Hellbound is out!

Hellbound is a collection of 3 horror stories connected to each other on a very subliminal level, for all 3 lead to Hell!
Hellbound is a month too early, but it is out with an awesome, kickA$$ cover.  Here it is:

 and here's the trailer:


Blurb:
One-way ticket to Hell.

Bart is a greedy morgue attendant with money on his mind. He gets more than what he bargains for when he chances upon a pain-letter, one he must pass on or bear the consequences of his inaction.

Stan is a chiseler, a fake medium, preying on his unsuspecting clients' earnings through bogus channeling sessions. When he meets mysterious Joanna Stark, he believes her promises of powers beyond his comprehension, powers blessed by the Netherworld.

Jenna gives up her old life and career to settle down as Troy's loving wife. He is a God-fearing man who will consent only to marriage. Except fate maps a different ending to their love story, a conclusion that takes them both down and never up again.

Bart, Stan, and Jenna are destined to go on a long and abominable journey that sinks them below their expectations and forces them to endure pain and anguish beyond their worst nightmares.

On the paths leading to the depths of Hell, their sins don't matter!

• Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing
• Publisher's link: http://www.double-dragon-ebooks.com/single.php?ISBN=1-55404-932-6
• Amazon Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/Hellbound-ebook/dp/B0077CTWW6/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1328881279&sr=1-1

Guest Blog: Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith and the story behind...

Author Kathryn Meyer Griffith is here today to share the back story behind Don't Look Back, Agnes and In This house. Both were released (In This House is a bonus read) on January 7th. 

What a wonderful way to start the year!

 Floor is all yours, Kathryn.

*****

The older I get, the more I like to reminisce and write about what I’m going through at any particular time. I guess it’s an age thing. So many of my stories and novels come about because of what I’m actually experiencing in my real life at the time. Not all, but some.

But my novella, Don't Look Back, Agnes is definitely one such story.  

At the end of 1998 my beloved father, the very heart (along with my mother’s mother, Grandmother Fehrt, who was also much loved) of my large family, passed away after a short but heartbreaking battle with lung cancer. He’d been a cigarette smoker his whole life so it wasn’t a complete shock that it ended up killing him. Yet the suddenness and the swiftness of his departure devastated my six siblings, my mother, grandmother, and me. It was a very dark time for us.

To complicate the matter, my brothers and sisters, myself included, were in our forties and working hard at our lives, our families and jobs, but my grandmother and mother were left living alone together and neither one drove; so both needed constant care and attention. My grandmother was in her eighties and my mother in her late sixties; though my grandmother was fairly healthy (she was spunky lady, with a zest for life, who’d emigrated from Austria as a child) my mother was already in a wheelchair, crippled from bad ankle surgeries, debilitating osteoarthritis and a host of heart related problems.
The first thing the family had to do was move them into town, nearer to some of us, and out of the country where they’d been living in the new sprawling house my father had built them just the year before. It was too hard caring for them way out there and the house was too big, too expensive. Boy, that was fun. They had so much stuff, so many memories to dispose of and cry over. We settled them in a small ranch house in town and life went on.  Or tried to.

Now, I loved my mother and grandmother dearly but taking care of them was often difficult. Each needed concentrated care, love, endless visits to the doctor, prescriptions fulfilled and, as time went on, housekeeping and grocery shopping help–and finally, someone to do their bills, my mother becoming too disoriented and sick to any longer do any of those chores. For a long time, years, my grandmother stepped up, even at her age, and became my mother’s constant nurse and helper. Their two Social Security checks combined were just enough for them to live on. It was a thin line they had to tread and we tried to help them every step of the way.

So, with love, sometimes desperation, and some bickering every so often between us siblings as to who would do what when, we took care of them and their whole household, their house. There were many late night runs to hospital emergency rooms, or long stays, and rehab centers for my mother, who steadily over the next nine years grew worse. By the end of 2005 it seemed we were always at the hospital with mom or grandma. My mom had her heart troubles, high blood pressure and medication problems, and my grandmother broke her hip. One thing after another. It was exhausting at times. Who’d ever think two sick old ladies could need so much care?

Then my grandmother got really ill and was rushed to the hospital. She needed emergency surgery and afterwards was in intensive care for a month…never recovered…then sadly joined our grandfather in the next life. We were all so broken hearted.

That left our mother, all alone, without enough money to live on (her Social Security meager; no savings), and unable to care for herself or her three cats. Born an only child, she was a demanding sort of woman, almost childlike in her unending need for attention and devotion. She was terrified of going to a nursing home so the family did what we could to keep her in her own home as long as possible. My brother got her a reverse mortgage on her house and we all chipped in financially whenever and however we could. We fought the good fight but there came a day where mom got so sick, was rushed to the hospital so often, needed so much constant supervision, that my siblings and I had to admit defeat…mom had to go into a nursing home or one of us had to move in with her, which wasn’t feasible. We were married with families.

So a nursing home it was. We picked out a newly opened one in town, the nicest we could find, and the next time mom got sick we moved her into it for her recovery. Then told her the truth. The house was up for sale and the cats had been placed in new homes. I even took one, Patches (the cat in the story), because it was old and no one wanted her. My husband and I already had two cats but it was something I had to do…for mom.  She really loved that cat as she’d really loved her home. But poor Patches, probably pining for her mistress and her old life, only lasted five months. I lied to my mother for months afterwards, afraid to tell her that the old cat had died (mom had always said that when Patches died, she’d die) and it broke my heart when I finally had to tell her. Mom had come to our house for a family Thanksgiving and I couldn’t hide the fact that Patches was no longer there. Oh, that was hard. Telling her.

If anyone has ever put a parent or relative into a nursing home, they know the heartbreak it causes all around. My mother was inconsolable and my guilt was awful. But, as sick as mom had become, with so many prescriptions each day, hospital visits, and how most days she couldn’t even get out of bed or get to the bathroom, clean or feed herself…we had no choice. She stayed in that nursing home – although it was a bright cheery place with kind people running it – until she died two years later. The hardest two years of my life. I visited her often, shopped for her and kept her company. Decorated her room so it looked like a home. Brought her special lunches and little gifts. Fancy quilts and stuffed cats. It still broke my heart.

I began writing the novella, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, while she was there. A ghost story centered around a young woman who’s forced by grim circumstances into returning to her haunted, and deadly, childhood home because her mother is ill in a nursing home and needs her. Looking back now, I can see it was also my way of dealing with the nursing home guilt…of wishing for a different ending to mom’s life than what had occurred. Writing the story was my therapy. I cried all my sorrow out into those words and prayed to be forgiven for putting my mother into such a place.

Even In This House, the bonus short story included because it’s also a ghostly tale, deals with old age and the passing of all a person (or a couple in this instance) ever knew or loved as time and their lives slip away, as it must always do.  At the same time I was writing the Agnes story I read an article in the newspaper about this old man who was the last resident of a neighborhood that had been systematically bought out and emptied by an iron smelter plant. He was the last one living there in the last house. He spoke of his loneliness since his wife had died; about her. Their past. It sparked the idea for In This House. Both stories deal with responsibility, sacrifice and…love. Love for a mate, for an aging parent, children, and a way of life or the loss of one’s independence that we all in the end have to relinquish in one way or another. Life’s sorrows faced with a brave smile to cover the tears.   

I hope the two stories help anyone going through what I was going through in those difficult years. If they do, then the words have done their job.

****

About Kathryn Meyer Griffith

A writer for 40 years I’ve had 14 novels and 8 short stories published with Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, the Wild Rose Press, damnation Books and Eternal Press since 1984. And my romantic end-of-the-world horror novel THE LAST VAMPIRE-Revised Author's Edition is a 2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS FINALIST NOMINEE.

My books (most out again from Damnation Books and Eternal Press): Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forge, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire, Witches, The Nameless One short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper, All Things Slip Away, Egyptian Heart, Winter's Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don't Look Back, Agnes novella, In This House short story, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons, The Woman in Crimson, The Guide to Writing Paranormal Fiction: Volume 1 (I did the Introduction) ***

Interviewing Adoria

To celebrate the release of Seeker (book 1 of the Unsettled Series,) author Fiona Dodwell interviewed Adoria.
http://fionasfiction.wordpress.com/2011/09/15/su-halfwerk-interviewed-on-the-day-that-seeker-is-released/
Adoria Hall is movie star, Andrew Taylor's, personal bodyguard.

A lot of her personality shows in this interview. Please join us, and if you will, leave a comment. We would love to hear from you.



Till next time
Su

Guest Blog ~ DEMONIZED – When side characters take over by Naomi Clark

Today, Naomi Clark shares with us how Demonized, her latest release from Damnation Books, came to be.
Welcome, Naomi.

DEMONIZED – When side characters take over

When I wrote AFTERLIFE, I didn't honestly think it would ever get published. I was going through  a bad patch with my writing – I'd just left my agent, and wasn't sure I really had what it takes to "make it" as a writer. So in writing AFTERLIFE, I just wanted to have fun and I threw in a whole bunch of things purely to entertain myself. One of those things was Ethan Banning.

I've always had a thing for private eyes and noir, and I had a blast writing about down-and-out PI Ethan. I loved him the minute he showed up on the page. I loved his mannerisms, his not-as-funny-as-he-thinks jokes, and his ballsy, no-defeat attitude. I even loved the bad things about him, like his chain-smoking and incessant foul language. He wasn't supposed to be more than a side character, but for me he took over the page every time he came on it. So it seemed natural – nay, inevitable -  to me when AFTERLIFE was finished, to follow it up with a story all about Ethan.

You see, in AFTERLIFE, Ethan got possessed. Oh, sure, Yasmin Stoker, heroine of that story, helped get rid of the demon, but a little piece stayed behind. And now Ethan has it's voice in his head constantly, telling him to hurt people, to hurt himself. When you're already broke and living off noodles, that's the last thing you need. So in DEMONIZED, readers get to see what happens to Ethan now the events of AFTERLIFE are wrapped up. It's a dark book, and I actually felt pretty bad about some of the things I put Ethan through whilst writing it, but I love it nonetheless.

I got to know Ethan better now he was centre stage. I found that he loves dogs and late-night shopping channels, that he's not always as brave as he likes to pretend, and that he keeps his sense of humour no matter how bad things get. You've got to love a man like that, even if he's not real. And I hope readers will feel the same way I do.

Demonized Blurb:

PI Ethan Banning is smoking too much, sleeping too little, and hearing voices. One voice, to be exact: the voice of the demon that possessed him on his last case. A voice that urges him to hurt, rape, kill, and Ethan doesn't think he has the strength to ignore it much longer.

When his latest missing person case turns into a murder investigation, Ethan finds himself fighting not just demonic urges, but black magic, an incubus with a hidden agenda, and a client who just won't pay up. Luckily, Ethan's got a few friends on his side, like Detective Anna Radcliffe, and his trusty dog, Mutt. If Ethan can ignore the demon long enough, he might just solve this case before it kills him.

About Naomi Clark:

Naomi Clark lives in Cambridge and is a mild-mannered office worker by day, but a slightly crazed writer by night. She has a perfectly healthy obsession with giant sea creatures and a preference for vodka-based cocktails. When she's not writing, Naomi is probably either reading or watching 80s cartoon shows, and sometimes she manages to do all three at once.

Find me online!

http://naomijay.blogspot.com/ 

http://naomi-jay.livejournal.com/ 

http://twitter.com/#!/naomi_jay 

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Naomi-Clark-author/122375344483965

What is Variable Pricing?

Intricate Entanglement goes live at 12:01a.m. PST March 1^st on Damnation Book’s website. How about you take advantage of the Variable Pricing scheme and get a bunch of scary books for yourself or for a friend who has a taste for the darker side of things?

What’s Variable Pricing?

It means that at 12:01am PST on the day new books go live, in this case, March 1st, the newly released e-books on Damnation Book’s website are offered free.

Yes, you read that right, but mind you, only the first e-copy is totally free. After that, and as more people download the e-book, its price rises by 25cents until either:

•   The e-book reaches its full retail price.

Or

• 24 hours passed since it went live.

So, what are you waiting for? Setup that alarm on your watch, cell phone, or kitchen timer. Don’t miss this opportunity to grab some mighty dark fiction…I can hear the distant grating sounds of Damnation Book’s gates opening.

See you there.

About Intricate Entanglement:

Trapped in a lunatic asylum and compelled to listen to the stories of the deranged patients, Doug Pinkham becomes entangled in the twisted mind of a cold-blooded killer. As the reporter tries to get to the bottom of a mysterious murder case, he gets more than he bargained for. He must separate truth from fiction as he realizes he no longer controls his own world. Will Doug manage to escape the asylum, or will the killer’s stories lure him into an enigmatic world full of mazes, each so fascinating that he can’t stop listening?

Author Interview: Yolanda Sfetsos

Yolanda Sfetsos is an Australian author who loves to read and write tales of the otherworldly. Her writing mostly falls under the paranormal and urban fantasy; that includes horror and sci-fi/futuristic as well.

She’s one active storyteller. Let's find out more about her and her latest release Damaged.

•  Tell us a bit about yourself.

Well, I’m a writer. I live in a suburb of Sydney with my husband, daughter, and cat. I love making stuff up, and have actually been doing that for years now. Telling dark stories that deal with the supernatural is something that I absolutely love doing. I also enjoy torturing my characters a little too much.
I like to keep busy, and usually find myself swamped with stuff to do.

• When and why did you begin writing?

I started writing stories in my teens. I used to spend a lot of time alone in my room listening to music and reading, so my mind would wander a lot.
Besides, I’d been making up stories in my head since I was a kid, so writing them down was bound to happen. I’ve never looked back.

• If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

I always answer this question the same way—Clive Barker and Stephen King. When I picked up my first Clive Barker book (Cabal), I was instantly hooked. He filled my head with wondrous, yet horrible things that I couldn’t stop thinking about. His writing style grabbed me, and the depth of his characterization is outstanding. I love his work, he’s a master storyteller. Just like Stephen King.
They’re both amazing and led me down the darker path of storytelling.

• Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

Yes, I sometimes find myself totally drawn into the worlds that I create. And I can’t stop going back for more. I really enjoy writing sequels, prequels, and spin-offs.

• How long does it take you to write a book?

That all depends on the length, but if we’re talking about full-length books (over 50k) I can write the first draft in 4-6 weeks. I write very quick first drafts because once I immerse myself in the story, it literally pours out of me. Then I like to put it aside for a little while, before getting stuck into revision.
The final product takes several months, though. I’m a little superstitious and refuse to share my story until three drafts have been completed.

• What do you like to do when you're not writing?

Read, collect books, cruise the Internet, research, hang out with hubby and daughter, go for walks, listen to music, watch anime, TV shows, and movies. I also love to play Rock Band, and Mario Kart DS with hubby.
My fave non-writing thing in the world is having hubby and daughter home so we can just hang out.

• What does your family think of your writing?

Well, my husband is very supportive. He listens to all my happy chatter about ideas, the actual writing, acceptances, new covers, and also helps me through the harder times, when there are rejections that really sting. He’s great to chat to when I’m indecisive about something in particular. Just chatting to him about it helps me sort it out on my own. He also likes to read my stories, which is super cool!
As for my daughter, she loves checking out my covers, and has even helped me figure out a few things as far as characters go. She’s also come up with some titles for me. She’s only ten, but it looks like she’s inherited my crazy overactive imagination, lol.

• What genre are you most comfortable writing?

Oh my gosh, I’m one of those writers who loves to jump from one genre to another, as well as blend them together. I write urban fantasy, paranormal romance, sci-fi, futuristic, horror, and even YA.
If I had to answer the question as truthfully as I can, I would have to say that I’m most comfortable writing when there’s something supernatural/otherworldly going on.

• Do you ever come up with anything so wild that you scare yourself, that leaves you wondering where that came from?

Oh, yeah, this has definitely happened to me before. Several times. And each time I just can’t answer the what and why of it. I guess it’s just part of being a person who’s had a love affair with horror for many, many years.

• The perception of the horror writer is that he/she is just a little bit weirder than most. Do you find yourself — and other horror writers — to be more idiosyncratic than the average person?

Well, I can’t speak for other writers, but I can say that I am a little peculiar and stranger than most. Unlike most people, I don’t see spending time alone as lonely. I see it as a chance to write more. And I see story ideas in just about anything I see in front of me.
I’m also quite happy to spend most of the day at home, too. I’m a little bit of a hermit, except for my daily walks. I must go for a walk every single day… see, there it is. I didn’t mean to, but I just proved myself right. ;)

• Can you share a little of your current work with us?

My latest release from Damnation Books is a story about an aspiring author caught up in a bad marriage, a plumber who offers hope, a helpful priest, a creepy basement, and a demoness hellbent on getting her way.
It’s a horror story about a woman who thinks she might be losing her mind, but like everything else, there’s always more to the story.
You can find out more about Damaged here: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615721795

• How did you come up with the title for your book?

Well, initially I called this novella The Basement because so much of the creepy stuff actually happens in the basement, but when I revised it and delved deeper into what was really affecting the main character, Lane, I realized that so much in her life was damaged. And that really stuck.

• Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

I didn’t go out of my way to embed any sort of message, but I did find that one resonates within the story: how important it is for a person to be happy with their life situation.
There are always going to be negative forces that you can’t control in your life, which I portrayed in the way of a demoness’s effect on Lane’s life, sanity, and marriage, but in real life there are other personal demons we can’t keep from our lives. The one thing we can do is try to overcome them by finding happiness and doing whatever it takes to get there. Things don’t usually fall into your lap. You’ve got to make them happen.
I think it’s important to find happiness. Life’s too short not to.

• Are there parts of the book based on someone you know, or events in your own life?

Actually, no. Well, okay, the only thing that’s even closely related to real life is the fact that I’ve always been fascinated by attics and basements. Yet, I’ve never lived in a home with either.

• If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

No, I don’t think so. I think Lane and Bill’s tale is told. I’m very happy with how it turned out, thanks to my excellent editor, Andrea.

• Where can we find you online?

You can visit my website at www.yolandasfetsos.com to find out what the latest is as far as new contracts, new covers, and new releases are concerned. I also offer a variety of free reads that readers might like to grab for themselves to sample my work.
I also like to hang out at Twitter: http://twitter.com/yolandasfetsos

Yolanda, having you over is always a pleasure. Thank you for stopping by and good luck with your new release. 

Author Interview: Kathryn Meyer Griffith

Kathryn Meyer Griffith is a fellow author from Damnation Books. She’s also a wife, a mother, and a grandmother who worked in the corporate world for twenty-three years as a graphic designer and have been writing now for about thirty-nine years; the last ten years full time.

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

From about nine years old I wanted to be an artist. I wanted to grow up and be rich and famous for it. I started drawing objects, mainly horses and cats, and could reproduce almost anything in realistic detail. As one child of seven in a big, poor family that was my way of standing out. It also impressed the nuns to no end at my catholic grade school that I could exactly copy a holy card. Ha, ha.

• When and why did you begin writing?

At twenty one or so I was home, married and bored, after my son was born, and I read this historical romance that was sooo bad…and thought: I could write one better than this! And so, on my old typewriter, using lots of white-out because I’d never learned to type, I tried to write one. Twelve years later, after I’d grow up a lot (got divorced, went out in the world to work and got remarried) I went back to it and it sold as my second published novel THE HEART OF THE ROSE in 1985….which, by the way, is one of seven of my old Leisure and Zebra paperbacks being revised and rewritten by me and rereleased by Damnation Books and Eternal Press – and in e-books for the first time – in the next twenty months. I just finished rewriting it and was horrified, ironically, to see how bad it was. Well, 39 years ago, I thought, I sure didn’t know much! POV was all over the place and there were way too many adjectives and exclamation marks. I’m so glad I got to rewrite it.

• When did you first consider yourself a writer?

Strangely, not until I’d had seven novels published. It was 1994. But truthfully, it’s only been recently that I could call myself a real writer and not feel like a fraud or pretentious…with all the books (14 now) and short stories (7) and a long history of rejections, experiences and years of writing and being published behind me I finally feel like I’m a true writer. I’ve lived the life and paid dearly for it in many ways. I quit a good job many years ago to write; never have made a lot of money, but I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished over the thirty-nine years and that I never gave up no matter what. At least someday when I’m real old I won’t wish I’d gone after my dream, because I did and though not famous or wealthy, at least, I tried. I did what made me happy.

• If you had to choose, which writer would you consider a mentor?

Stephen King. I know every horror writer probably says that but for me it’s true. Not just because he writes horror but because his writing spans genres. He can write about anything. I admire his courage to do that. Like me, he’s not just a horror writer.

• What book are you reading now?

Neferiti by Michelle Moran. At the moment. I’ve also been rereading all of Noel Hynd’s books (who’s also with Damnation Books now). He was one of my contemporaries at Zebra in the early 1990’s and I love his stuff. He’s really good. But I always have to have a book to read. Late at night when my husband is sleeping. It’s my relaxation.

• What would you say is your interesting writing quirk?

I like to write with the TV on low, never music, in my recliner with my laptop in my lap; a cup of my homemade chocolate coffee and a donut or chocolate to eat.

• How many books have you written?

14 novels and 7 short stories. Would be more but I’m in the long tedious process of rewriting seven of my old Zebra and Leisure paperbacks going back 26 years. This, I figure, might take up to a year or more and then I’ll probably start a new book. Right now I’m trying not to let an idea for a new novel take me over, not until I have those seven done.

• What was one of the most surprising things you learned in creating your books?

That sometimes a character (her/his goals and problems, outlook on life with a past that made him/her that way) or characters just take over and the plot forms around them as the book grows. The books take me where they want to go sometimes and I don’t know where it’s coming from. The endings are sometimes a surprise, too.

• What do you think makes a good story?

If the reader ends up caring, really caring, for the characters I’ve created. If, during the book, the reader gets carried away to the world I’ve made and, at the end, he or she smiles or cries. Feels something. Then I’ve done my job.

• How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

Of course, I grew up poor in a large family, three brothers and three sisters, mom and dad. I was very close to my grandmother (my mother’s mother); she was a real storyteller. There was no money but there was love. I realized at an early age that to be noticed and to be someone in the world I needed to shine in some way. So I started drawing, making good grades and singing. I started singing with my brother, Jim; though I stopped when I got married and branched off into art and writing. So there’s a lot of my childhood, good and bad, in all my books. People not having much but overcoming adversity is a common theme.

• What genre are you most comfortable writing?

Horror. I’ve written paranormal romance, historical and time travel romance, murder mysteries…but the creepy always seems to slip in somewhere, somehow. Ghosts, vampires, possessed guns. I can’t stop it. Ha, ha.

• How do you develop your plots and characters? Do you use any set formula?

I start with a character or two or three and the plot develops through them. No formulas. No outlines. I just sit down and start writing and the book takes over. I usually have an idea where the plot is going and some kind of ending…but it often changes before I get there.

• What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

Technically speaking? Computers. If I had to still write my books on a typewriter I wouldn’t be writing any more, that’s for sure. Dictionary and thesaurus (never let the computer do the grammar or spell check for you because it doesn’t always do it right). Emotional tools? A thick skin. Self-motivation. Self-discipline. Perseverance. Belief in one self. A sense of imagination. Determination to learn the craft. A writing career is a life-long marathon, not a sprint.

• What was your first introduction to horror literature, the one that made you choose that genre to write?

When I was in grade school, through the Weekly Reader – remember those? – I ordered a book of ghostly short stories and I was hooked. A story in school called The Lottery. Then came Stephen King and Dean Koontz. Ahhhh.

• The perception of the horror writer is that he/she is just a little bit weirder than most. Do you find yourself — and other horror writers — to be more idiosyncratic than the average person?

Not really. I think all writers are a little strange. Mainly because we live in our own little worlds and spend so much time alone controlling our characters in make-believe. Can’t do that in real life. But horror writers are seen as stranger because we often deal with the supernatural and people perceive that as bizarre in itself. Most people don’t believe in ghosts, werewolves and vampires – but think that if you write about them, you believe. I published Witches in 1993 and people actually thought I was a witch! Got lots of threatening calls and mail from it, too. Sheesh. I’m no witch.

• What are your current projects?  

Well, I just had my 13th novel, an apocalyptic horror saga, BEFORE THE END: A Time of Demons released from Damnation Books, and on Sept. 7, my 14th book, a vampire novel, THE WOMAN IN CRIMSON will be released from Eternal Press. Then I’m rewriting those seven old Leisure and Zebra books from 1984-1994 (Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forge, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire, Witches and The Calling), which will be rereleased with new covers (the ones I’ve gotten so far from DB and EP are fantastic!), in e-books for the first time and in paperbacks, between now and July 2010 from DB and EP. That’s keeping me real busy right now.

• Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?

Well, you can go to any of my websites to see all my book covers, excerpts from my newest books, and see/listen to my self-made book trailers with music soundtracks by my singer/songwriter brother JS Meyer (www.jsmeyermusic.com). Look me up! Also, you can e-mail me anytime at rdgriff@htc.net if you’d like to talk to me. I love feedback.

• http:// www.myspace.com/kathrynmeyergriffith  *See all my new covers and self-made book trailers; some with my singer/songwriter brother Jim Meyer’s original songs!
• http://www.bebo.com/kathrynmeyerG
• http://www.authorsden.com/kathrynmeyergriffith
• http://kathrynmeyergriffith.intuitwebsites.com/
• http://www.facebook.com/home.php#!/profile.php?id=1019954486

 And…thank you so much Su for having me on your lovely blog today. Warmly, author Kathryn Meyer Griffith

You’re welcome, Kathryn, it’s nice to have you.

Su

Author Interview: Mark Edward Hall

Mark Edward Hall (a fellow Damnation Books author) is joining us today. Wasps, his first published story, appeared in Raven’s Tale Magazine in 1995. His latest book is a novella entitled The Haunting of Sam Cabot, which was published by Damnation Books in September of 2009. His next book, The Lost Village is available from Damnation in September of 2010.

• When and why did you begin writing?

I used to make up all sorts of horror stories when I was a kid and tell them to my friends. It actually became somewhat of an event when we’d get together. People I haven’t seen in years will come up to me and ask if I’m still telling those spooky tales. I tell them yeah, but now I write them down. I guess I’ve always had the writing bug. In high school I began writing poetry and songs. I’ve always been a song writer and have performed them live for years.

• Is there anything you find particularly challenging in your writing?

I like to surprise the reader with something new and startling instead of recycling the same old mythos. So yes, coming up with something new and refreshing every time is a challenge.

• What do you like to do when you're not writing?

I like playing in my band. It’s just part time now because I simply don’t have the time for anything more. But I still love doing it. I like hanging with my wife Sheila. We’re soul mates. She’s my number one fan, by the way, and I’m hers. She’s a very talented person in her own right. We enjoy antique shows and flea markets, hunting for rare treasures. We go to camp and hang out at the lake, garden together. Normal, non-horror stuff. Just like everyone else.

• How many books have you written?

Actually about six novels with two or three more in different stages of completion. I’ve also written and published two collections of short stories and have been published in magazines such as The Book of Dark Wisdom and anthologies such as the recent Masters of Horror anthology edited by Lee Pletzers.

• How has your environment/upbringing colored your writing?

My love for fiction and especially my love of anything to do with the macabre came from my grandmother Luella who lived with us during my formative years. She was a psychic, a medium and a great story teller. I sat mesmerized for hours on end while she told tales–most of which she professed were true–of the supernatural. She influenced me greatly. She’s why I began telling my own stories.

• What, in your opinion, are the most important elements of good writing?

Thoughtful sentence structure. I hate clumsy sentences. Good plotting, meaning keeping a coherent structure throughout the writing. Using the right word in the right context.

• What tools do you feel are must-haves for writers?

A dictionary, a thesaurus, a word processor, The elements of Grammar by Margaret Shertzer and The Elements of Style by Strunk and White. Oh yeah, and a good imagination.

• What scares you?

Heart attacks, cancer, auto accidents, plane crashes. Ordinary stuff. It’s why I write horror. It’s a way of dealing with fear. Some people go to church or psychiatrists. I write horror. In a way horror is a rehearsal for death.

• What was your first introduction to horror literature, the one that made you choose that genre to write?

I Am Legend by Richard Matheson.

• Why should fans of horror movies read horror books?

 Because books are better than movies. They take you into the heart of a story like no movie ever could. But we live in a fast food society and I realize that a lot of people would rather spend two hours watching a movie than eight or ten hours with a book. It’s the nature of our world. Sad but true.

• What one stereotype about horror writers is absolutely wrong? What one stereotype is dead on?

 What’s wrong is that we’re all somehow deranged. What’s dead on is that we’re all somehow deranged. You see where I’m going with this? It’s a double edged sword.

• What are your current projects?

  A supernatural thriller entitled Soul Thief that I’m publishing on my website as a free serial novel, one chapter at a time. We are now up to chapter eighteen. Those who follow along and comment will receive a free signed copy when it’s published. For those interested go to http://www.markedwardhall.com. Plus I’m Just finishing up a new psychological thriller entitled Cross my Heart and Hope to Die, and a post apocalyptic novel entitled On the Night Wind, an epic science fiction thriller entitled Angel Island, plus, my novelette The Fear is being read as an audio book. There will be a worldwide podcast premier sometime in October. For those who are interested in tuning in I’ll give details on my website and my facebook page when I know more.

• Can you share a little of your current work with us?

  Sure, The Lost Village is an epic supernatural thriller. The majority of the story takes place in a small town that has somehow gone adrift from the rest of the world. It’s about a man, a woman and a special little girl who join forces with some of the town citizens in an effort to save themselves and possibly all of humanity from a dark fate.
Read more about the book here: http://www.damnationbooks.com/book.php?isbn=9781615721856

• Is there a message in your novel that you want readers to grasp?

The book is filled with messages of love, hate, good, evil, questions of faith and hope, despair and redemption. It’s up to the readers to choose which ones are right for them.

•  If you had to do it all over again, would you change anything in your latest book?

 I wouldn’t change a thing.

•  Is there anything additional you would like to share with your readers?

I hope you enjoy The Lost Village. My heart and soul went into that book, and my life is all the richer for writing it. I would like to think that, in some small way, it might enrich the lives of others.

Mark, thank you for visiting and good luck with your latest release.

You can find Mark Edward Hall online here:

• Site: http://www.markdwardhall.com/
• Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1419547878
• Twitter: http://twitter.com/markedwardhall
• Goodreads: http://www.goodreads.com/author/show/3055446.Mark_Edward_Hall
• Myspace: http://www.myspace.com/markedwardhall
• Library Thing: http://www.librarything.com/home/MarkEdwardHall

Guest Blog: Bizarre Love Triangle ~ Yolanda Sfetsos

Please welcome fellow "Damnation Books" author, Yolanda Sfetsos as she guest blogs here today. One thing about this astonishing lady; she has a unique way with words.
Over to you, Yolanda!

Bizarre Love Triangle

I love that song! And as I write this, I happen to be listening to it. :) But I'm not going to talk about New Order's cool song today. Instead I'm going to talk about the very strange and twisted love triangles that managed to make their way into the Alyce Kerr, Faith Healer Trilogy.

Since the third installment is now available from my awesome publisher, Damnation Books:

Boundless: Book 3 of the Alyce Kerr, Faith Healer Trilogy

Alyce remains estranged from her celebrity status as a Faith Healer and is holed up inside a motel room with the mysterious Sebastian. Her soul might no longer belong to Buer, but the fight is far from over. The price for her freedom was devastating.

Ross made a deal with a demonologist in order to save Alyce, and is now at the mercy of the crazy woman and the demon Buer. There is no escape from the basement in which the three are trapped in, and he has to bear the torture.

When Sebastian finds a way to save Ross, Alyce must engage in an ancient, carnal ritual that complicates her life further. But for Ross, she’s willing to put both her heart and soul on the line… even if it means losing him.

I have to admit that it wasn't intentional. I mean, Alyce's story is filled with complications, as she tries to find her way out of the very dark place she's managed to corner herself into. It also focuses on how she reconnects with her ex-fiance, Ross. After a horrible misunderstanding between them, several years ago, she walked away. Even got a restraining order against him because she was convinced he'd tried to kill her.

Fast forward to now, and she's lost total control of her life. The demon, Buer, gave her the power to become a celebrity Faith Healer, but the cost is now outweighing the benefits. So when Ross appears and tries to help her, she finds herself being swept up in old feelings. Of course, at the time that I was writing this, I didn't realise that Buer doesn't just enjoy sipping at Alyce's soul, he actually wants her in every sense of the word. I'm not sure I would call this a romantic notion, but he wants her, regardless.

That's when the first love triangle popped up. Throw a cunning demonologist into the mix, and suddenly it's quite obvious that she's got her eye on Ross. It doesn't matter that she wants him for her own selfish reasons. Once again, she wants him. Oh, and let's not forget the very mysterious and alluring Sebastian. He's one of those characters that intrigued me as soon as he made an appearance in the trilogy. I found myself wanting to know more and more about him, which happens in Boundless.

Unfortunately, teaming up with Alyce to help Ross out of the demonologist's trap, also puts him in the middle of... you guessed it, another love triangle. Emphasis on bizarre.

And you know what? As unintentional as they were, each added a new struggle for the characters to overcome, and also a degree of depth that challenges all of them. Strange, but true. Sometimes a few (odd) entanglements can do wonders for your characters. :)

Thanks for having me here today, Su! It's been fun to share a little more about the dark world that Alyce lives in.

Oh, and because I couldn't help myself... here's that song:

Alyce Kerr, Faith Healer Trilogy

Now available from Damnation Books.

Or visit my website for information about the print versions.

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Yolanda Sfetsos
http://www.yolandasfetsos.com/

Yolanda Sfetsos lives in Sydney, Australia with her husband, daughter, and cat. She loves to spend most of her days writing stories. Her muse doesn't like genre restrictions and is always happy to toe the dark edge of storytelling. When she’s not writing she spends as much time as possible with her small family. She also enjoys watching movies, TV shows and reading.