Guest Post: How Urban Legends Shaped My Newest Story by Yawatta Hosby

Thank you, Priscilla, for letting me be a guest on your blog today!

To celebrate Women In Horror Month, I’d like to share something about my newest work-in-progress. Hi, I’m Yawatta Hosby, a horror and suspense author. I’m working on a story now about a serial killer using urban legends to murder college students. Right now, my story is with beta-readers. After I revise from their feedback, I’ll be looking for an editor and will hopefully publish Urban Legends (my working title) soon.

These are the urban legends that inspired my horror scenes (in no particular order):

1. Monkey Paw–You’re granted three wishes that don’t turn out as expected. There’s a horror twist for each wish.
2. Dead Body in a Mattress–Someone checks into a hotel. An awful smell assaults their nostrils. They figure out there’s a dead body hidden in the mattress.
3. Bloody Mary–This is the urban legend that scares me the most! You’ll never hear me say her name five times in front of a mirror! Whoever chants her name gets tortured when she appears.
4. Aren’t You Glad You Didn’t Turn On the Lights–A roommate comes home and hears a noise as she tries to sleep. Thinking it’s just her roommate, she doesn’t bring any attention to herself to get the other girl to be quiet. In the mirror, she wakes to blood written on the wall or mirror, “Aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights?”
5. The Babysitter and the Man Upstairs–A young lady is babysitting. A creepy guy keeps calling her. He eventually reveals himself; he’s been hiding upstairs with the children.
6. The Hook–A couple make out in their car. The guy goes outside to investigate noises but never returns. The woman hears a scraping sound on the roof of the car and finds her boyfriend dead, hung from a tree.
7. The Killer in Backseat–Someone follows a car. They keep flashing their headlights, scaring the woman. She finally realizes there’s a deranged killer in the backseat with a knife.
8. Hanging Body as Prop–People see a dead body hanging from a tree for Halloween, not realizing it’s real.
9. Getting Buried Alive–Someone gets buried alive and there’s nothing they can do as they’re stuck and steadily losing oxygen.

Before I write any story–doesn’t matter if it’s a novella or short story–I’ll work on an outline. It helps me stay focused on the plot. Then I’ll create characters who will make my plot work, especially the ending. Before writing Urban Legends, I Googled different urban legends to see what would work for a college campus setting. I also wanted urban legends that could connect with each other. For example, a dead body in the mattress could be moved by a character to another location, becoming the hanging body as a prop or aren’t you glad you didn’t turn on the lights legend. It’s fall semester at the college, so my characters will be celebrating Halloween. A Halloween party is the perfect scene for a hanging body as a prop legend. Someone could think the dead body is part of the Halloween decorations outside.

I had so much fun researching the origin of each urban legend. Plus, I was so surprised how many different versions each legend has. That really blew my mind!

What is your favorite urban legend?

Keep smiling,
Yawatta Hosby

Yawatta resides in the eastern panhandle of West Virginia. She enjoys connecting with other writers through blogging. With a desire to escape everyday life, Yawatta creates short stories, novellas, and novels. She’s always had a fascination with psychology, so she likes to focus on the inner-struggles within her characters. Yawatta is an avid reader, favorite genres: mystery, suspense, horror, and women’s fiction.

Priscilla here. I have read several of Yawatta’s works, my favorite being Perfect Little Murder, a YA horror novel. (It’s awesome!) You can find Yawatta’s author blog at yawattahosby.wordpress.com and her Amazon author page at www.amazon.com/Yawatta-Hosby

Feature image by Elti Meshau on Unsplash