Horror author John Everson, like many who grew up in the Southland, had heard the stories about haunted Bachelors Grove Cemetery. His 10th novel offers a new take on old tales.

“When I was in Cub Scouts here in Tinley Park, we did a campout in the woods. I remember all the kids gathering around the campfire late at night and talking about the ghost,” Everson said via phone from JW Hollstein’s Saloon in Tinley Park.

“They said there was a cemetery nearby and a woman who walks through the night. It was all about Bachelors Grove Cemetery. It was supposedly near where we were camping.

“When I was a reporter for The Star, I actually looked up a ghost hunter and did a Halloween feature about Bachelors Grove. I took a bunch of pictures. Those pictures and going out there inspired my first short story, which was published in an anthology 25 years ago.”

“Remember Me, My Husband” was published in Terminal Fright Magazine and later reprinted in “Cage of Bones & Other Deadly Obsessions,” Everson’s first short fiction collection, which featured an introduction by horror author P.D. Cacek.

Everson was part of a team that took Cacek to Bachelors Grove Cemetery in Bremen Township when Chicago hosted the World Horror 2002 convention.

“She said she could feel the ghost. To me, it just looked like a cold, miserable, forlorn place but she could feel the dead,” said Everson, who grew up in Tinley Park and now lives in Naperville.

Everson wrote the Pop Stops music column for Star Newspapers for nearly 20 years before The Star and Daily Southtown merged. He returns to the south suburbs for a pair of book signings for “The House by the Cemetery” (Flame Tree Press).

On Oct. 25 he heads to Vogt Visual Arts Center where the current exhibit, “The Art of Bachelors Grove,” runs through Halloween.

“It’s surreal. When I lived here, that was a private residence,” he said about the Tinley Park-Park District facility where he worked while he was in high school.

“Having heard the stories of Bachelors Grove when I was a kid and then coming full circle and having my 10th book be about (that place) is really cool.”

The other area signing is Oct. 27 at Barnes & Noble in Orland Park.

“That was really important to me because they are the closest bookstore to Bachelors Grove,” said Everson, who won a Bram Stoker Award for his first novel, “Covenant,” and was a Bram Stoker Award finalist for his sixth novel, “NightWhere.”

“The House by the Cemetery” focuses on an old home next to Bachelors Grove.

“One of the big ghost stories about Bachelors Grove is that you see this ghost house so you think there’s a house back there. You see lights. Some people have said you see something in the top window. You get closer and the house disappears,” he said.

That story is what Everson, who went to St. George School in Tinley Park and Marian Catholic High School in Chicago Heights, structures “The House by the Cemetery” around.

He ponders what if that house was actually there and the county decided to turn it into a haunted house attraction to make money because Illinois is broke.

“But, of course, it’s already haunted. There’s actually a witch who’s been waiting for 50 years for a chance to come back. Having a whole bunch of people come in the house is the perfect opportunity to stage a ritual to come back,” he said.

“Also, for horror movie fans, it’s a big opportunity to reference all sorts of classic horror films.”

Everson said it was editor Don D’Auria who brought his work to Flame Tree Press, the newly launched trade fiction imprint of Flame Tree Publishing, which has offices in London and New York.

“He’s actually edited every single one of my novels,” Everson said.

“Don is like the rock star of horror editors. Ask any author who they’d like to work for and they’d all point to Don D’Auria. He’s the godfather of horror.”

Jessi Virtusio is a freelancer for the Daily Southtown.