Leticia’s Creative Obsessions

It’s been challenging in the last few years to feel focused on being creative. We are living through what feels like crisis after collective crisis, and sometimes it is challenging to justify writing or engaging in a creative practice. But my heart and mind go back to it, time and time again, from the books I am reading, the music I listen to, the movies and television I consume, or the conversations with creative loved ones in my life who may offer unexpected forms of inspiration and encouragement.

Now, I want to share my own creative insights and obsessions with you in the hopes that the book recommendations, musings, and prompts will become welcome resources that others can connect with should you need a creative boost in your life. So, here goes!

September’s Creative Obsession: Back to School Horror!

Ever since I was young, I have loved to be scared. Don’t get me wrong. Being scared was, well, scary. But there is such a thrill to engage with a scary book, movie, even video game, a self-contained little package of fright. Did these stories seep into my dreams and keep me up at night? Absolutely. Did that make me stop reading or watching them? Of course not!

When I was around 10 or so, I used to watch the 90’s Nickelodeon classic, Are You Afraid of the Dark on Saturdays with my grandmother Ines. I never pegged her for a horror fan, but for some reason, we both commiserated about how creepy the show was and which episodes were our favorites. That got me started down the road to loving horror, and though, as a very sensitive person, I have been a scaredy cat, I come back to this genre time and again. It was one of the many reasons I loved Halloween, reveled in other 90’s films like Hocus Pocus and Halloweentown, read Goosebumps and eventually Fear Street whenever I could, and annoyed my mom when I read or watched something that would inevitably keep me up at night.

Now, as a teaching artist and administrator for a creative writing arts nonprofit, I love the opportunity to support kids and their love of the creepy and downright frightening. You can read my essay on Medium, Let Kids Scare and Be Scared for more musings on why I think kids should be given space to explore fear in their creative lives. For my organization, Austin Bat Cave, we even themed our entire 2024 Anthology around fear and collected creepy comics, ghost stories, horror comedy and more in Face Your Fears.

So here is a short list of books that I read in the last year as inspiration for planning this anthology and thinking about my own creepy tales I want to tell:

1. Nightbooks and Gravebooks by J.A. White
   I really love both of these books in the Nightbooks Series. In book one, horror loving Alex is lured into the apartment of the evil witch Natasha who forces him to write scary stories that he reads to her every night. Yasmin, who was also kidnapped by Natasha, becomes Alex’s reluctant friend, and together they must fight to survive and escape Natasha’s clutches, which is easier said than done. The audiobooks of both of these are very good, and I really enjoyed the film adaption of Nightbooks on Netflix.
2. Hide and Seeker by Daka Hermon
   • Justin is reeling from the disappearance and sudden return of his neighborhood friend Zee, who seems changed by his experience. When he and his other friends from the neighborhood decide to play a game of hide and seek at Zee’s welcome home party, his friends begin disappearing one by one, all to a nightmare realm held captive by a being known only as “the Seeker.” This book has great sinister vibes, and shows the deep love and support that friends can provide one another in the scariest of situations. Justin and his friends Nia and Lyric, are accustomed to the neglect that comes from the police and other adults outside of their neighborhood who have little care for them and their families because the majority of people who live there are Black and poor. The way that he and his friends greave together, play together, and fight for each other, especially when they are pressured by the Seeker to abandon one another, was very moving and made this story that much more compelling.
3. Scarewaves by Trevor Henderson
   • This was a wonderfully creepy read! I love any novel where friendships develop around surviving and fighting a shared evil (obviously it had middle grade IT vibes). The monsters that each of the kids faced were severely creepy and definitely made it hard to sleep one night. I liked the multiple perspectives in the book, but it did make it more difficult to feel connected to all of the characters equally, especially since Mary is set up to be the main character in the beginning. The ending also felt like it came abruptly and gave more questions than it answered about the nature of the monsters in Beacon Point and Allan Graves’ radio show, but possibly setting it up for a sequel?! That I will definitely be on board for. Also, Trevor Henderson does all the artwork for his book and many others, including our Face Your Fears Anthology!
4. It Came from the Trees by Ally Russell
   • Jenna is an Owlet Scout and a skilled outdoor explorer; her grandfather (Pap) was the first Black park ranger at the Sturbridge Reservation where her troop frequents. But on one ill-fated camping trip with the Owlet Scouts, Jenna witnesses a creature unlike any she has ever seen and her best friend Reese is dragged off into the woods. No one, including Jenna’s mother and the police, believes her, so Jenna must take matters into her own hands by joining another local scout troop and heading back into the woods in search of Reese, and the huge, humanoid creature that took her. I really liked this creepy middle grade story. Jenna and Reese’s friendship was really beautiful, the creature stalking the troops was properly scary and Jenna’s courage and fortitude even in the face of the terrifying creature really made the story engaging.
5. Are You Afraid of the Dark: The Tale of the Twisted Claw by Danielle Valentine
   • I would like to know why no one told me that as recently as this year, Are You Afraid of the Dark middle grade/YA adaptations were being published by some of my favorite authors? I read Danielle Valentine’s book Delicate Condition last year and enjoyed it, but this book took the creepy doll story to new heights of creepiness. Sentient monster dolls mixed with a heartfelt story about friendships, loss, and the ties that bind gripped me from the first page to the last.
6. Small Spaces Series by Katherine Arden
   • Another book of friends battling creepy creatures, including sentient scarecrow and I am here for it. I read the entire Small Spaces series last year back to back and the first one, Small Spaces and Empty Smiles were my favorites. The Smiling Man, a sinister figure who appears throughout the series to terrify, trick, and cause mayham for the main character Ollie and her friends is such a great villain. This series is well worth the read!
7. The Clackity by Lora Senf
   • Evie Von Rathe lives in Blight Harbor—the seventh-most haunted town in America—with her Aunt Desdemona, a local paranormal expert. But when Aunt Des goes missing inside the abandoned slaughterhouse on the edge of town, Evie goes searching for her and meets The Clackity, an evil entity who collects the souls of the living and the dead and makes a deal to return Aunt Des to Evie as long as Evie can provide of them the ghost of John Jeffrey Pope, a serial killer who stalked Blight Harbor a hundred years earlier. Evie ventures into the strange world of The Clackity, unsure if she will escape alive. This was a fun creepy read with a lot of different scares and elements that I hope will be explored further in the rest of the series, including what happened to Evie’s parents and how their disappearance is connected to the weirdness of The Clackity and Blight Harbor. The Nighthouse Keeper, Lora Senf’s next book in the Blight Harbor Series, is on my TBR list!
8. Dear Mothman by Robin Gow
   • This one is less scary and more heartfelt, but it does involve Mothman, a beloved cryptid. It’s beautiful book about friendship, queer and trans found family, loss and finding oneself through cryptids. I loved the epistolary structure of the book and the tenderness of Noah’s voice.
9. This Appearing House by Ally Malinenko
   • On the five-year anniversary of her cancer diagnosis and hoping to finally be declared in remission, Jac sees a mysterious house in her neighborhood that has never been there before. When two classmates dare Jac and her neighbor friend Hazel to go into the house, they soon find themselves trapped and must face the horrors of the house together. This book was equal parts tender, anxiety-inducing, unsettling, terrifying and had me crying by the end. I loved how the book explored Jac’s trauma after her cancer diagnosis as a young child and facing down her own mortality as she grew older. This is a book that I want to put in every kids hands, especially those who have been or are sick and have had to face fear, anger and the challenge of being vulnerable to a world that has hurt you. I needed this as a chronically ill adult, and will be thinking about it a lot even after I have left the story. I just found out that folks in Texas, my home state, are attempting to ban this book. This book goes to show that kids are ready for horror, for hard topics and to feel seen and acknowledged in stories they read. I can’t wait to read Malinenko’s next book, Ghost Girl next!
10. Don’t Turn Out the Lights: A Tribute to Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark edited by Jonathan Mayberry
    • It wouldn’t be a middle grade horror list if I didn’t mention this book, which is a great anthology of creepy stories inspired by the work in Alvin Schwartz’s Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark series where the stories were scary, but the illustrations by Stephen Gammell are scarier. I appreciated the variety of stories and works from some authors I love like Tananarive Due’s “The Garage”, and others who were new to me like “The Weeping Woman” by Courtney Alameda. Overall, a fun book with something for everyone.

There were many more I could have mentioned, especially YA that I have loved or am currently reading like The Black Girl Survives in This One, The Honeys and Artie and the Wolfman. To see the full list and many more on my TBR, you can check out my Goodreads shelf.

Creative prompts

Journaling prompt: Think back to when you were a child or a teen. What do you remember being unnerving, unsettling, or downright frightening for you? When was the first time you became aware of it? Take some time to journal about that experience(s) and what it taught you about fear, and about yourself.

Fiction prompt: Place a younger character (between 6-18 years old) doing something ordinary ie: walking to school, playing at recess, going to their first summer job, etc. What small detail or change could you insert to make this seemingly innocuous activity or moment creepy or unnerving. For example, could your character see a figure or creature following them on their way home? Write a scene exploring what happens and feel free to let me know in the comments if you come up with something creepy and fun!

What’s happening with Leticia?

In a couple of weeks I will be reading some scary stories at Ghoulish Books in San Antonio, TX from my next book, The Remedy is the Disease, coming out in Spring 2026 from Undertaker Books. I will be in the company of some awesome horror writers and friends, and I would love to see you there! If you plan on coming, please wear a mask to keep me and our community safe!

I will also be offering two horror writing workshops this fall, including an in-person community workshop about writing creepy folktales with Libros Bookshop in Taylor, TX on Saturday, October 12th and I am bringing back my virtual class, What Happens Inside: A Body Horror Workshop, in partnership with Gemini Ink in November. I hope you can attend!