Why Do I Write Paranormal Stories?
What is my fascination with the paranormal world? Why do I write paranormal novels? Let’s explore the human fascination with the in-human world beyond our reality.
I have always been fascinated with the world of the supernatural and paranormal. As a child I loved reading ghost stories and watching TV documentaries. Strange But True was one that I remember as a favourite, and one of the few that I was allowed to watch. My all-time favourite Hollywood films include Ghostbusters 1 and 2 and The Addams Family trilogy. When I was old enough, I wasted no time in watching Hammer Horror classics and whatever horror films I could get my hands on! My dissertation at university was about vampires in popular culture and their presence in society today.
I have always been a bookworm. My early favourite stories were usually of the fairy-tale variety, adventure stories by Enid Blyton, and fantastical fictional feasts by Roald Dahl. As I grew older and began to discover the new world of Young Adult (as then uncategorised in popular fiction), I was excited to find that there were hundreds of books about vampires, werewolves, witches and other supernatural creatures. In my cultural circle these sorts of stories were very much relegated to childhood reading, and I was encouraged to ‘get real’ as I grew up.
What does it mean to ‘get real’ anyway? The paranormal world is very much alive and thriving, even if people prefer to think of it as fiction or fantasy. The very fact that all of these stories exist makes them real. Fans of popular television series such as Supernatural and Teen Wolf will agree that to them the characters and stories are also very real. It is simply an exaggerated form of reality, something that might happen in a parallel universe or alternate reality. And that is probably why I write paranormal stories. I love the freedom, the possibility, and yes, the romance, of the creatures and characters that come to me.
Catherine is the author of the adult paranormal romance series The Redcliffe Novels and also The Darkness of Love, She has short stories published in YA anthologies, freelance articles on various industry websites, and contributes to her personal blog, and her author blog .
