NAME: Paula Cappa
CREATIVE FIELD: Author
WEBSITE: paulacappa.wordpress.com
AUTHOR LINKS:
Linktree: linktr.ee/pcappa9
AUHTOR BIO:
Paula Cappa is a multiple award-winning novelist and short story author of supernatural mysteries, Gothic thrillers, and dark fantasy.
Her Gothic novel Draakensky, A Supernatural Tale of Magick and Romance is published by Crystal Lake Publishing. Other supernatural novels are The Dazzling Darkness, Night Sea Journey, and Greylock (Crispin Books).
Cappa’s short fiction has appeared in literary magazines such as The Lorelei Signal, ParABnormal Magazine, Coffin Bell Literary Journal, SmokeLong Quarterly, Sirens Call Ezine, Unfading Daydream, Dark Gothic Resurrected Magazine, Whistling Shade Literary Journal, Every Day Fiction, Fiction365, Twilight Times Ezine, and in anthologies Journals of Horror—Found Fiction, Mystery Time, and Human Writes Literary Journal.
Her newest novel is Wolf Magick, Secret Mysteries of Draakensky, release date June 2026 by Crystal Lake Publishing. Visit her Reading Fiction Blog/website at paulacappa.wordpress.com.
INTERVIEW
What got you into horror to begin with – what’s your core Horror memory?
Reading ghost stories. In my younger years, I loved swinging in a hammock with the sun dappling through the trees, book in hand, and going off to Manderley (Rebecca by du Maurier) or reading Poe’s thrilling tales (The Fall of the House of Usher). I’am an escape artist of sorts and plunge into realms of the imagination since I can remember. I want to experience ghosts.
Do you have a favourite horror subgenre (or more than one) and if so, what is it? What/Who are your favourite books/films/podcasts/artists/creatives working in that subgenre?
I’m more of a ‘quiet horror’ reader, which is a subgenre that doesn’t get enough attention. Gothic and ghost tales are my go-to.
I reread Wuthering Heights once a year. Mary Shelley’s Matilda is an outstanding novella of subterranean quiet horror. I love to read the vintage novels and classic authors like M.R. James or Algernon Blackwood.
Everybody praises Shirley Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House (of course), but her short story, The Witch, is a mesmerizing little tale of quiet horror.
What is the horror project of your heart – perhaps something you’ve already got out there, something you’re working on now, or something you’d like to do?
I’ve been drawn to the mystery of wolves in my writing these past few years. Not werewolves but wolves who are magickal, intelligent, spiritual, and powerful.
My latest novel explores wolf magick. There is something about nature and the power that lies within all animals from birds to beasts.
A lot of my stories feature Otherworld elements of power that change people’s lives forever. I like that we have mysterious natural powers endowed to us by the universe and by supernatural sources.
Which 5 horror books can you not stop thinking about, or have influenced you most in some way? (If not books, you can pick 5 films, 5 pieces of art, 5 songs… or mix & match!)
I often get inspired by art and poetry.
The poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke influenced my novel Draakensky because Rilke goes deep into the psyche.
And W.B. Yeats‘s poems played a role in my newest novel, Wolf Magick, because of the Celtic folklore.
The writer who has opened new perspectives for me is not a horror author: novelist, poet, and essayist May Sarton. Her book Journal of a Solitude broke open insights that still nourish me.
Her poems and novels create a whole world of new light for me. Edgar Allan Poe’s poem Spirits of the Dead is one of the most haunting and profound verses you will ever read about the soul.
Lovecraft’s Dreams in the Witch House is a favorite of mine to reread because the garret bedroom in the old Witch House is truly haunted and I love to go there.
If you had to describe the tones and themes of your own work in terms of movies, books, songs, or art, what would you choose and why?
The ethereal spirits are present in all my stories as ghosts, angels, thoughts, and entities from the other side. I discover the power of nature too in my work where trees are conscious and can look back at you.
Being seen by a tree is an extraordinary experience that a character in one of my stories has. She has it because I experienced it.
A flower has a presence as it lives on your kitchen table and is able to greet you every morning. Even an inanimate object can reveal its energy of warmth or beauty. Don’t get me started on sun, moon, and stars!
Introduce us to something you’ve created, and pitch it to the audience!
This past summer, I created a sitting spot in my backyard. Not for meditation, but to enhance my awareness and connection to Nature. I placed a lawn chair and a small table on the top of a grassy hill, added potted pink geraniums to my right and left, chimes dangling behind me—leafy oak, elm, and maple trees all around, green pine tree too beneath the soft sky creating my vista. Sometimes I would bring a pot of tea and sip slowly, letting my eyes wander. No special thoughts, no direction, just me alone with nature.
That silence, that beauty for 15 or 30 minutes became a miracle of sorts. One time an irridescent dragonfly landed on my left hand and sat with me for several minutes. On a windless morning, a single pine bough waved to me while the rest of the tree stood perfectly still. And someone or something wafted in the scent of lilac, inflating my lungs—but there are no lilac trees on my property or in the neighborhood. Nature delivers to heart, body, mind, and soul. Don’t miss it!