Interview: “River of Renewal” by Kari Kilgore
Stranded overnight by a freezing river, a woman encounters a ghostly presence—and a path toward healing she never expected.
Set deep in the Cascade Mountains, “River of Renewal” captures the quiet ache of solitude and the slow, uncertain steps toward healing. Kari Kilgore’s story blends ghostly magic with emotional realism, crafting a haunting where the supernatural is less about fear and more about acceptance. Through icy water, lost keys, and a spectral horse, Elizabeth’s overnight vigil becomes a journey of reconnection—with herself and with the world she thought she had lost.
Interview Questions
What does “haunted” mean to you—and how does that idea show up in your story?
To me, haunted is generally more of an emotional state when it comes to real life. Feeling haunted by a person, a memory, or an object. The kind of thing that comes back to you when you catch a certain scent or hear a certain song. Fiction is an entirely different situation! There it gets to be more of a spiritual or even physical presence, and it can be attached to just about anything. In “River of Renewal,” I wonder if Elizabeth’s intense emotional state might trigger the ghostly residents.
Did this story start with a particular place, moment, or image that stuck with you?
I read a passage about pioneers in Oregon getting caught by a hard freeze on a river, likely the Willamette. The descriptions in their writing were so vivid it seemed like I was going to get frostbite! I couldn’t get the sound of icicles jingling in the river out of my mind. That led to the whole story.
Is the haunting in your story something to fear, understand, embrace—or maybe all of those?
Honestly, writing a certain part of it scared me silly, even in my house with the lights on! But once I got past that and realized what was happening, I think Elizabeth’s fear opened her mind and heart to accepting a great loss. Then getting through her fear helped her understand that she could keep going after all.
What, to you, makes a place feel truly haunted—not just eerie or unsettling?
I’ve only had that experience a handful of times, and all of them have turned up in stories. One was the smell of cologne in a house that came and went for no reason at all. Another was walking into the remains of a stone hut in Dartmoor National Park in England. That felt like a physical pressure in my chest, but it was emotional, too. In both cases, there was another person there who confirmed what was happening, so it’s hard to dismiss it as imagination. I do wonder about how the presence of people get imprinted on a place over time, the consciousness. And whether that can hang around waiting for other people to experience it again.
This story opens with such a strong sense of setting—the cold river, the trees, the quiet. What draws you to writing wilderness solitude like this?
We’ve lived out in the middle of the woods for twenty years now, and I love that solitude. I’m also much more of an autumn/winter person than summer, so the cold appeals to me. Not being trapped in the cold like Elizabeth was, mind you! But there’s a sense of calm and stillness, even with the sometimes intimidating amount of wildlife around us here, that suits me down to my bones.
Grief and renewal both move quietly through the story. Did one of those ideas come first, or did they show up together as you wrote?
I rarely have any idea what’s going to happen next while I’m writing. In this case, I had no idea anything had happened to Elizabeth besides the problem with her keys. The grief revealed itself to me slowly, and it was the kind of grief that can feel impossible to get through. I’d say the renewal turned up as a reward because she got through her darkest night in more ways than one.
The ghostly visitors feel more kind than scary—unsettling, but in a gentle way. What inspired that tone?
That was interesting, because the first evidence that something was going on had my heart pounding! But as is so often the case, once Elizabeth gathered the courage to get a good, clear look at the situation, curiosity replaced the fear. Then she had room to give herself the gentle treatment she herself needed.
Elizabeth’s Jeep is practically a character. Was that a deliberate choice from the beginning, or something that emerged along the way?
That kicked in from the beginning because I can get SO attached to my vehicles. Certainly out where we live, we interact with them and depend on them just about every day. And I’ve always loved driving, and having a great drive so often starts with the vehicle. Not that it has to be overly fancy. Just that it suits the driver. So yes, that’s built in, because though I’ve never owned anything like a Jeep, my car is very much a character in my life!
This story feels like it could continue. Do you envision revisiting this setting or character in the future?
I have to admit I’m curious about how Elizabeth’s life went on after such an unforgettable experience. And I’m even more curious about the ghosts! Revisiting them and finding out how they got there and how they ended up later on could be all kinds of fun.
What are you working on now—and what’s fun or exciting about it?
I’ve been writing a bunch of shorter fiction so far this year, and I’m having a great time playing in different genres and settings. There’s so much freedom with short stories that lets me push the limits of what I’ve written before and try new things. Several of those will be part of the Uncollected Anthology with urban fantasy and Mystery, Crime, and Mayhem with crime fiction. I’ve also got my first crime novel coming out called The Great Gold Record Heist. That’s a tale of two female antiheroes, or antiheroines, I suppose, who make all kinds of questionable choices and arguably bad decisions, right here in my native Appalachian Mountains. I couldn’t help rooting for them and hoping they’d make it. Hopefully readers will feel the same way. The ebook is available exclusively on our website now, and on the usual retailers on May 16.
About the Author
Kari Kilgore finished her first published novel Until Death in Room 217 at the Stanley Hotel in Estes Park, Colorado, where a rather famous creepy tale about a hotel sparked into life. That’s just one example of how real world inspiration drives her fiction.
Kari writes fantasy, mystery, romance, contemporary fiction, science fiction, and everything in between, and she’s happiest when she surprises herself. She lives with her fabulous author husband Jason A. Adams, various house critters, and wildlife they’re better off not knowing more about.
Find Kari at: karikilgore.com
Read the Story
“River of Renewal” appears in Haunted Places, available now from Blackbird Publishing.
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