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Halloween Extravaganza: INTERVIEW: Catherine Cavendish

megHan

Catherine Cavendish is a must-read horror author and someone I am super excited about having involved in this year’s Halloween Extravaganza. If you haven’t read any of her work, I encourage you to give her a chance. It won’t be a waste of time, I assure you.

Meghan: Hi, Catherine. Welcome welcome. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Catherine Cavendish: I’m a published author of horror tales mainly in the supernatural, paranormal, Gothic, and ghostly traditions.

Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?

Catherine Cavendish: When I was a child, I planted a conker that is now a flourishing, tall horse chestnut tree

I am not fond of chocolate. I don’t hate it, but I could live without it perfectly happily. Cheese on the other hand…

I have a phobia about stairs – I had a nasty accident involving them a few years back.

When I was a small child, I wanted to be a ballerina.

Again, when I was a small child, I had an invisible friend called Gerry. He went everywhere with me, much to my mother’s embarrassment.

Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?

Catherine Cavendish: Alice in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

Meghan: What are you reading now?

Catherine Cavendish: I am re-reading Collected Ghost Stories by M.R. James.

Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?

Catherine Cavendish: Tales of the City – Armistead Maupin. I love all his books – a true guilty pleasure.

Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?

Catherine Cavendish: There is no one answer to this as I cannot remember a time I didn’t want to write. The need to tell a story that builds in my head and refuses to go away is what always gets me started. I began writing as soon as I could hold a pencil.

Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?

Catherine Cavendish: At my desk in my home office/library. The walls are lined with bookshelves. Perfect for me.

Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?

Catherine Cavendish: Nothing out of the ordinary. I research locations and settings on the internet and create a file of pictures. I also do this with main characters. For books requiring research, I read a lot beforehand to drown myself in the atmosphere of the time and place in which I am setting the story.

Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?

Catherine Cavendish: Hunting out and ridding the story of anomalies that creep in. Even when you think you’ve dispatched them all, there is always one lurking in a corner ready to trip you up.

Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?

Catherine Cavendish: That’s a hard one to answer. I am particularly partial to my latest – The Haunting of Henderson Close – because I had the basic idea for that story for a number of years and finally got around to writing it.

Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?

Catherine Cavendish: Creature by Hunter Shea is an amazing book – not only is it sublime horror but it is also one of the most moving stories I have ever read. NOS4A2 by Joe Hill is riveting, Ramsey Campbell, Stephen King, M.R. James, Susan Hill, Jonathan Janz… the list of amazing horror authors past and present continue to inspire me. Emily Bronte and Daphne du Maurier have also been sources of great inspiration and continue to be.

Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?

Catherine Cavendish: Strong, multi layered characters working their way through a plot with unexpected twists and turns, challenges, atmosphere, suspense and an ending you weren’t expecting.

Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?

Catherine Cavendish: I hate prissy, sweet, text book characters. I love flawed, sometimes damaged personalities who fight against the circumstances in which they find themselves. I like them to be non-conformist or to have broken away from the life they were expected to follow. I like rebels. I strive to incorporate this in my main characters. They are usually thirty years old, or more, and have had ups and downs in their lives. Of course, little do they know that things are about to take a turn for the worse and they will need all their reserves of strength and resilience…

Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?

Catherine Cavendish: There are elements of me in most of my main characters but none are especially like me. I suppose the closest is probably Nessa who features in a novel I am currently working on. She goes through some of the major medical issues I faced a few years ago and I do see more of myself in her.

Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?

Catherine Cavendish: If we are honest, I think most of us look at the cover first and make an unconscious snap judgement about the content of the story based on that. I am lucky in that all my publishers (so far) have involved me quite heavily in the process. For The Haunting of Henderson Close and my upcoming novel, The Garden of Bewitchment, the publishers – Flame Tree Press – invited me to submit suggestions. I did so, fairly comprehensively as I always do, and the resulting covers are as near to my vision as I believe it is possible to be. I am delighted with them and feel they accurately reflect the content in each case. This also applies to my titles with Crossroad Press.

Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?

Catherine Cavendish: That you never stop learning and there is always room for improvement.

Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?

Catherine Cavendish: That has to be in my current work in progress because it involved a serious medical condition and surgery I actually lived through. While I was writing it, I felt myself back in the hospital, in pain, a bit scared and wondering how I was going to get through it. As far as my currently published work is concerned, the final scene in Saving Grace Devine reduced me to tears.

Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?

Catherine Cavendish: I think you would have to ask my readers that one. I like to think maybe it’s the combination of gothic with supernatural and the twists I take at the end. I like to challenge!

Meghan: How important is the book title, how hard is it to choose the best one, and how did you choose yours (of course, with no spoilers)?

Catherine Cavendish: I think titles are critical. Whenever I come up with one, I always check it to see if there are any other books with the same title. If there are, I avoid it and think again. Of course, there is nothing to stop someone else coming up with the same title as yours, but I think it prevents possible confusion if you try and avoid one already in use.

Sometimes a title is the first thing that comes to me and, at other times, I really have to work at it, discarding three or four choices before finding the one that really fits the bill. One of the easiest was The Haunting of Henderson Close. I had picked the name of the Close after checking that no such place existed in Edinburgh and, as the novel was about an evil haunting, the rest came naturally.

Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?

Catherine Cavendish: In their own ways, both, but because of the length of time and energy expended on writing a novel, the time when you finally decide ‘that’s it’, is a greatly fulfilling one.

Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your books, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.

Catherine Cavendish: My take on horror is the jump-scare, something lurking in the shadows, the stuff of nightmares. I often set – at least part of – my stories in the past because I love history and exploring historical locations. Mine is the world of ghosts, demons, witches, devils and unquiet spirits, frequently with a Gothic flavour. I use folklore traditions that exist and ones I create myself. My target audience is anyone who enjoys a scary, creepy story, suspense and/or horror. When they have finished one of my stories, I hope readers have enjoyed the experience and want to read more

Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?

Catherine Cavendish: If a scene fails to move the story along, or has no relevance to what came before or will come after, out it goes. Once it’s gone, it’s gone and I don’t tend to think about it anymore.

Meghan: What is in your “trunk”?

Catherine Cavendish: I have a tin containing scraps of paper with notes on, or sometimes merely a line or two suggesting a plot for a short story, novel or novella. One came from a vivid dream I had which I can still remember around six years on. I was in a wood and came across an old timber hut. There was an exquisite and clearly expensive picture on the porch…and that’s all I’m telling you. I’ll write that story one day… maybe

Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?

Catherine Cavendish: On February 10th, Flame Tree Press will be publishing The Garden of Bewitchment which is set in Bronte country – Haworth and its environs – in West Yorkshire, near where I grew up. This is a ghostly and Gothic tale involving twin sisters who are obsessed with the works of the Bronte sisters. Here’s the official blurb:

Don’t play the game

In 1893, Evelyn and Claire leave their home in a Yorkshire town for life in a rural retreat on their beloved moors. But when a strange toy garden mysteriously appears, a chain of increasingly terrifying events is unleashed. Neighbour Matthew Dixon befriends Evelyn, but seems to have more than one secret to hide. Then the horror really begins. The Garden of Bewitchment is all too real and something is threatening the lives and sanity of the women.

Evelyn no longer knows who – or what – to believe. And time is running out.

Meghan: Where can we find you? (Links to anywhere you’re okay with fans connecting with you.)

Catherine Cavendish: Website ** Facebook ** Twitter ** Goodreads

(I also have Instagram but I’m not particularly good at it! Camera-shy I guess.)

Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview?

Catherine Cavendish: Thank you to everyone who has read or reads my work. I really appreciate your support. Long may it continue. Keep reading scary stories!

Cat first started writing when someone thrust a pencil into her hand. Unfortunately as she could neither read nor write properly at the time, none of her stories actually made much sense. However as she grew up, they gradually began to take form and, at the tender age of nine or ten, she sold her dolls’ house, and various other toys to buy her first typewriter. She hasn’t stopped bashing away at the keys ever since, although her keyboard of choice now belongs to her laptop.

The need to earn a living led to a varied career in sales, advertising and career guidance but Cat is now the full-time author of a number of supernatural, ghostly, haunted house and Gothic horror novels, novellas and short stories. These include (among others): The Haunting of Henderson Close, The Devil’s Serenade, and Saving Grace Devine.

Her new novel – The Garden of Bewitchment – is out from Flame Tree Press on February 10th 2020.

Cat lives in Southport, in the U.K. with her longsuffering husband, and a black cat, who has never forgotten that her species was once worshipped in Egypt.

When not slaving over a hot computer, Cat enjoys wandering around Neolithic stone circles and visiting old haunted houses.

The Haunting of Henderson Close

Ghosts have always walked there. Now they’re not alone…

In the depths of Edinburgh, an evil presence is released.

Hannah and her colleagues are tour guides who lead their visitors along the spooky, derelict Henderson Close, thrilling them with tales of spectres and murder. For Hannah it is her dream job, but not for long. Who is the mysterious figure that disappears around a corner? What is happening in the old print shop? And who is the little girl with no face?

The legends of Henderson Close are becoming all too real. The Auld De’il is out – and even the spirits are afraid.

The Devil’s Serenade

Maddie had forgotten that cursed summer. Now she’s about to remember…

When Maddie Chambers inherits her Aunt Charlotte’s Gothic mansion, old memories stir of the long-forgotten summer she turned sixteen. She has barely moved in before a series of bizarre events drives her to question her sanity.

The strains of her aunt’s favorite song echo through the house, the roots of a faraway willow creep through the cellar, a child who cannot exist skips from room to room, and Maddie discovers Charlotte kept many deadly secrets.

Gradually, the barriers in her mind fall away, and Maddie begins to recall that summer when she looked into the face of evil. Now, the long dead builder of the house has unfinished business and an ancient demon is hungry. Soon it is not only Maddie’s life that is in danger, but her soul itself, as the ghosts of her past shed their cover of darkness.

Saving Grace Devine

“Can the living help the dead…and at what cost? “

When Alex Fletcher finds a painting of a drowned girl, she s unnerved. When the girl in the painting opens her eyes, she is terrified. And when the girl appears to her as an apparition and begs her for help, Alex can t refuse.

But as she digs further into Grace s past, she is embroiled in supernatural forces she cannot control, and a timeslip back to 1912 brings her face to face with the man who killed Grace and the demonic spirit of his long-dead mother. With such nightmarish forces stacked against her, Alex s options are few. Somehow she must save Grace, but to do so, she must pay an unimaginable price. “

Halloween Extravaganza: INTERVIEW: B.R. Stateham

megHan

Meghan: Hi, B.R. Welcome to Meghan’s House of Books. I appreciate you taking time out of your busy day to sit down with me. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

B.R. Stateham: My name is B.R. Stateham. I am a seventy-year-old writer of genre fiction. I have been writing stories since I was ten years old. And no, I am not famous. For the last 35 years I’ve been married to a tolerant wife who puts up with my eccentricities. Most of the time. We have three kids, five grand kids, a dog . . . all the ‘stuff’ that makes up a typical human being. Nothing special here, which frankly, I am grateful for. Who wants to constantly live under a spotlight all the time?

Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?

B.R. Stateham: There’s nothing here. I’m an open book for normalcy. Two arms, two legs, five fingers on each hand, and a wise-ass mouth. You get what you see.

Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?

B.R. Stateham: It had to be something in science-fiction. I definitely remember getting hooked on the Edgar Rice Burroughs’ Barsoom novels featuring a Martian princess by the name of Dejah Thor and an earthman by the name of John Carter of Virginia. Burroughs is the guy who created Tarzan of the Apes, another of his series which I devoured at the age of 10 or 11.

Meghan: What are you reading now?

B.R. Stateham: The Norwegian mystery writer, Jo Nesbo, has a new novel out called The Knife. Nesbo writes a dark noir kind of mystery, a bit bleak, with a police detective named Harry Hole (I know; it’s a funny name, but probably not pronounced in Norwegian as we do here in the States). The writer has all the standard tropes found in this kind of novel. The main character is an alcoholic. He’s a loner, misunderstood and difficult to be around people. The standard shtick. But, for me, somehow it works. I have this ‘thing’ of tasting mystery novels from authors living in places other than the States.

Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?

B.R. Stateham: Haven’t found one yet, although I think most people would be very surprised if I read a romance novel and enjoyed it. Including myself in that equation.

Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?

B.R. Stateham: I was ten years old when I wrote my first story. A full-length sci-fi novel. Hand written. Edgar Rice Burroughs put the writing bug in me at ten for science fiction. A twelve or fourteen, a guy by the name of Dashiell Hammitt torched me with a desire to write mystery fiction. I’ve been writing ever since.

Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?

B.R. Stateham: Not really. The big computer I work on is in a converted bedroom I use as a book depository and writing desk. But I have a laptop I take with me. And it seems I am always writing, or plotting out a story line, in my head no matter where I am at. So the ‘writing’ never seems to stop with me.

Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?

B.R. Stateham: A big glass of instant tea. And when available, a little silence around me. But a house filled with grand-kids pretty will eliminates the second choice. (sigh)

Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?

B.R. Stateham: Generally speaking, just sitting down and beginning the typing process. I don’t know what it is, but I find myself straining to climb that mountain of inertia when it comes to the physical aspect of writing. Don’t ask me why. I have no answer. Specifically, writing action scenes are difficult. I have to really, really slow down when chopping on the keyboards writing an action scene. Movement, physicality, action and reaction have to make sense. Hard to do when, in reality, the action sequences in a novel are the most exciting times to write.

Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?

B.R. Stateham: I have a recurring character by the name if Smitty. He’s a hit man/investigator. I wrote a short story a while back explaining how Smitty became Smitty. Going from a normal married man to a man who becomes, in many respects, a cold-blooded killer. But one with a code of honor. Without doubt, that’s the best thing I’ve produced so far.

Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?

B.R. Stateham: Hundreds of books. Dozens of authors. No one book, or one author, truly stands out. But all combined inspired me and gave me that incentive to experiment in the writing form and finding my own voice and style. I’d be hard pressed to single out a particular writer. Each one I’ve read and appreciated has contributed something to my logbook on how to write. To name names now, and explain why they’ve impressed me in their writing styles would become a long essay, if not an entire book, of wishful thinking.

Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?

B.R. Stateham: For me it breaks down to three elements. One, a kick-ass opening which glues me instantly to the story. Two, a character, usually the lead character, who I can love or hate who is quirky and three-dimensional in nature. And Three, imagination. I want to see what is going on inside the novel. I want to taste it . . . feel it . . . the whole nine yards. (To be honest, the imagination part probably is what made me become a writer. The more I read, the less I found writers who could convey their imagination over into the words. So they didn’t. They just barely drew an outline and told the writer to fill in the colors and details. For some reason, that really pisses me off.)

Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?

B.R. Stateham: See my answer to the above question.

Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?

B.R. Stateham: This is a hard one. I have several recurring characters in a about three different series I am writing. Each has their own traits. Their own strengths and weaknesses. I like them all. I don’t know if I can say I have a ‘favorite.’

Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?

B.R. Stateham: Absolutely turned off by bad covers. And yes, I try to be actively involved in cover design. In self-publishing and using small indie publishers, I usually can have my way in cover designs. So far I have had limited success in finding a major publisher for any of my work, and they never ask me for any real input in their decisions. Nor, if I ever get lucky and find a major publisher again who likes my work, do I expect them to ask me for my opinions.

Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?

B.R. Stateham: Money talks. If you have the money to create the book you want, you get what you want. If you’re funds are limited, so is the end product. As simple as that.

Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?

B.R. Stateham: Again, action scenes.

Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?

B.R. Stateham: I wished I could tell you convincingly. But I can only hazard a guess. I think I put more imagination in my efforts. I try to draw characters verbally which capture your complete attention. I try to write plots which are tightly drawn and hang together, drawing you deeper into the story without you realizing you’re being pulled in. At least, that’s what I hope I am doing.

Meghan: How important is the book title, how hard is it to choose the best one, and how did you choose yours (of course, with no spoilers)?

B.R. Stateham: Book titles are very important. Usually what a potential reader sees first is either the title, or the artwork of the cover. Both go hand in hand.

Therefore, both are critical. Generally, I find the title for my book or short story in the body of the story. A phrase, a sentence, an idea . . . there is something within the story which gives me the title. And that title has to foretell what the story is about. It doesn’t have to be a blunt-force trauma kind of title. But it must be suggestive. Maybe even a bit menacing.

Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?

B.R. Stateham: The length of the story doesn’t matter. The story must be sharply defined, tightly plotted. Even elegant, if you’ll allow that idea to be considered. A definite beginning, middle, and end. And it has to create some kind of emotional reaction. A reaction which fits the story. If I achieve all of this, I’ve done my job as a writer.

Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your books, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.

B.R. Stateham: I write mysteries, police-procedurals, two different historical mystery series and fantasy series. At the moment, I am hunting for publishers for the historical mysteries and the fantasy series. But I do have a mystery series, featuring the hit man named Smitty.

The first book in the series is called, Dark Retribution Volume I: Smitty’s Calling Card. This is the first full-length Smitty novel. The publisher is a small indie from out of Britain (Close to the Bone).

Volume two of the series (Dark Retribution, Volume II: Sometimes Nightmares Come True) came out September 27th of this year. This is ten short stories plus a novella featuring the dark-eyed Smitty.

Fahrenheit Press (another Brit indie) has one of my historical detective mysteries out, the title being Death of a Young Lieutenant. A series featuring an art thief turned-reluctant-detective by the name of Jake Reynolds. The series is set in the first part of the 20th Century, starting in the opening weeks of 1914 and the beginning of World War One.

Each of these books can be found either in Amazon Books, or on the publisher’s web sites. Hope to have news soon detailing about a few of my other novels circulating the circuit hunting for a publisher. We’ll see.

Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?

B.R. Stateham: What deleted scenes?

Meghan: What is in your “trunk”?

B.R. Stateham: Oh, golly. Currently I have about five novels in the que, plus that many or more short stories I’m working on. The writing never stops. Sometimes it slows down. But it never stops.

Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?

B.R. Stateham: More writing and adding to the many series I’ve started. Just more writing in general.

Meghan: Where can we find you?

B.R. Stateham: You can find me on Twitter and Facebook. Usually under my full name (Bryant R. Stateham). I also have a blog site called In the Dark Mind of B.R. Stateham. The blog lists everything I have published at one time or another, plus I talk about writing in general.

Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview?

B.R. Stateham: Thanks for the interview! I appreciated the invitation. I hope I’ve said something . . . anything . . . even remotely interesting. And I hope your readers might be intrigued enough to check out some of my material. Gaining a reader or two is always something I strive for. Becoming a successful writer is more a matter of sheer luck than it is of pure talent. Therefore, I feel really lucky whenever anyone discovers, and enjoys, something I have written.

With luck, maybe we can do this again someday. That would be a blast!

B.R. Stateham is a fourteen-year-old boy trapped in a seventy-year-old body. But his enthusiasm and boyish delight in anything mysterious and/or unknown continue.

Writing novels, especially detectives, is just the avenue of escape which keeps the author’s mind sharp and inquisitive. He’s published a ton of short stories in online magazines like Crooked, Darkest Before the Dawn, Abandoned Towers, Pulp Metal Magazine, Suspense Magazine, Spinetingler Magazine, Near to The Knuckle, A Twist of Noir, Angie’s Diary, Power Burn Flash, and Eastern Standard Crime. He writes both detective/mysteries, as well as science-fiction and fantasy.

In 2008 the first book in the series featuring homicide detectives Turner Hahn and Frank Morales came out, called Murderous Passions.

Also, in 2008 he self-published a fantasy novel entitled, Roland of the High Crags: Evil Arises.

In 2009 he created a character named Smitty. So far twenty-eight short stories and two novellas have been written about this dark eyed, unusually complex hit man.

In 2012 Untreed Reads published book two of the Turner Hahn/Frank Morales series A Taste of Old Revenge.

In 2015 NumberThirteen Press published a Smitty novella entitled, A Killing Kiss.

In 2017 a British indie publisher, Endeavour Media, re-issued A Taste of Old Revenge, and soon followed by a second Turner Hahn/Frank Morales novel entitled, There Are No Innocents.

In 2018 Endeavour Media published a third novel of mine, the first in a 1st Century Roman detective series, entitled While the Emperor Slept.

Also in 2018, NumberThirteen Press merged with another famous British indie, Fahrenheit Press. Soon afterwards, Fahrenheit Press re-issued an old novel of mine entitled, Death of a Young Lieutenant.

Now, after all of this apparent success, you would think Fame and Fortune would have sailed into my harbor, making me the delight of the hard-core genre world. Ah but contraire, mon ami! Fame and Fortune are two devious little wraiths who pick and chooses the poor souls they wish to bedevil. I remain in complete anonymity and am just as bereft of fortune as I have always been. And apparently will continue to be for a long time to come.

Dark Retribution 1: Smitty’s Calling Card

He’s desperate. He knows his sister-in-law is the next victim. And even though he’s a cop assigned to the team built to hunt the killer down and arrest him, they’ve had no luck finding him. How does he save his sister-in-law?

Sometimes to fight evil, you must flirt with the devil. Sometimes you need a killer to find a killer.

Dark Retribution 2: Sometimes Nightmares Come True

How does a man become a cold-blooded hit man? Once, a loving husband and loyal brother… now a strange man who kills for profit. And for conviction. Ten short stories and a novella explaining the transition of an ordinary man into a near-legend.

Halloween Extravaganza: A.F. Stewart: Ghostly Tradition

megHan

A.F. Stewart joins us today to discuss ghost stories, a Halloween tradition that we both love. She even includes a couple of stories from her native Nova Scotia.

To me the ghost story is the one horror tradition for Halloween that is essential. From tales around the campfire to classic icons from literature—such as the Headless Horseman or the Canterville Ghost—spooks haunt Halloween to perfection.

So what makes the eerie ghost tale so appealing to me?

Ghost stories are, in essence, born from tragedy, the need to remember those lost. They are the emotional resonance of those haunting memories on human consciousness and the ultimate in psychological horror.

Nova Scotia, where I live, has a long tradition of ghost stories. Most every town has a tale, from Alexander Keith, a brewmaster that still haunts his original brewery, to the spectral lady of Peggy’s Cove, or the ghostly tall ship that sails the Northumberland Strait from beyond the grave. You cannot grow up in Nova Scotia without hearing a ghost story or two, or three. They are bound up in our seafaring tradition, our folklore, and in the very fabric of our culture and history. They are real life misfortune woven into tradition, belief, and heritage.

So I thought I’d share two of my favourite local tales.

The Ghost Ship of Mahone Bay

Privateers are another bit of Nova Scotia history as more than a few scoundrels and scallywags plied their legal pirate trade in and around our seas. One such ship, was the Young Teazer, out of Maine, who made the mistake of sailing north in 1813 to tangle with the British. Unfortunately, outside Mahone Bay they met their match and were on the losing end of a skirmish with a British ship and their cannons. To avoid capture, the crew set the Young Teazer on fire, but compounded their problems when their gunpowder exploded. The ship went down in a flaming blaze and sunk beneath the waves.

Yet, you can’t seem to keep a privateer down, as several sightings of a ghostly ship burning in the Mahone Bay waters have occurred. Some have claimed to have even heard the screams of the crew. Visions of a flaming ship shimmer on the horizon and then vanish. It seems the Young Teazer may still be trying to escape the British and go home…

The Face in St. Paul’s Window

On December 5, 1917, two ships collided in Halifax Harbour, one a relief ship and one, a munitions ship stockpiled with explosives. The resulting explosion devastated the city of Halifax and killed over fifteen hundred people. It also left a legacy of ghosts. The window of St. Paul’s Anglican Church is one. As the story goes, an organist was caught in the blast, decapitated, and his head smashed through a church window. And the silhouette of his head is said to remain etched in the glass to this day, despite the window glass being replaced at least three times. It appears a piece of the poor man’s soul still lingers in the place where he died…

Further Reading:

If you’d like to know more about Nova Scotia ghost tales from a master storyteller, check out these books:

The Lunenburg Werewolf and Other Stories of the Supernatural by Steve Vernon
Where the Ghosts Are by Steve Vernon

And if you like a few more classic ghostly gems in books and movies this Halloween season, check out these recommendations.

Books:

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson
The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman
The Shining by Stephen King

Movies:

Sleepy Hollow
The Others
The Sixth Sense
Stir of Echoes

A steadfast and proud sci-fi and fantasy geek, A.F. Stewart was born and raised in Nova Scotia, Canada, and still calls it home. The youngest in a family of seven children, she always had an overly creative mind and an active imagination. She favours the dark and deadly when writing – her genres of choice being dark fantasy and fiction – but she has been known to venture into the light on occasion. As an indie author, she’s published the Saga of the Outer Islands trilogy, as well as various novellas and story collections, with a few side trips into poetry.

Saga of the Outer Islands series

Saga of the Outer Islands 1: Ghosts of the Sea Moon

In the Outer Islands, gods and magic rule the ocean.

Under the command of Captain Rafe Morrow, the crew of the Celestial Jewel ferry souls to the After World and defend the seas from monsters. Rafe has dedicated his life to protecting the lost, but the tides have shifted and times have changed.

His sister, the Goddess of the Moon, is on a rampage and her creatures are terrorizing the islands. The survival of the living and dead hinge on the courage and cunning of a beleaguered captain and his motley crew of men and ghosts.

What he doesn’t know is that her threat is part of a larger game. That an ancient, black-winged malevolence is using them all as pawns…

Come set sail with ghosts, gods, and sea monsters.

Saga of the Outer Islands 2: Souls of the Dark Sea

From the depths, darkness is rising…

Something ancient and powerful stirs beneath the sea of the Outer Islands. A creature strong enough to challenge Captain Rafe Morrow, Gods of Souls, for control of the dead and the survival of the living.

Still reeling from the aftermath of his battle with the Goddess of the Moon, Rafe and the crew of the Celestial Jewel finds a mysterious shipwreck and strange tales of bones. Tasked by a new ally to find answers, Rafe stumbles on long-buried secrets shrouded in the shadows of the Nightmare Crow.

Now armies of the dead ascend from the ocean. And their master is not far behind.

Set sail on a new adventure with ghosts, gods, and sea monsters!

Saga of the Outer Islands 3: Renegades of the Lost Sea

A god, his mother, and a Nightmare Crow.

Old enemies surface once again and undead pirates roam the seas. The man he killed, Black Axe Morgan, has returned for revenge on Captain Rafe Morrow, while from the shadows the Nightmare Crow reveals his true self. The two form an alliance and bring mayhem to the seas, all to draw out Captain Morrow and his crew.

Yet, this time, Rafe doesn’t face his enemies alone. Death walks the Outer Islands to save her son and the Sovereign of the Gods leads Captain Morrow past all the lies to the truth. The fate of Chaos and Harmony itself hangs in the balance of this fight.

Will centuries of schemes and plans reforge the bond of the realms, or will the Seven Kingdoms and the Outer Islands fall?

Can the God of Souls find his destiny before it is too late?

The endgame of gods begins…

Killers & Demons series

Killers & Demons

Sometimes the villains win…

This time the heroes don’t rise, there are no knights in shining armour, and good doesn’t triumph. It is time for the villains’ story.

Craving a little blood or perhaps some horrific death? Slake your gruesome thirst for vicarious thrills with five chilling stories that go inside the twisted lives of serial killer and beyond to the dark, disturbing company of demons.

Craving a little blood or perhaps some horrific death? Slake your gruesome thirst for vicarious thrills with five chilling stories that go inside the twisted lives of serial killers and beyond to the dark, disturbing company of demons. Turn the pages and delve into the dark and murky world of evil.

The Tales:
A woman wakes up afraid, alone, and in complete darkness.
A collector of hearts stalks Valentine’s Day.
One man on the edge of being London’s most famous serial killer.
Hell has a bounty hunter.
Demon vs. knight with one soul as the prize.

Killers & Demons, where the macabre murderers don’t get caught and evil triumphs. Come watch the blood drip slowly, sweetly from their fingers.

Killer & Demons II: They Return

Evil is back, with a greater appetite for death.

Killers.
Demons.
They lurk forever in the shadows, smile at you in the morning, and haunt your dreams at night. You can’t hide, you can’t run, and there’s no escape. You can only scream when they come for you.

Killers & Demons II: They Return is a collection of thirteen tales, blending short stories and flash fiction, tales where the blood lingers on your tongue or spurts quickly from the swift cut.

The Villainous Roster:
Wade, every parent’s nightmare.
Hannah and Mr. Greeley. Who is the victim and who is the villain?
Simon and Zoe, a married couple who are dying to be single again.
Norman and his “cookie” of a wife, Mabel.
Millicent and Jane, a delightful duo you shouldn’t invite to your Regency tea party.
Amanda, who literally has a skeleton in her closet.
Balthazar, the demon bounty hunter on the hunt once more.
Sarah, a young woman going through some changes and craving new tastes.
Emmeline, hanged as a witch, now back from the dead for revenge.
Gabrielle, a woman haunted by shadows.
The Dollmaker, she showers death, and an umbrella won’t help.
Nightmare Demons bent on driving a town insane.
And then there’s Alice, a little girl locked in the basement by her Daddy…

Together they form a spine-chilling cadre of predators. Who will survive and who will fall?

Halloween Extravaganza: INTERVIEW: Jamie Nash

megHan

Y’all, let’s welcome Jamie Nash, author of Nomad and The 44 Rules of Amateur Sleuthing, to our Halloween Extravaganza. This is his first time joining us.

Meghan: Hi, Jamie. Welcome to Meghan’s House of Books. Tell us a little bit about yourself.

Jamie Nash: I’m the writer of the sci-fi novel, NOMAD. My day-job is screenwriting. I mostly write R-rated horror and family films… not at the same time.

Meghan: What are five things most people don’t know about you?

Jamie Nash:

  • I used to be a street-performing juggler.
  • I was the official juggler of Oriole Park at Camden Yards for a season.
  • I used to be in an improv group…and did Murder Mystery Trains.
  • As a teenager, I was one of the original members of the LARP organization Darkon.
  • I worked as a computer programmer for the Avalon Hill Game Company and Talonsoft and worked primarily on WW2 computer games.

Meghan: What is the first book you remember reading?

Jamie Nash: Hmmm. That’s an awesome question. Do comic-books count? I had a hardback collection of old Batman comics.

Meghan: What are you reading now?

Jamie Nash: Howard Stern Comes Again. Fiction-wise – Stephen King’s The Outsider.

Meghan: What’s a book you really enjoyed that others wouldn’t expect you to have liked?

Jamie Nash: The Myth series by Robert Asprin.

Meghan: What made you decide you want to write? When did you begin writing?

Jamie Nash: I wrote the first chapter of a Godzilla novel when I was in 5th grade. I don’t really know why… but I always want to be the creator not the consumer. I’m vastly curious about behind the scenes stuff – I don’t want to watch theater, I want to act. I don’t want to play basketball, I want to coach. I don’t want to watch magic, but want to know how the trick is done. Same with writing. I just always gravitated to ‘how is that done’?

Meghan: Do you have a special place you like to write?

Jamie Nash: On my couch in front of the TV watching Netflix.

Meghan: Do you have any quirks or processes that you go through when you write?

Jamie Nash: I watch TV. Which is weird… cause now I can’t ‘just watch TV’. I need to 2-screen and do something productive.

Meghan: Is there anything about writing you find most challenging?

Jamie Nash: The career of it. The ups and downs. And constantly thinking you’re never going to sell another one.

Meghan: What’s the most satisfying thing you’ve written so far?

Jamie Nash: The 44 Rules of Amateur Sleuthing – my first novel. Just to prove I could do it.

Meghan: What books have most inspired you? Who are some authors that have inspired your writing style?

Jamie Nash: Stephen King, Clive Barker, Dean R Koontz, Richard Laymon, Elmore Leonard.

Meghan: What do you think makes a good story?

Jamie Nash: Becoming emotionally invested in a character so you live or die with their decisions they make and the horrors they endure.

Meghan: What does it take for you to love a character? How do you utilize that when creating your characters?

Jamie Nash: I really like characters that are people I wish I could be… yet still flawed. Ones that I admire their codes or empathy… yet they still have work to do to be complete.

Meghan: Which, of all your characters, do you think is the most like you?

Jamie Nash: I co-wrote a kid’s book called Bunk about a kid-magician who is wicked smart and debunks supernatural Hoaxes. The kid has some talent but lives in a bubble – and probably doesn’t realize what a huge dork they really are at times.

Meghan: Are you turned off by a bad cover? To what degree were you involved in creating your book covers?

Jamie Nash: Not really. I tend to be more of a blurb person. Hook me with a concept and I’m in… more than the cover.

Meghan: What have you learned creating your books?

Jamie Nash: That marketing a book is hard work. Getting the word out so people even know you wrote something is harder than it appears and takes constant grunt work. Big thanks to reviewers, blogs and bookstagrammers… without them it would be tough!

Meghan: What has been the hardest scene for you to write so far?

Jamie Nash: I don’t have an answer for this… scene’s aren’t hard for me. Sometimes story-threads are hard or structural choices but once I have the general ideas scenes are usually easy. Scenes with lots of characters can be a slog to get right. I generally hate them.

Meghan: What makes your books different from others out there in this genre?

Jamie Nash: I think I have a style that might appeal to the impatient reader. A lot fo sci-fi books are dense with lots of words. I tend to be a minimalist in terms of style and storytelling. People have told me they’ve read my books in one or two sittings – which is exactly what I was going for.

Meghan: How important is the book title, how hard is it to choose the best one, and how did you choose yours (of course, with no spoilers)?

Jamie Nash: It’s important. I typically search for something with a double-meaning. A sense of irony.

Meghan: What makes you feel more fulfilled: Writing a novel or writing a short story?

Jamie Nash: A novel. Writing a short story is like going for a morning jog. Completing a novel is like running a marathon. Pulling it off is a tremendous feat. Being able to say your finished is both a relief and a time for proud reflection.

Meghan: Tell us a little bit about your books, your target audience, and what you would like readers to take away from your stories.

Jamie Nash: As a reader, I’m rare in that I like fast reads. I often try to deliver books with ‘maximum story’ but also ones you can just pickup, dive into, and get hooked… and before you know it… you’re done.

When I write novels, they’re typically coming from a place of shared DNA with things I love. Mostly they come from some inner-child… hearkening back to when I was twelve years old and falling in love with stories and reading. But with a slightly more world-weary/life-lived POV…

Meghan: Can you tell us about some of the deleted scenes/stuff that got left out of your work?

Jamie Nash: Honestly, I can’t think of many. In my latest book – NOMAD – it started as Third Person Omniscient… and switched to first-person. So there were lots of moments with the villain and furthering that world that got traded for character beats and aligning the reader closer to the main character’s mindset and situation. The book became part of a character piece than the ‘chess match’ it originally might have been.

Meghan: What is in your “trunk”?

Jamie Nash: Not as much. I tend to dive into the things I want to do. I’d like to write a play one day. Maybe a horror play. I don’t think there are enough of those and I find theater really can elevate the tension.

Meghan: What can we expect from you in the future?

Jamie Nash: My next book is another Middle Grade story. It’s about Godzilla-esque monsters. I’m also directing a film this fall, a short for the anthology A Comedy of Horrors. Hopefully, it’ll be released by next Halloween.

Meghan: Where can we find you?

Jamie Nash: Website ** Twitter

And I do a screenwriting podcast that analyzes hit movies for writing tips and tricks – it’s called Writers/Blockbusters… search Thundergrunt on your favorite podcast platform to subscribe.

Meghan: Do you have any closing words for your fans or anything you’d like to say that we didn’t get to cover in this interview?

Jamie Nash: I love to interact and hear what people are responding to. So I hope you’ll pick up the book and join the conversation.

Jamie Nash is a screenwriter and novelist who likes to mix it up. He’s the writer of the horror sci-fi novel Nomad and the middle-grade mystery The 44 Rules of Amateur Sleuthing.  He’s written horror films like Exists, V/H/S/2, The Night Watchmen, Altered, and Lovely Molly. And family films like Santa Hunters and Tiny Christmas. Jamie teaches screenwriting to college students, co-hosts the podcast Writers/Blockbusters and can juggle chainsaws (not a joke). He lives with his wife, son, and a talking dog.

The 44 Rules of Amateur Sleuthing

Twelve-year-old Mandrake Mandrake is the world’s greatest detective.

Nobody cares.

The cops take credit for all the mysteries he solves, his grandmother is more interested in his “suspect” Algebra grades, and he lives in the shadow of his parents – the most feared super villains in the history of super villainry!

But respect is on the upswing when an all-star team of gumshoes enlists Mandrake to help crack an impossible case – how did Mandrake’s dastardly father escape from an inescapable super-prison? And what evil scheme is he hatching now?

Mandrake has never met his infamous dad. In fact, he’s spent his entire life trying to distance himself from his father’s dark legacy.

But when the other master detectives are captured inside the super-prison and all of its criminal occupants are unleashed on the city, Mandrake must save the day by doing the very thing he fears most – trying to understand the twisted brain of the evil mastermind father who ruined his life.

Nomad

What if you woke up in a space ship with no idea how you got there? And someone on board was trying to kill you?

Nomad is a dark Sci-Fi from the screenwriter of V/H/S/2: Ride in the Park, Exists, and Lovely Molly. The fast-paced horror story unfolds in real-time as a complex teen tries to unravel the mind-bending mysteries of who she is and how she ended up in deep-space battling to survive something evil that stalks her within the ship’s dark corridors.

It’s Alien meets The Thing with a strong teenage female protagonist.

From the back of the book:
She wakes up drowning, escapes from a watery canister into a deathtrap of fiery corridors and exploding machinery.

Somehow, she’s in space.

She can’t remember her name or why she’s here.

Her mind is a mixed up Rubik’s cube of fuzzy memories. But she knows that spaceships don’t exist, and if they did, ordinary girls like her don’t belong on them.

Has she been abducted?
Did cryfreeze scramble her brain?
Is it aliens?
Or even real?

And there’s something else. She’s not alone. Someone or something lurks in the shadows. And it wants her dead…

Bunk!

It’s Scooby-Doo meets Encyclopedia Brown with all the laughs of Diary of a Wimpy Kid. See if you have what it takes to solve each spooky mystery. The clues are hidden within the pages and pictures (features over 100 illustrations).

A Bigfoot photo bomb? Mermaids at the Water Park? An attic filled with ghosts?

It’s not exactly the ‘girl vacay’ Berni had planned out for her last summer before joining the grown-up world of middle school.

But all her dreams of summer fun came to a screeching halt when Uncle Danny whisks her away on a cross-country tour with her eccentric and annoying cousin – Baxter the Magnificent.

Now, poor Berni is squeezed into a sparkly and very itchy magician’s assistant costume just so she can be stuffed in a box and sawed in-half once a night (and twice on Sundays!) as part of Baxter’s cheese-ball magic show.

Fortunately, she’s not just Baxter’s ‘Lovely Assistant.’ She’s also his debunking partner. Baxter solves Mysteries of the Unexplained. Using his knowledge of magic and illusion, along with her smarts and common sense, they’re called into cases to expose the cheaters and tricksters who want to fake us out with monsters, spooks, and space aliens!

But when Baxter’s parents are framed for an impossible robbery using real magic powers, it’s up to Baxter and Berni to travel to the famous magic palace and save Baxter’s mom and dad from being sent to jail!

In the tradition of classic kid-detective stories, BUNK allows you to crack the spooky cases alongside Berni and Baxter. Every page and picture provides the clues you’ll need. So look sharp, pay attention, and get ready to BUNK!

Meghan’s House of Books Housewarming Party

megHan

When it came time to do the reveal of Meghan’s House of Books, I really wasn’t sure HOW to do it. I mean, I could just post a bunch of stuff on my private page and *hope* everyone noticed, but I wanted something *more* than just that… so I created an event on Facebook and called it my Housewarming Party, a joke my mom and I had been making since we first came up with the new name.

After a lot of consideration, I decided that my only “game” for the party would be a way for people who came (I invited people on my list, as well as put it on Twitter) to win a $25 gift card, with a runner-up prize of these really cool Halloween bookmarks I found.

I think it was a relatively easy giveaway. There were ten options: Like the Instagram post or Twitter post that revealed the new name of the blog (there were three on each, and you had to follow the page, so that right there is 6 entries if you did all of them – bonus points for retweeting from one of the two new accounts, which makes this 8 entries), leave a comment on my first blog post over here, and follow this blog.

The winner of the $25 Amazon Gift Card is <drum roll>
Jon Recluse!!
The runner-up prize of Halloween bookmarks goes to
Suzanne Madron!!

I know I’m not the only one who feels this way about things – there are a lot of people out there who suffer from anxiety – but five minutes into the invites being sent, and no one saying they were going, I damn near went and deleted the whole thing haha. I ended up having 40 people say they were going… and quite a few of those were in the first hour.

As a thank you for this, I decided to do an extra surprise giveaway for the people that took the time out of their busy day to look in on it all. The prize for this was also a set of Halloween bookmarks.

And the winner is
Jon M. Jefferson!!

I want to say thank you again to everyone who has shown me support during this transition. Starting this new book blog is huge for me, and knowing that I have y’all there in my corner really means so much to me.

I hope you enjoy this year’s line up. You don’t want to miss a single one!