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!

Blog Tour! 08/20/2018

Blog Tour! 8/20/20 Comments Today is officially the first day of the blog tour for Spine Chillers: The Scarecrow!  Please follow the dates below. Today is Monday, August 20th. There will be an interview about this book at  PUYB Virtual Book Club. Thank you for your support! Spine Chillers: The Scarecrow is available for pre-order now and will be  released on August 31st. BLOG TOUR SCHEDULE Monday, August 20 Book Feature & Tour Kick Off at PUYB Virtual Book Club Interview at Pump Up Your Book Tuesday, August 21 Interview at The Writer’s Life Wednesday, August 22 Guest Blogging at Sheila’s Guests and Reviews Thursday, August 23 Book Teaser Feature at PUYB Book Teasers Friday, August 24 First Chapter Reveal at The Dark Phantom Reviews ********** Monday, August 27 Guest Blogging at Blogging Authors Tuesday, August 28 Book Feature at I’m Shelf-ish Wednesday, August 29 Book Feature at Book Cover Junkie Thursday, August 30 Interview at Readeropolis Friday, August 31 Book Feature at Nuttin’ But Books ********* Monday, September 3 Book Feature at Stacking My Bookshelves Tuesday, September 4 Interview at Blogger News Net Wednesday, September 5 Book Feature at Write and Take Flight Thursday, September 6 Interview at T’s Stuff Friday, September 7 Book Feature at As the Page Turns ********** Monday, September 10 First Chapter Reveal at Confessions of an Eccentric Bookaholic Tuesday, September 11 Book Feature at A Title Wave Wednesday, September 12 Interview at Literarily Speaking Thursday, September 13 Book Feature at My Bookish Pleasures ********** Monday, September 17 Book Review at Books for Books Tuesday, September 18 Book Feature at Rising Indies United Wednesday, September 19 Book Review at Sefina Hawke’s Books Thursday, September 20 Interview at SheWrites

Samrae Duke is my new artist!

Hey Everybody,

Sorry it's been so long. I just wanted to go ahead and give you an update on the progress of the Spine Chillers series and to tell you some changes that have occurred recently.

First of all, I have a new artist for the series. Samrae Duke. Madalyn McLeod couldn't finish the series because she's become very busy lately, understandably so. Samrae has worked with Madalyn before and I'm pleased to say that her style is similar, very detail oriented, and is just as beautiful. Even though I'm sad that Madalyn couldn't complete the series, she helped me find a great replacement artist and I'm very grateful for that. If you'd like to see more of Samrae's art, please follow this link.

Samrae Duke's Art

I know you'll love her work, especially if you are a fan of fantasy art. Please visit her page!

In other news, the Spine Chillers series is coming along nicely and I'll be kicking off a blog tour for it very soon. I'll keep you posted on where the interviews and blogs are going to be posted. In preparation for the tour I've updated my website with a few more blog entries and a new banner. It's a simple website, but I think that it looks a lot better now that it's been tidied up.

The fist book Spine Chillers: The Scarecrow is coming out on August 31st. If you love horror and are nostalgic about middle grade horror, please pick up a copy. I strive not to disappoint. The second book will be coming out in the middle of September. After that, I plan on two books in October, Spine Chillers: The Beast of Black Pond comes out in early October and Spine Chillers: Empty Eyes in the middle of October. I've finished the last book (for the time being) The Firefly. This story is about the legend of the Adze. It should be coming out in November.

I have plenty of ideas for others in this series, but for now I'm focusing on the first five. If all goes well with the blog tour and I have decent sales, I might produce one for December about the Krampus. Wish me luck. I would love to write that story.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the blog tour. Thank you so much for all of your support. Keep reading!

Who has two thumbs and is a Hufflepuff? I'm a Hufflepuff!

Hello all,

Long story short, last night I decided to get on my.pottermore.com to figure out what house I was in and to basically just do something a little different and fun. The results were both expected and surprising. I guess we'll start with the house.

I knew it was going to happen, but deep down I was hoping I was going to be sorted into Gryffindor or Ravenclaw. Yeah, I'm a Hufflepuff. The hat probably wouldn't have to even get on my head to shout that out. (Sort of like when it got close to Malfoy's head and just shouted "Slytherin" without even a second thought.) When the questions first started I could already tell by my answers that I was going to be placed in Hufflepuff. 

I guess there are worse houses to be sorted into though. I mean, Cedric Diggory was awesome. Tonks was one of my favorite characters, so I guess overall I' m good with this. There's just this stigma about this that being a Hufflepuff makes you seem like some sort of outcast, (I'll link the video at the end...) but the main thing about the house is loyalty to friends, family, and using your magic to protect others. So, overall, I guess I'm happy with the my house. The more surprising result in terms of houses was that my husband, Joel, was also a Hufflepuff. That's not to say he doesn't value the things associated with being a Hufflepuff, but neither of us saw it coming.

Once that that was out of the way I was all like, "Hey, now I get to see what my patronus is! Sweet!" I was nervous, but I was sure it was going to be some sort of cool animal like a wolf, stag, or cat, or something awesome. Well, my patronus is apparently a dolphin. Yay. Flipper is my patronus. I...don't...even...

Okay, so now to find out what type of wand I have. I was hoping it would be phoenix feather because that's just awesome, but I think you know what it was...hazel wood, unicorn hair core, 11' "surprisingly swishy flexibility." Yeah, unicorn hair core. Well, that's okay too. Apparently the dragon heart-string ones are a bit temperamental. 

Thing thing about this wand is that it can be very powerful for the user, but is temperamental if someone other than the user tries to cast anything with it (especially if its master experienced a recent emotional trauma or was in bad mood). It's "A sensitive wand, hazel often reflects it's owner's emotional state, and works best for a master who understands and can manage their own feelings." Also, it gets so attached to its owner that it "dies" when they do.

And there you have it. I'm a Hufflepuff! (Apparently through and through...)

Blog Tour and Spine Chillers

Hey Everyone,

I just wanted to update you on the progress of the spine chillers series. I've been looking into blog tours and I think I've picked one for August and September. I'm waiting for them to get back to me with the details.

The first book of the series, Scarecrow, will be ready for purchase in the beginning of September. The second book, Big Bad Wolf, will appear at the end of September. I'll keep you posted on the exact date they will be available and the date that the blog tour will begin closer to time.

The first book cover is nearly complete and it's beautiful. I'll be revealing during the tour. I hope you like it as much as I do. Madalyn Mcleod has done a wonderful job with the artwork and her attention to detail is very appreciated.

I've nearly completed the fifth book of the Spine Chillers series, Firefly, but to be honest, I'm having a little trouble figuring out the final few chapters. I have no doubt it will come to me, probably very soon, but in the meantime I'm working on a new mid-grade dark fantasy story. I think it has a great deal of potential.

Basically, the new story follows a girl who gets lost in the forest near her home and wanders into the land of fairy tales, but the fairy tales have become twisted and happy endings are very few. She finds out quickly that finding a way home is the least of her worries as she faces fairy tale monsters, and everyone in the world is drawn to her presence like moths to a flame.

I actually am very close to finishing the dark fairy tale story, so I might do some work on that in the future. I have some ideas for at least three books, possibly even more since there are many, many fairy tales to explore. When I finish the first one, I think I'll send it to my contact at Penguin/Random House. Wish me luck.

Anyway, that's what I've been working on recently. I'll keep you updated as I get more information, and about everything else that I've been up to lately.