I departed from the genre for about ten years to focus on writing fantasy, but when I returned to the Gothic in 2019 intending to write a haunted house story, I discovered that the basic tenets of the genre had never left me. Emily Bronte’s Wuthering Heights, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Toni Morrison’s Beloved were deeply influential texts for me as an adolescent. I have loved books with Gothic themes ever since I was young. What was your inspiration for this book? Did you grow up reading a lot of Gothic suspense novels?

I eagerly await more Gothic tales by Mexican and Mexican American writers!

Mexican Gothic is both a comp title (as in, THE HACIENDA will appeal to readers of the novel Mexican Gothic by Silvia Moreno-Garcia) and, I believe, a genre in and of itself with ample room to grow! So many things about Mexican culture and history lend themselves beautifully to the Gothic as a genre: ghosts, tempestuous colonial histories, long-buried secrets, buildings that are hundreds of years old, the cultural predominance of and tension between Catholicism and traditional religious beliefs, and the skeletal iconography of holidays such as the Day of the Dead. I believe the term “supernatural suspense” signals to readers what kind of experience awaits them between the covers: a suspenseful, terrifying tale of ghosts, witchcraft, and things that go bump in the night. THE HACIENDA is a genre-bending novel that combines elements of historical, horror, thriller, paranormal, and fantasy, tying it all together with a dash of romance. What does that mean to you? How would you describe that for readers? Your book is described as “Mexican Gothic” and “supernatural suspense”. It seems to capture the mood based on the book’s description. First of all – I love the cover for your book THE HACIENDA.

The hacienda isabel canas