 2024 and for the love of god I need this to not be hanging over my head anymore. I say that as though there was literally anything or anyone but my own damn self keeping me from getting this out, BUT THERE WASN'T.

You ever get a text or an email from someone that you don't reply to right away and then you kind of forget about it until it's a few days later and you go "oh my god I need to reply to that" but you've remembered at 1am and that's not a reasonable hour to text someone so you'll do it in the morning, and then you wake up in the morning and for many more mornings until the next time you remember it's suddenly been weeks and now it's awkward but you really should reply to it but you put it off because now you're embarrassed and then the longer you wait the worse it gets so you just never reply and suddenly you've ignored someone you really meant to get back to?

That's normal...right? Anyway that's basically what has happened here and I refuse to have this sitting on my dusty, unseen to-do list any longer so HERE:

I AM FREE. Free to get started all over again on our 2025 nominations...

Let me introduce you to the cover of my debut poetry collection! I typically am against people on the cover, but this cover captures the heart of this book perfectly. I hope you love it as much as I do!