A Ghost Chases the Horizon tells the story of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum from the perspective of the building, exploring mental health, time, memory, and the invisible scars passed from person to person and place to place. What was the inspiration for the original and fascinating idea at the center of the book?

The flashpoint for this story came from a paranormal encounter my friends and I had while we were doing an overnight tour of the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum campus. I was alone in a large area once used as a women’s ward. My friends went outside to find a bathroom, and as they came back, they heard what sounded like a group of women screaming (it was caught on a recording, too). A week later, I was watching a TV program about the asylum. The show told a story from the 1960s about how the women in the ward all started screaming at once. When the attendants arrived, the women said they saw a man standing in the corner of the room. Remembering that was where I was standing when my friends heard the screams, I had to ask myself, Do hauntings work both ways? Was I their ghost? The origin of the story came from those questions. The idea for the Kirkbride building to be the narrator originated later from a friend’s suggestion about another book idea. The new story did not develop, but the idea was worked into later drafts of this book.

Your story explores the lives of four people who resided in the hospital from 1905 to 2063. What are some things that you find interesting about the human condition that you think make for great fiction?

Melancholy is the feeling I most wanted to convey throughout this story. I think it is one of the more underappreciated emotions. The times when books and films have successfully employed that tone are the stories that have stuck with me the most. There is a natural loneliness to the Kirkbride that emanates from it to this day. Along with its gothic architecture, it is the perfect place to convey such a mood. There needed to be a hopefulness to the stories as well, so the loneliness would not become overwrought and depressing.

What were some themes that were important for you to explore in this book?

The relationship between time, spirit, and the true nature of hauntings was my first priority. I also wanted to address socially relevant themes like false allyship, neglect of the mentally disadvantaged, and the perils and responsibilities of using a historic site as a playground.

What were some goals you set for yourself as a writer in this book?

I wanted the structure to be experimental. I looked at it as a braided narrative, where each character’s story overlays in order, so one character is inadvertently filling in another character’s backstory from their position in the timeline. All four characters have a direct effect on the other four in some manner. I also wanted to layer each character’s backgrounds so much that there are hidden stories within the story. In one particular example, there is an intentional continuity error, but if the reader were to run the narrative backward, they would realize that time had been altered without anyone in the story realizing it. I didn’t just want this story to be read. I wanted it to be studied.

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