By Linda Lovely
Halloween is days away, which puts me in mind of all manner
of scary things. While it’s always potentially frightening to find yourself in
the dark, some settings can add extra heebie-jeebies when you’re alone and the
lights dim.
Common advice to authors is “write what you know.” Well, since
I know what settings have the power to scare me, it stands to reason they should
also quicken the pulse of my heroines. Creepy locations help authors build
tension and foreshadow there’s danger ahead. My go-to list of such settings includes
forests, caves, and basements.
FORESTS. The
woods may be “lovely, dark, and deep” but they’re also home to creatures like
coyotes and wolves with bone-chilling cries. And let’s not forget the critters
that rustle leaves as they scoot or slither along the forest floor. Well, I’m
not certain a snake’s movements actually rustle leaves but I sure don’t want to
step on one in the dark.
I’ve forced my heroines onto scary forest trails in several books,
including Dead Hunt, a romantic thriller, set in Upstate South Carolina.
In Picked Off, the second of my cozy Brie Hooker Mysteries, Brie, who is
afraid of heights (like me), is chased along a narrow wooded trail that has
dizzying drop-offs. Picked Off is also an ideal read for this time of
year since it opens with Brie and friends turning a barn into a haunted
attraction and donning Halloween costumes.
CAVES. Since Hannibal,
Missouri’s Mark Twain Cave was about 40 miles from my hometown, I visited at an
impressionable age. Stalactite daggers looked ready to impale me should the
rock ceiling shift. Bats clinging to perches above my head added more menace,
and the cool moist air gave me a crop of goosebumps even on summer days.
I used caves as frightening sets in two novels—Lies:
Secrets Can Kill, an historical thriller set in 1938 in Keokuk, Iowa, my
hometown, and Dead Line, a romantic suspense set in Jamaica, an island with
more than 1000 known caves carved from its limestone. While researching
Jamaican caves, I contacted the http://www.jamaicancaves.org,
and was rewarded with generous help (and incredible videos) from caving
enthusiasts. 
BASEMENTS. Hey, basements are underground (like graves), and really,
really dark if the lights flicker out. My childhood home’s scary basement had
creaky stairs and a black as pitch coal bin. Wood planks covered a damp dirt
floor with hair-like sprouts. Dusty bottles holding who knew what lined sagging
shelves. We learned what when some of granddad’s root beer spontaneously
exploded one hot summer day. His home brew had a real kick.
In Dead Hunt, a killer sets a trap for the heroine in the basement of her own older home.
What settings have the power to give you the biggest chills?
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