Jerry Campbell simply needs to be left alone. Grief-stricken over the demise of his spouse Abigail, the aged widower and up to date retiree is determined for a change of surroundings. When his realtor suggests a brand new residence in Fairview Acres, a retirement neighborhood within the Poconos, Jerry figures it will likely be a pleasant place to spend the remainder of his days in solitude.
Till he strikes in.
Bizarre neighbors. Nightly block events. Unusual noises throughout his rooftop in any respect hours. Worst of all is Arthur Peterson, chairman of the Fairview Acres Group Affiliation, who appears obsessive about coaxing Jerry into taking part in neighborhood actions.
At first, Jerry shrugs off the incidents and eccentricities, telling himself he doesn’t wish to be the man who complains about all the pieces—however that each one adjustments one night when Katherine Dunnally seems on his doorstep with an ominous warning: “You should go away. The worms…they dance at dusk…”
His neighbors all say Katherine suffers from a type of dementia referred to as Sundowner’s Syndrome, however because the weeks progress and the strangeness mounts, Jerry begins to suspect there’s something else happening in his neighborhood. One thing that has to do with the large stone in the neighborhood park…
Heartfelt and unsettling, Todd Keisling’s newest novel, The Sundowner’s Dance, propels readers via a terrifying exploration of grief, dementia, and maybe the best horror of all: rising outdated.
The story at all times is aware of, and generally you actually must get out of your individual approach to let it name the pictures.
I’m a kind of “plantser” form of writers—I plot a starting and ending, however pants all the pieces in between. And let me let you know, after I began the story that might ultimately change into The Sundowner’s Dance, I did not wish to write one other novel. I’d simply completed rewriting a doorstopper referred to as Satan’s Creek and wished to deal with nothing however quick fiction for some time. This story, initially titled “Beneath the Eye of the Moon,” started its life as a novelette. All of the dots have been there, I simply needed to join them—however across the 11k phrase mark, I noticed this story wished to be longer. Wanted to be longer. So, I shelved it for about 4 years and wrote Scanlines as an alternative. I gained’t recap the entire course of right here. In a nutshell, I resisted this story each step of the best way, till it turned clear to me that I couldn’t anymore. Lisa Dunnally was the catalyst—the daughter of one of many protagonists. She confirmed up on Jerry Campbell’s doorstep someday, without end altering the course of what I assumed could be the ultimate act of the story, and added some much-needed dimension to her mom, Katherine. I noticed I’d been holding the story again in my refusal to let it change into what it wished to be: a full-length novel. The expertise taught me robust classes in storytelling. Generally, the story is aware of higher than we do, and it’s not the author’s job to create a lot as it’s to document.
Dementia and Alzheimer’s are horrible, however “Sundowning” is worse.
I’m no stranger to dementia. My granny skilled it in her remaining years. Hallucinations, principally. Irritability. Temper swings. I’d heard of “sunset syndrome” earlier than scripting this ebook, however I didn’t know what it entailed. As soon as the time period discovered its manner into the story, I needed to do my diligence and analysis the subject so I might communicate on it with some authority. For the story’s functions, there’s an “sickness” (for lack of a greater time period) that presents results of dementia, and infrequently in reverse of sundowning—the sufferer turns into a unique, higher model of themself at night time. Nevertheless, the true factor is worse. It happens within the mid- to late phases of dementia, typically triggered by insomnia and over-stimulation in the course of the day, and wreaks havoc on an individual’s psyche. Sundowning sufferers have good days and dangerous days, however each night time is a foul night time. They start seeing and listening to issues that aren’t there, endure from physique aches, all the pieces irritates the shit out of them, and extra. Think about you can’t inform the distinction between actuality and your goals. Acquainted faces look international to you; some even look scary to you. And you might be sure that somebody, someplace, is out to do you hurt. While you do lastly sleep, your circadian rhythm is damaged to the purpose of solely permitting an hour or two right here and there. You’re principally trapped in your malfunctioning mind. I can consider nothing extra terrifying than that.
After which there’s most cancers.
I used to be within the early phases of the second draft when my spouse found a lump in her breast. She had it checked out and was scheduled for a biopsy. Then we waited. And waited. We tried to get issues so as simply in case. Each of us have misplaced household to the Large C. We’ve seen what it might probably do to an individual. She’d misplaced a number of weight within the months main as much as the invention, and I feel we each assumed the worst. Life was in limbo, and although rewrites have been the very last thing on my thoughts, I caught with it as a result of what else am I going to do, ? I misplaced a number of sleep. Spent a number of nights at my laptop computer, spiraling to darkish ideas and potentialities. What would I do with out her? How would I’m going on? We’re each neurodivergent in complimentary methods, dealing with issues the opposite normally avoids, and the prospect of spending the second half of my life with out her was the scariest factor I’ve confronted. Like I stated, I’ve misplaced household to most cancers, however this hit otherwise by some means. It felt extra private, and I discovered myself grieving for her even when she was within the room. That was the longest two weeks of our lives, and I’m comfortable to say the lump was benign. As of her final checkup, she’s free and clear. However my god, the anxiousness within the interim saturated my soul and wouldn’t let go. So, I channeled it into Jerry, the protagonist, who’s a widower nonetheless grieving for his spouse two years after her passing. He’s dealing with my private concern: the best way to proceed after such a loss.
Generally your characters must blow one thing up, and I’m in all probability positively on a watch checklist.
I don’t know a single author who doesn’t have a suspect search historical past. For my novel Satan’s Creek, I needed to analysis do-it-yourself meth manufacturing and cult mentality. The Sundowner’s Dance took me down a unique on-line rabbit gap: do-it-yourself explosives. Ammonium nitrate, generally known as ANFO (ammonium nitrate gasoline oil), the stuff farmers use to fertilize crops, is very explosive. It’s what Timothy McVeigh used to perpetrate the bombing in Oklahoma Metropolis again in ’95. Like my analysis into meth manufacturing, I found the directions on the best way to create a bomb (accidentally, I swear) utilizing ANFO. So, yeah, I’m on a watch checklist someplace. Then once more, who isn’t?
We’d like extra aged protagonists.
I grew up among the many aged, and was partially raised by my grandmother and great-grandmother. I used to be round for conversations involving prescriptions, elder care, and insurance coverage complications. I’ve witnessed strokes and their after-effects, and the melancholy that settles in as one realizes their physique is failing them. Life doesn’t finish at 65 and other people don’t disappear once they retire. They go on dwelling in partial invisibility, solely seen once they change into an “inconvenience,” seemingly separate from the remainder of the society as they exist of their so-called “golden” or “twilight” years. I really feel this entire side of life is underrepresented in horror lately. Possibly it’s the social discourse pitting generations in opposition to each other—Boomers and Millenials, and many others.—that’s made us hesitant to deal with the topic; or possibly it’s that we’re afraid to face the prospect of getting old ourselves. However that’s the fantastic thing about it, I feel. Growing old awaits us all. We will’t escape it. It’s ripe for horror based mostly on these information alone.
TODD KEISLING is the two-time Bram Stoker Award®-nominated creator of Satan’s Creek, Scanlines, Chilly, Black & Infinite, and most lately, The Sundowner’s Dance, amongst a number of others. A pair of his earlier works have been recipients of the College of Kentucky’s Oswald Analysis & Creativity Prize for Artistic Writing (2002 and 2005), and his second novel, The Liminal Man, was an Indie Ebook Award finalist in Horror & Suspense (2013). He lives in Pennsylvania together with his household.
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