38 MONTEREY COUNTY WEEKLY APRIL 6-12, 2023 www.montereycountyweekly.com LIT Deep in an isolated corner of Pacific Grove, on a leafy street with a “Not a Through Street” sign, in a modern castle of a house and surrounded by cats, Francesca Maria writes her dark fiction. But even though They Hide: Short Stories to Tell In the Dark is her debut collection, Maria has been writing ghost stories since she was 6 years old in order to cope with the fact she lived in a haunted house. “It’s a love letter to horror tropes,” she says about her debut book. Indeed, each of the 13 stories in the collection presents readers with yet another version of a monster, from a Native American spirit killing people in a settlers’ village in the opening story “The Wysterfield Murders”—Maria’s take on Salem and colonial witch hunts—to ancient Imhotep in a story of the same name. A couple of stories bear strong autobiographical traces, starting with “My Brother Andy,” a story that takes us to the haunted house of the author’s childhood. “I had no control as a child with this thing following me 24/7,” Maria says of where her own motivation to write dark stories comes from. “When I write, I get to control the monsters, to process my own fears and anxiety. When you roll around in it, it loses its grip.” Not everything is supernatural per se. According to Maria, many monsters represent human weaknesses and lusts; that’s why so many monsters are born in the realm of food and sex (think vampires), where overindulging is the name of the game. “Spreckels” is an interesting, dark take on Christmas, with Santa’s workshop revealing its true nature as a work camp for elves, with the totalitarian reality of quotas and lists and pressure to deliver gifts on time. Some stories play with the form itself—“A Game of Ghost” is truly a game, a story of a missing girl served in a form of letters, news clips and reports. “I’m a fan of short stories and word economy,” Maria says, a couple of her stories being only a few pages long (the exception is “The Gathering,” almost a novella that closes the collection). “Each sentence should serve a purpose and have an impact,” she says. Maria and her husband Mark Causey used to run a comic book shop, Black Cat Comics, in Silicon Valley. They moved to Pacific Grove in 2019. They Hide: Short Stories to Tell In the Dark is available on Amazon and in local bookstores. To learn more, visit francescamaria.com. DANIEL DREIFUSS Scary Time A haunted house survivor presents her first dark fiction collection. By Agata Pop˛eda Before publishing her debut collection, Francesca Maria—along with her husband, editor Mark Causey—published a comic series of historic tales titled Black Cat Chronicles. Book, Lyrics, & Music by Kevin Murphy and Dan Studney Tickets: Playing April 6 - April 22 The Comedy Musical! Tickets: Paperwing.com 711 Cannery Row Upstairs, Ste i B k, L ics, & Music by Kevin M phy & Dan Studney 146 12TH STREET • PACIFIC GROVE Alasdair and Natalie Scottish fiddler Alastair Frasier and cellist Natalie Haas take us on a musical journey through the “Celtic Lands” with some favorite tunes from Scotland, Ireland, Brittany and Galicia. SUN. APRIL 16•3PM Doors open at 2:30pm ADVANCE TICKETS AVAILABLE AT WWW.CELTICSOCIETY.ORG $30 ADVANCE / $12 KIDS 12 & UNDER $35 DOOR / $15 KIDS 12 & UNDER For additional information, Call or text 831-224-3819 for more info. www.stmarysbythesea.org Alasdair directs The San Francisco Scottish Fiddlers at Carmel High School Performing Arts Center on Sunday, May 21, at 3pm. Tickets are available now at www.sffiddles.org
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