Live chat w/authors of Haunted Mansion Project; Oct 6, 7-9PM EST

The Writer's Chatroom presents the authors of The Haunted Mansion Project Year 2, nominated for a Bram Stoker award.

WHEN?
Sunday, October 6, 2013

Eastern USA Time.....7-9 PM

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WHERE?
The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

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Please note: The chatroom is only open for regularly scheduled chats.

Interview with occult crime thriller author Joseph Spencer

Today I’m happy to host occult crime thriller author Joseph Spencer as kicks off his virtual book tour for his novel Wrage, published by Damnation Books. This is the second book in his Sons of Darkness series.

Joseph will be awarding a $25 Starbucks gift certificate to a randomly drawn commenter during the tour. So, to be entered to win, leave a comment below. And if you'd like to increase your chances of winning, visit other tour sites and leave comments there too.

Bio:

As a boy, Joseph Spencer immersed himself in the deductive logic of Sherlock Holmes, the heroic crime fighting of Batman and Spider-Man, and a taste for the tragic with dramas from poets like Shakespeare and Homer.

Before Joseph took to spinning his own tales, he pursued a career in print sports journalism, graduating with honors from Clinton (IL) High School in 1996 and summa cum laude from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale in 2000. He covered such events as NASCAR’s Subway 500 race in Martinsville, the NBA Draft Camp in Chicago, the Junior College World Series, and Minor League Baseball’s Midwest League All-Star Game during a ten-year career throughout the Midwest. Now, he works as an emergency telecommunications specialist with an Illinois police department. The combination of years of writing experience with a background working with law enforcement professionals gave rise to his writing aspirations.

Joseph married Dr. Amy (Waggoner) Spencer, an accomplished veterinary doctor, on March 14, 2012. He received word his debut novel was accepted by his publisher, Damnation Books, the next day. Murphy, a 15-year-old orange tabby, is perhaps the most vocal member of the family. The Spencer family enjoys reading Charlaine Harris, George R.R. Martin, Mary Janice Davidson, and most paranormal stories. The Spencers also enjoy quoting movie lines from The Princess Bride, Rain Man, Bridesmaids, and Office Space.

Welcome, Joseph. Please tell us about your current release.

Wrage is the second novel in my Sons of Darkness series. It continues where my professional debut – Grim – left off.

As more dark secrets come to light, the battle for souls pushes Prairieville to the brink of war in the living and supernatural realms.

Jeff Wrage swears a blood oath to Abaddon, the supernatural avenger of murder victims, to hunt the crooked cop who butchered his wife. Jeff wonders whether he can be the executioner Abaddon requires. Their pact throws the supernatural realm in chaos and threatens to trigger an apocalyptic fight for control of the afterlife between the Sons of Darkness and Sons of Light foretold in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Orlando Marino sees the death of Cyrus Black as his opportunity to restore the Marino family's stronghold in Prairieville’s organized crime scene and become a mob kingpin. He unleashes a plague, turning its victims into mindless followers. Cyrus' heir is busy rooting out a traitor and is unable to stop the coming turf war in the realm of man.

The fate of all rests with Homicide Detective Anna Duke, who steps into the shoes of her mentor while coming to terms with unrequited love. As she tries to clear the fallen hero's name, she takes on a case where corpses go missing. Her new partner is reported dead. She learns the truth about her true identity and uncovers a trail of secrets questioning her tragic past. She journeys to avert the destruction of all creation.

What inspired you to write this book?

Wrage explores the Faustian theme of wanting something different for your life. Several characters strike deals they may end up regretting to see their schemes and obsessions realized. This novel also expands its universe of supernatural characters which were inspired in part by mythology and one of my favorite TV shows, Supernatural. Critics of my first novel in The Sons of Darkness series, Grim, expressed some dissatisfaction that there wasn’t more redemption for the characters involved, and I think they will find this story a little more to their liking.

Excerpt from Wrage:

“Dad! Is that you?” Anna recoiled with her hands rushing up to her mouth as if to snatch up each word of her inexplicable outburst and bury them deep inside of her. Her whole body tensed and hunched backward like a frightened cat waiting to dart away to safety. The frigid bite of the air gnashing against her skin transformed her caramel complexion into a cherry shade of irritated skin.

“Seek The Way, The Truth and The Life. The Way leads to death. Death stalks you now. You can’t escape Death. You must face death to find The Life.”

The sea of officers scrubbed prim and proper in their dress blue uniforms, the tartan-clad bagpipe players, the somber clergy, and the black-suited politicians all washed away into an indistinguishable herd being driven somewhere in the distance. The wind swept Anna to a whole other world, one where it was just her and the smoke man.

“Keep your head, Rube.”

“What?” Anna heard herself cry out her question. She’d heard the smoke man’s words echo inside her head. They were familiar words from long ago, but she couldn’t believe she heard them from whatever this thing was.

What exciting story are you working on next?

Malice is my third book of the Sons of Darkness series and readers will learn more about Anna Duke while also following a bad boy rocker, Malice Madsen, loosely based off Marilyn Manson.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I worked for ten years as a print journalist in large regional daily newspapers in Peoria, Il., Decatur, Il., Burlington, Iowa, and Grand Junction, Colo. I covered such events as NASCAR’s Subway 500 race in Martinsville, Va., the NBA Draft Camp in Chicago, the Junior College World Series, and Minor League Baseball’s Midwest League All-Star Game. I also won an award for outstanding writer of the year by the Colorado Tennis Association.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I wish I were a full-time writer, but I haven’t made it there yet. I work as the supervisor of an emergency 9-1-1 call center in Peoria, Ill. I try to infuse some of the personalities of officers I work with on a daily basis into characters into my novels. I basically have to chip away at my writing because I have a demanding work schedule. I try to set a daily writing goal of 3-5 pages per day.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I’m kind of a pantser. I go into a chapter with one idea of how it will go, but then sometimes the characters take me to different places than what I initially intended. My characters talk to me. The scenes kind of play out visually in my mind like a movie only I can see. I would rather stay true to the direction my characters are tugging me towards than some preconceived notion of getting from one part of the plot to another. Obviously, I still get to roughly the same places as I initially intended, but some of the details maybe different than what I thought I would write when I started.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be the star slugger who helped the Chicago Cubs snap their World Series title drought.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

My publisher Damnation Books is offering 28 percent of all ebook orders with promo code 289snake. Wrage on Damnation Books’ site. 

I also created video trailers on YouTube for both of my books: Grim | Wrage

And my other links are: Website | Facebook | Twitter

Thanks, Joseph. I’m a fan of Damnation Books, as they’ve published a short story and poem of mine in The Zombie Cookbook a few years back. Love meeting other DB authors and learning what they’re up to. Happy touring!

Readers, don't forget about the gift card giveaway - leave a comment to be entered to win! (or just to say 'hi' to Joseph).

Interview with horror/sci-fi author Barbara Custer

Dark fiction/sci-fi author Barbara Custer is here to tell us a bit about her novel Steel Rose.

Barbara is going to award one randomly drawn commenter at every stop a backlist e-book – City of Brotherly Death or Twilight Healer – or one of her Night to Dawn magazines, and one randomly drawn commenter on the tour will receive a $15.00 gift certificate to Dunkin Donuts or Starbucks, winner's choice. To increase your chances of winning, visit other tour stops and leave comments.

Bio:

Barbara lives near Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she works full time as a respiratory therapist. When she’s not working with her patients, she’s enjoying a fright flick or working on horror and science fiction tales. Her short stories have appeared in numerous small press magazines. She’s published Night to Dawn magazine since 2004.

Other books by Barbara include Twilight Healer and City of Brotherly Death. She’s also coauthored Alien Worlds and Starship Invasions with Tom Johnson. She enjoys bringing her medical background to the printed page, and then blending it with supernatural horror. She maintains a presence on Facebook, Linkedin, Twitter, and The Writers Coffeehouse forum. Look for the photos with the Mylar balloons, and you’ll find her.

Welcome, Barbara. Please tell us about your current release.

The story opens with protagonist Alexis searching for a cure for her debilitating illness. Her search lands her in open combat with zombies and renegade aliens. Yeron, her doctor and a Kryszka refugee, develops a drug to control her arthritis, but her weakness prohibits her from handling most weapons. Yeron is determined to practice human medicine, but most people fear him. Alexis, his patient, is afraid, too…until his seductive attentions profoundly arouse her. Although Alexis is an adult, she has growing to do if she wants to survive, and she learns painful lessons about love and war. The Kryszka soldiers and zombies who break into the hospital are hungry. So very hungry. How will she fight them?

What inspired you to write this book?

Before I wrote it, I had severe arthritis in both wrists and needed reconstruction for both. I had Walter Mitty fantasies of science coming up with an easy operation or drug that would rebuild cartilage. Yeron’s clinical trials were among those fantasies. I was also caring for my husband who has Parkinson’s disease. During that year, I read about Efren Saldivar, a respiratory therapist who’d been convicted of killing six patients with Pavulon, a drug that stops a patient’s respirations when they’re about to go on a ventilator. All of this left me a lot of material to write Steel Rose and a sequel.

Excerpt:

Shattering glass. Plodding footsteps. IV poles crashed to the floor. Glass shards tinkled, punctuated by low-pitched groaning from the rear elevator, the exit Hoffman had claimed to seal.

“Dear God, help us.” Alexis reached for her gun.

“What are you doing? Guns are forbidden on this floor, and…Oh, my God!” Ms. Grese cupped her hands over her mouth. Her authoritarian demeanor vanished, replaced by horror-stricken pallor. “Where are the officers?”

“You think our visitors give a shit?” Alexis scuttled toward the door, feeling vulnerable. The vest didn’t protect her face or hands, but the intruders wouldn’t care about that either. She shoved Ms. Grese ahead of her, pushing with her mind, Yeron beside her. “Run!” she hollered.

As the creatures poured through the ward, a stench crawled down her throat, the stink of things many days dead. Moaning drowned out the sound of Ms. Grese’s cries, a continual chant of “hungry.”

Skeletal figures in tattered rags skirted around Mark, who fired at any who got too close. Their tendons flashed gray against cold cobwebs of rib and knuckle. The flesh that quivered through widened skin tears had the sheen of rotting meat. The skin resembled cracked leather. Weeds sprouted on some of the figures’ necks and hair, the way they did in her nightmares. They made their way to the desk, where two nurses sat. The two women jumped up, both screaming. One of them opened fire with a Glock.

The armed woman was her mother.

What exciting story are you working on next?

Blood Moon Rising, the sequel to Steel Rose. Alexis goes on the road with Yeron, Shively, Mark, Tyrone, and Johnny to kick some serious zombie ass. But they run into complications and lethal injuries. Alexis’s beloved mother gets caught in the crossfire. The romance between Alexis and Yeron blossoms but before they can make any commitments, they have to stay alive. I hope to finish this book before the year’s up.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I tried my hand at writing in 1976, when I was going through a rough patch. I had no college at the time, and the writing quality was raw. I couldn’t afford to go back to school. Fast forward to 1990, after my mother’s death, Kelly, a collage instructor, encouraged me to journal and write stories to turn over the grief I felt over my mother’s death. The stories began to appear in small press magazines. At that point, I took my writing seriously.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?

I have a day job, so I make time to write in the evenings and on my days off. Writing could be blogging, writing stuff for the Night to Dawn Magazine, and of course, my work in progress. I get up about five for the day job. I eat supper when I come home. That leaves me about two to three hours for writing in the evening.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I love Mylar balloons. They take on a life of their own, and some of my stories, including Steel Rose, have scenes involving Mylar balloons. Sometimes I’m at my best when I keep a well filled Mylar balloon standing over me. The balloon is like an instructor making sure I concentrate on my work and not daydream.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

I wanted to be an actress. I fantasized about being a nurse, too, but I really wanted to be in the movies.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers? Well, I’m gonna let you in on something I rarely discuss at interviews. Most people who write horror are trying to face secret fears, and that goes for me, too. I’ve feared skeletons since I was ten, when I saw a mummy up close and personal, sitting up in a sarcophagus, waving her arm. Later on, I’d realized that the entertainer was using props to make the body move, but at the time, all I understood was that this mummy was reaching for me. I tore out of that pavilion fast. You can get the details about my encounter here.

Fast forward to college, Kelly taught us in an anatomy room, which had a skeleton in the back. Each time I showed up for class, I draped my coat and scarf over the skeleton so I wouldn’t have to look at it. She recommended that I start journaling about my fear, and I began turning out short stories about zombies and walking dead.

Website | Facebook | Twitter

Publisher’s website | Buy link | The Library Thing | Book video

Thanks, Barbara. Readers, don't forget about the giveaway gifts! Leave an e-mail with your comment for a chance to win.

Backstory of "Human No Longer" by Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Human No Longer Backstory

By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Amazon Kindle

Human No Longer. It’s my 17^th published book – yeah! – and my fourth vampire novel. First, let me tell you where I got the idea for it. About five years ago, I was still trying to please the agent (who I no longer have) who’d sold four of my earlier paperback novels to Zebra in the 1990’s and, because she didn’t seem to like any of my new potential concepts, I asked her what she would like to see. Out of nowhere, she said, “You know your 1991 Zebra vampire novel, Vampire Blood? I liked that one a lot. The characters. Well, how about writing me a sort of sequel with basically the same cast, but with this premise: A woman, a mother, after being turned into a bloodthirsty vampire, must learn to adapt to the human world and still be a good mother. You know, how would she deal with everything when she had children she loved; didn’t want to hurt or leave them…but still had the need to feed on blood? Still had all the urges and desires of a vampire?

Yikes. I hated the idea but, to please her, I went ahead and begrudgingly wrote the book. I tentatively called it The Vampire’s Children or The Vampire Mother or something like that. I finished it. Not too happy with it. I had never liked writing what other people wanted me to write. Stubborn, I guess.

My agent, in the meantime, had begun her own online erotic (which I don’t much care to write) publishing company and when I’d gotten done with the novel she was too busy to even read the finished book. She handed it off to an apprentice intern. An intern? What? Who didn’t like it at all. Duh. So, disgusted, I tucked the file away on my computer and, fed up with the whole agent thing, returned to writing what I wanted to write. An end of days novel called A Time of Demons and a new vampire novel where the evil vampire wasn’t a mother. In 2010 I went with a new publisher, Kim Richards at Damnation Books/Eternal Press, and she contracted not only those two books but asked me if I’d like to rewrite, update and rerelease all 7 of my older out-of-print Leisure and Zebra paperbacks going back to 1984. Heck yes, I said! So for the next 2 years I was busy doing that. Some of those books were over twenty-five years old and very outdated. Their rewriting, editing and rereleasing took a lot of work and time.

Then, in late 2012, I decided to take a very old book of mine (Predator) which was contracted to Zebra Paperbacks in 1993 but, in the end, never actually released, and just for the heck of it, as my 16^th novel, self-publish it to Amazon Kindle Direct. Just in ebook form. A kind of grand experiment. The first time I’ve ever tried self-publishing. See how it’d sell. Dinosaur Lake. A story about a hungry mutant dinosaur loose in the waters of Crater Lake that goes on a rampage. Hey, I wrote Dinosaur Lake before Jurassic Park, the book, ever came out! Really. I had my cover artist, Dawne Dominique make a cover for it…and it was stunning with a dinosaur roaring on the front. And I did everything else myself. Editing. Proofing. Formatting. With forty years and endless publishers behind me I felt I was capable. And it’d been selling so well I decided to self-publish another one…and I remembered the mother/vampire book. Hmmm. So I revamped (ha, ha, inside joke), polished, and self-published it, as well. I retitled it Human No Longer. Got my fabulous cover artist, Dawne Dominique, to make me a lovely haunting cover with a troubled-looking woman standing outside a spooky house, with two children behind her in its shadows, on the front and voila! All in all, I don’t think the book turned out half bad. In fact, with the changes I made I think it’s not bad at all. Now I just hope my readers will like it.

***************************************************************************

About Kathryn Meyer Griffith...

Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21, over forty years ago now, and have had seventeen (ten romantic horror, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel, one historical romance and two murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books/Eternal Press and Amazon Kindle Direct.

I’ve been married to Russell for almost thirty-five years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cat Sasha, live cats Cleo and Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.

All Kathryn Meyer Griffith’s Books available at Amazon.com here.

Live chat/interview with dark fic author Bob Nailor

The Writer's Chatroom presents dark fic author Bob Nailor.

WHEN?

Sunday, October 14, 2012

Eastern USA Time.....7-9 PM

Not sure what time that is wherever in the world you are? http://www.worldtimeserver.com

WHERE?

The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

Scroll down to the Java box. It may take a moment to load. Type in the name you wish to be known by, and click Sign In. No password needed.

Please note: The chatroom is only open for regularly scheduled chats.

Kathryn Meyer Griffith's Dinosaur Lake back story

Dinosaur Lake’s Backstory Essay

By Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Dinosaur Lake is available at Amazon Kindle

 Of all my 16 novels, Dinosaur Lake has the strangest story attached to its creation, death and rebirth…20 years later…of any of them.

Not so much because, as a few of my books, it took so long to write or publish, but because in 1993 it was contracted, edited and the final galleys had been proofed by me for a 5^th  paperback book release from Zebra (Kensington Publishing) after 3 earlier novels with Leisure Books. I even had a stack of the full-color, printed and embossed covers; it was only weeks before it was to go to the bookshelves (in those days the brick & mortar stores were still king, no Internet or ebooks). I strongly believed it’d be my breakout book. You know, the book that’d make my career and launch me into the stratosphere with Stephen King and Anne Rice? How wrong I’d be. But, hey, I thought who wouldn’t love a tale of a cunning but malevolent rampaging prehistoric dinosaur living in Crater Lake, Oregon, and the Park Ranger who, along with a ragtag gang of heroes who’d try to stop it? I mean, I’d always loved anything about dinosaurs…dinosaur books, playing with those little plastic figurines and watching old stop-action dinosaur movies of the 1950’s and 60’s…who hadn’t?

Apparently someone. My new editor at Zebra.

By 1994, after four novels with them, I’d lost my sweet editor there and a new one took her place...and over the next year he didn’t like anything I wrote for him and later that year Zebra unceremoniously dropped me and my book (Predator…which never came out but still lingers to this very day like some weird ghost book in every computer on the global Internet) only six weeks away from going to the bookstore shelves. When we were editing the book and deciding on the title and the cover, I’d begged the new editor not to call it Predator (his choice as they hadn’t liked my American Loch Ness Monster title), bad title since there was a popular movie out of that name and the movie, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, was nothing about a dinosaur, and the cover was awful, an empty boat on a lake…what!!! Having that book–my first ever–dumped like that was a crushing experience, let me tell you. I had a stack of finished, printed covers and my final edits were done! But nothing my agent or I could say or do would change their minds. They said they were cutting their horror lines and setting adrift a lot of their mid-list horror authors because horror (in 1994) was on the decline. The new editor-that-didn’t-like-my-writing explained: “And no one wants to read a book about a dinosaur.” Yeah, sure.

And six months later Jurassic Park the book came out! We all know how that story ended, don’t we? People loved the book, the movies; they loved dinosaurs.

I’ll never know the real reason they cut the book but that male editor never bought another book from me…which was another weird thing because when I’d met him in New York (I went for a Horror Convention) in the summer of 1993 he’d taken my husband and I out to lunch and gushed over me and said how much he’d loved my last release WITCHES. Hmmm.

Anyway, I got to keep my advance but the book was officially dead. It never came out. I grieved.

I was so disgusted I stashed it in a drawer somewhere and tried to forget it.

Until now. After I’d finished revising and rereleasing all my new/old 15 books (and besides paperbacks they’re in ebooks for the first time ever) from Eternal Press/Damnation Books in June of 2012 I remembered about my American Loch Ness Monster novel, took it out and reread it.

Whoa, like a lot of my older novels now years later I could see what was wrong with it and how to fix it. Back then I hadn’t seen the head-hopping I did or the awkward phrasing, stiff or overly dramatic dialogue, repetitive words and other things I’ve learned since to recognize and stay away from. Of course, computers help make the editing so much easier. I think I’d done the original book on my electric typewriter.

Anyway, telling myself the dumping of that book had been a turning point in my writing life–sending me in the wrong direction for a long time apparently…I couldn’t sell a book for eight long years after that–I decided to rewrite and finally release it. In fact, I was going to do something that twenty years ago would have been unheard of and frowned on…self-publish the book myself. With Kindle Direct. For the first time in forty years I was walking away from the traditional publishers and going on my own. Thank you J.A. Konrath’s blog! I figured I could sell the Kindle ebook a lot cheaper and, thus, use it to introduce (as enticement) more readers to my writing and perhaps, if they liked it, they’d buy more of my other fifteen novels, novellas and various short stories.

It could work, right?

So here it is, retitled, rewritten, updated and with an amazing new cover I love by Dawne Dominique… Dinosaur Lake. I hope my readers will like it.

Written this thirtieth day of Aug, 2012 by the author Kathryn Meyer Griffith  

***

About Kathryn Meyer Griffith...

Since childhood I’ve always been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. I began writing novels at 21, over forty years ago now, and have had fourteen (nine romantic horror, one historical romance, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel and two murder mysteries) previous novels and eight short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-four years; have a son, James, and two grandchildren, Joshua and Caitlyn, and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois called Columbia, which is right across the JB Bridge from St. Louis, Mo. We have three quirky cats, ghost cat Sasha, live cats Cleo and Sasha (Too), and the five of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.

                                                                                                            

Novels and short stories from Kathryn Meyer Griffith.

All available on Amazon.com on my page: 

Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure, 1984; Damnation Books, June 2012) 

The Heart of the Rose (Leisure, 1985; Eternal Press Author’s Revised Edition 2010)

Blood Forge (Leisure, 1989; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2012)  

Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2011) 

The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2010)  You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ZU77j_q4S8

Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition out 2011) 

The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2011) 

The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books Author’s Revised Edition, 2011) 

Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)

All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)

Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007; Author’s Revised Edition, Eternal Press 2011)  You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cogCNYKzPqc 

Winter’s Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition, Eternal Press 2011) You Tube Book Trailer address: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FZYCs2DVhHg

The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008; Author’s Revised Edition, Eternal Press 2011) You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=28HZqu-my1g

Don’t Look Back, Agnes novella & bonus short story: In This House (2008; ghostly romantic short story out; Eternal Press 2012)

You Tube Book Trailer: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e3q9rZryFMo

BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (Damnation Books 2010) 

You Tube self-made Book trailer with original song http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j0-U9c2Lwfo  

The Woman in Crimson (Damnation Books 2010) 

You Tube Book Trailer Link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qcRBvDI5G4Y

The Complete Guide to Writing Paranormal Fiction: Volume 1 (I did the Introduction) 

My Websites:

http://www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith (to see all my book trailers with original music by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer)

http:// www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG
http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

http://www.goodreads.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

http://romancewriterandreader.ning.com/profile/KathrynMeyerGriffith

http://romancebookjunction.ning.com/profile/kathrynmeyergriffith

E-mail me at rdgriff@htc.net  I love to hear from my readers. ***

Live chat/interview with authors of the Haunted Mansion Project

The Writer's Chatroom presents the authors of The Haunted Mansion Project: Year One from Damnation Books.

WHEN?

Sunday, May 6, 2012

Eastern USA Time.....7-9 PM

Not sure what time that is wherever in the world you are? http://www.worldtimeserver.com

WHERE?

The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

Scroll down to the Java box. It may take a moment to load. Type in the name you wish to be known by, and click Sign In. No password needed.

Please note: The chatroom is only open for regularly scheduled chats.

Interview with historical fiction author A.C. Croom

Today's guest author is multipublished fiction author Arthur C. Croom (A.C. Croom). He's going to talk about his latest novel, The Guns of Lazarus Thorne, and more.

Bio:
A.C. Croom is a published author of historical, western/frontier, and romantic fiction. His three current releases, a personal best for him, include: Delta Trails, a historical romantic fiction novel; Prophets Rest, a contemporary western fiction novella with just a touch of romance; and The Guns of Lazarus Thorne, a contemporary western fiction novel. All were accepted and published by Damnation Books and Eternal Press. Each are available in e-book and print on demand trade paperback through numerous outlets including www.damnationbooks.com, www.amazon.com, www.barnesandnoble.com, www.eternalpress.biz, and many others. Google "A.C. Croom" to find more outlets.

His upcoming western novel Showdown in Shadow Creek, is completely rewritten. It now includes material that initially was scheduled to be a sequel to the original novella, and releases the first week in May 2012. It was also accepted and will be published by Damnation Books / Eternal Press.

Another upcoming novel is more contemporary. Lessons Learned, is as hardcore with eroticism as it gets without crossing the line into pornography. The setting is modern day Miami, Florida. Elements of police drama, the BDSM underworld, and a burgeoning romance take the reader on a thrill ride they will be long in forgetting. The novel is set to release in September 2012 through Damnation Books.

His other published credits, (out of print), include the contemporary romantic short story “Kate’s Song”, a contemporary romantic novella sequel “Kate’s Song; Awakening” and his first western/frontier novella “Showdown In Shadow Creek”, all published by the now defunct Forbidden Publications.

A.C. proudly adds his talent to the website www.goldinalaska.net as “Texas Red” with occasional editorials and “How To” articles for outdoorsmen and prospectors.

Among his many and varied pursuits, A.C. is a Design Draftsman / Quality Control Manager for Western Tank Company, a musician, a recreational gold miner, member of the Gold Prospectors of America Association and avid outdoorsman. Recently he has joined others in the writers’ guild as member of Western Writers of America and member of The West Texas Writers Association.

He and his wife, Ann, reside in Odessa, Texas. Through almost 44 years of marriage, he and Ann have two children, five grandchildren and one great-grandchild. His oldest grandson proudly serves our nation as a specialist in the U.S. Army.

A.C. has taken his love for the outdoors from weekend warrior to planned prospecting trips in the states of New Mexico and Alaska and uses his experiences as research for background material in the Western / Frontier genre. Gold mining is his hobby and writing books about the western way of life, as well as many other genre is his passion.

Visit his blog http://ac-croom.blogspot.com or look for him at Facebook.com for more insight into his books and life.

Welcome, A.C. Please tell us about your current release, The Guns of Lazarus Thorne.
We first meet Lazarus Thorne on the Shiloh battlefield facing his test of manhood for the first time. During the day long battle against Grant’s First Army, he confronts his many fears and earns his first gun by facing a young Union officer one on one as the battle rages around them both.

Afterwards, we follow Thorne as his journey takes him to the hill country of Texas as a ranch hand/cowboy, and into the mountains of Colorado where he meets and befriends a mountain man from Illinois. While deciding whether to travel on to Arizona or take the offer of a life as a trapper, they are attacked by Indians. The two win out and their decision is made for them. The pair leave hastily fearing reprisal from the Apache for the deaths of their attackers.

Thorne earns his second gun as he and his companion enter Three Wells Arizona. Lazarus is forced into a gunfight with a local drunkard and bully. The bully is killed outright and Thorne and his companion move onto a ranch inherited from an uncle. The two work that ranch for almost nine years before Hell breaks loose in the small community of Three Wells.

The streets of Three Wells, Arizona turn into a bloody battle ground as outlaws seem to come out of the very woodwork. Shootings leave the town bereft of law until United States Marshal Shay O’Hara steps in to restore order. He asks Lazarus Thorne to assume the role of lawman. Lazarus is torn between his duty as a man who has recently found himself in the role of father to an eight year old daughter he was never told about until the murder of the only woman he ever cared about, and facing the threat to Three Wells.

Will law be restored to Three Wells, or will the town become another Tombstone, with open bloodshed in the streets?

What inspired you to write this book?
Originally, I visited Tombstone and the OK Corral. It occurred to me that while Arizona was a Territory, there were numerous cities and towns that faced the same type lawlessness without the benefit of hired gunmen like the Earp brothers to clean up those towns. The story took on a life of its own. When I first had the idea, Thorne was supposed to be one of the bad guys who was convinced his guns were unbeatable. Luckily, another character drew that role and a fully fleshed novel wrote itself. I’m glad that it came out the way it did.

Readers should enjoy The Guns of Lazarus Thorne much more when they find it is far beyond the simple ‘shoot ‘em up’ Western.

What exciting story are you working on next?
Coming in May: Showdown in Shadow Creek

This is the story of gunfighter J.R. Bell and his wife Eve as they face Blood Feud to save the town of Shadow Creek, Oregon and themselves from the vengeance of a family seeking ‘Blood Justice’ for twenty-five years of imagined injustice from neighboring ranchers, lawmen willing to face their kin in open gunfights and other real, or imagined threats.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
To this day I do not consider myself a ‘writer.’ Rather, I consider myself a teller of interesting stories. I have made up stories since I was a young boy to entertain myself and others willing to sit still and listen. Most of that became more than real in 2006 with the release of my first e-book, ‘KATE’S SONG’. That little short story began my journey to where I am today.

What do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I write when I can. I am lucky that I have a boss that lets me throw a few words into my stories while I work. I have a full time job as Design Draftsman / Quality Control Manager for an oil field related company in West Texas.

Between my job, writing, doing edits and marketing my books, I find time for married life, children, grand-children and my hobbies.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?
That’s a hard question. I guess the answer would be research. I have always been a history nut and I have traveled extensively in my sixty-two years to various areas that I use for back ground material. I practice what I write. I have been on a trail drive, a real one, not the kind weekenders pay for. I visit battlegrounds of the civil war. I use the internet to get the story behind the story. My most interesting quirk would be: If it doesn’t fit the story, I won’t write it in.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I wanted to build things. I wanted to design them and build them. I became exactly what I wanted to be. My early life I was a metal fabricator building what others designed. I graduated into my perfect profession. Now I design things and find ways to get them built. I guess you could say my writing fell right into line with my ambition. After all, you have to build a world, design your characters, fabricate a plot that works and satisfy the customer.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Only one thing left to say: If you can dream it, you can do it! Dreamers, Dream; Writers, Write. Sometimes the two become one. I’ve been a lucky man to see all my dreams come true.

Thanks, A.C. You're quite an inspiration with all your writing successes!

Live chat/interview with author A.C. Croom

The Writer's Chatroom presents historical, western/frontier, and romantic fiction novelist A.C. Croom.

WHEN?

Sunday, March 18, 2012

Eastern USA Time.....7-9 PM

Not sure what time that is wherever in the world you are? http://www.worldtimeserver.com

WHERE?

The Writers Chatroom at: http://www.writerschatroom.com/Enter.htm

Scroll down to the Java box. It may take a moment to load. Type in the name you wish to be known by, and click Sign In. No password needed.

Please note: The chatroom is only open for regularly scheduled chats.

Interview with dark fiction author Larry Kerr

Dark fiction author Larry C. Kerr is here today to talk about his new release from Damnation Books, By the Light of the Moon.

Bio:
Larry C. Kerr is a former newspaper reporter and is now a web programmer for a state agency in Pennsylvania. Originally from western Pennsylvania, he has lived in the south central portion of the state since 1988. He has one son.

Larry graduated from Butler Area High School and Lock Haven University of Pennsylvania. He attended graduate school at Penn State University.

An avid runner, Larry has been running for more than thirty years. In 2007, he participated in the National Senior Games.

Always interested in fiction, Larry began writing in earnest in 2004. He has won honorable mention in local short story contests and published a short story in an anthology in 2010.

He has completed a historical fiction manuscript, an action adventure manuscript, and a short story collection. He can be reached via e-mail at larryk929@yahoo.com.

Larry, please tell us about your current release, By the Light of the Moon.
Small town America. A baseball game on a warm July morning. A boy is running through the outfield. Suddenly, he slips and falls in a cascade of red. After he slides to a stop in a pool of blood and gore, he finds himself looking at a human head. He screams. The terror in tiny Blacksville, Pennsylvania, has begun.

Can newspaper reporter John Reynolds discover who, or what, is killing the people of Blacksville? Will he be able to overcome the effects of his nervous breakdown? Can he trust those around him? Will they trust him? Has he found love in the little town? Will the killer take her? What Reynolds finds in reality is more terrifying than anything he imagined in his darkest moments. Will he survive?

What inspired you to write this book?
I’ve been a horror fan for a long time. I’m not sure exactly what got me interested, although one of my influences in my childhood was horror movies. They were far less bloody and gory than the current offerings, which is probably a good thing.

As far as this book specifically, I was working on another novel when this idea came into my head. I don’t recall a specific event that triggered the idea.

What exciting story are you working on next?
I have several manuscripts in various stages of completion and recently began submitting again my first manuscript, which is historical fiction. I have submitted two short stories this year and am working on a third.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?
There were two times. Getting my book accepted was one and the other was when I had some success with short stories in contests. Both times I felt someone had validated what I was doing.

Do you write full-time? If so, what's your work day like? If not, what do you do other than write and how do you find time to write?
I work full-time as a web programmer for a state agency in Pennsylvania. I write in the evenings after dinner and during the weekends. My son is older and doesn’t need me to entertain him anymore, so I have more free time now.

However, now that the book has been published, finding the time to write is more of a challenge. I think if you’re going to sell your book you have to push it and you can’t be shy about it. Since there are only so many hours in the day and since I do work full-time, I do have to make a choice between promoting and writing.

While some might not agree with that, you have to be practical.

As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?
I had various ideas at different stages in my life and remember expressing myself in writing as a child.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?
Don’t be afraid to try writing, but if you do you’ve got to be persistent.

Thanks for visiting today, Larry. Best of luck with your writing projects.

Guest blogger - Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Today is a special treat. Novelist Kathryn Meyer Griffith is sharing the story of how her novel Vampire Blood came to be. If you've ever been curious about a writer's process, here's a chance to take a peek behind the curtain. :)

The Story of Vampire Blood
Author’s Revised Edition by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
A rerelease of my 1991 Zebra paperback romantic vampire novel out from Damnation Books on July 1, 2011.

In 1990 or so, I’d just got done releasing my first three paperback novels with Leisure Books, a romantic historical (The Heart of the Rose 1985) and two romantic horror books (Evil Stalks the Night, 1984 and Blood Forge, 1989), and because I wasn’t making much money on them, was looking, as most so-called restless young authors were doing, to move up in the publishing industry.

So I wrote snail mail letters to three established authors of the day – Dean Koontz, Stephen King, and Peter Straub – asking for a little advice and a little help. What do I do next? I want to be one of the big dogs running in the big races. I want to make the big bucks. Be famous like you. (Ha, ha. I was so naïve in those days!)

Well, Stephen King and Peter Straub never answered my letters, but one rainy fall night I got a phone call from Gerda Koontz (Dean Koontz’s wife) and she said Dean had gotten my letter and wanted me to have a name of a brand new agent who I should call or write to and say I was recommended by him. If I thought it strange that Dean Koontz himself wasn’t actually talking to me I was told by Gerda that he was a shy man and had had a particularly hard couple of months because of family problems (I think it had something to do with his father in a nursing home or something, but can’t exactly recall now) and he’d asked her to call me. She often did that for him, as well as helping him with the business side of his writing career. He (through her…and I got the impression that he was actually nearby telling her what to say the whole time) said I had to have an agent (I didn’t have one) and then he gave me the name of an ambitious one, Lori Perkins, just starting out and his advice on what I should do to advance as a writer.

I do remember being incredibly touched that he, a famous busy novelist that I admired – I loved his Twilight Eyes – would take the time to talk to me, even through his wife. They were both so sweet and we talked for nearly an hour all about writing, books, and everything.

I took their advice and contacted that agent and she agreed immediately to represent me on my fourth book, Vampire Blood, no doubt, because I said Dean Koontz had recommended her to me. Name dropper! But Vampire Blood was the reason I’d contacted those famous authors in the first place. I thought it was the best book I’d done so far and wanted it to go to (what I thought at the time) would be a better publisher than Leisure Books, which contracted and hog-tied their writers with a horrible 'potboiler' one-size-fits-all ten year contract with low advances and 4% royalties. Yes, I got a whole whopping 14 cents a book in those days, but, I must confess, they did print thousands of paperbacks each run and had a huge distribution area. I thought I could do a lot better. Anyway, Lori Perkins wanted me to send her the book and she did like it and eventually sold it, and then three others zip-zip-zip right after, to Zebra Books (now known more as Kensington Publishing) at 6% royalties and double the advances I was used to getting. They slapped a sexy blonde vampire with a low dress on the cover and a hazy theater behind her. Lovely colors. I thought it was an eye-catching cover. I was so happy. I thought I’d made it! Again, so naïve.

Vampire Blood. A little story about a family of vicious killing vampires who settle in a small Florida town called Summer Haven and end up buying and fixing up an old theater palace to run and pluck their victims from, and a divorced, down-on-her-luck ex-novelist and her hard luck father, who along with friends, help thwart them.

Now to how and why I wrote it.

My husband and I lived in this small Illinois town, Cahokia, at the time and there was the neatest little hole-in-the-wall theater in a nearby shopping center we used to go to all the time…run by a family of a sweet man, Terry, and his wife, Ann, and sometimes their three children, two teenage boys and a girl named Irene. Such a friendly, but odd couple. The run-down theater was their whole world it seemed. The kids helped take in the tickets, pop the popcorn, and sell the candy snacks.

Now, the minute Terry and Ann found out, in one of our earliest conversations, that I was a published novelist they were my greatest fans. Terry went right out and bought all three of my books and they all read them. Terry always thought they’d make great movies. Next time my husband and I went to the little theater, Terry and Ann greeted us like old friends, so delighted to see us, and refused to take a dime from us for anything. We got in free whenever we went from then on. Now, in those days my husband, my son, James, and I were pretty broke. I worked as a graphic designer at a big brokerage firm in downtown St. Louis (across the Poplar Bridge from our Illinois town) but my husband was in between jobs. We lived on a shoestring. Hard times. So I always was so tickled that we could get into the local movies for free. We went a lot, too, as we loved movies, especially science fiction and horror films.

One night, I was watching Terry and Ann and their joy in running that little theater, with the kids bustling around doing their jobs, and I got the idea for Vampire Blood. Just like that! Use them and the theater as a backdrop for a vampire novel. Hey, wouldn’t it be neat, I off-handedly mentioned to Terry one night, if I wrote a book about a family of vampires that was trying to pass as a real human family, the man and woman wanting so badly to fit in and lead a normal life for a while, renovating and then running a theater together…but the kids are wild and, as kids always do, make trouble for them in the town…killing people? Terry loved the idea and I asked him if it’d be all right to use him and his family as a template for the vampires. He was thrilled to be part of anything to do with my books and said yes. So…I wrote this book about them (sort of), the theater (making it much grander than it was, of course), a small town terrorized by cruel, powerful vampires who can change into wolves at will...and a saddened lonely woman, her brother, and her ex-husband (who she still loves and ultimately ends up with again after he saves her life) who finds herself again, but loses a lot, as well, fighting these vampires. Vampires she doesn’t believe in at first.

I was very happy with the book when it was done and dedicated it to Terry and Ann when it came out in 1991. Terry and Ann were thrilled, too.

So Vampire Blood came out and did very well for me, second only to my Zebra 1993 Witches. As the years went by it went out of print and when, twenty years later, Kim Richards at Damnation Books contracted my 13th and 14th novels, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons and The Woman in Crimson, she asked if I’d like to rerelease (with new covers and rewritten, of course) my 7 out-of-print Leisure and Zebra paperbacks – and I said a resounding yes!

So…here it is…Vampire Blood…twenty years later, alive again and better, I believe, than the original because my writing then was done on an electric typewriter, with gobs of White-Out and carbon paper (I couldn’t afford copies), using snail mail; all of which didn’t lend itself to much rewriting. And in those days, editors told an author what to change and then the writer only saw the manuscript once to final proof it. Who knew what those sneaky editors were slipping in inbetween and before the final book was in an author’s greedy little hands. Hey, and I was working full time, raising a son, living a life and caring for my big extended family in one way or another, too. Busy, exciting, loving, happy and sad times.

For this new version, Damnation Book’s cover artist Dawné Dominique made me an astonishingly intriguing cover of a lovely vampire (Irene the youngest vampire who turns out to be the most brutal and ancient in the end)…but, thank goodness, without the low sexy top. And my DB editor, April Duncan, helped me make it a better novel.

A lot has happened to me and my family in these twenty years, as well. Both my parents, and my beloved maternal grandmother, the storyteller of her generation, have since passed away. Many people we used to know have. Old boyfriends, old friends and relatives. I miss them all! I no longer have that agent; she went on to bigger advances and bigger writers. I lost my good job at the brokerage firm, bumped around in lesser jobs for years, always writing in my spare time, and now, at long last, write full time while my husband works way too hard in a machine shop to support us.

Rewriting the book brought back so many good memories…and tears over those no longer here. The theater closed sixteen years ago, the owner believing it’d served its purpose and used up its time. Terry and Ann, heartbroken, were never the same. They had other jobs, none they truly cared about. Ann is still with us, but Terry died a few years ago, I heard from someone. We lost contact once they stopped running the theater and we moved from Cahokia to a nicer town miles away.

But I’ll never forget those early days and the stories that came with them. Days of high hopes and far distance future dreams…some of which have come true and some which haven’t. I’ve never made the big bucks, never gotten truly famous, but now, at long last and to my great delight, all twelve of my older books, from Leisure, Zebra, and The Wild Rose Press are being rewritten and reissued from Damnation Books and Eternal Press between June 2010 and July 2012. Better than ever after I’d rewritten them. I have plans to write more books and short stories, too, when they’re done. Most importantly, I’m living a good life with a husband I adore and brothers and sisters I love. Writing the stories I was born to write and happy I am. I have my memories. All in all, I’m a lucky, lucky woman.

So, all you writers out there…never give up and never stop writing!

Thank you!

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Kathryn Meyer Griffith has been writing for nearly forty years and has published 14 novels and 7 short stories since 1984 with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books and Eternal Press in the horror, romantic paranormal, suspense and murder mystery genres… and all 12 of her old books, see below, (and two new ones) are being brought out again between June 2010 and July 2012 from DAMNATION BOOKS www.damnationbooks.com and ETERNAL PRESS www.eternalpress.biz again in print – and all in e-books for the first time ever! Learn more about her at www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith or www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyergriffith and http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.php?id=1019954486 .

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List of published novels and short stories:
Evil Stalks the Night (Leisure,1984; Damnation Books, July 2012)
The Heart of the Rose (Leisure,1985)
Blood Forge (Leisure,1989; Damnation Books, February 2012)
Vampire Blood (Zebra, 1991; Damnation Books, July 2011)
The Last Vampire (Zebra, 1992; Damnation Books, October 2010)
Witches (Zebra, 1993; Damnation Books, April 2011)
The Nameless One (short story in 1993 Zebra Anthology Dark Seductions;
Damnation Books, February 2011)
The Calling (Zebra, 1994; Damnation Books, October 2011)
Scraps of Paper (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2003)
All Things Slip Away (Avalon Books Murder Mystery, 2006)
Egyptian Heart (The Wild Rose Press, 2007 / out again from Eternal Press in August 2011)
Winter's Journey (The Wild Rose Press, 2008 / out again from Eternal Press in September 2011)
The Ice Bridge (The Wild Rose Press, 2008 / out again from Eternal Press in November 2011)
"Don't Look Back" (2008 / out again from Eternal Press in 2011)
"In This House" (2008 / out again from Eternal Press in 2011)
BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons (2010)
The Woman in Crimson (2010