Although Payton Ford is known to the community as the owner and entrepreneur of the Halloween-themed company Ghostly Productions, she recently added writer to her résumé.
Ford, under the pen name CP Ford, released his first book, “The Shattered Veil: The Diary of Victor L. Price,” on Jan. 5 on Amazon, which is described as “a chilling story of a book written for horror fans by horror fans.”
Ford, 25, said the idea of writing a book had been on his mind for a long time.
“I think even going back to being a kid, I really had the desire to do something like this. It is always a far-fetched idea,” he said. “It’s always fascinated me.”
Ford said it took him less than a year to write the 64-page story. He started in the spring of 2022 and had close friends watch the first chapter before continuing the project at full speed.
“All the answers were, ‘Where’s the rest?’ We want more,’ ” he said. “That’s what really started to push me forward over and over and over again.”
The book tells the story of the fictional character, Victor L. Price, a struggling writer in the late 1800’s trying to support himself and his wife during the time of the “money crash”.
“He had a little bit of success in the beginning… which gave him a great name,” he said. “Now, that well-known name is tarnished with flop after flop.”
After Price starts trying to write a ghost story, Ford says that Price “starts writing more than he wants to”.
“The story is told through Victor’s eyes,” said Ford, “… and the fun part of the story, I think, is that you have to trust everything that Victor tells you. And then you learn throughout the story (that) you can’t always trust what Victor’s eyes see.
“It starts going back and forth (whether it’s real) or the stress of Victor’s situation has caused him to see these things.”
Ford said the book was “a collection of different characters … and different inspirations.”
“Victor and the whole story is me ordering all the horror movies that shaped me growing up, everything that I watched growing up or read growing up,” he said. “…Despite the name-dropping, I’ve gotten a few hits from the horror classics…along with Victor Frankenstein, ‘L’ stands for Lawrence or Larry Talbot from ‘The Wolf Man’ (and) ‘Price’ means Vincent Price.
“It’s all an homage to something I loved growing up, and it continues throughout the book.”
And if he wanted to show his appreciation, Ford said he wanted to “put his own stamp” on the genre.
“This is the way to add something special,” he said. “… I just wanted to do something original and bring it back to the glory days of the golden age of horror.”
Physical copies of the book will be on sale at Ghostly Productions, 203 W. Fourth St., beginning Jan. 23.
A book signing will be held on February 11th, which, in addition to having a copy of the book, will include exclusive T-shirts, promotional posters and giveaways.
