When I was a kid, I was a classic scaredy-cat, terrified of the long-armed witch under my bed, the wolf behind the door, and the monster creeping up the steps.

Steals naughty children from their homes,ĭid reading scary stories as a kid influence your becoming a writer of so many supernatural novels? What stories do you remember that stick with you? I let him stay - she needed a companion to share her dark thoughts and plans. It’s as if Raw Head and Bloody Bones simply stepped out of the woods and joined the witch. Sometimes I’m not really sure why a character enters a story. In other words, the witch is real but I’m not going to allow her to kill anyone.īloody Bones is a staple of back-woods American folklore from the Appalachian Mountain region. The point that I won’t go beyond is violence and bloodshed– the spattered brains and guts genre, as I call it. For instance, I doubt today’s seven year old would be so scared watching Walt Disney’s Snow White that she’d crawl under her seat in the movie theater (as I did) to hide from the witch. I actually worry about the images my mind produces, but I think today’s kids aren’t as easily frightened as the kids of my generation. Every now and then, I pause and ask myself if the story is too dark or too frightening.

Usually the story tells itself and I write it down as it comes to me. Were you worried that some of the imagery might be too scary for elementary school children? How do you tell when it’s time to dial down the intensity? She takes a child and there is nothing her brother or her parents or the entire town can do about it. Your latest publication, Took, is a bit more frightening than many of your ghostly tales there isn’t any question of whether the conjure woman is imaginary or misunderstood– she is real and filled with malice.

She joins us today to discuss her latest publication, Took and writing scary stories for kids! Her ghost stories are classics recognized on every Halloween reading list. Awake at Midnight welcomes Mary Downing Hahn, author of more than twenty books for children and an Edgar Award winner for Closed for the Season in 2010, (as well as the Scott O’Dell Award for Historical Fiction for Stepping on the Cracks, and countless others).

Mary downing hahn one for sorrow