Author D.M. Pulley continuously explores how the choices of the past impact us all today, and she encourages others to be as fascinated by this concept. Taking inspiration from her local cities or communities, her books center around specific haunted locations, weaving in mystery and thriller to keep the reader guessing what comes next.
“I like the idea of just giving folks a sense of wonder as they’re walking around Ann Arbor, as they’re walking around Detroit, as they are inhabiting these older cities and looking at these older buildings, to consider what happened when the building was built,” Pulley said. “What happened when it changed ownership, why did that building become vacant, what were the stories that occurred, and how does it affect our lives today? I think that we’re all impacted by the past and sort of the ghosts of those decisions back in those days; we’re still walking through that history now.”
She pulls insight from her job, involving restoring old buildings as a construction specialist and engineer. This role led her to a mystery within a building in Cleveland, Ohio, becoming the setting for her first book “The Dead Key.”
“I’m very much inspired by abandoned buildings and haunted houses, and living in the Rust Belt, there’s no shortage of history that goes back 100 years, all kinds of storied accounts of the different happenings in these places that hold all these memories,” Pulley said. “I am very much inspired by that history that we all share.”
Being originally from Michigan and now residing in Ohio, readers can see Midwest ties into her stories. “Stone Mad” is centered around Franklin Castle, a haunted house in Cleveland.
“It is so fun to connect with the people that connect with my stories,” Pulley said. “You work by yourself writing these books, it’s like you’re in a vacuum or in a vault, just kind of alone. And being able at the end of all that work to connect with the actual people that read the stories and like the stories, it gives you new life.”
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Pulley will be at Schuler Books on Thursday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m. The author has historically had individuals at her book talks come up afterwards interested in sharing stories of their own haunted houses or buildings. She wanted to give readers a chance to share more about their experiences with a ghost story contest alongside the tour. Individuals visiting her tour can submit stories online ahead of time, and potentially in-person at the event, with the purpose of reading three local stories at the event. The best of the three, as judged by the audience, will win a free book.
“I want to hear what the readers have to say about their own experiences,” Pulley said. “This book in particular is a haunted house story, and I hope it captures and gets people thinking about those moments where they were maybe feeling like a little glimmer of a sense of something beyond where they could see.”
Learn more about the event on Thursday, October 15 at 6:30 p.m. here and RSVP. Read more about the author here.
