By LINDY RYAN
In the mood for a spooky getaway? Horror lovers, lifelong best friends and co-hosts of the Horror Rewind podcast, Kelly Florence and Meg Hafdahl, have traveled the U.S. to find the most thrilling spots for horror, history and true crime. From big cities to small towns, from Florida to Minnesota, this dynamic writing duo has mapped out everything you need to plan your own ghoulish getaway in their latest book, TRAVELS OF TERROR.
The duo has compiled a list of what to do, where to stay, where to eat and drink and where to shop to make your dark and deadly vacation-planning a breeze. They’ve also delved into the history and pop culture of each location, revealing hidden gems, the most notorious true crimes, horror books and movies set in each state and other strange facts about some of the scariest places around the nation.
RUE MORGUE recently had the opportunity to sit down with Florence and Hafdahl to chat about TRAVELS OF TERROR, available September 10 from Sourcebooks.
Most of your co-authored titles have tackled the science behind various horror topics – Stephen King, monsters, witchcraft, women in horror and more. What was the inspiration for TRAVELS OF TERROR?
Meg Hafdahl: A love of travel is something we both share and after the restrictions of the pandemic, like a lot of people, we were eager to get out and see some unique places. Get some fresh air! Also, back in 2001, Kelly and I went on our first big trip together to check out The X-Files filming locations in Canada. We remembered how we’d used a book to chart out our adventure, and without that book, we would’ve missed so many great memories!
Kelly Florence: Being best friends for over 20 years and traveling together, it was a natural fit that we would write about all the things we love to explore. We love history, ghost tours, great restaurants and hidden gems, and we can’t wait to share them with our readers.
TRAVELS OF TERROR highlights strange and spooky sites across twelve U.S. cities. Can you tell us more about the research process for this book? Please tell me you did a road trip!
Author Meg Hafdahl
MH: Yes! There was a road trip involved! Thankfully, Kelly and I are best friends and travel well together. That’s really at the heart of this book – finding places that we both enjoyed and sharing that enjoyment with people who are like us! Before we went to a city, we would do some pre-planning, often booking tours. We learned that by taking a tour early in the visit, we’d get suggestions from knowledgeable guides about what places to try next. There was trial and error, like how we spent at least an hour wandering a huge cemetery in Pittsburgh trying to find a unique tombstone (We finally found it!) and also dumb luck when we’d walk right into the most unexpected gothic boutique. That mix of planning and spontaneity, I think, is what makes traveling so fulfilling.
KF: We learned a lot on the way and share some practical tips, too, in our book, about packing, walkability in places, safety and practical things to consider. For example, Meg found out TSA doesn’t appreciate a fake plastic ax being brought as a carry-on!
What are your favorite sites included in the book?
MH: It really meant a lot to me to go to the Lizzie Borden house, which is now a bed and breakfast. I’ve been fascinated with Lizzie Borden since I was about 8 years old – read every biography – so sleeping in her bedroom was such a surreal experience. I was also really blown away by the Athenaeum in Providence, Rhode Island. As a literary history nerd, it was the closest thing to a Europe-level library I’ve seen in the States. And Edgar Allan Poe dumped his fiancé there, so I was in goth-nerd heaven!!
Author Kelly Florence
KF: Seeing the actual mall where Dawn of the Dead was filmed near Pittsburgh was a highlight for me, and visiting Vampira’s (Maila Nurmi) grave at the Hollywood Forever Cemetery in Los Angeles was very special. We were able to take time in places and explore without being overly scheduled or overly planned. It was the best to discover things!
Are there any plans to travel in terror worldwide?
MH: Oh yes! I recently came back from Oxford and would love to write about some British ghosts! Also, every culture has a different way of experiencing horror, whether it’s true crime or fictional. It would be such great fun to explore that!
KF: Even as we were writing this book, people gave us great suggestions for places to visit all around the world that we can’t wait to explore.
Both of you are academics. How do you think horror fits into academia?
MH: We could be here all day! But I’ll make it short: Horror, I believe, was a genre conceived by women to tell women’s stories. Yes, men are pretty good at it, too. (We are both die-hard Stephen King fans.) But overall horror and the gothic are the perfect ways to reflect the psychological and physical realities of being othered, being traumatized or, heck, living in a society that values the wrong things. Often, horror is reduced to jump scares and gore (We love that, too), yet it is so much more than that.
KF: As a teacher, I see how media in all forms can be used as a tool for learning. Naturally, we are drawn to things we find fascinating, and feeding that curiosity through the horror genre has been really eye-opening and rewarding for us.
What is next up for the Hafdahl/Florence writing duo? And for you individually?
MH: I’m working on my creative writing diploma at Oxford, writing novels, short stories and mulling over furthering my career in academia. We have The Science of Alfred Hitchcock coming next summer.
KF: We also continue to write screenplays together and have some fun TV projects in development. Stay tuned!
