Haunted Houses and the Horrors of Domestic Motherhood: Aimee Pokwatka's Accumulation

This week, I talk with Aimee Poktwatka about her hew horror book Accumulation!

Listen to hear about:

• Aimee's unconventional path to becoming an author—from anthropology and veterinary work to creative writing—and how curiosity has shaped her storytelling.
  
• How Accumulation was inspired by Aimee’s real 18th-century home, a creepy doll her husband found in the yard, and her fascination with haunted house stories as metaphors for domestic life.
  
• How the novel blends haunted house horror, psychological suspense, and social commentary to examine motherhood, invisible labor, and the slow erosion of self.
  
• Aimee's “inefficient” writing process—heavy outlining followed by intuitive drafting—and how revision uncovers deeper emotional truths.
  
• Why horror, especially domestic and psychological horror, can uniquely explore trauma, gender roles, and the unsettling transformation of everyday spaces into something terrifying.

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Halley Sutton @halleysutton25

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Erin Ashley @bellametaphor