Caitlin McCabe's Blog

Get a Free Copy of "The Ghosts of Echo Canyon" Through Monday, July 13th!

Breakneck cliffs. A derelict hotel. And a friend with dark secrets.

Louisa is an avid hiker. When she hears about a trail that will take her up to the old, abandoned ruins of the Echo Canyon Hotel she can't wait to go. She quickly learns though why the mountaintop doesn't stay occupied by the living for long.

Will Louisa survive this particular adventure, or will she become Echo Canyon's latest victim?

Pick up your free copy here!

The debut novella by Caitlin A. McCabe is now free for a limited time on Amazon!

If you are looking for a bit of uncanny horror, or just a good ghost story, look no further. This book will keep you on the edge of your seat. You might even need to sleep with the lights on at night.

Check out this blog post for more information about the book.

Through Monday, July 13th, you can pick up a copy of The Ghosts of Echo Canyon for absolutely free! 

If you miss this promotion, don't worry, this book is always part of the Kindle Unlimited program which allows you unlimited free reading at any time.

If you do pick up a copy to read, please feel free to add a review or drop me a note. I'd love to hear to from you!

Thanks for reading!
Caitlin A. McCabe

New Audiobook! Broken Hearts Find A Way: After WWII (Book 1)

    This was a fun project to narrate. Written by Mia Dailey, this is the story of a young African American man, Joshua, who returns to the American South after serving in WWII only to find his life in shambles. 

    The love of his life has left him. He has no job. All that seems to be waiting for him in Meldrim is a ram-shackle house and the bottle. That is until he meets Gregory--an elderly man with complete faith in God, and most importantly complete faith in Joshua. He gives Joshua a job in his mechanics shop and suddenly things are looking up. The past hurts just a little less, but it still looms like a shadow over Joshua.

    He soon meets Clara, a biracial woman who works in the local café who has faced life struggles of her own. The two quickly fall in love, but their journey together is not without its own set of troubles.

    I don't want to give away too much, but this is a very sweet and touching love story that I think any fan of romance novels would enjoy. If you are a fan of Christian fiction, I also think that you would enjoy this book. And if you are a fan of historic fiction, I think you'll like it even more. It really is all three genres wrapped up in one!

    There are a lot of misconceptions about the genre. Many people envision romance novels as tawdry or overtly sexual. Sure, there are certainly romance novels that fall into those categories. But then there are the ones that focus more on the relationship building and the human condition.

    It's about seeing how the protagonists' love develop and how they overcome the seemingly insurmountable obstacles around them to maintain their relationship. The focus isn't on the sex and sexy, but just the deep love of two people. Instead of the tension being physical, as a reader we get a glimpse at the psychological and external forces that challenge our characters.

    I won't lie to you and say that I don't like the former type of romance novel, but there is something so innocent and pleasant about the latter.

    Broken Hearts Find A Way: After WWII (Book 1)  is a type of the latter and it was an immense pleasure narrating this audiobook. It was actually my first audiobook in the romance genre.

    As fan of the genre, I've always wanted to record one, but some of the titles I've prepared auditions for were certainly more X-rated than I was comfortable with. It's one thing to read those types a books and keep all of the dirty imagery internal. It's another thing entirely to narrate those scenes and bring them to life.

    This is why I really like working on Broken Hearts. It really was the perfect romance novel for me!

    I learned a lot working on the book and got to really play around with different voices and characters. As the chapters stagger between a Joshua's and Clara's POVs, I had to find a way to keep those two voices distinct and clear. We also deal with young and old characters, so there was a lot of variation needed there as well. I did my best and I'm happy with the results.

    If you are interested in picking up an audiobook about the love and all the trials that go into finding and keeping the one you love, this is the book for you.

    I hope that you enjoy the book and my narrative work. There is a second book that should be releasing too, so if you need more, don't worry, it's coming!

World War II had brought devastation to both of their lives.

They both lost loves they thought they would have forever.

Falling in love again was the furthest thing from either one of their minds.

And God was the furthest thing from hers.

From childhood to adulthood, Clara has suffered so much abuse, neglect, loss, and disappointment. So had Joshua. But his faith in God had never wavered…until now. To receive such a generous gift and not feel worthy of it made it almost unbearable. It made him crazy inside. Only true faith could help. But he turned to the bottle instead.

Although he was still a God-fearing man, he just couldn’t understand why he’d been chosen and what he was supposed to do with the gift. It just made no sense to him.

He was falling for her…hard. Yet, he didn’t have the strength to be what she needed. Joshua could barely be there for himself. From the moment they met, he had always been a sense of strength for her. That first real date brought them closer.... So many secrets were shared. But there were still more.

Now, he needed her to help him heal so he could fulfill his destiny. But, how could she? Clara was broken herself. He needed God. And she just didn’t believe. Yet, she knows nothing and no one else could help this man she felt so drawn to.

Would she be there to help steady him? How could she hold him up when she was falling herself? How will they get passed the hurdles and make their way back to God?
©2020 One Room Schoolhouse, LLC (P)2020 Mia Dailey
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Debut Novella Available Now! "The Ghosts of Echo Canyon"

Ghosts aren't the only things that haunt the hills of Echo Canyon... And things aren't always what they seem at the popular Los Angeles destination.
 
Happy-go-lucky Louisa is an avid hiker.

When she hears about a trail that will take her up to the old, abandoned ruins of the Echo Canyon Hotel she can't wait to go.

She quickly learns though why the mountaintop doesn't stay occupied by the living for long.

Bizarre phenomena, peculiar strangers, and unusual sensations are only the beginning of what Louisa encounters. But despite several warnings, for some reason she is compelled to continue visiting the site and her new friend, Helen.

Will she survive this particular adventure, or will she become Echo Canyon's latest victim?

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    I've always been a huge fan of horror and the paranormal. 

    Despite being an easily frightened child, I have fond memories spending the summer with friends conjuring up stories about Bloody Mary and other ghoulish phantoms. During the day, I found those stories exciting. Even now I still get goosebumps remembering some of the crazy things we came up with.
  
    At night though, it was a whole other story. 

    Every shadow caste on the walls from the lights outside my window brought terrific thoughts of menacing ghosts coming into my room to do me harm. When the old toilet down the hall ran at night, I was convinced that it was a monster attempting to escape. I never dared sleep with my feet exposed to the night air (no matter how hot it was) for fear that the vampire under my bed would be able to pull me off and down deep into his hidden nest. 

    Needless to say, I was a frightened child, but I still sought out the stories. 

    I was always on the waitlist at my school's library to check out the next volume in R.L. Stein's Goosebumps series. And I was also always around to watch programs like Tales From the Crypt and movies like Creepshow with my dad. Those tales of terror only further fueled my love of the genre.

    As I got older I fell in love with Stephen King's The Shinning and Salem's Lot. The academic in my very much enjoyed Edgar Allen Poe and H.P. Lovecraft. 

    It wasn't until I was an undergraduate studying 18th and 19th century British literature that I found the literary roots of some of my favorite contemporary tales. I was taking a class on the Aesthetic and Decadent movements in 19th century England (think Oscar Wilde and Aubrey Beardsley) when I was first introduced to the father of weird horror--Arthur Machen. I think I read The Great God Pan in one sitting, it just captivated me that much.

    Though I hold the memories of my undergraduate foray into classic horror dearly, I really found the stuff that got me excited when I was in graduate school. 

    I had wanted to continue my studies in British Literature, but had all but abandoned that one year in when I realized that there really weren't too many professional opportunities in that field. I switched over to Comic Book Studies instead; which admittedly looking back probably didn't have that many professional opportunities either--especially from an academic standpoint.

    Anyway, I forged on nonetheless and (re)discovered my specific love of short tales of terror. These were the classic EC and Harvey comics from the 1950s. The men (and woman) who wrote and drew those books I hold to be the true masters of horror storytelling. Now that's my own humble opinion, but anyone who could capture such visceral fear in just eight pages is a narrative genius, as far as I'm concerned. Even today, I am hard-pressed to find anyone who can do what those teams did.

    That's a short look at how I came into the horror genre and the kinds of books and tales that I find most influential. 

    I make no claim to be a "real" author or even a good author, but a few months ago, I was struck by the notion that I wanted to write something. We were right at the beginning of the COVID-19 situation and I think that I was struggling to deal with everything happening in the world and the industry that I love. I needed an outlet. A tale to tell that would take my mind off of the horrifying realities that we were all living. That story is The Ghosts of Echo Canyon.

An early draft of the cover


    The Ghosts of EchoCanyon is really near and dear to me because it encapsulates so many things that interest me and came out of such a raw moment in my life. It is based on a location that I find to be one of the most beautiful in all of the Los Angeles area. The mythology of the location in the story showcases my love for Los Angeles history (even if the history in the book is virtually pure fiction). But most importantly it is the kind of horror story that I rarely come across. The kind of horror stories that I would like to see more of.

    I don't want to give away anything in the book, but if I had to describe the type of horror novella that The Ghosts of Echo Canyon is, it would have to be Lovecraftian. It captures the weird, the unexplained, and the primal horror that is honestly all around us.

    I think fans of Lovecraft and Machen would enjoy this book. It draws influence from those authors, but also has a bit of Algernon Blackwood. It's a modern story so I wanted the writing to be nice and tight. Something that anyone could pick up and read--similar to how I first came to read authors like R.L. Stein and Stephen King. 

    That said, though, it is my debut novella so I could be absolutely wrong. 

    Regardless though, what I can definitely says is that it is a work of passion. If you do give it try I hope that you do like it! And if you do pick it up, I would absolutely love to hear your thoughts. 

Thanks for reading!
Caitlin A. McCabe