MRA: As a fan of ghost stories, I've always been interested in the way horror can be a veil for telling history, or an angle for viewing it. So I guess my interest in the supernatural came first. During research for past projects, including Monster, She Wrote, I became aware of the connections between historical moments and the occult. An example of this is the rise of Spiritualism and its connections to the feminist movement of the 19th century, a topic that has been written about by scholars like Ann Braude and Molly McGarry.

I've loved horror since I was little and my grandmother showed me the old horror film House of Wax with Vincent Price. I've been hooked ever since. I think because so many movies and stories dealt with the occult, it was just a natural progression for me. My interest in how all that connected with history, however, really only came after enrolled in graduate school. -LK