Q&A: Gwendolyn Kiste on RELUCTANT IMMORTALS: “I’ve long heard the advice ‘write the story you want to read’…”

The horror author talks about revisiting two of gothic literature’s forgotten female characters.

“I thought it would be so exciting to see what these two overlooked female characters would have to say in a world where they finally had a chance to tell their side of things.”

Gwendolyn Kiste is the multiple-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author who is now up for another Bram Stoker Award—in the category of Superior Achievement in a Novel in horror fiction for Reluctant Immortals. She joins Monster Complex for an exclusive interview about her novel Reluctant Immortals, explaining its fun (and somewhat surprising) historical literary context, reveals what inspires her unique angle for horror fiction, and tells us her favorite things about horror stories.

About the novel RELUCTANT IMMORTALS

For fans of Mexican Gothic, from three-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Gwendolyn Kiste comes a novel inspired by the untold stories of forgotten women in classic literature—from Lucy Westnera, a victim of Stoker’s Dracula, and Bertha Mason, Mr. Rochester’s attic-bound wife in Charlotte Brontë’s Jane Eyre—as they band together to combat the toxic men bent on destroying their lives, set against the backdrop of the Summer of Love, Haight-Ashbury, 1967.

Reluctant Immortals is a historical horror novel that looks at two men of classic literature, Dracula and Mr. Rochester, and the two women who survived them, Bertha and Lucy, who are now undead immortals residing in Los Angeles in 1967 when Dracula and Rochester make a shocking return in the Haight-Ashbury district of San Francisco.

Combining elements of historical and gothic fiction with a modern perspective, in a tale of love and betrayal and coercion, Reluctant Immortals is the lyrical and harrowing journey of two women from classic literature as they bravely claim their own destiny in a man’s world.

Reluctant Immortals
Gwendolyn Kiste
Gallery/Saga Press
Categories: Gothic, Horror

Find Reluctant Immortals on Amazon

About author Gwendolyn Kiste

Gwendolyn Kiste is the multiple-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author of The Rust Maidens, And Her Smile Will Untether the Universe, Pretty Marys All in a Row, The Invention of Ghosts, Boneset & Feathers, as well as Reluctant Immortals. Her short fiction and nonfiction have appeared in Nightmare Magazine, Tor’s Nightfire, Vastarien, Black Static, Daily Science Fiction, Unnerving, Interzone, and LampLight, as well as Flame Tree Publishing’s Gothic Fantasy series, among others. Originally from Ohio, she now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, two cats, and not nearly enough ghosts.

Interview with Gwendolyn Kiste about RELUCTANT IMMORTALS

Q: What inspired your Bram Stoker Award nominated book?

“Reluctant Immortals is about the untold story of two of gothic literature’s forgotten female characters, specifically Lucy Westenra, the tragic victim from Dracula, and Bertha Antoinetta Mason, the so-called madwoman in the attic from Jane Eyre. I’ve been a huge fan of gothic horror ever since I was a kid, and growing up, Lucy from Dracula and Bertha from Jane Eyre were two characters that I always wanted to know more about. It felt like they both had more stories to tell about themselves, specifically their perspectives on everything that happened in their respective books, and it made me sad that we never got to hear those tales from them in the original novels.

“I’ve long heard the advice of ‘write the story you want to read,’ so that’s really where the first bit of inspiration for this book originated. From there, I decided to set Reluctant Immortals in the 1960s because it was such a strange and tumultuous time in American history. It was also a time of empowerment for many people, in particular women, so I thought it would be so exciting to see what these two overlooked female characters would have to say in a world where they finally had a chance to tell their side of things.”

Q: What inspires your unique angle for horror stories?

“Like most writers, I’m always hoping to offer something different with each of my stories. Some way of presenting a theme or an idea that hasn’t been done quite the same way before. That might be from a perspective that we don’t normally see or by using an unusual format or reworking an old trope.

“As I mentioned above, I’ve been a fan of horror from the time I was very young, so I’ve spent so many years immersed in the genre and just really enjoying how exceptional and cool it is. Horror is so wonderfully malleable; it can become whatever you want it to be. I definitely enjoy that as a writer, because it means the sky’s the limit as a horror author.”

Q: What are your favorite things about horror fiction?

“I love how horror isn’t afraid to deal with the ugly truth of the world. Horror tells it like it is. Even though it’s a genre about fear, horror is truly fearless. It’s also a genre where female characters have often been at the forefront. The Final Girl is just one example of how women have long been visible in horror, which is something that resonates with me. Most of my fiction is focused on the experiences of female characters, and horror is a perfect outlet for those stories.”

Q: What are the best ways that readers can connect with you or keep up with your author news?

“These days, I’m on both Facebook and Instagram. You can find me hanging around there, sharing horror-related articles and some of my photography projects. I recently gave up Twitter and have found that I have immensely more time for writing and other pursuits, but I do miss all my writer friends who are still over there (*waves virtually at everyone*).

“I also run a fairly active blog through my website where I post upcoming submission calls, interviews, and general writing news about what I’m up to. You can find me there at GwendolynKiste.com.”

Monster Complex ™