Bemidji novelist Dennis E. Staples aims to make the North Woods scary with new book
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Dennis E. Staples is a busy man, but when he recently came in to chat about “Passing Through A Prairie Country” the conversation lasted 90 minutes and produced surprising facts about what lies behind the book.
Staples said one of the goals for his new novel was to impress his former writing instructor, horror anthologist Ellen Datlow.
“Honestly, my first instinct there was to be like, alright, something that could scare her,” he said. “But in a broader sense horror fans.”
Staples credits the 2018 film “Hereditary” with influencing what he was trying to achieve. While he admits the movie isn’t for everyone, he’s hoping horror fans will want to delve into it, “and be as disturbed as something like ‘Hereditary’ can make you.”
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The novel is about ghosts swirling around a haunted reservation casino in northern Minnesota called the Hidden Atlantis.
Many, many, ghosts. Most of them are quite friendly, and well known, or even related to some of the locals. However, one of them, the “sandman,” is truly malevolent.
“I know that in a story you’re asking someone to come to my world. I have something to tell you. I have this story. Will you believe it for even just a minute?” Staples asked. “And a casino and ghost people, people will buy that for a dollar.”
Having grown up in and around casinos, and worked in them too, he recalled hearing many ghost stories.
“If I was talking to an employee who is comfortable talking to me,” Staples said. “It would not be uncommon for them to say, ‘I mean, that hallway over there, don’t go there at night.’“
Staples said “Passing Through A Prairie Country” was inspired one night when he was driving through the northern woods. Suddenly a children’s marching song came over the radio.
“It’s really dark, and then just this weird, muffled chorus of voices comes on this song. And I’m like, ‘What the hell is this?"‘” he said. “And it most reminded me of the scene in Alfred Hitchcock’s ‘The Birds,’ where the kids are singing a nonsense song called ‘Risselty Rosselty.’”
It was a recording of big band leader Mitch Miller’s version of “This Old Man.” Staples said something about children singing the chorus creeped him out.
“The whistle, the marching beat, and then just the resonance of all their voices together, sounding really squeaky,” he said. “It just, it ... it stayed with me.”
Staples said there are a lot of allusions to "This Old Man," in his book.
“I did feel like I was kind of pulling from a somewhat tried and true horror tradition,” he said. “Taking a nursery rhyme style thing and then just rolling with that as much as I could.”
The novel’s protagonist is Marion, who also appeared in Staples’ first book “This Town Sleeps.” Like his hero, Staples identifies as gay. He worries that as an author first, sometimes the focus is too much on his sexuality, but he thinks the context is important for readers to be aware of because of some strong themes in the novel.
“There’s going to be some readers who it’s just not going to gel with them, and that’s fine. I accept that,” he said. “I could do without it, but I’m also … I’m OK with it.”
At the novel’s release event at Four Pines Bookstore in Bemidji, hosted by local horror writer Justin Holley, Staples told audience members the theme for this book is maximalist — opulent and grandiose.
“The idea was to just make the casino as big and intimidating as possible, and thus more scarier,” he said. “Because when you have a big, bustling casino it’s hard to make it through the floor, sometimes it’s hard to navigate.”
Staples joked that if northern Minnesota had to come up with something that could compete with Mystic Lake Casino, Hidden Atlantis would be the answer. It is Spinal Tap style, with everything turned up to 11.
He told the bookstore crowd the novel’s title comes from “History of the Ojibwe People,” by William Warren. Staples purchased it at local author Louise Erdrich’s bookstore Birchbark Books & Native Arts in Minneapolis.
“When Warren is going over the different cultural ideas of death, he says that in Ojibwe mythology, death lies to the west and the land of souls passes mostly through a prairie country,” Staples said. “And on just a chuckle kind of level, in my mind, I’m thinking, so, to the Ojibwe, death is North Dakota.”
Local fans
After the event Bemidji local Janet Berg, a former teacher, said she enjoys Staples’ writing style.
“He’s one of those authors that draws you in very, very quickly, and the story just keeps going, and lots of different interesting turns and twists,” she said. “And I love the way he ties those little twists together.”
Berg said Staples’ national success, which includes winning the prestigious Octavia E. Butler Award for his first novel, has been great to witness.
“I’m all for that,” she said. “So, yeah, local kid makes good. I love it!”
Staples will read from “Passing through a Prairie Country” at Content Bookstore in Northfield on April 3. Then on April 8, he will visit Birchbark Books & Native Arts for an impromptu homecoming of sorts for its connection to his novel’s title.
He said he wants readers to end the novel feeling a little bit creeped out; a little bit disturbed; and a little bit intrigued. But most importantly he wants to get them thinking.
“Maybe I shouldn’t buy a scratch off. Maybe I shouldn’t play money on the tables or the machines or whatever,” Staples said. “At least, put it in their mind. Is it worth it? Could be, and that’s the whole thing about it, right? Maybe you’ll win. I don’t want to tell them they’ll win though.”