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| The Bad Season http://horrorworld.org/msgboards/viewtopic.php?f=149&t=10589 |
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| Author: | dennislatham [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 9:09 am ] |
| Post subject: | The Bad Season |
People who have read The Bad Season often ask if it is based on a true story. When I was eighteen I worked with a guy who had relatives way down in Kentucky. He said when he was fourteen his grandfather died and he went to stay one summer to help his grandmother. He said something kept breaking into the root cellar so they put a heavy padlock on the double doors. He said that night something came and tore the heavy doors off the hinges. He got his grandfather's gun and his grandmother stopped him from going outside by saying it wouldn't matter and the thing would kill him. The next day, neighbors came and fixed the door. They referred to the thing down in the hollow and how no one went down there at night. He swore it was a true story and I had no reason to doubt him. Around 1993, I looked at a new cabin on the side of a ridge down in Owenton, Kentucky with 65 acres, most of it down in a hollow. The price was crazy low and I asked the realtor why and asked him why the back steps looked like they had been torn off. He said he didn't know, but the people had a child and something bad happened to the child and they moved out. I combined that cabin with the thing in the Hollow story to create my version of what happened in The Bad Season. |
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| Author: | TMLCrow [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 7:37 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: The Bad Season |
The Bad Season was a great book, Dennis. Thanks for sharing this little bit of insight with us. I love hearing how authors come up with their ideas. |
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| Author: | ttzuma [ Mon Sep 05, 2011 8:03 pm ] |
| Post subject: | Re: The Bad Season |
In my opinion, it's your best book. And a damn fine read for anyone who want's to read some good horror. |
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| Author: | dennislatham [ Tue Sep 06, 2011 8:24 am ] |
| Post subject: | Re: The Bad Season |
Thanks, I'm glad you liked it. After I finished it, I also realized something weird about it. The character of the sheriff Virgil Hoffman pretty much dominated the story, but then I realized he didn't have a viewpoint in the story. I still haven't figured out how that worked out. Also as a little background I didn't use in the story. The Shawnee Indians of Ohio were terrified of Kentucky, which they called Cantuckee because of cane fields. They believed it was haunted by ghosts of white women killed there (believed to be the missing Roanoke colonists) and other evil spirits. They would hunt there but never stayed long. I believe the real hollow my friend spoke of was down in Harlan County and probably still exists in local legends. |
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