Guest Post by Lauren Evans

Lauren Evans holds a BA in English from The University of Alabama and an MA in Liberal Studies from The University of North Carolina Wilmington. She now works in higher education in Atlanta and writes in her spare time, whenever her beagle Lucy allows. Casket Case was long-listed for the Cheshire Novel Prize in 2022 and is her debut novel.

Who Sparked the Love of Spooky?

The person who deserves the most credit for my paranormal romance origin story is Christina Ricci, oddly enough. I’ve never met her, but like many Millennial women, I can trace my interest in all varieties of romance back to her 1995 film Casper. It shouldn’t be surprising that I wound up writing a paranormal romance novel about death considering my own awakening involved a romance with a ghost. Love could conquer even death, couldn’t it?

The truth is, I love spooky season vibes, but I am a scaredy cat. I cannot handle the sound of leaves crunching behind you in the woods or the creaking of the staircase outside your bedroom door. I support anyone who enjoys the feeling of wondering if you’re actually all alone in your room at night. Or those who want to find out what it’s like for someone to be possessed by a demon.

For my personal brand of spooky season vibes, I have always been drawn to Wednesday Addams in The Addams Family, specifically the 1991 version from my childhood starring Christina Ricci. I love her dry, dark humor and of course those braids! Looking back now, I see that Wednesday was usually living out the answers to a question that has always come up for me. Jump scares and killer dolls certainly have their place, but what about the scary things in everyday life that no one seems to want to talk about? What about death? What about love and relationships?

The External Scare vs. The Internal Scare

If given the choice between a scary monster behind door number one and talking about your feelings with someone you like behind door number two, I think there are plenty of us who might need a pro and con list to make that decision. But we usually just keep ourselves bottled up. The same goes for death and loss. It’s something we all have to face in one form or another, and somehow that commonality keeps us from sharing it. As if all grief is the same, so there is no need to describe it. We’ll all just get over it.

I think the commonality of love and loss should give us the freedom to embrace whatever emotions arise. You’d rather take your chances with a monster than confront your own feelings? Completely understandable but also sort of hilarious. I find death to be similar. We keep doing what we’ve always done to honor our loved ones, but none of it makes much sense. Why do I replace the artificial flowers on my grandparents’ grave every few months? When have I ever given a living person a silk bouquet of flowers? Yet, somehow once someone dies, that’s what I know to do for them. Again, understandable. But odd.

On Death and Love and All of Life’s Mysteries

Writing Casket Case gave me the opportunity to think about the realities and absurdities of both love and death, and the paranormal parts of the story allowed some space for me to explore these fairly huge topics. Writing about people in a world different from my own gave me the opportunity to soften some of the scarier parts of death and to poke fun at some of the weird things we do when someone dies.

It also raised the stakes so I could lean into the romantic comedy of it all. When death is in the conversation, it can be difficult to hold onto any fears about love. If you accept life’s premise that death is inevitable for everyone, you have to accept that your time with other people is fleeting. How can you let yourself hesitate about the small things, even for a moment, if you find love with someone? I liked blending romance and these darker elements into one story because that’s how life usually is. Everything is always blending together. Life doesn’t wait until you’re ready or in the right mood. It just happens and without much warning. You can be sad one minute and kissing a hot person the next, and in fact, I would recommend it. We all contain multitudes, and we should embrace that.

Paranormal Romance Reads to Love

As a reader, I love the “what if” of a paranormal world. Does the world we live in have paranormal elements? And what if it does? What if people can see ghosts like in Ashley Poston’s The Dead Romantics? What if there is a small magical town in the mountains of North Georgia like in Erin Sterling’s The Ex Hex? I live in Georgia! What if I could run into a hot Welsh warlock? Spooky season is also the perfect time for us scaredy cats to get cozy with our fuzzy socks and hot chocolate, and I can’t think of much cozier than TJ Klune’s The House in the Cerulean Sea or Sangu Mandanna’s The Very Secret Society of Irregular Witches. What’s better than an escape to magical worlds where (all types of) love does conquer all? I prefer to believe it’s all possible.

Casket Case by Lauren Evans

When Nora is forced to return to her small town after a tragedy and run her parents’ casket business, her options are bleak. In her thirties with few prospects, it feels like the best of luck when a handsome and charming guy walks in asking for directions. Everything about him seems great. The only thing off about him is his vague job that he seems to love, but Nora doesn’t fully understand. Soon, people in town start dying and he’s at the scene of each incident and Nora discovers he works in logistics… for death.

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