You’ve heard the legend: A mysterious haunted house attraction that’s so terrifying, so extreme, no one ever makes it to the end. But what if you actually found it? Would you go in? Could you make it all the way through? Milwaukee horror author DJ Slater, himself a haunt enthusiast, has been fascinated by that idea for a long time. In his upcoming debut novel Legend Has It, a group of friends discover this dubious urban legend is horrifyingly true.
With the publication of Legend Has It on the horizon, I talked to Slater about what we can expect from his incarnation of the fabled haunted house, his own experiences from which he drew inspiration, and the real-life haunted Wisconsin location in which his story takes place.
Wisconsin Frights: Legend Has It taps into one of the Midwest’s most infamous urban legends—the so-called “Unfinishable Haunted House” that’s said to be so scary no one has ever made it all the way through. What drew you to this legend, and how did it inspire your novel?
DJ Slater: When I was in high school, I kept hearing rumors of this ultimate haunted house. It was always on the outskirts of some Midwestern town and you never heard about it from anyone who actually experienced it. It was always a friend of a friend or some distant relative who found this haunted house. The premise intrigued me. While some hate the idea of the “monsters” touching you or throwing you out of the house, I loved the challenge of that concept. It would add a heightened element to the haunted house experience and I was all for it … until I found out it wasn’t real. The Internet was still in its infancy in the 1990s, but I eventually came across a Snopes article that demystified the legend. But I always wondered what it would be like to visit a haunted house of this magnitude. And then the gears started turning. Imagine if a group of friends found this haunted house and discovered that everything inside was real. The odds would be stacked against them. Just think about what you encounter in a haunted house attraction. Poor lighting. Narrow corridors. Uneven floors. Strobe lights. And that’s just the house’s layout. Fill it with monsters and then the real fun begins.
In the book, your characters find this mythical haunted house and realize the threats inside are terrifyingly real. Without giving too much away, what can readers expect from the horrors they’ll encounter within those 10 floors?
DJ: I’ve visited my share of haunted houses growing up and even into adulthood, so I’ve seen a lot of cool concepts and unique setups. I pulled elements from some of my favorite rooms and scares and then weaved some additional horror elements into the mix. You’ll have classic haunted house settings, such as decrepit hallways, dark corners, eerie lighting, blood splatter, fog and even a vortex tunnel. But you’ll also have lethal traps, deadly monsters and room concepts that you haven’t seen before, but will wish could be incorporated into a haunted house attraction. I’m referring to Level 4 specifically when I say this. I won’t give away that room, but let’s just say there are a lot of levers with deadly consequences and a really simple solution. You also won’t look at white drama masks the same way again.
You chose the abandoned Rainbow Springs Resort in Mukwonago as the setting for your novel. That place has its own eerie history—what about it made it the perfect backdrop for your story?
DJ: During my senior year of high school, my friends were looking for the scariest haunted house we could find in southern Wisconsin. We heard great things about the haunted house at the Rainbow Springs Resort. We lived in Franklin, so the drive to Mukwonago felt like a mini adventure west. When we arrived, we quickly discovered why so many people raved about this location. First, finding the site wasn’t easy. If you’re casually driving along Highway LO, you can easily miss it, especially at night. To reach the haunted house, you had to venture about a mile into the woods. It’s creepy in daylight, and even more foreboding at night. You had to drive down a worn road and pass through a covered bridge with willow trees and their wispy branches hovering over you. And then you reach the house, which incorporated the abandoned resort when it was still intact. The vibe of that place gave me the creeps. I still get chills thinking about this massive, sprawling structure with broken windows and faint lighting just sitting in the middle of the woods. I only visited this haunted house once, but it left a deep impression on me. When I started outlining Legend Has It, I knew this was the location where I wanted to set my story. The atmosphere was truly like something out of a horror movie.
You personally enjoy a good haunted attraction. Have you had any particular experiences that influenced elements of this story?
DJ: I was actually in Abandoned (the haunted house in Mount Pleasant) in 2013 when the inspiration for this novel hit me. I was navigating a series of bookshelves with mason jars and other oddities on them and fog hovering close to my knees when a thought popped in my head. What would I do if this was real? Like right now, everything in the house is real. What would happen? The simple answer is I’d likely be dead. The strobe light rooms alone are tough to navigate and then you add in the monsters and realize, yeah, you’re not making it out alive. Abandoned has some incredible sets and some of their concepts inspired parts of the rooms in Legend Has It. Those bookshelves and the fog are in the novel, as is a room lit by strobe lights with something else lurking nearby.
Your book blends folklore, horror, and adventure—something that resonates with paranormal fans and thrill-seekers alike. What do you hope readers take away from Legend Has It?
DJ: I hope readers have a lot of fun with Legend Has It. As someone who grew up with horror (Grandma Barb let me watch way too many scary movies at a young age), I always thought it would be fun to take the reigns of a story and steer it in some unique directions. I wanted to avoid cliches and horror tropes especially. You won’t see my characters making idiotic decisions just because it’s a horror story. They care about each other and band together under horrific circumstances. I also wanted to create moments that people haven’t seen or read about in a horror story before. I know that might sound crazy when you consider how many horror stories exist, but there are some truly unique moments that I hope readers will appreciate. Overall, I want readers to enjoy the ride and I hope elements of this novel stay with them after they finish reading it. Because it’s more than a simple horror story. There’s a theme woven throughout the novel about the dangers of holding on too tightly to the past. I know I’m guilty of this and I’m sure many people can relate to it.
As a first-time author bringing a fresh horror novel to the scene, what was the most challenging or surprising part of the writing and publishing process for you?
DJ: Honestly, the writing process is fun for me, but I’ve always enjoyed using my words for creative expression. I’m not a fan of editing, which is funny because many of the writers I know, it’s the inverse. They enjoy editing more than writing. That’s not to say the writing process wasn’t without its challenges. Some days the words flow and you can’t help but feed off that energy. Other days, you squeeze out a paragraph and doubt your ability and then wonder if the book is even worth finishing. I went through all the highs and lows, but the key is to keep going.
The publishing process itself hasn’t been too bad. I’m learning a lot as I go, but so far, it’s eye-opening to see how much work is involved in fine-tuning and promoting a book. The hardest and most challenging part of this entire process is finding an agent or a publisher. I wish it was as simple as you write a novel, clean it up and several agents or publishers clamor to get their hands on it. This might be possible, but for the majority, it’s an exercise in patience and multiple rejections. An agent serves as a middle man between you and a major publishing house, but landing one is difficult. They get hundreds of submissions at a time and must be extremely selective in deciding what to champion. In the end, they have to believe the book will sell to a wide audience. It’s a calculated guessing game. On top of that, each agent has their own preferences. Art is subjective, after all, and novels are in the same boat. You could have a best seller on your hands, but it might not be what the agent is looking for at that time. This can be frustrating because the rejections can pile up (I have an Excel sheet with lots of red text for my rejections) and they rarely give you constructive feedback. It’s usually a “Thanks for sending. There’s good stuff here, but it’s not connecting with me. Please keep trying.” Then your mind starts to wonder what you can do to improve it. It’s like throwing 1,000 darts in the dark and never turning the lights on. You don’t know if you’ve hit anything or are on the right path.
But as I learned, you only have to impress one person to get your foot in the door. I caught the attention of Rowan Prose Publishing during a Twitter/X pitch event (you tweet a short pitch of your novel and if an agent or publisher “likes” it, you send them your material). I sent my material to Kelly Moran (one of the founders) who had a Wisconsin tie and knew about the unfinishable haunted house legend. And the rest – as the cliche goes – is history.
Are there other urban legends or real-life haunted locations you think would be good starting points for future stories?
DJ: I feel like you have an inside track to my mind. Haha. It’s funny you ask that because Legend Has It is such a smaller-scale story compared with what I have planned for the trilogy. Yes, I have plans for two more novels that follow Legend Has It. Like the first novel, the sequel pulls from real-life legends and blends fictional narratives around them. To keep this as spoiler-free as possible, the sequel includes visits to Eastern State Penitentiary and a location I’m really excited to explore – The Winchester mansion. Legend has it (see what I did there) that the architect of that house – Sarah Winchester – received guidance from a spiritual medium to build the sprawling home as penitence for all the people killed by the Winchester rifle. What if that medium has a different intention? And how will that serve him for a larger scale plan? I’d love to say more, but I’ll leave it at that. There are some really cool places I take this story in books 2 and 3.
Legend Has It releases this fall. When and where can readers pre-order their copy, and how can they follow you for updates?
DJ: The ebook is available right now for pre-order on several book sites (Amazon, Apple, Barnes & Noble). You can use this link – https://books2read.com/u/m0drG0 – to see all the available spots. If you want a hardcover or paperback copy, those pre-orders won’t populate from the link until mid-June. The book officially releases on Sept. 16. I’m on almost every social media channel, but the best way to stay up to date is to visit my author website – www.djslaterauthor.com. Readers can find my socials, my personal blog, news and interviews and can even sign up for my newsletter. My author page is a great resource for Legend Has It and my future writing endeavors.
