Writing From The Underworld

Cassandra L. Thompson

When I finally maneuvered my way into the writing world with my debut gothic fantasy novel, The Ancient Ones, I was graced with several opportunities to sit down and interview with different people. While I received many of the same questions – why vampires? Why ancient mythology? Perhaps the most frequently asked question is why do I write horror? More specifically, why do I like to write gothic horror? 

It always takes me a minute to answer, no matter how many times as I’m asked. Because how does one describe what comes naturally to them?

On a surface level, there is something comforting about darkness, something that draws me to all things dreadful. Shadows soothe me; the quiet, dead winter gives me peace. Fallen leaves swirling around cemetery stones, crumbling old buildings, obscure historical artifacts – all these things bring me joy. It’s only natural to me that I would write about them.

If one were to dive deeper, you could say it stems from my relationship with death. It’s no secret that I often write about the Underworld and the gods/goddess who dwell there. I decorate my social media with skulls, my entire aesthetic is poignantly macabre. All things considered, I present very much like your quintessential creepy, goth chick.

This wasn’t always the case, however. As a child, I was terrified of everything. I hated things that were unexplained and was cursed with frequent, debilitating nightmares. I held my breath as we drove by a cemetery lest I be possessed by a ghost, and covered my eyes at the scary parts in any movie. After living in a perpetual state of anxiety for years, one miraculous day, the solution to my problems came. I realized that if I tried to appreciate the things that brought me strife, perhaps I would be able to transcend them.

I’m happy to report, it worked. And in trying to overcome my fear of death and the things that lurk in the shadows, I found myself. I learned that my preoccupation with fearful things wasn’t necessarily a bad thing – it only meant that I was attracted to them. I was intrigued by that which I could not explain and frightening things held a certain thrall that I was pulled toward. And thus, a horror writer was born.

As far as the concept of death, it was another thing I came to accept. To me, death is a transition, like birth. Humans generally fear death because it’s full of that scary, mysterious unknown. We have so many questions: Where do we go when we die? Is it painful? What happens during the process? Will I lose the ones I love? How will it feel? These are heavy contemplations to have, and it’s no wonder many choose not to morbidly reflect on their answers. 

But death is all around us. We watch Mother Nature die and be reborn every year with her seasons. We exist amongst a continuous cycle of life and death. At the risk of pontification, I think humans forget we are of that same earth. Just as the trees shed their leaves, rest for winter, and emerge with new buds in the spring, so do we shed our mortal bodies to one day be reborn. It brings me solace to think I will be returned to the earth I cherish, that my soul will be another whisper in the breeze. Sometimes even thinking of the infinite expanse that is the universe and how my lifetime is just a tiny, insignificant part of the human experience on earth makes me appreciate my life and its inevitable conclusion.

To step away and philosophize a bit, I would assert that humanity’s abhorrence of death most likely stems from the pain that death can bring us as individuals. Losing a loved one is devastating, and understandably, it makes sense why most of us choose not to dwell on it. No one wants to think of the bonds we create in this lifetime being ripped away from us. 

As for me, I am okay with sadness. Like the shadows, it took a lifetime of running from sadness to finally accept that I am melancholy’s child. It is where my creative vision lies, where I pull my inspiration from. Death, shadows, sadness – they are all a part of me. My stories explore fear and death, consider the soul and question reality. They reflect my continuous journey to understand life and death, sprinkled characters who do the same.

So, why do I write gothic horror?

Because it is me.

 —

Horror writer and parttime dark goddess, Cassandra L. Thompson has been creating stories since she got her grubby little hands around a pen. When she is not busy managing a house full of feral children (human and canine), you can find her wandering around cemeteries, taking pictures of abandoned things, or in the library doing research on her latest obsession. She has a B.A. in History and an MLIS, but she ignores her degrees to run her publishing house, Quill & Crow, finish The Ancient Ones Trilogy, manage her horror blog, and scribe for In the Pantheon.com, as the Greek goddess, Hekate. But mostly she is staring off into space, imaging other worlds and things that go bump in the night.

Links: 

www.quillandcrowpublishinghouse.com 

http://cassandralthompson.carrd.co 

 

THE ANCIENT ONES

When David stumbles upon a tragic young woman in a sordid Limehouse pub, he has no idea she’d recognize him as the last vampyre alive, nor that she’d be the one to pull out his story. Yet as he recalls his life from the sweltering vineyards of Ancient Rome to the cold horrors of Medieval Romania – as well as his tumultuous past with the mad and mysterious Lucius – he realizes she is much more than what she seems.

Gothic horror and mythological fantasy blend seamlessly together in this thrilling adventure, breathing new life into vampire lore as it reveals its true origins. The Ancient Ones is a tale of myth, mayhem, and magic … with a dash of romance that bites.

BUY HERE

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