I’m pretty sure I met Rena Mason at one of the World Horror Conventions back in the day, but I got to know her in 2012 when we both attended the Haunted Mansion Writers Retreat. I was honored to edit one of her incredible horror stories for the Horror Mansion Project: Year Two.

Rena and I both wrote f0r the Horror Writers Association’s monthly newsletter. I wrote about cemeteries, of course, and Rena wrote about her travels. The piece she has in Death’s Garden Revisited is expanded from one of her HWA columns. It’s about the Hill Church Cemetery in Sighisoara, Romania.

Rena Mason is an American horror author of Thai-Chinese descent and the Bram Stoker Award® winning author of The Evolutionist and The Devil’s Throat, as well as a 2014 Stage 32/The Blood List Search for New Blood Quarter-Finalist. She currently resides in the great Pacific Northwest with her family. Learn more about her work at https://www.facebook.com/rena.mason/

Her newest book is Other Terrors: An Inclusive Anthology, which will be out in July.

What’s your favorite thing to do in a cemetery?

Sit on a bench.

I love that! That plays a large part in your essay. If you have anything to say about it, what would your epitaph be?

I’m to be cremated and my ashes spread in the South Pacific, but I like the quote, “The cosmos is within us. We are made of star-stuff. We are a way for the universe to know itself.”― Carl Sagan

Do you have a favorite song about cemeteries or graveyards?

I don’t know if it’s specifically about a graveyard, but I like “The Kill” (Bury Me, Bury Me) by 30 Seconds to Mars.

I added it to the Death’s Garden Revisited playlist on Spotify.

To read Rena’s beautiful essay about Sighisoara, go preorder Death’s Garden Revisited on Kickstarter now. This beautiful book is full of 40 amazing essays about why visiting cemeteries is important. Check it out here — and please consider joining the other backers: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lorenrhoads/deaths-garden-revisited-relationships-with-cemeteries