Interview with debut YA thriller author Teri Polen

My holiday guest is YA horror/thriller author Teri Polen. She’s chatting with me about Sarah.  

During her virtual book tour, Teri will be awarding a $25 Amazon or Barnes and Noble gift card (winner’s choice) to a lucky randomly drawn winner. To be entered for a chance to win, use the form below. To increase your chances of winning, feel free to visit her other tour stops and enter there, too!

Bio:
Teri Polen loves horror, sci-fi, and fantasy books and movies.  She fangirls over The Walking Dead, Harry Potter, and anything Marvel-related.  She lives in Bowling Green, KY with her husband, sons, and black cat.  

Welcome, Teri. Please share a little bit about your current release.

Sarah is my debut novel and is a YA horror/thriller with some humor tossed in the mix.

What inspired you to write this book?

Oddly enough, the idea for Sarah was sparked by my cat, Shadow. We’d moved into a new house that had no previous owners and Shadow would sit at the foot of the stairs leading to the bonus room, fur bristled up, body tense, and hiss or growl at something we could never see. It got the wheels spinning about how houses could be haunted when no one had ever lived in them. We never did find out what freaked out Shadow and we’re still living in the house. If it’s haunted, the ghosts keep to themselves.


Excerpt from Sarah:
Squeezing my eyes tightly shut, I dug deep for the courage to turn and see if someone – or something - was sitting at the end of the bed. Because I was warm-natured, the comforter from my knees down had been kicked to the side and I remembered the cardinal rule of childhood – never leave body parts out from under the covers because everyone knew the monsters under the bed considered that fair game. I was wishing I’d carried this rule into my early adult years, when I felt a feather-light touch on my left calf.

Icy tendrils rushed from my calf to my scalp, the soft touch much cooler than the room temperature. The parts of my body still beneath the comforter were covered with goosebumps, but not from the frigid touch of whatever waited for me. It was time to take action.

Squaring my jaw and taking a deep breath, I rolled slowly away from the wall, brushing strands of hair away my face.

And there she was, bright moonlight streaming through her partially transparent body.

There was no doubt in my mind who she was. I’d seen her picture in my year book, the online newspaper, and her face glaring into the camera lens on the video. The silvery, shimmering ghost of Sarah Butler was sitting at the foot of my bed, her ebony eyes boring into me.

What exciting story are you working on next?

My work in progress is a YA sci-fi/fantasy. It involves twin brothers, portals, and dreams – that’s really all I can say about it right now. I’ve had to put it on hiatus due to the release and promotion of Sarah and I’m really excited about getting back to those characters.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I’ve seen varying opinions on when someone should consider themselves a writer, but the one I go with is when you begin writing – it doesn’t have to be a book, it could be journaling, poetry, blogging, etc. You’re a writer when you write.

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’d love to write full-time and maybe someday I will, but I’m fortunate that I only work part time. After several years in the healthcare industry as an employment manager/recruiter, my first son came along and I began working as a part time medical transcriptionist at home, which has been a tremendous benefit for our family. When I finish my transcription hours and between everything else going on, I’m usually able to find a couple of hours to write. I also have a blog where I review books from indie authors, NetGalley, Edelweiss, and Penguin First To Read.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I don’t know if it’s really interesting, but I usually have Spotify or Pandora playing and start off with a Diet Coke. It seems to get the blood flow going to the brain. Chocolate may be involved occasionally. I’ve also taken permanent possession of my son’s flannel shirt – for some reason I’m more productive when I wear it. Whatever works, right?

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

Gosh – that’s hard to remember. I know I wanted to be a veterinarian at one point, but then realized not all my patients would survive and thought that would be too depressing. I also wanted to be a waitress – don’t remember why – but that one came true. Aren’t all moms waitresses in a way? I thought about being a librarian, but figured I’d probably be fired because all I’d do is read.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I know horror isn’t at the top of the list for many readers, but Sarah also contains some humor (reviewers have confirmed this) and I’ve had friends who normally don’t read horror tell me they enjoyed it. So if horror isn’t your thing, don’t let that keep you from giving it a try. Thanks so much, Lisa, for having me on your blog today and helping to promote Sarah!

Links:

Website | Facebook | Goodreads | Twitter | Amazon | Barnes and Noble | Black Rose

Thank you for being a guest on my blog!

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Interview with new adult dark fiction author Q.L Pearce

My special guest for the start to this holiday weekend is Q.L. Pearce. She’s chatting with me about her new adult novel, a dark fiction work titled Spine Chillers. It’s the first in a new series and is a collection of spine-tingling ghost stories.

Bio:

Q.L. Pearce is the author of more than 120 books for young readers, from picture books to YA, as well as film tie-in books for the Fox animated film Titan AE and the Universal animated series Land Before Time. Red Bird Sings: The Story of Zitkala Sa (Carolrhoda Books, with co-author and illustrator, Gina Capaldi), received several awards including a Carter G. Woodson Book Award gold medal from NCSS and a Moonbeam Children’s Book Award gold medal. Her fiction includes the popular middle grade series, Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs italisize (Price, Stern, Sloan). Q believes strongly in the value of scary books for young readers. When asked what credentials she has which qualify her as an expert in this area she replies, "I was a child once. That was very scary."

Welcome, Q.L. Please tell us about your current release.

Spine Chillers is a collection of short stories for young readers. It includes classic ghosts, a monster or two, urban legends and one tale that is an homage to The Twilight Zone. The stories are for reading aloud at a sleep-over, or under the covers with a flashlight. My goal was to include something for everyone and hope that each reader will find a favorite among them.

What inspired you to write this book?

The book is in the tradition of my first short story series, Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs. Although it has been out of print for some time, I still hear from adult readers who let me know how much they liked the books when they were kids. Spine Chillers is for a new generation of tweens to teens.

Excerpt from Spine Chillers:

From Hale Hallow Woods

“Tell me what you saw,” Grandpa said. “Everything.”

Tyler was relieved to share what had happened. The story flowed out in a torrent. His grandfather sat very still and listened. At last he nodded and spoke.

“He is able to use things around him to cause fear. He’s using our own tactics against us.” Grandpa sighed. “I was about your age when it happened. Andrew Buckner was a frail boy. He seemed to fear everything. We…my friends and I made fun of him.” He paused and looked down in shame. “We had a club…Tom Dixon, Eddie Macavee, Lester Morrow, and me. We called ourselves the Champions. Lester was the leader. He stood out in a crowd because he had bright red hair. We had a club pin we wore…a super hero with a cape. It was a stupid thing out of a cereal box. We also had a special thumbs-up signal that we used when we were planning some sort of mischief.”

Tyler’s grandfather opened a small red leather box he’d been holding. Resting within on the white satin lining was a cheap plastic pin.

“I guess Andrew wanted one of these more than anything in the world…to be a part of our group. It was my idea to challenge him.”

            Tyler glanced over his grandfather’s shoulder. Again raindrops pattered at the window. In the yard beyond he could see the boy, Andrew Buckner, standing straight and still by the hedge.

            “We told him he would have to pass a test…demonstrate his bravery by hiding in the museum before it closed and staying alone all night. We knew he was afraid of that place. To prove that he had been there, Andrew had to go to the top floor, climb out on the little balcony, and get one of the small stone gargoyles at the edge of the railing. It must have started raining sometime during the night.”

Tyler caught his breath. Andrew Buckner was at the window. It was raining harder, but Tyler could see the boy’s blurred image. His pale white hand was pressed against the pane. His eyes burned with anger.

“They found his body the next morning. They said he had slipped from the railing. The gargoyle was missing. We made a pact never to tell anyone why he had gone to the museum. His parents just locked up the house and no one saw them again. Ten years later Tom Dixon died in a swimming accident. Ten years after that Eddie Macavee was killed when his truck drove off a cliff during a storm. I left shortly after that. I heard Lester Morrow was found in the woods. They said it was a heart attack.”

“Why do you think he’s come back now?” Tyler asked, willing his voice to be steady.

“He’s here because I’ve come back. He plans to complete his revenge.”

“What should we do?”

Grandpa stood, walked to the window and placed his hand on the glass. He didn’t seem to see the boy glaring up at him from the other side of the pane, their hands separated only by a thin glass barrier.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m working on a few things including the next volume of Spine Chillers. I have three fact/fiction picture books with Gina Capaldi, a middle grade mystery adventure with coauthor Francesca Rusackas, and a YA horror novel in work. I’m also thrilled to be joining Tamara Thorne and Alistair Cross as co-host for YA nights on Thorne, Cross and Pearce Haunted Nights LIVE, part of the Authors on the Air: Radio Network.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I won my first school writing contest in third grade and my first city sponsored contest at age eleven. I’ve always loved to write but I began seriously submitting to magazines when I was in my early twenties. It was more of a hobby and I gathered an extensive collection of rejections. Over the course of years the rejections went from definite “no” to “no, but keep submitting.”

Originally I wanted to write horror for adults. I often included children or teen characters in my work and I eventually realized that the stories were really about and for them. My first contract with a major publisher was for an activity book about dinosaurs. It was with Price Stern Sloan. My first contract for fiction also came from Price Stern Sloan when they published Scary Stories for Sleep-Overs.

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 start my reading and research mid-morning then spend two or three hours writing. My dogs take me out for walks a couple of times a day and I use that time to brainstorm. I usually write for another hour or so later in the afternoon. I turn in early and rise early. The critters pretty much determine that schedule.

When I’m not writing I’m thinking about my books in work, doing research, and gathering ideas, or working on promotion. I volunteer with the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators and I read a lot! So although I can’t say that I sit in front of my computer as a full-time job, I think I can say that I’m a full-time writer.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I do a lot of research. I enjoy prowling through antique stores for curious objects or photographs that might spark an idea, or hiking around in new environments to use as settings. My dear friend, author Tamara Thorne, and I sometimes take road trips. We visit haunted hotels, abandoned buildings and ghost towns, all for background and inspiration.

I don’t know if it would be considered a quirk, but one thing that I won’t do is have an animal come to harm in anything I write just to further the story. I get very upset when a writer kills of a dog or cat to show the danger or ratchet up the tension. Early in my career I wrote a story in which a cat disappeared in the vicinity of a killer plant. I still regret that.

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

I’m originally from Kitchener, Ontario. Shortly after I was born my family and I moved to Baranquilla, Colombia. We arrived in the United States when I was five and we lived on an island near the Gulf coast of Florida. As a child I wanted to be a storyteller or a mermaid when I grew up. We eventually moved to Palm Springs in the California desert so I scratched mermaid off the list and focused on storyteller.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

The advice I usually give to working writers is finish what you start. I have several manuscripts that are sitting in a file folder because I didn’t push through when I hit a weak spot. Once that happens I start second-guessing and lose momentum. A prolific writer I respect told me to get the story on paper even if it isn’t exactly what I had in mind, then go back and get it right.

The advice I always give to young writers is to take every opportunity you can to travel, meet new people, learn about new cultures and try new things. Life experience is a wonderful muse.

Links:

Website | Amazon | Goodreads | Amazon author page | YouTube

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Interview with mulipublished novelist Rachel Carrington

Author Rachel Carrington is here today. We’re talking about her 52^nd novel, a suspense called Last Showing.

Welcome, Rachel. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I started writing years ago, and my first attempt was a contemporary romance that will never see the light of day. I think I may even have thrown it away by now. It was absolutely horrific as I knew nothing about, well...anything to do with writing. So I tossed it and tried again. And again.

I finally started writing fantasy romances about wizards and witches, and once those caught on, I segued to paranormal romances, mostly vampires and ghosts. Now, I write romantic suspense, suspense with light romance, and most recently, young adult.

I also write articles for various magazines, including The Writer's Journal, The Writer, Funds for Writers, Freelance Writing.com and more.

I'm fortunate to make my home in historical Charleston, South Carolina, a beautiful city filled with beautiful people. My cat, Temperance, is my roommate...or mortgage holder, depending upon who you ask.

When I'm not writing books, I love to read paranormal romance, romantic suspense, and young adult, create videos, shop, work on crafts, write posts for Movie Pilot, talk on the phone, listen to music, and spend as much time as possible in downtown Charleston. 

Please tell us about your current release.

Two killers. One target. Both with different motives.

With the breakup of her marriage, Sophia Reynolds’ mind isn’t completely on her job. Maybe that’s why she didn’t listen to her husband’s previous warnings. Showing a house after dark shouldn’t have been dangerous, but she’s viciously attacked, becoming a target for a sadistic serial killer.

She escapes him barely alive, and when her estranged husband, Detective Levi Reynolds, sees the damage that’s been inflicted, vengeance becomes his best friend. He’s willing to do whatever he has to do to track down Stefan Greenwald, the man who almost took his wife’s life.

As the evidence unfolds, it becomes clear Greenwald isn’t working alone, and the fight to save Sophia’s life gets harder by the minute. Levi may have to lay aside his badge to protect his wife the only way he knows how.

What inspired you to write this book?

The idea came to me when I was looking to buy a house. I had a wonderful real estate agent, and she and I talked about my writing and what type of books we liked. As she showed me houses, I asked her if she'd ever had any scary showings with potential buyers. Were there any creeps she had to deal with? Fortunately, she said no, but my brain started spinning. I got the idea for a real estate agent who shows a house to a serial killer. I told Jennifer (my agent) about my idea, and she wanted to be in the book!

Excerpt from Last Showing:

I now pronounce you husband and wife. You may kiss the bride.

His lips were so warm against hers, his arms so snug around her waist. Sophia didn’t want the moment to end. She held onto Levi, drinking in the scent of him until he lifted her chin gently, and blood dripped from his fingertips.

He didn’t seem to notice, but the crimson stained the front of her dress. “Levi, you’re bleeding.”

“Am I?” His voice sounded far away, and it was fading.

“No, come back. I need to make sure you’re okay.” She reached out to him, but she couldn’t touch him.

“Sophia,” he whispered her name then his eyes went wide. A trail of blood ran from the corner of his mouth down to the front of his snowy, white shirt. His gaze dropped to the blade sticking through the front of his chest.

Then a familiar figure stepped from behind him with a face that would haunt her. He grinned at her. “I always finish what I start, Sophia Reynolds, and I’ll stop anyone who gets in my way.”

“No!” She screamed as Levi fell to his knees.

“Sophia, it’s okay. You’re safe. Wake up now. You’re safe.” Warm hands tapped her cheeks and dragged her from the nightmare.

She tried to open her eyes, but they were so heavy. And the dream was gone. All she heard were beeps, clicks, and whirrs. Machines. Soothing voices talking in the background. And someone telling her she’d just had surgery, but she’d be fine.

Fine? She couldn’t be, not until she saw Levi. She had to warn him.

What exciting story are you working on next?

I just finished up a women’s fiction novel, and I’m back to working on my 3^rd YA novel about a teenager whose mother shoots and kills her stepfather.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Probably when I was 16. I wrote a poem that got published in the school newspaper, and that was it for me.

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 don’t write full-time, but from about 9:00 p.m. at night until about 3:00 a.m. in the morning I’m writing or working on writing-related things like marketing. During the day, I run a publishing company (Vinspire Publishing).

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I don’t know that I have any quirks other than I have to write at night. Can that be called a quirk?

Yes it can!

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

An English teacher. I was that specific at six years old.

Links:

Website | Facebook | Twitter | Pinterest | Amazon author | Amazon buy page

Thanks for taking a few minutes away from your writing projects to be here today!

Interview with thriller/suspense author Terry Goodkind

Suspense author Terry Goodkind joins me today to talk about his latest thriller novel, Nest.

Welcome, Terry. Please tell us a little bit about yourself.

I was born and raised in Omaha, Nebraska, where I went to commercial art school. Besides a career in wildlife art, I’ve been a cabinet maker, violin maker, and I’ve done restorations of rare artifacts from around the world. I’ve always been interested in a variety of things revolving around art and creativity.

Please tell us about your current release.

Nest is the story of Kate Bishop, who very mistakenly thinks of herself as an ordinary woman until the day she arrives back in Chicago from a business trip and suddenly finds herself in urgent need of answers to a lot of very out of the ordinary questions, such as why her brother had a man chained in his basement and why the police think she would know. Why are people she knows being murdered? Could she be the target of some of the most dangerous killers ever born? Who is the mysterious Jack Raines, and is he trying to find her to help her stay alive, or to slaughter her?

Our world, a place where murder and violence come closer to home every day and terrorists now stalk all of us, is the backdrop for Nest. All of these seemingly unrelated events are linked to the answers Kate must find if she is to stay alive. Her search for those connections takes her down into the hidden world of the darknet and into the basement kill rooms of predators. Nest is a thriller unlike anything you’ve ever read. You will hope that it's just fiction, but much of it is all too real.

I’m eager for you to have as much fun reading it as I had writing it. I think that you will find it not only exciting and terrifying, but touching and very human in unexpected ways.

What inspired you to write this book?

I’ve always loved novels in the suspense and thriller realm, but I wanted to write something that was different, a thriller with my own slant. I wanted the book to have a broader sense of evil and to tell that story through the eyes of one woman who comes to discover that she can see evil, and that evil is looking back at her. I love writing the kind of stories that make the hair on the back of your neck stand up.

Excerpt from Nest:

            “For the past three weeks, John Allen Bishop had been keeping the devil chained in the basement. What, exactly, the devil had been doing in Chicago John didn’t know and the devil wasn’t saying. What John did know was that over the past several days the situation had been getting increasingly worrisome.”

What exciting story are you working on next?

I’m writing the next book in the series that begins with Nest. It’s even darker and grittier. I’m having lots of fun writing it.

When did you first consider yourself a writer?

I was born an author. I was an author before I even knew what an author was. My earliest memories are of making up stories in my mind as I went to sleep, imagining characters in danger and trying to figure out how they might be able to survive. Writing them down wasn’t important to me. They were very personal and I carried them around in my head, sometimes for months, as I built them ever bigger and more complex. I daydreamed all the time, worrying about my characters and the danger they were in. They existed in my head, so writing them down was irrelevant to me. I’ve always felt a profound sense of connection to my characters. From the beginning, I’ve been entirely self-motivated, self-inspired, without any exterior inspiration or influence. To this day I rarely read books because I don’t have time and I don’t want anyone else’s work to influence mine. Stories are sacred to me. I love making characters live and breathe.

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 basically spend seven days a week, including most holidays, writing. But that doesn’t necessarily mean sitting at a keyboard. Writing is mostly a mental process and requires a lot of thinking and planning. I do that all the time I’m awake. Dialog and different scenes are almost always running through my mind. It’s something I’ve been doing my whole life. The only time I’m not writing is when I’m racing cars. That’s my fun. It gives my brain a break and I come back refreshed and ready to write.

What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

Writing is the hardest thing I’ve ever done. I believe that we get the greatest reward by challenging ourselves. When you accomplish something that is tremendously difficult it gives you a sense of personal satisfaction. The part I love about writing is the writing is creating characters and putting them in impossible situations. I sometimes can’t help smiling to myself, thinking “Wait until people read this. It’s really going to blow their minds.” As far as quirks, no quirks, really, just a lot of long hours and hard work. Although I do have a black cat and I’ve had to learn to write with her curled up sleeping on my lap. She lays her head over my wrist and is perfectly content going to sleep as I type away with her head bobbing up and down. I guess that’s kind of quirky!

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

I was always interested art and creating things. I loved painting a wide variety of subjects. The world seemed to hold an endless variety of things that interested me. It was a bit of a default desire to be an artist when I grew up because I was good at it and it seemed like the natural thing I would do. But it wasn’t my bliss. My secret dream was to write novels, to tell the stories I lived with all the time. Because I have dyslexia, I feared I wouldn’t be good enough at all the technical aspects of writing, so I didn’t test that secret dream until I was 45. I still remember writing that first sentence of my first novel. I was a moving experience. In that instant, I knew what I was born to do. Bringing characters to life was magical. This was what I was meant to do. At that moment, my dream became reality and I’ve been writing ever since. Writing is my bliss.

Anything additional you want to share with the readers?

I’ve been keeping the story of Kate Bishop in my head for years until I finally had the time to write it. It was an exciting, scary, emotional book to write. My sincere hope is that readers will have a great time reading Nest. That really gives me a great thrill.

Thanks for joining me today, Terry!