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Character studies can be fun!

So Naomi Clark, author of Demonized and Afterlife were trying to find a new way to promote ourselves on our respective blogs and we came up with something that was a lot of fun to do!

We decided to do interviews of our main characters, but then realised that it just wouldn’t work. Instead we got fictional reporters to do the interviews for us (where I play the part of the reporter). So here’s The Sun’s interview with Naomi’s possessed private investigator Ethan Banning. Let’s just say things get a little … awkward…

And stay tuned for the interview with my character Jessica Newman from Torment on Naomi’s blog very soon!

So Roy Elliott, reporter with The Sun, March 21, 2011. I’m talking to Ethan Banning, private investigator. Thanks for agreeing to this interview…that’s if you’re still okay with it?

EB: Yeah, it’s cool. I had a free morning. And afternoon. And evening. Hell, we can make a night of it. Go hit some bars, pick up some chicks. Well, we can try to pick up some chicks. My pick-up skills are pretty rusty. I guess you can pick up some chicks and I’ll watch … No, that didn’t sound so good out loud as it did in my head. Let’s just get started, okay?

OK, so not many people truly know what a private investigator does – people see a lot of stuff in movies, read stuff in books….but what’s it really like?

EB: I gotta tell you, the movies have it all wrong. You know what I spend most of my time doing? Sitting on my ass watching motels and strip clubs, waiting for cheating husbands to show up. It’s boring a lot of the time. And when it’s not boring, it’s life-threatening. You know how many times I’ve been shot at this year? It’s a lot.

Apparently you investigate the paranormal…you watch too much X-Files did you? (sniggers)

EB: Yeah, well … that’s not … Look, okay, there have been some … issues lately, yeah? I mean, I don’t like to talk about it too much, it’s not conversation for polite company. But this whole paranormal thing, it’s really not funny, okay?

Ok then explain it to me…what’s the case you’re working on now…haunted house or something? (sniggers)

EB: You want the truth? Seriously? You want to know what it’s like messing with the paranormal? Man, I wish it was just haunted houses. We’re talking demons. Scary shit. Can I say shit? Is this a family paper? You ever seen a demon? You ever seen an exorcism go wrong? No? Well then don’t laugh at me, alright?

That’s um intresting….so how do you go about investigating these strange occurrences – what um expertise do you have?

EB: Expertise? Are you serious? I’m just shouting in the dark, man, hoping for the best. One thing they don’t give you with your PI license is a field guide to the occult. You gotta work it all out for yourself, and hope you don’t get killed or eaten or your organs stolen … Hey, can I smoke in here? I really need a smoke right about now.

Sure you can have a cigarette…you okay? You look a bit distracted.

EB: Yeah, yeah, it’s a bad habit, you know? Smoking, I mean, not being distracted. Gotta have a few vices to satisfy the demon …

Sorry? What’s that supposed to mean?….you’re talking crazy about demons and stuff!

EB: You think it’s crazy? I’ll tell you what’s crazy, man. I’ve got an actual, factual demon living inside me, telling me to do seriously unpleasant stuff. All. The. Time. Stuff like, why not smash a bottle over this dumb reporter’s head and see what happens? Or shove your cigarette in your own eye? You try living with something like that in your head twenty-four-seven and see how sane you sound.

Ok then prove it! Give me some proof that you say demonic possession is real or I’m outta here.

EB: Proof? Are you batshit? Did you hear anything I just said. Look, man. You know what the demon is telling me to do right now? Really? It’s telling me to take your fucking tape recorder and ram it down your fucking throat and watch you choke on your own vomit. Would that count as proof, if I did that? What do you reckon?

Shit man calm down!

EB: You calm down! You started it. Listen, you want calm, you need to interview someone not possessed with a demon, okay? Anything bad happens to you because you pushed me too far, it’s your fault. You get that? It’s all your fucking fault.

You’re insane…Jesus! I’ve gotta go – best of luck psycho!

End of transcript.

Pick up a print copy of Naomi Clark’s Demonized HERE

Torment on tour

Torment is now available in paperback and e-book editions from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Some encouraging peer reviews are coming in which is great, but there’s still more promotion to do which is why I’ve been doing the rounds on other authors blogs.

Mostly I discuss Torment, but I also reveal how I got into writing and even dissect one of the scenes in the book. I’m very grateful to those authors who leased some space on their blogs! Below are links to my guest blogs and/or interviews:

The Dark Fantastic

Vivid Sentiments

Dreams of the Damned

Guest Blog: Author Su Halfwerk

The blog tours continue…this time with fellow Damnation Books scribe Su Halfwerk who released her collection Intricate Entanglement on March 1.

Take it away Su:

Why Write About Them?

I’m talking about people with mental disorders, the ones who crossed over to the other side with their minds while their bodies remained trapped on our plane. The seven (or eight) stories that make up Intricate Entanglement are their stories, told by them as they lived them.

People ask me how I came up with the idea for the book, and they inquire about the research I struggled with; only one person asked, “Why write about the crazies?”

My answer to that question was, “why not write about them?” Like Gene, in Intricate Entanglement, the word “crazies” offended me. I might not have reacted this way before writing the book, but now I sympathize with them. They are people trapped in a land where no one speaks their language and no one sees what they see. Picture yourself in that situation…did you do it? Do you feel their dilemma?

It’s a given that they have psychological and mental illnesses, some are even dangerous, but that doesn’t make their problems any less important. If anything, that actually makes them interesting. We don’t know what goes on in their heads, or how they view things. As one character in Intricate Entanglement indicated, do we know what a color blind person sees when he looks at the color red? He calls it red, but what does he see? Will he be able to describe it to us?

The stories in Intricate Entanglement explore the fact that people with mental disorders have different views of every day’s events, actions, and tasks. Even our appearances are distorted, perhaps even replaced by some other looks, or appendages! They see, feel, and react differently.

What if it was, in reality, the other way around? Maybe we are the ones trapped in a mundane materialistic world, and they are the ones roaming free, mentally, in it. I guess it depends on which side of the mirror we stand.

We meet different people everyday, some strike us as odd, while others okay. And then one day one of us, the sane ones, wakes up to find her husband having a serious conversation with the power socket. Freaky, huh!

Of course, there are signs that a person is about to cross over to the other side, these signs are not always read right, sometimes even ignored all together.

I’m not trying to justify or explain insanity, that word is too general to even mention. However, I do attempt to understand people and their motivation, failing that, I let them be.

The stories in Intricate Entanglement are fictitious, except sometimes reality is more outlandish than fiction. The research I did and the stories I wrote made me look at people with mental disorders from another perspective. Each is living his or her story the way he or she sees it. Some of them are telling their versions in Intricate Entanglement.

You can watch the book’s trailer here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=V7j9YWnLhMA

And you can get a glimpse of these character’s worlds here: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615723393

Greg, thanks for the opportunity to guest blog on Darkscrybe.

Author Bio:

Su Halfwerk writes in the horror and paranormal romance genres. From a tender age, the written word left a strong impression on her, later on terrifying, blood-chilling books became the object of her interest. Su’s style in horror combines shuddery terror with elements of surprise; some would even call it an enigmatic twist. In the world of paranormal romance, she transforms the desire to scare into a quest to seduce and tantalize.

When not writing, Su is designing book trailers for herself and other authors.

Intricate Entanglement is Su’s latest release from Damnation Books, a mix of a thriller with an overlay of maddening darkness.

You can find Su online in any of these places:

www.su-halfwerk.com
http://www.suhalfwerk.blogspot.com/
www.facebook.com/Su.Halfwerk
http://twitter.com/SuHalfwerk

Author Interview: Lincoln Crisler

Lincoln Crisler, fellow Damnation Books author, released his debut novella Wild on March 1.

Wild is a western tale involving zombies, mysterious lawmen and crooks and the perfect dose of black magic. You can literally smell the dust, gunsmoke and blood within its pages. Crisler’s characters come off the page quite easily and its hard not to get caught up in the terror they are experiencing and the mystery they are trying to solve.

But that’s all I’m going to say about Wild….I’ll let Lincoln tell you all about his book and his other publishing credentials:

Give us your publishing credentials…I’ve been writing speculative fiction for publication since 2006; my work has appeared in such print and online venues as The Horror Library, Down in the Cellar, The Late Late Show and Shroud Publishing’s ABOMINATIONS anthology. I served as a Contributing Writer at Horrorlibrary.Net from 2007 until it shut down and as editor of The Lightning Journal ezine (after founder Mark Deloy stepped down) and the anthology OUR SHADOWS SPEAK. My short fiction has been collected in two books: DESPAIRS & DELIGHTS (2008, Arctic Wolf) and MAGICK & MISERY (2009, Black Bed Sheet). I review books on my website and for Shroud Publishing’s digital, web and print publications.

You’re an avid reader and reviewer…what constitutes a great story for you?I like stories that combine themes, that take two or three ideas that could each carry its own weight and blend them together to make something even better. I like a good struggle and a well-thought out (by the author, even if the character does it by the seat of his or her pants!) way of conquering it. I like cross-genre stories and works that take old ideas in new directions.

Given your obsession with reading do you find you are influenced or inspired by other writers when you come to create your own work?Not only am I influenced and inspired by the other authors I read, I wouldn’t have it any other way! I wouldn’t want to be exactly like any other author, but some writers are better at making you care about their characters, or at knowing when to crank up the brutality, or at writing conversations. I think a creator always needs to be in school, so-to-speak. The trick is to learn from what you read while still taking the time to enjoy the story!

Tell me about WILD! and how did this idea come about?While I was deployed to Qatar last year I got bored and gave my readers and friends on Facebook a choice between whether I should write a zombie-western or something else, and the overwhelming response was for the zombie western. Now that WILD’s been picked up by Damnation Books, I really wish I could remember what that other option was!

What’s next for you?
A graphic novel scheduled tentatively for next summer, a novelette that’ll probably go straight to digital and a collaborative novella with a fellow author. I also have this novel that I’ve been putting off; maybe this’ll be the year for that, too!
And finally, where do you see the small press and e-book age. As a contributor to magazines like Shroud, are small presses like DB becoming more accepted?I believe that the small press is a necessity, especially with the publishing game changing so radically, and that forward-thinking small press publishers can be just as viable as the big dogs with a bit of effort. I don’t think that e-books will ever completely kill off print, but technology always has been and always will be a game-changer. The important things are that stories are being told and that the cream will rise to the top. Things aren’t quite as risky as they were ten or even five years ago, and I think that’s better for small presses, authors and especially readers.

Lincoln Crisler’s debut novella, WILD, is out now from Damnation Books. He has also authored a pair of short story collections, Magick & Misery (2009, Black Bed Sheet) and Despairs & Delights (2008, Arctic Wolf). A United States Army combat veteran and non-commissioned officer, Lincoln lives in Augusta, Georgia with his wife and two of his three children. You can visit his website at http://www.lincolncrisler.info/.

Torment unleashed!

My novella “Torment” is now available as an ebook on sale either from the publisher Damnation Books or Amazon.com for $4.50.

Congratulations to those who purchased a copy during the special variable rate period from the DB site — I hope you enjoy it!

The paperback version should be available in about a week, but if you can’t wait

You can find my book here:

Damnation Books – http://damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615723416

Amazon – http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004PYDI3I and my author page http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B004Q7PCRE

And if you own a copy, why not join Shelfari and add it to your bookshelf – http://www.shelfari.com/books/21919338/Torment

Here are what some fellow authors had to say about “Torment”

“There are points in Torment when this novella is truly a torment to read, but in all the right ways. Chapman inexorably draws the reader into Jessica Mackinnon’s terrifying world to the point where there are two choices – put the story down to still your beating heart, or read on into the complex mystery, rightly fearing what lies on the next page. This is at once a tale of demonic and ghostly terror, as well as a compelling nod to the core imagery of classic horror. I don’t expect I’ll forget this tale any time soon, and that may not be a good thing!”

Rocky Wood, author of Stephen King: The Non-Fiction and Horrors! Great Tales of Fear and Their Creators

“Torment echoes The Exorcist with its tale of tortured souls and questions about faith. A chilling, tightly written story from a new voice in horror.”

Brett McBean, author of The Mother, Tales of Sin and Madness, and Concrete Jungle

“Torment is a slow-burning supernatural thriller that fuses the darkness of Blatty’s The Exorcist with the visceral thrills of ghost stories from masters such as Peter Straub and Robert Hood. With authorial sleight of hand, Chapman turns the exorcism sub-genre on its head with Torment. Greg Chapman is an author to watch.”

Shane Jiraiya Cummings, author of Shards and The Apocrypha Sequence

“Well-placed dark fiction doused in history, ritual and intrigue.”

Mark Farrugia, editor, Andromeda Spaceways Inflight Magazine: Best of Horror #2

And if you’d like to read some more of my work for FREE head over to Smashwords to pick up a copy of my collection “Midnight Theatre: Tales of Terror” – http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/41734

Guest Blogger: Author Fiona Dodwell

Fiona Dodwell is the author of The Banishing, a novel which has just been released by Damnation Books.

From the UK, Fiona has crafted her story around the premise – how far would you go to save the one you love?

Anyway, I’ll let Fiona give you some more detail on the book and why she loves writing horror:

Fear as a friend

I’ve always been fascinated with darkness. Ever since I was a child, I enjoyed curling up in my bedroom with a good ghost story. I loved to enter that dark realm – a realm where demons, spirits and hauntings took hold of my imagination. The seed of fear was planted in my mind when, as a child, I found a battered copy of Stephen King’s Pet Semetary in my brother’s bedroom. I devoured it in days, savouring that sinister and evil world that the author had so fantastically created- and then I was hooked.

Fear was a friend, then, and still is today.

I began exploring more of Stephen King’s novels, works that were probably far too disturbing for the mind of a child, but it changed something inside of me, and I started to hunger for more slices of darkness in literature. I poured over Edgar Allen Poe. I obsessed over Susan Hill’s ghost stories. They became something more than stories to me – they became a part of my everyday life.

As I grew, I knew instinctively I wanted to create worlds like that myself: the fear I enjoyed reading was now something I wanted to create. So began my life-long passion of writing…. I engaged in all manners of writing at a young age: poetry, short stories, novels. I found myself winning writing competitions, and, after a time, I knew that this was what I wanted to do with my life: write.

My novel, The Banishing, (which is available now), is my first full length novel to be published.

It is full of darkness – exploring domestic abuse, demonic possession and one woman’s fight for survival. In The Banishing, I hope to take the reader on a journey, from dispair and anguish to hope and survival. I started writing The Banishing with one question in mind: How far would you go to save the one you love? From there, my character came to life and gave me that answer.

The reader may find the answers that lie in the pages disturbing, but I hope they will enjoy it, and find hope in it.

You can find out more about me and my work at:

www.fionasfiction.wordpress.com

Allure of the Ancients comic strip in Midnight Echo #5

So my first published comic strip features in the pages of Midnight Echo Magazine Issue 5!

This story, penned by Mark Farrugia was a fun challenge for me and it’s great to see it joining the ranks of some of the best horror authors from around the world.

This comic carries even more significance because it attracted the eye of Rocky Wood and put into motion our collaboration, which will ultimately become Witches in 2012. And you never know you might see more chapters of Allure of the Ancients in the near future!

As a treat, below is a sample page from Allure, showing the roughs I did first and then the finished product. I hope you like it:

Midnight Echo is the magazine of the Australian Horror Writers Association and is put together by highly talented volunteers from the AHWA. Issue 5 is edited by Leigh Blackmore.

To purchase issue 5 in either PDF or print formats visit http://www.australianhorror.com/index.php?view=115

Torment excerpt

So it’s just hours until my novella Torment is released by Damnation Books! The e-book version will be available from 12.01am March 1st (Pacific Standard Time in the US) at variable pricing (at 12.01am it will be free and steadily increase until it reaches full price). The print version will be available in about a week’s time.

Synopsis:

Jessica Newman’s tragic childhood has come back to haunt her. Her father, a Catholic deacon she hasn’t seen since he was found not guilty of her mother’s death during an exorcism ritual, has turned up dead in Scotland, with a wound to the head.

Forced to take her family to Scotland and deal with her father’s estate―a derelict mansion in the Grampian Mountains. Jessica begins to question her mother’s death and what role her father played in it.

The house and its dark basement―could provide more answers than she bargained for.

To entice you below is an excerpt – a terrifying scene where Jessica and her husband encounter the first of many horror in the bowels of her late father’s home Enjoy!

The basement stairs vanished into a dense darkness and

Jessica felt a slight breeze of cold air on her face. Instinct screamed

at her not to go down the stairs, but David took a step closer into

the doorway.

“Alex?” he cried into the darkness.

Nothing.

“Alex, are you down there?” Jessica called.

There was only the dark looking back at them. David put his

foot on the top step. Jessica gripped his arm and when David

turned he was startled by the fear in his wife’s eyes.

“Don’t!” she begged him.

“Alex might be down there!” David reasoned. “He could be

hurt.”

Dark memories of twenty-five years ago bled into Jessica’s

mind; she was sitting in that hallway in Boston, listening to her

mother’s screams. The same fear was in her heart again.

“We should call the police,” she told David.

“I’m going down there,” he replied, desperate. “Are you

coming?”

Before Jessica could respond, David proceeded down the

steps, the darkness devouring him as if he’d dived into an oil slick.

Jessica was left alone to stare at the darkness.

“David?” she called.

Jessica moved down the stairs one at a time. With each successive

footstep, she was lost deeper into the darkness. She waved

her hands in front of her, reaching for anything to connect her

back to the real world. She prayed she would touch David. She

prayed her son was safe, anywhere else other than down here.

“David? Alex?” she called again, her voice echoless in the black

basement.

“Here,” David finally replied. Jessica knew by the jerkiness of

his voice that he was shaking.

She followed the sound and gradually the darkness receded

to shadow and then a mottled grey light, like the sun struggling

through fog. Jessica saw David staring into it. She too looked into

it, eager to determine its source.

Jessica stood next to David and he grabbed her hand and

squeezed it, a physical warning to his wife. Ever since they’d met,

she’d known David to be composed and calm, but for the first time

she could feel a terrible tremble of fear in his grip. Suddenly she

knew why.

A boy was tied up in the center of the room. He was naked,

with thick ropes around his wrists, ankles and neck, bonds so

tight they had stripped his white skin red raw. The marks paled

in comparison to the others that riddled his body; bruises, cuts,

scratches, welts and burns―a sickening montage of violence.

The boy looked lost in the glow, like he wasn’t really there at

all. Jessica’s maternal instinct kicked in; she wanted to rush to

him and cut his bonds and mend his wounds, but the little girl

inside told her to run and hide.

Slowly, the boy lifted his head and smiled at them, a string of

bloody saliva sliding from his bottom lip to the floor.

“Alex isn’t here right now,” the boy said, his voice distinctly

Scottish, resonated around them.

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Contract signed to illustrate graphic novel!

With just a week to go before my novella Torment is released yet more great news has come my way.

Yesterday (Feb 21) I signed a contract with McFarland Publishers in the US to illustrate a non-fiction graphic novel written by Horror genre powerhouses Rocky Wood and Lisa Morton!

The graphic novel, entitled Witches will explore the history, causes and effects of the persecution of witches through the centuries.

The 200 page graphic novel should be available in early 2012, so I’ll be spending most of this year at the drawing table!

This is an exciting venture and I am very honoured and privileged to be working with Rocky, Lisa and McFarland.

Here’s some information about the two authors:

Stoker nominee Rocky Wood is a horror author and President of the Horror Writers Association.

Rocky has been a dedicated Stephen King and horror reader since 1977; and has undertaken six dedicated research trips to Maine. A freelance writer for 30 years he began his career at university, writing a national newspaper column on UFO-related phenomena; and had articles published in the US, Canada, the UK, New Zealand and South Africa.

In the Stephen King and horror communities he is regarded as the leading expert on King’s work. He is the author of The Complete Guide to the Works of Stephen King (Kanrock Partners, 2003); Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished (Cemetery Dance, 2006); The Stephen King Collector’s Guide (Kanrock Partners, 2007); Stephen King: The Non-Fiction (Cemetery Dance, 2008); and many articles on King, including in such magazines as Cemetery Dance, Dark Discoveries and Lighthouse.

His previous graphic novel was Horrors! Great Tales of Fear and Their Creators (McFarland, 2010).

As a King and horror expert he was keynote speaker at the 2003 Stephen King Conference held in Estes Park, Colorado at the site of the hotel which features in The Shining; the 68th World Science Fiction Convention (2010), Continuum 3 (2005) & 4 (2006), all in Melbourne, Australia; Conflux in Canberra, Australia (2006); the Stephen King film festival held in King’s hometown of Bangor, Maine in October 2005; and World Horror Convention in Salt Lake City (2008).

He is an Active member of the Horror Writers Association (HWA) and was nominated for the HWA’s Bram Stoker Award for Superior Achievement in Non-Fiction for both Stephen King: Uncollected, Unpublished and Stephen King: The Non-Fiction. He is a member of the Australian Horror Writers Association (AHWA).

Throughout his career he has made many media appearances on TV, radio and through the press; and spoken at conferences in the US, UK, Switzerland, Yugoslavia, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

As a freelance author Wood can make himself available for publicity as required. As a leading member of the Horror community he has direct links to promoting this book through those channels worldwide.

Lisa Morton is a rare Southern California native. Her career as a professional writer began in 1988 with the horror-fantasy feature film MEET THE HOLLOWHEADS (aka LIFE ON THE EDGE), on which she also served as Associate Producer. For the Disney Channel’s 1992 ADVENTURES IN DINOSAUR CITY, she served as screenwriter, Associate Producer, Songwriter, and Miniatures Coordinator. For stage she has written and co-produced the acclaimed horror one-acts Spirits of the Season, Sane Reaction and The Territorial Imperative, and has adapted and directed Philip K. Dick’s Radio Free Albemuth and Theodore Sturgeon’s The Graveyard Reader; her full-length science fiction comedy Trashers was an L.A. Weekly “Recommended” pick.

Her short fiction has appeared in the books Dark Voices 6: The Pan Book of Horror, The Mammoth Book of Frankenstein, The Mammoth Book of Dracula, Horrors! 365 Scary Stories, Dark Terrors, After Shocks, White of the Moon, The Museum of Horrors, Dead But Dreaming, Shelf Life: An Anthology of Bookstore Stories, Dark Terrors 6, Dark Delicacies: Original Tales of Terror and the Macabre, Mondo Zombie, Dark Passions: Hot Blood XIII, and Midnight Premiere, and the magazine Cemetery Dance. Her chapbook The Free Way was published by Fool’s Press, and in early 2010 her first novel The Castle of Los Angeles was published to critical acclaim.

She has also written numerous episodes of the animated television series Sky Dancers, Dragon Flyz and Van-Pires. Her first book, The Cinema of Tsui Hark, about the legendary Hong Kong director/producer of such classics as PEKING OPERA BLUES and A CHINESE GHOST STORY, was published by McFarland, who also published The Halloween Encyclopedia in 2003 and A Hallowe’en Anthology: Literary and Historical Writings Over the Centuries in 2008. Her television movie TORNADO WARNING was chosen by the Pax cable station to launch their 2002 fall season, and 2005 saw the release of three horror films, the vampire thriller BLOOD ANGELS, the mutant shark story BLUE DEMON, and THE GLASS TRAP, about genetically altered fire ants.

Lisa was awarded the 2006 Bram Stoker Award for Short Fiction for her story “Tested” (which first appeared in Cemetery Dance magazine), and the 2008 Bram Stoker Award for Nonfiction for A Hallowe’en Anthology. For the first anthology she edited, 2009’s Midnight Walk, Lisa received a Black Quill Award for Best Dark Genre Anthology, and she won the 2009 Bram Stoker Award for Long Fiction for her novella The Lucid Dreaming. She is also a two-time recipient of the President’s Richard Laymon Award, presented by the Horror Writers Association.

For more information on McFarland Publishers go to their website