INSANE SETTINGS FOR NOVELS

 Writing suspenseful stories often lead me to investigating creepy places and to ferret out  gruesome details.

And I must admit...I love unusual and scary settings and situations.

Blame it on not having YA books when I was a middle-schooler. Faced with reading sweet boring books with no violence, sex, or
 wearing (ugh!), I turned to Stephen King to get a taste of something scary and different, and of course, spine-tingling.
At the head of the creepy list:  insane asylums. Now they're called "psychiatric hospitals," but until 1970, people were packed off
 and put away in scary buildings for the mentally ill. Places that looked like this...


Pitié-Salpêtrière Hospital











An 18th century "hospital" in Paris, France which chained mentally ill women up! Eek!



The first US psychiatric institution- early 19th century









Blackwell Island's Lunatic Asylum (their words, not mine!) in New York



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Women doing laundry at the Texas State Lunatic Asylum, 1898
(I'm pretty sure doing laundry 24-7 would make me a bit insane too...) 




Pilgrim State Mental Hospital - 1938 - New York
(Straight jackets...do they still use these things?!?)




St Kevin's Psychiatric Hospital - Cork, Ireland
Closed down in 2002. Doesn't look too inviting to me...

If the people weren't crazy when they went in these places, I'm sure the horrible conditions made them go insane. What places
 scare you the most? Graveyards? Dark alleys? Caves? Under your bed?  Leave me a comment about your scariest places or
 experiences so I can incorporate some of your ideas into my next book. 
I live next to a forest, and have to admit, hearing coyotes howling nearby is pretty scary. 
'Til next time,
KYM