It should come as no surprise that Gaby Triana, author of WAKE THE HOLLOW --- a modern-day retelling of the beloved classic short story "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow"--- has an affinity for all things paranormal. But how did she actually turn that love into becoming a real, published author? In this post, Triana shares not only what inspired her novel, but also the journey it took from first draft to publication. If you're an aspiring writer yourself --- or just a fan of a great ghost story --- you'll love reading about her storied background and the perseverence it took.
It should come as no surprise that in high school, I was the girl into gothic literature, the one who compared and contrasted Edgar Allan Poe with modern counterpart, Stephen King for her AP English term paper. I devoured anything written by Anne Rice, Shirley Jackson, or Clive Barker. I scoured the internet for ghost pics and bought every book about hauntings under the sun. I shouldn’t have become the author of fluffy, girly romantic comedies, but somehow, I did.
It should come as no surprise that the first book I ever wrote was a middle grade novel called FREDDIE AND THE BITMORE GHOST. Filled with ghosts, a creepy, abandoned hotel, an epic Halloween party, and history woven throughout, it was everything I would want to read myself. This story got revamped into my "Legend of Sleepy Hollow" retelling, which also has…wait for it…ghosts, a creepy abandoned house, an epic Halloween party, and history woven throughout. That’s right --- WAKE THE HOLLOW is FREDDIE AND THE BITMORE GHOST spiked with grown-up juice.
It should come as no surprise that I’ve always been intrigued by "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" by Washington Irving. Not so much because of the Headless Horseman, who appears only at the end, but because of the love triangle between Brom Bones, Ichabod Crane, and Katrina Van Tassel. I wanted to write a modern-day retelling, but I didn’t want it to be straight and predictable. The plot of the short story set in Sleepy Hollow would be too simple for a full-length novel anyway, so I had to come up with a more complex storyline. In this age of retellings, it was important to me to write a unique novel based on the original but not driven by it, one that felt like you’d read it before in a literature book long, long ago but also like you’d never read anything like it before. Part of that uniqueness came from its Hispanic main character. As a general rule and homage to my exile parents who came to the U.S. from Cuba in the 1960’s, I always try to include at least one Cuban character in all my books. But how would I make that connection when Irving and all his tales were as American as apple pie? The more I researched, the more I knew what to do, and the result was a mash-up of paranormal romance tinged with horror.
It should come as no surprise that it took nine years to put this all together. After all, I’d never written a paranormal thriller before. It had to be right. I had to more effort into this book than any of the others. Never having written a thriller before, I ended up overcompensating. Those carefully crafted twists and turns? Just me trying to make sure seasoned mystery readers didn’t guess things too quickly. Another reason for the delay was that WAKE THE HOLLOW had begun in third person, past tense, because, at the time, I felt it was the best vehicle for carrying Micaela’s descriptive prose. But when editors began commenting that they couldn’t connect with her, I knew I’d spent too much time focusing on plot and setting and not enough of what I was best at --- characterization.
It should come as no surprise that I spent the next several years fixing my experimental mess. But because life took too many wrong turns, I had to put my revision aside several times. For a while, I’d given up on it completely. Then in 2014, I took it out of the proverbial dusty drawer, determined to get it published. After analyzing the hell out of it with fresh eyes, I worked solely on developing Micaela Burgos and getting readers to empathize with her situation. It must’ve worked, because editor Stacy Abrams at Entangled Teen connected with it, and the rest is history.
It should come as no surprise that I’m wrenched with emotion watching readers devour the Halloween present that took me eight years to wrap. From the beginning, my goal had always been to write a book that I would enjoy, regardless of whether or not it ever got published. What does come as a surprise? Discovering that other readers are sharing my enthusiasm for books that don’t fall into one category, for all things Sleepy Hollow, the paranormal, and ghost stories interwoven with legit history and a touch of romance. In my very first query letter ever, I began with, “Everybody loves a good ghost story,” and I’ve got one for you. I hope it inspires you to love "The Legend of Sleepy Hollow" all over again like it did for me.
