The 1980s was a weird time in America. It was an era of fun music, with leather jean jackets and stylish hair. The 80'd had bold styles and riveting freedom. It also is the setting for the book The Four Before Me by E.H. Night.
"I was a bit of a romantic when I was younger," Night recalled when asked about her writing origins. “So I started out writing really obnoxious love poetry when I was 11. From there, I moved onto short satire pieces and eventually novellas and novels.”
Night’s book, The Four Before Me, tells the story of a woman named Alice who has moved to a small town where four young women similar to herself disappeared. The story goes into depth the struggle the main character undergoes as she seeks to discover why these girls went missing while also attempting to avoid becoming a victim herself.
Night explained the process she goes into when creating a story and how she gets from the start to the finish of her books.
“I usually have a ‘wouldn’t that be wild’ moment, which I turn into a bare-bones plot,” she emphasized. “From there I build it up slowly until I have a decent subplot. Before sitting down to write, I break the story down into chapters with word-count estimates.”
The Four Before Me is available on Amazon. Night also wrote a different story that takes place much further back in time.
A Stray, Astray is about the Great Plague, which was a major epidemic that killed approximately 100,000 people in England between 1665 and 1666.
“A Stray, Astray is my angry little attempt at showing classism through fiction,” Night explained. “It initially began as a fairly predictable love story. Girl meets guy, they fall in love,
something bad happens, but they overcome and end up together in the end.”
However, while she wrote it, Night learned more about the details that occurred during the Great Plague. It inspired her to take the story even deeper than she originally planned to, and that was how A Stray, Astray came to be.
Whether it’s a woman named Alice from 1988 or a couple named Helen and Peter from 1965, there are varying techniques Night uses to create characters for her stories.
“I try to keep my characters as original as possible but I do occasionally use people for inspiration,” she stated. “Usually, I’ll come up with a personality and back story and base the character’s interactions off that.”
Night also has a selection of short stories available on Amazon. MIND: Two Short Tales of Horror is a collection of two tales that also serve as metaphors. The first is a metaphor for guilt and the second is a metaphor for depression.
At the moment, she is working on several horror projects, premiering soon
There are still many goals Night hopes to achieve.
“I hope to be traditionally published,” she added. “Self-publishing has been a fun 0
experience though.”
As Night continues to grow her writing every day, she knows the struggle that endures, like most writers go through. She also had some advice for future writers.
“Write what you want. Don’t let other people tell you how to do it. If you like adverbs, use adverbs. If you like a lot of adjectives, use those adjectives. If we all write in the same style, anyone is able to write your story. Keep it your own. Keep it unique. Keep is expressive.”