PD Alleva is a native New Yorker, award winning author, psychotherapist and hypnotist writing profound, in-depth horror, scifi, and psychological thriller stories. His latest release, The Sleepy Hollow Incident, is a gothic horror story wrapped in a suspenseful crime thriller that features the classic Faustian Bargain. To learn more about PD or his latest release, visit the author at pdalleva.com or follow him on social media.
Author Links:
Website: pdalleva.com
The Sleepy Hollow Incident Series: KU (US)
The Sleepy Hollow Incident Series: KU (UK)
The Sleepy Hollow Incident: Limited Edition Signed and Numbered Print Books
PD’s Alternative Fiction Newsletter (FREE weekly horror stories): pdsalternativefiction.substack.com
Facebook Page: /pdallevaauthor
Amazon: /pdalleva
Instagram: @pdalleva_author
TikTok: @pds_alternative_fiction
Goodreads: P_D_Alleva
Bookbub: /p-d-alleva
We’re here to spotlight your occult/supernatural Gothic Horror series, The Sleepy Hollow Incident. Can you tell us what inspired this series, and share your influences?
100%. Let me provide a brief background to the evolution of the story first. I first wrote the story as a screenplay in the late 90s, then as a novel in the early 2000s. Unfortunately, they were lost in what I refer to as the great laptop tragedy of 2005.
Now, let’s come back to the present. Needless to say, I’ve always been intrigued by the Faustian bargain (when someone sells their soul for immediate gain) and have always wanted to write such a novel. I find it intriguing to explore the reasons someone would agree to sell their soul and thanks to some fantastic teachers I was influenced at an early age by the Faustian bargain concept, including stories such as: The Devil and Daniel Webster by Stephen Vincent Benet; The Devil and Tom Walker by Washington Irving; Young Goodman Brown by Nathaniel Hawthorne; the OG, Faust by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe; and my favorite, Something Wicked This Way Comes by Ray Bradbury.
However, what I didn’t want to do was to allow the Faustian bargain to be about greed or power or control. Honestly, I’m a bit of a drama boy and enjoy a good love story (I’ll even go out on a limb here and admit that I’ve read multiple Nicholas Sparks books lol). To me, love is as good a reason to enter a Faustian bargain as any, although the bargain takes on an entirely new meaning when that soul is sold so that someone else can live, breathe, or be successful. Now that’s true love, IMO. This is where romance and romantic nature became an enormous influence.
Specifically, two movies (books too, although that’s a different story) were a large influence on the story. Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula was one, and The Princess Bride is the other. Additional influences also included: Rebecca by Daphne du Maurier, The Witching Hour series by Anne Rice, Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (also once I realized I was writing a series, the Netflix series was a huge influence) and The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde by Robert Louis Stevenson. You’ll definitely get to experience the Jekyll and Hyde influence in the story.
Allow me to introduce you to the green fairies in a bottle of absinthe, although you’ll see the influences from all the above as you’re reading. Of course, I would be remiss if I didn’t mention Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow. I grew up in the area and lived in Sleepy Hollow for some time. Obviously, the story and the city had a large influence on the novel.
Although The Sleepy Hollow Incident has nothing to do with the Headless Horseman, Washington Irving himself plays a crucial role in the backstory, which were some of the most fun scenes to write. I found it very existential. Plus, the backstory fits perfectly into the New England Gothic horror subgenre. With the exception that Sleepy Hollow is in New York, not New England (maybe they should call it Northeastern Gothic Horror?) we’ve got all the elements that make the genre spectacular.
Bleak isolated landscapes, dark woods, old houses (mansions in this case), inherited curses, repressed desires, madness, isolation, witches, ghosts, demons, ancient evils intertwined with historical events (thank you Washington Irving), dread, mystery, decay, emotional suppression and characters who are tortured souls confronting ancestral sins and societal horrors. All the significant elements of the subgenre. Or what I refer to as all-encompassing gothic storytelling.
Gothic Horror novels are very often standalones – what inspired you to create a quadrilogy rather than a single book, was this planned from the outset or something that emerged organically from your writing process?
The process emerged organically from the writing process. Keep in mind that each book ends with a cliffhanger, and the following book continues from the cliffhanger. More of a serial than a series, or rather, one massive book to indulge reader appetites for gothic horror wrapped in a suspenseful supernatural crime thriller with a supporting cast that steals the show.
I knew after writing Part II that the story would take some time to unfold. Splitting the story into four books and publishing as a rapid release seemed like a no-brainer from that point on. Plus, being an unknown indie, I didn’t want to scare off new readers with a book that was over 1200 pages. I’m not Stephen King (yet lol).
What made you settle on the winter of 1997 as the setting for the first book in the series? What is it about the late 1990s that lent itself to the story you wanted to tell?
I’m a child of the 90s. I turned 15 y/o in 1990, and honestly, the 90s were outstanding, especially with the grunge movement that came out of nowhere (although it’d been brewing for some time).
I was a punk-rocking, plaid-wearing, mosh-pit-loving grungehead, and I loved it. Then Kurt pulled the trigger, corporate greed took over grunge, and the world entered a state of paranoia with the upcoming new millennium (anyone remember the Y2K insanity?).
The world was on a downward spiral into what we see everyday today. 1997 (or the late 90s) also saw the rise of the internet and cell phones (they were around earlier than 1997 but became mainstream around this time) and Amazon was becoming the global juggernaut it is today (Amazon first went public in 1997).
During that time, I remember thinking how things were undoubtedly changing, although I couldn’t have predicted where we would be now. It’s a completely different world. The Sleepy Hollow Incident is very similar. It starts off with a bang (think Nirvana’s Smells Like Teen Spirit premiering on MTV) then turns into its innocence (the awesome grunge era) before being dragged through the fog-drenched turmoil of paranoia, heartache and anguish while holding on for dear life because you have no idea what the future will bring.
Yeah, the 90s seemed like the perfect backdrop for the story, incorporating all the above elements into the narrative to elicit a profound emotional response within the reader.
How does your background as a psychotherapist play into your love of Gothic Horror particularly, and how do you use this training to develop your characters/themes/plots?
I need to turn this question inside out first. My love of gothic horror was there long before I sat in the therapist’s chair. If anything, being a writer (understanding the human condition and being able to read people through observation and interpretation) aided in my success as a therapist (I hope that’s not too strange, but if it is… whatever!).
But to answer your question in more detail, I’ve always seen Gothic horror as psychological horror that bolsters atmosphere to reflect the emotional turmoil of the characters while eliciting an emotional response within the reader.
I use many psychology trainings to develop sound character backgrounds that develop into belief systems for each character. I always ask what each character’s belief system includes.
People react and make choices based on their belief systems. Belief systems are also what keep people blind to alternative suggestions, theories and possibilities. It’s when the truth must be confronted and accepted that genuine change occurs. We either give in and give up or give in and get up at that point.
There’s no two ways about it, but as a writer, torturing my characters with such concepts really is all the fun. Seeing how they respond to adversity and tragedy reflects the heart of each character and the human condition.
From a psychological perspective, why do you think the Gothic is having a resurgence today, and also what is the allure of the Gothic for you personally?
I believe Gothic literature is having a resurgence because people are looking for a story that is as profound as it is entertaining. They crave depth as much as they crave excitement. Intelligence as much as simplicity.
Gothic literature incorporates all the above. I refer to it as brutal, beautiful, and exhilarating. Who wouldn’t want to read such a story? It’s a downright overall satisfying reader experience. Although I can’t speak for everyone, when I read a book, I want everything in it I listed above.
I want an experience that elicits profound emotions, thoughts, and contemplations. I always say that the crux of literature is to put on display the depths of the human condition and the perils of society (entertainment first of course but depth is just as important) and I don’t see any genre out there that does that better than horror (gothic horror specifically).
When people are confronted with pure evil (supernatural or not) how they react is a direct correlation to the human condition. This is the allure of Gothic horror for me personally. The psychological toll the characters endure coupled with atmospheric dread creates one awesomely chilling reader experience.
What has been your favourite reader takeaway from the books so far, and can you share some of your favourite endorsements/reviews/reader comments?
What I love to read most is when readers write about how the writing was so vivid that they could see the scenes playing out in their minds. IMO, if you don’t feel like you’re walking through Sleepy Hollow while reading the book, I did not do my job.
In the story, Sleepy Hollow itself is a character, and it was important to me to present the town with a positive vibe (despite all the carnage and chaos). Also, when readers say that they were hooked from book one and just had to keep reading is a satisfying takeaway. These types of comments and reviews make writing such a project even more satisfying.
I wrote the book as a crime thriller. The fact that the story moves a mile a minute (once Part Two begins and the crime thriller portion of our story escalates), keeping the reader not just engaged but enthralled throughout the entire story was very important to me, so reader comments about the fast pace of the story are quite satisfying.
I’ve also had the privilege of the book being reviewed by a few authors whose opinions I truly respect and take to heart.
Here’s a few:
“Dripping with atmosphere. Bursting with brutality. Humming with magical mystery. The Sleepy Hollow Incident is an alluring, twisted journey of death, desire, and sacrifice.” ~ Felix Blackwell, author of Stolen Tongues.
“A deft blend of gothic vibes, historical fiction, and crime thriller.” ~ Ben Young, author of Home.
“PD Alleva’s The Sleepy Hollow Incident is a mixing pot of terror—a healthy dose of gothic, a dash of demonic, and enough gore and body horror to shock and delight readers!” —Viggy Parr Hampton, author of The Rotting Room
“P. D. Alleva spreads fresh seed on well-trod ground with The Sleepy Hollow Incident. There’s certainly a tip of the hat to the giants of American gothic literature here including ghosts, dark pacts, and tragic romance, on display with ornate prose. Placing the story in the midst of a more modern police procedural puts a unique and voraciously readable spin on the familiar tropes we’ve loved for centuries. By the time you read the last lines you’ll be losing your head for more.” ~ Caleb Jones, author of Red Pill Paradise.
“This book 1 is utterly terrifying! I felt physically tense reading it. The imagery is incredible, you can Feel the Storm rolling in, building and raging. This is honestly the scariest book I have read in years!” ~ Alexandrea Christianson, Author of Zombies Dead Clown Apocalypse
“Dark, brooding, and deeply atmospheric, The Sleepy Hollow Incident is a supernatural gothic tale that sinks its claws in from the first page and doesn’t let go. P.D. Alleva masterfully blends elements of horror and romance, offering readers a chilling look at love and sacrifice.” ~ Kayla Frederick, author of The Residency.
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