Hallie Shepherd on Writing a Gothic Thriller with a Screenwriter's Intincts and a Poet's Heart

Absolutely, yes.

Call of the Dark is quite the genre blend.

Which reflects a lot of what I like as a reader.

And when I set out to write it, I wasn't sure, like, should I do that? Like, was that a little bit risky? I'd go into the bookstore and I'd read a book that was very clearly a thriller or very clearly a love story or sitting in...

a book club lane that felt like it was exploring moral gray area and a character element, but it wasn't like, you know, taking like a murder mystery with a love story, you know, with, you know, these deeper themes that a book club might discuss.

And I was like, I kind of want it all in one book.

And I decided, you know what, just do that then.

And so that's what I did.

I wrote what I wanted to read.

I wrote what I wanted to write.

And what it is, is it's a story of a woman named Helen.

She has a wonderful soulmate, who she has unfortunately lost to a murder in Seattle.

And to escape her grief, she makes a pretty... rash decision, which is to rush into a new marriage with a man, move off grid in the Pacific Northwest, live in this old farmhouse.

And she adopts this sort of trad wife lifestyle.

For her, it's this escapism.

She can't face her grief.

And so she thinks like this will be a way to perhaps like live out this other fantasy life where She can feel happy.

It's like stepping outside of the reality of it.

But of course, as we know, wherever you go, there you are.

It doesn't lead to her happiness.

So let's just say there's some issues between Helen and her new husband.

So there's definitely a grief theme in this story that is being explored and the idea of reinvention.

But then on top of that, okay, here comes the spookiness.

So we've got this gothic setting.

And one night while she's there alone, a man shows up and says, he says that he is her husband, her new husband's brother.