Today I’m kicking off a new series of posts — setting inspiration for horror writers. These will sometimes be photos inspiring my own stories’ settings. And sometimes they’ll just be eerie or otherwise interesting photos that I’m sharing in the hope they’ll inspire others. I’m aiming for one of these posts each week.
All of these photos will be my own, taken throughout southeastern Pennsylvania and occasionally on trips to some of my favorite haunts such as NYC and a small town in Connecticut. Let’s start with a photo from the latter. (FYI – These photos will all be black-and-white, but you can view the color versions by hovering your mouse pointer over them.)
I took this photo in the old section of the Milford cemetery in Connecticut. The same cemetery is featured in the background image of this site. This town in general is helping me visualize the setting for my current project — a short story combining modern times, Puritan New England, ghosts, and witchcraft.
My 11th great grandfather was a Puritan minister who came to CT from England in the early 1600s. He led his followers to what is now Milford, and this cemetery sits in what was once his rear garden (though the original settlers’ graves have long been lost — most of the ones you see are from the 1700s).
Milford is one of my favorite places, having explored it while conducting research about my family’s history. And I love visiting the cemetery and spending time around my ancestors’ graves (as weird as that might sound). If I could visit more often, I’d probably do quite a bit of writing there.