When her parents disappear, Raven KcKay is put into foster care in the town of Grave’s Pass. But Grave’s Pass isn’t an ordinary town. It’s a place where the living and the dead live side by side. Raven must unravel the mystery of her parents’ disappearance but who in Grave’s Pass can she trust?
It is my pleasure to welcome author Eibhlís Carcione to Scope for Imagination with a guest post about her inspirations for this eerie tale.
I love ghost stories and gothic novels. I thought it would be exciting to write a story about a place where the living and the dead live side by side. In order to do that I had to create a gothic world of my own. This took time. I had to delve into my imagination, into folklore and into mythology. Grave’s Pass and Dead Town are inspired by the winding narrow hills of Cork city where I live. They’re also inspired by places in Sicily like Taormina, Erice and Randazzo where I’ve been on holidays. I include some of my favourite characters from folklore: A white lady, a red cap, a werewolf, a bogeyman and pooka horses. I also include animals that I like: a Maine coon cat, a labradoodle, a tortoiseshell cat. My main character Raven McKay came to me in a dream. I saw her with her suitcase with the faded sticker of the black butterfly in a hilly town with twisty narrow streets. In Celtic mythology, black butterflies symbolise the soul of the dead. I knew from early on that the black butterfly was important in my story. One of my favourite novels in the Irish language is Cré na Cille (Graveyard Soil) by Máirtín Ó Cadhain. It’s set in a graveyard where the newly dead arrive bringing all the local news to those already in their coffins. I love the dark humour and the cast of characters and rogues in this novel. This book probably influenced me unknown to myself. The first few pages of Welcome to Dead Town Raven McKay came to me quickly. I have hardly changed a word. After that the story grew and took shape. I loved writing it.
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