Updates

Hey Everyone,

I wanted to let you know that things in this household are slowly getting back to normal. My youngest daughter has two ear infections and I have one in my left ear that is the worst I've ever had, but we seem to be finished with the flu. Thank goodness. It was hard enough dealing with being sick myself, but seeing my other daughter with such a high fever was really rough. Being that sick makes you realize how powerless you are against things that you can't control. We did the best we could with the medicines we had and we seem to have made it out okay, at least for now. 

Please, get your flu shot! We would've gotten it sooner, but all of us were sick with various colds for two weeks previous to catching the flu and couldn't get the shot. The flu circulated earlier than usual this year too. Usually it's worse in November, but it's making its rounds early. Just a warning, please don't let your children go through what mine had to recently.

That aside, the new book should be out today or tomorrow. I'm really excited about it. Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes is one of the best ones I've written, possibly because the creatures in it terrify me. While I was writing it I felt paranoid and kept looking out my widow, which is usually a good sign. What would I have done if I saw two creepy, black eyed children looking in? My guess is probably screamed like a little girl, shut every curtain in the house, and hid in my room until I had to leave to pick up the girls from school. I probably would call my husband and the police, but as with any horror novel by the time help arrived they would be gone. I don't like to go to my door if I don't know the person knocking anyway, but two creepy children with black eyes, well that's right out.

In terms of writing goals, I have a few more content edits to make on Spine Chillers: The Firefly. I'm looking for that to come out about the twentieth of November, so I have a little time. There aren't many things I would like to change, but there are a few little things one of my test readers pointed out. Once I'm done with the content edits, I'll send it to be edited for grammatical mistakes. Once I'm done with that I'll be concentrating on the story that will come out around Christmas. I'm nearly finished with the opening chapter.  

Meanwhile, when I'm not neck deep in writing work or wallowing in illness and self-pity, I'm working on decorating the house for my yearly Halloween party. By some miracle despite our various illnesses it looks like we should all be better by Saturday, so I'm assuming we'll have our party. Therefore, I'm going to clean every inch of my house until there is no possibility of infection and finish the decorating. For those of you who don't know, decorating for this party is a month long event but it's worth it. I can't wait for everyone to see our costumes. Joel and I have a matching couples' costume that is going to be hilarious and fun. I'll post a picture when we're done. 

I guess that's all for now. I'll keep giving you updates on the next book.  I think as soon as Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes comes out I'll write the blog about the inspiration for the creature from The Beast of Black Pond. Beware, when I write that blog there will be spoilers for those who haven't read it, but I'll make that clear in the title.

I'll do the cover reveal for the new book as soon as publishing begins. It will be very soon. In the meantime, here are the banners for the previous books to tease you.

Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes is coming soon!

I just wanted to let everyone know that I've decided to publish Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes this week. I intend for it to be ready at the latest on Friday. I'm really excited about this one because it takes place around Halloween, and I'm hoping that my readers will be able to enjoy it around the same time of year. As you'll be able to tell from the cover, the villains of this story are the black-eyed children.

For those who don't know about them, the black-eyed children are pale, disturbing entities usually wearing hoodies disguised as lost children. They have entirely black eyes like that of a shark that look like empty holes in the right light. Their very presence puts people on edge. They ask a potential victim to invite them inside. If the unsuspecting soul does no one knows exactly what will happen. The black-eyed children scare me, so naturally I wanted to write a book about them.

Even though this story and The Beast of Black Pond are coming out around the same time, I hope that you'll consider reading both of them. Halloween is a key setting in both and even though my favorite story (being the first one I wrote) was The Beast of Black Pond, I think this one is a close second. Ian is a very fun character to write because he's a Dungeons and Dragons nerd and that makes him feel close to my heart. Also, I feel like it's one of the better stories in the series and I hope you'll enjoy it. If you do, please write a review. Any review I can get will be helpful to other readers and helpful to me.

I hope that you enjoy Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes, the fourth book in this series. There are two more books I'm planning to publish, Spine Chillers: The Firefly, and a special book around Christmas. The Christmas book is the final one that I plan for this series, but if I get enough sales and enough interest there could be more in the future. If you enjoy these books please let me know. I would love to write more of them.

Primal Fears

Since I discussed a few fun facts about Spine Chillers: The Beast of Black Pond on my last blog, I thought it might be fun to discuss some of the themes from the series and particularly this story. All of the villains in my stories are based off of primal fears, especially childhood fears. Most of these are things we grow out of when we're older, but some are still part of who we are. And to make this more personal, I'll use myself as the example.

I still have a bad phobia of spiders. I have vague memories of being a child and playing with one (before I knew better) that got in my bed. Most people realize when they lift their front legs up and swipe at your finger that means they're going to bite you, but this is a very vague memory so I have to assume I was very little. Anyway, it bit me and even if I don't have a clear memory of that experience I hate spiders now because I'm afraid of them. As I've gotten older, I've slowly gotten better about the fear and can confront them with a shoe or can of raid, but if one is on the ceiling I tend to stare at it. Honestly, I don't really like to kill them, so I'm hoping one day I get over it enough to take them outside rather than destroy the ones in my house. I can appreciate their beauty from a distance in their own environment.

Another example is the fear of dark water and drowning. I have this phobia too. There is one memory in particular that sticks out in my mind. I was playing in the ocean with my alligator float and somehow, after a wave knocked me off, I got my feet and arms tangled up in the rope used to hold on to the float. I was stuck upside down. I remember thinking I was really going to drown and the burning feeling of being unable to breathe when my granddad saved me. There have also been too many times when something unknown has brushed up against me in the dark water of the ocean, so long story short I don't like going deep enough to swim in the ocean anymore.

Finally, the last fear I can think of that I have is heights. I think this might be from back when I was in high school and was stuck upside down one one of those loop rides at the fair with only a lap strap and foot bar to hold me in. I was like that for probably ten minutes and I felt like at any moment that restraint could snap and that would be the end of me.  Dangling like that also gives you a good look at just how flimsy those rides are and that doesn't help things. I don't particularly like roller coasters now and have occasional dreams of falling down the stairs of Longstreet Theater. (For those who don't live in SC Longstreet Theater has a huge, long flight of marble steps all the way down to the street. There would probably be broken bones if you were to roll down all of them.)

Those are my main primal fears, spiders, dark water, and heights. Most of these stem from lack of control over one's environment, and know one feels a lack of control more keenly than a child. In my stories, there are basic primal fears and most of the creatures that attack the children embody one of these archetypal fears. For instance, the wolf spirit is supposed to evoke a fear of large animals. Also, the fact the battle takes place in the main characters head means it also is the embodiment of nightmares and fears that are hidden. 

In Spine Chillers: The Beast of Black Pond, the obvious fear is of drowning and death, however there is a little more there. There is also the fear of the unknown. The pond is called Black Pond because the water is so murky and the shadows cast on it are so dark the water itself looks black. The creature within the pond has the impassive, cold nature of water but it also has the wrath of churned water in a storm. The scary thing about the creature is it can travel anywhere where water resides. Duane isn't even safe in his home. The opening scene when he has his "scare" in the pool is foreshadowing for what is to come. 

Other fears that are touched on in other novels are fear of the self (as in, fear of what you are capable of), fear of failure, fear of the unknown, fear of the dark, fear of loss, fear of strangers, etc. Look for these primal fears and tell me what you think the three books published so far embody. And since I've shared my fears with you, feel free to share yours here. It might be good inspiration and you might just find your fear in a future book...

The Beast of Black Pond is available for purchase! Here are some things about it...

Well, Spine Chillers: The Beast of Black Pond is out in e-book form and hard copy on amazon. I'm so exited! I thought you might want to know a few things about this book and the series in general, so I thought I'd write a blog about it. I hope you enjoy it.

First of all, I'd like to tell you a little about this book that you might not know. It was the first book of this series that I wrote. It's gone through quite a few revisions before it became what it is today. When the book started out, the actual "beast" that haunted black pond was a creature known as a "grim." (You might have heard of a "grim" from the Harry Potter series. It actually is based on the legend of "black dog" ghosts or "hellhounds.") 

Anyway, the original "beast" in the pond was a spectral dog that dragged unsuspecting victims in to drown them. While I liked the image, it didn't seem to fit. So I used the idea in another story that I began to work on in tandem called Spine Chillers: Big Bad Wolf. 

A little off topic, those who have read the story Spine Chillers: Big Bad Wolf know that the actual creature chasing Jane isn't a black dog or wolf but a wendigo. A wendigo is a spirit of someone who was a cannibal when they were alive. It's an Algonquin legend. I did a great deal of research on the subject and tried to stick as close to the legend as possible. The only way I deviated that I know of it is that it originally came to Jane in the form of a spectral wolf. The reason it took the form of a wolf in my book was because it possessed a wolf to continue to hunt humans in an inconspicuous way. The imagery of a terrifying wolf spirit was taken from the original story of The Beast of Black Pond, but I think it works better in Big Bad Wolf.

Anyway, the real villain of Spine Chillers: The Beast of Black Pond is something much more terrifying because the legend is still alive today. I didn't realize this until I did the research and started noticing imagery of this creature on signs, subdivision names, etc. In a few days I'll talk a bit about it. (I don't want to give away any spoilers here, so I won't tell what it is just yet. I'll be sure to tell you that the blog post is a spoiler in the title.) 

Another bit of trivia, Duane is my favorite investigator of the series. This is why it is his idea to create the club to fight monsters. He was an NPC in one of the games I ran for my friends called Little Fears. He was the "rich boy" but his parents were negligent. They aren't maliciously negligent, but his father is a surgeon and his mother is a nurse, so they tend to work long shifts and are tired when they get home. Because they don't approve of Duane's dream to write horror novels or horror comics, he tends to be the black sheep in his family. (Because his father is a surgeon, in the incident on the boat his father was able to bandage Duane's leg and stop the bleeding. He sent Duane to the hospital because he didn't have the supplies to treat the wound properly on the boat.)

The working title of this series was originally based on Duane's club called "Junior Investigator's Club." I chose Spine Chillers because after composing a list of potential titles it seemed the best. I didn't realize at the time that the name was taken. I even did a search for the name and nothing came up. Ironically, I did a search after publishing the first book and found out later this series name has been used before. I chalk it up to fate. If I had seen that there was another series with the same name, I wouldn't have named it the same thing. Funny how that happened. I think I give the theme of the "spine chiller" a darker style anyway.

I guess for now I've talked enough, but I'll be continuing to blog about this until the next book Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes comes out on October 28th. We're almost to Halloween. Spine Chillers: The Beast of Black Pond and Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes take place around this special occasion, so please pick up a copy soon to live out the story at the perfect time!