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Date: 10/5/2022
EAST LONGMEADOW – Horror author/East Longmeadow native Darlene Longo, writing under the pen name D.M. Siciliano, has done it again with the release of her fourth book, “Emporium of Superstition: An Old Wives Tale Anthology.”
For this dark anthology, Longo was asked to join an amazing cast of 11 other female authors: Elle Beaumont, C. Vonzale Lewis, Candace Robinson, Christis Christie, Katya De Beccera, Meg Daily, Marlena Frank, Kristin Jacques, Theresa Braun, Jessica Cranberry and Leslie Rush for a collection of suspenseful stories. In these pages, they draw on ancient tales your grandmothers warned you about. From demons living amongst humans to ghosts lurking in the shadows – and even gods looming above – these recountings will surely inspire a fright.
“Coming into it, I didn’t know what to expect working with other authors,” Longo said. “I’ve never worked with anybody else in my writing before. I was excited, but a little nervous because I had not done a short story before. I’ve only done novels, so for me this was a big challenge.”
She continued, “Overall, I’m happy with the book and honored to be included with a group of 11 other talented female authors to work on a project like this. It’s been a very collective and collaborative effort across the board.” The main idea was 12 different authors from diverse backgrounds take an old wives’ tale and twist it, reimagine it and breathe life into it.
Longo said that old wives’ tales are supposed to be a myth or a legend or an idea of something that we’re told when we were younger to be afraid of. Imagine if the myth or legend were true; that’s what each author did. The name of the short story Longo wrote in this anthology is called “Whistle For Me,” an old wives’ tale that involves whistling with your door open. Her main character, Angela, goes through betrayal from her husband and soon things take a turn for the worst, but then she gets satisfaction at the end. Longo had played with a bunch of ideas for old wives’ tales like breaking a mirror and stepping on a crack – the classic wives’ tales that everyone knows really well. She did more research and came across that particular old wives’ tale and thought it was very chilling.
“The main concept is if you’re whistling at night in particular with your door open, we may be inviting in some spirits, energy or something that you really didn’t mean to do,” Longo explained. “Especially the mindset that Angela was in. She was not in a great place and was more open with inviting in negative energy if you will.”
She added, “Essentially, the story is about a female taking back her power. She didn’t have it stolen per se, she gave it away. She’d given it away her entire life to her mother, her sister, her husband and realizes she deserves happiness in life.”
By the end of the story, Angela found herself and her strength again. She has a sense of self and knowing who she is. The biggest takeaway Longo wants the readers to have, is how important and amazing it is; that this is a collection of 12 female authors who came together, worked together, and created these stories.
“Working with these 11 authors has shown me that writing isn’t or doesn’t have to be a completely introverted thing especially when you have the support of other people in your industry in the same craft and experience as you,” Longo explained. “It’s nice to be able to reach out and talk with one of these authors or just other authors in general and realized that all these little bumps and hiccups we go through as well as the successes are shared, it’s throughout the craft.”
Print copies can be bought at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, eBooks, Apple Books, Kobo, Scribd and Longo’s website at www.dmsiciliano.com where you can also find more information about all the authors.