Strange, Weird, and Creepy Tales (Paperback) (ISBN-13: 9781502474025)

Coming from a family of Mexican storytellers, Maria grew up listening to the frightful tales of La Llorona, the ghostly weeping woman, and El Cucuy, otherwise known as the boogieman. But the most chilling tale of all was one her uncle, Tio Jesus, told of a headless woman roaming the dusty streets of El Lejido, searching for her severed head. Maria was eight years old when she first heard the spooky story. "It was summer and we stayed at my aunt and uncle's ranchito," she says. "It was hot and the sky was a blanket of stars. Pigeons cooed, and a huge, hairy spider bounced in and out of rows of empty soda pop bottles as we shucked corn for the hogs. I sat on the edge of a plank step and clung to every word as my uncle wove his haunting tale." Later that night, Maria feared she might encounter the headless specter on her trip to the outhouse at the back of the property. Fortunately, she didn't. Though, at bedtime, she was so terrified that she pulled the blanket to the bridge of her nose, her eyes searching the room for the headless ghost. She finally drifted off to sleep on the floor in the guest bedroom. "In my teens, my mom said she remembered checking on me that night," she adds. "She felt sorry for me, because it was so hot and there were beads of sweat on my forehead, and the blanket was still clutched in my small hands and raised just below my eyes." To this day, Maria still likes that scared feeling she gets while reading a creepy story, in bed, by the glow of her tablet. "I like the kind of story that makes me nervous to get up in the middle of the night-a story that makes me think twice before looking in the bathroom mirror after I switch on the light. And yes, I check behind the shower curtain, too." Maria also grew up on a spooky diet of Universal horror films featuring classic monsters such as Dracula, the Wolf Man, Frankenstein, the Mummy, and the Creature from the Black Lagoon. "I still watch these old movies for inspiration." Maria also favors strange and creepy stories that make her think long after she's read the last sentence. It was Rod Serling's surprise twist endings in the Twilight Zone television series that inspired her to write this collection of Strange, Weird, and Creepy Tales. "Sometimes my twist endings even surprise me."