Area native releases anthology of spooky nanny talesDate: 10/17/2023 This spooky season, horror author Darlene Longo, writing under the pen name D.M. Siciliano, ups the ante of suspense with the release of her fifth book, “The Darkest Lullaby: A Dark Nanny Anthology.”
In putting together this latest book, she collaborated with five of the 11 female authors from her fourth book, “Emporium of Superstition: An Old Wives Tale Anthology” — Elle Beaumont, Katya De Beccera, Jessica Cranberry, Marlena Frank and C. Vonzale Lewis.
“We had so much fun last year,” Longo replied. “They are such a great group of authors to work with. We’re having a blast feeding off of each other’s energy. We each have our own style and approach to it. When it comes together, it’s really fun and there’s something for everyone in there whether it’s horror, dark fantasy or dark fiction.”
For this anthology Longo wants to make the readers feel uncomfortable and unsettled. Growing up in East Longmeadow in the 1980s, Longo remembers seeing movies like “Poltergeist” and “The Exorcist,” which terrified her so much she had to sleep with a night light. Although fear is different for everybody, for Longo it’s more of an unsettling feeling. If she can scare you, great, but if she can unsettle you, make you feel a little uncomfortable, a little uneasy and think about what’s going on, then Longo feels she’s done her job.
The author’s stories in this anthology are all very different. Longo put her main character, Alexandra, in a really uncomfortable position. She takes on a nannying job in a new town. It seems too good to be true, the story unfolds around her and she finds herself wrapped up in dangerous situations as well as just scary ones. Alexandra takes on this nanny job for a woman who’s an outcast. Not a lot of people know her and strangely enough, nobody knows she has a child. As things unravel, Alexandra tries to figure out what’s going on and not end up a victim.
Longo said she had this idea sitting in the back of her head for a short story collection that she thought maybe she would publish one day titled “The Dark Nanny Series.” Between her and the publisher, Midnight Tide Publishing, they came up with a list of authors they wanted to see participate and Midnight Tide sent out the invitations. During the coronavirus pandemic, Longo took a nanny job, caring for two girls aged 8 and 11. Because she is a horror author, the girls would try to scare her and they did.
“I would say to them, ‘You guys are going to inspire me to write a short story collection based on nannying horror stories,’” Longo said. “It was kind of a joke, but then it sat in the back of my brain, and it just crept to the forefront, so that was the main inspiration for it. Everybody came up with their version of a nannying nightmare story about nannying gone wrong with some sort of supernatural element to it.”
Longo told Reminder Publishing writing short stories are sometimes harder because you’re trying to make a huge impact with very minimum space and get the readers to be involved and care about the story, care about your characters and wrap it up nice and neat.
“Writing in general is a very introverted thing,” Longo explained. “I believe that this being part of this collection helped to motivate each other and hopefully make each other’s work better. We did critique exchanges and we got to know each other’s work and process. That’s something that I didn’t experience writing novels is having that support around you because you’re doing it yourself.”
She continued, “Here are six different styles and six very different stories. At the end of the day maybe there is a little laugh you can take away as well and a fright. Kids do some goofy things, and some creepy things, and I wanted to really play on that.”
Longo lives in Napa Valley and is working on short stories, a novella, and her novel that has been in the works now for several years.
“The Darkest Lullaby: A Dark Nanny Anthology” will be released on Oct. 25. The universal link for all websites selling the book is books2read.com/thedarkestlullaby. Longo will be selling autographed paperback copies of all her books at dmsiciliano.com.
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