Pretty Marys All in a Row, The Invention of Ghosts, and Boneset & Feathers. She's a Lambda Literary Award winner, and her fiction has also received the This Is Horror award for Novel of the Year as well as nominations for the Premios Kelvin and Ignotus awards.
Originally from Ohio, Kiste now resides on an abandoned horse farm outside of Pittsburgh with her husband, their calico cat, and not nearly enough ghosts.
She applied the Page 69 Test to her new novel, The Haunting of Velkwood, and reported the following:
From page 69 of The Haunting of Velkwood:Visit Gwendolyn Kiste's website.“What’s it supposed to be?” I asked, gazing up into the neon glow.This is definitely a great page to get a feel for The Haunting of Velkwood. My book has already been described more than once as a character-driven story, and this page in particular definitely conveys just how much this is a tale about the people involved with this ghostly mystery rather than only about the ghosts themselves. We come into the page during a brief flashback where our main character Talitha and her sometimes best friend Brett are at an art installation that Brett helped to organize. Brett and Talitha’s friendship—and all its many complications—is so critical to the novel overall, and this page shows a bit of their backstory that illuminates just how emotionally fraught their relationship really is. Then, in the present day, we see Talitha about to return to the haunted neighborhood of her past, all while she’s bonding with the lead researcher Jack who’s desperate to learn more about ghosts. Their back-and-forth dialogue is indicative of their budding relationship and shows the different reasons why someone might want to pursue a neighborhood filled with phantoms. Perhaps most importantly, Talitha’s voice is also on full display here on page 69, which helps to give readers a taste of what they can expect from the book as a whole. So I’m very pleased to report that in my opinion, The Haunting of Velkwood very much passes the Page 69 Test!
“Anything you want,” she whispered, her hand suddenly entwined with mine, her touch softer than velvet. I remember staying that night at her apartment, a weird little warehouse loft in the Strip District, and how we drank too much rosé. I slept on the couch as always, one room and a million miles away from her. Even when Brett and I were in the same place, there was always an unbreachable chasm between us. She was right there, but she still felt like just another ghost.
“It doesn’t have to be this way,” she said the next morning, but I pretended not to hear her as I walked out the door.
I’m still thinking about her, as Jack and I climb into the car so he can drive me back to Velkwood Street. There’s no welcoming committee joining us this time—it’s just the two of us.
I hear Brett’s voice again, echoing inside my head. Why do you bother with boys like him?
Except Jack’s not quite like the other guys I’ve known. He’s certainly not normal, that’s for sure. Nobody ordinary has ever been this obsessed with ghosts. As we turn out of the driveway, I notice something on him. A necklace dangling over his T-shirt, a charm at the end of it. A titanium compass. Only it’s bent a little in the middle so that north doesn’t quite point in the right direction anymore.
“From your aunt?” I ask, and it’s a total guess, but Jack smiles, and I know instantly that I’m right.
“You asked me before what she would think about all this,” he says. “And I think she’d love it. This neighborhood. Everything we’re doing here.” He hesitates before adding, almost sheepishly, “She always wanted to prove that ghosts were real.”
“And you told her you would try, right?” I gaze at him. “At the end of her life, you told her you’d find her again?”
--Marshal Zeringue
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