Exclusive Interview: “The House Of Last Resort” Author Christopher Golden

 

In many haunted house stories, characters who get a good look at the house in question are often surprised it’s haunted…but really? I mean, it’s dark and foreboding and covered in spider webs, what do you expect?

But in the following email interview with author Christopher Golden about his haunted house novel The House Of Last Resort (paperback, hardcover, Kindle), he makes it sound as if it takes place in a very nice house, one that couldn’t possibly he haunted…or have spiders.

Photo Credit: Shivohn Kacy Fleming

 

To start, what is The House Of Last Resort about, and when and where is it set?

It’s a present-day story about Tommy and Kate, a young American couple searching for a better, simpler life. They stumble upon an extraordinary opportunity to buy a home in the Sicilian hill town where Tommy’s grandparents live, but soon after they move in, they discover that the house looms large in the minds of the locals. It was previously owned by the Vatican, and the place still echoes with the horrors that occurred there.

Where did you get the idea for The House Of Last Resort? What inspired it?

I’m fascinated by these opportunities that have cropped up over the past decade or so, when towns in Italy, Japan, and other places offer people the opportunity to buy homes for a single Euro, or the equivalent, in order to repopulate the towns. I’d love to take advantage of something like that, but of course, I also imagine the kinds of dark history that may haunt the Old World.

Is there a reason why you set The House Of Last Resort in an abandoned town in Italy as opposed to England or Japan or the United States?

My wife’s parents were born and raised in Sicily and, though we lost my father-in-law this year, my mother-in-law still maintains a home there. She’s lived in the U.S. for something like seventy years and is an American citizen, but part of her remains in Sicily. We’ve visited Sicily several times. It’s a beautiful, quiet place that often feels forgotten. I don’t think most of the world realizes how beautiful it is.

In a similar vein, is there a reason why Tommy and Kate are Americans as opposed to being British or Japanese or from somewhere else? Or Italians, for that matter

It goes back to my inspiration; this idea of finding a new start, especially the idea of escaping the realities that haunt us every day. The United States is a troubled nation these days, and the challenges young people face are massive. Higher education, health care, home prices — it feels as if every system is broken. Some Americans are leaving to start over elsewhere, and these opportunities do exist.

Also, as an American myself, it’s more authentic to slip inside the mind of an American who is a stranger in a strange land. You want the reader to feel the way an outsider would feel, so you bring them through the story through the eyes of outsiders. Tommy and Kate leave the curses of the New World for the curses of the Old World.

It sounds like The House Of Last Resort is a supernatural horror story. Or, more specifically, a haunted house story. Do you concur?

It’s certainly a supernatural horror story. And the house is haunted. But there’s much more to the story than that, and I don’t want to go too deeply into it because it may spoil the read. It’s certainly about evil.

Now, you’ve written dozens of novels, most of which on your own, but you’ve also written a bunch with other people, including The Hidden Cities Quartet and The Secret Journals Of Jack London series with Tim Lebbon, and The Bloodstained Worlds Series with James A. Moore. Why did you decide to write The House Of Last Resort on your own?

It’s interesting that you phrase it that way. Most of my work is written solo, so I’m not sure I decided to write it on my own. That’s the default. I have collaborated on many projects with other writers I admire, and who are friends of mine. That usually happens because the idea for the project was hatched together, though sometimes it’s simply that it’s an idea that seems to demand collaboration with someone else. The first Hidden Cities novel, Mind The Gap, was something I felt needed a British author, and I was already good friends with and a huge fan of Tim Lebbon. I asked if he was interested in developing it together, and that turned into four novels. With the Bloodstained books, Jim Moore and I were on an elevator in New York and came up with the idea mid-conversation. Of course, we were going to write it together because we were both part of the spark of inspiration. So, every case is different.

Speaking of your collaborators, do you think writing with Tim, James, and the others has influenced how you write? And if so, how did they influence The House Of Last Resort?

All respect and love to the various collaborators I’ve worked with over the years. I’m sure that each of them has had an impact and influence. But the one who has had the most significant effect on me has been Mike Mignola. Working with Mike has caused me to embrace the idea that not everything needs an explanation. Sometimes magic and mystery are their own reward. As long as I understand it, I don’t always need to explain every detail to the reader. My novel Road Of Bones is probably the most obvious example of that, but The House Of Last Resort and All Hallows show that influence as well. I think they’ve all made me a better writer, but I think Mignola made me a better storyteller. There’s a difference.

Aside from the people you just talked about, are there any other writers who had a big influence on The House Of Last Resort but not on anything else you’ve written?

It wouldn’t be completely true to say he never influenced other things I’ve written, but the writer that popped into my head when I read this question was the late Graham Joyce. He was a good friend and a spectacularly talented writer. He also did “stranger in a strange land” horror stories better than anyone.

What about non-literary influences; was The House Of Last Resort influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?

A lot of my novels, I can point to specific films or books that influenced me. Ararat, for example, was inspired by many things but none so much as John Carpenter’s The Thing. Snowblind‘s greatest influence was King’s novel Salem’s Lot. The House Of Last Resort doesn’t have any direct antecedents like that; nothing that I can point to and say, yes, that’s the thing that lives in my head that prompted me to write this story.

However (and this is just reality), writers have these spaces in our imagination that are much like the storage houses for old theaters. Books, movies, TV series — they’re like stage plays that were performed and whose old sets and costumes have been moved into storage. They’re no longer used to tell the story they came from, but all the most effective pieces, the painted backdrops, the most effective props — they’re all still there. So while The House Of Last Resort is probably most influenced by my own travels in Sicily, I’m sure there’s some of Michael McDowell’s The Elementals in there. Just as there’s some of Mike Flanagan’s various Netflix series.

I could dig further, but again, nothing really jumps out at me.

Some of your novels [Ararat, All Hallows] are stand-alone stories, while others [The Peter Octavian Novels, The Veil Trilogy] are connected. Is The House Of Last Resort the first book of a series or a stand-alone story?

It’s definitely a stand-alone. Of course, there’s always the possibility of revisiting characters or situations from previous novels, but some things are conceived as series and some just don’t come into your head that way. The Veil Trilogy was conceived as a trilogy. Of Saints And Shadows — the first Peter Octavian novel — was pitched as one book, but the editor made an offer for two, assuming the character would continue onward, and who was I to argue? After that, I wanted to keep going, keep dreaming up new world-changing horrors for Octavian to face. But a book full of quieter, more unsettling evil always feels like a standalone to me.

Earlier I asked if The House Of Last Resort was influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games. But to flip things around, do you think Resort could work as a movie, show, or game?

Oh, absolutely. I think it would be an excellent story to adapt to either film or television, both because of the focus on this young couple trying to figure out how to have a happy life in a world that’s going to shit, and also because of the setting…and, of course, the evil.

As for a game, I think there’s enough to build on there, but it wouldn’t adapt as naturally to a game as other novels I’ve written: Snowblind, Ararat, or The Veil Trilogy, for instance.

So, if someone wanted to adapt The House Of Last Resort into a movie or TV show, who would you want them to cast as Tommy, Kate, and the other main characters?

[Spider-Man: No Way Home‘s] Tom Holland and Zendaya, because my daughter would f**king faint.

Finally, if someone enjoys The House Of Last Resort, which of your other novels would you recommend they check out and why that one?

It’s hard to choose only one. I think I’ve been on a pretty decent run. I guess I’d say Road Of Bones, Ararat, and All Hallowsare the ones I’d point to. For the tone of The House Of Last Resort, I suspect Ararat is the one.