S4 Ep8: Getting Spooky with Sally-Anne Martyn
Sally-Anne Martyn returns to Geek4, and this time we're talking about something I will never fully understand: Sally-Anne likes to be scared. On purpose.
Sally-Anne has spent years seeking out scare houses, haunted attractions and overnight ghost hunts. It started with her first scare attraction in Norfolk, Virginia, at eighteen, and has since taken her to the London Dungeon, Blackpool, and Newsham Park in Liverpool, a derelict Victorian orphanage that later became a psychiatric hospital. She tells me about the night a shadow came down the stairs and about a hotel phone that rang at midnight on the dot three nights running, in a room it wasn't connected to. We also talk about how chasing a controlled scare feeds her writing, why setting always comes first for her, and her dream of one day owning her own scare attraction (screamers not admitted).
We finish up talking about her new folk-horror novel, The Witch Elm, out October 9 from Boldwell Books. It tells two parellel stories: a young woman condemned as a witch centuries ago who died cursing her village, and the midwife who moves into Elm Tree Cottage in the present day and stirs it all up again. It's just in time for Halloween.
You can follow Sally-Anne on Instagram at @sallyannemartyn and on Facebook at sallyannemartynbooks. She often posts delightful pictures of her many animals.
You should also sign up for Sally-Anne’s SUBSTACK, Into the Shadows, for her regular newletters
