Here is September's roundup of anticipated horror releases! ( If you plan on purchasing any of the books on this page, it would be awes...
Publication date: August 31th, 2021 Links: Amazon | Goodreads Adaline Rushner is a woman in pieces. Her daughters have gone missing, and ...
Guest Post || Lauri Schoenfeld - Giving Your Characters Pain
Publication date: August 31th, 2021
After Adaline and Cache move to Salt Lake City, everything gets even stranger. Local cop Officer Abbott thinks Adaline's distinctive owl necklace may somehow link to his own missing daughter. Adaline's neighbor Maggie offers assistance and comfort, but Adaline suspects her of hiding other truths from her. Adaline tries to prepare for her girls' eventual return while investigating her own past forgotten traumas, but a threatening message urges her to let the past stay forgotten. Can Adaline find the truth and save her marriage to Cache, or will the tangled web of memories from her past keep her from moving on?
Author Lauri Schoenfeld's psychological thriller is a suspenseful tale of family trauma, discovering our inner strength, and understanding the power of forgiveness.
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by Lauri Schoenfeld
We all go through pain either psychologically, emotionally, or physically. A lot of times it can end up being all three. No one shares their agony exactly in the same way as another because of our different personalities, upbringing, experiences, and perspectives. None of us are free from it.
As you're writing, your character or characters will always have something in one of these areas that they're striving to get through—trying to understand and process. They may be searching out who they are, and maybe because of their upbringing or culture, this search causes them a great deal of affliction, going outside the grain of figuring those pieces out. Perhaps the loss of someone they love has greatly affected their worth, will, drive, or purpose for existence. Or physically, an illness they feel is so intense that even getting up to take a shower is too much to handle. Each area can weaken your character's spirit and heart.
Readers want to keep reading because pain is a universal thing, even if they don't completely relate to what that character's dealing with. They want to root for them. The readers feel the agony and empathize with how much this space hurts the characters deeply and want to be there to push them forward.
The hero's journey for our characters is constant movement within that anguish. Getting to the next step can be more intense, scary, hard, and worse before it gets better. Our characters will want to leave, but they'll have to make the hard choice to face it and keep going through the storm. By doing so, some answers, lessons, and moments will define them.
Here are a few examples from some of my favorite books. There are no spoilers on endings!
From Fault in Our Stars, the character Hazel Grace Lancaster is a seventeen-year-old who has thyroid cancer. It's started to spread into her lungs, so she uses a portable oxygen tank to breathe properly. Hazel feels suffering day in and day out. She wants to be understood. To appease her mother, she attends a cancer patient's support group and meets a teenage boy named Augustus Waters. They begin to build a friendship, and she finds out he had osteosarcoma but had his leg amputated and is cancer-free. With their friendship, they're able to help each other with the struggles they both face.
In Shutter Island, Teddy Daniels is devastated by the loss of his wife, which took place in a fire. The grief he feels messes with him both emotionally and psychologically, sending him spirally to look for answers about his wife's death and his own sanity. He wants truth and answers. The story makes you question the depth of this man's sorrow, and you can't help but wonder where his head's at, but you're rooting for him to figure it out.
In Wonder, August Pullman, also known as Auggie, has "mandibulofacial dysostosis," a rare facial deformity. Surgery is not uncommon for him, as he's had (27) of them. Auggie's been homeschooled by his mom for eleven years, so when he's enrolled to go to 5th grade in a public school, pain, and fear of being different sets in. He wants to be accepted and liked. Auggie goes to school anyways and faces the unknown each day.
What hardship is your character dealing with?
Is it physical, mental, or emotional? All of them?
What would your character/characters have to do to face that pain? The next step forward?
What is one thing that your character wants and is in search of?
- Hazel wants to be understood/friendship.
- Teddy wants truth and answers.
- Auggie wants to be accepted and liked as he is.
For fun and research, go through some of your favorite movies and establish the characters' ultimate affliction and want/need (goal). Or even think about your own life story, a friend, or a family member. How has their pain/ struggle made them tick? React? How have they handled it?
Now, write that novel. Bring in all the raw emotion, so the reader's sucked into feeling it all right along with your character.
Publication date: August 5th, 2021 Links: Amazon | Goodreads From its creepy town mascot to the story of its cursed waterfall, Burden Fal...
Review || Wicked Little Deeds by Kat Ellis
Publication date: August 5th, 2021
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Kat Ellis is a young adult author whose novels include Wicked Little Deeds/Burden Falls (August 2021), Harrow Lake (July 2020), Purge (September 2016), Breaker (May 2016), and Blackfin Sky (May 2014). She is a fan of all things horror and sci-fi, and a keen explorer of ruins, castles and cemeteries – all of which are plentiful in North Wales, where Kat lives with her husband.
You can find out more about Kat at www.katelliswrites.com or connect with her on social media.
Email: katelliswrites@gmail.com
Website | Facebook | Instagram | Twitter
Publication date: July 18th 2021 Links: Amazon | Goodreads Flirting with evil will be the ruination of her soul. Goodness is much easier ...
Feature Fiction || Fairest by Sophia Zaccaria
Publication date: July 18th 2021
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Publication date: September 2nd, 2021 Tales from the Midnight Forest is an enthralling collection of unusual shapeshifter stories you won...
Feature Fiction || Tales From the Midnight Forest by Lisa Hofmann
Publication date: September 2nd, 2021
Tales from the Midnight Forest is an enthralling collection of unusual shapeshifter stories you won't want to miss!
Enjoy five hauntingly suspenseful stories that will leave you guessing until the end.
Amberflame
Take a midnight walk with Willa to meet her lover. But keep an eye on the sky, or you might not make it home.
Amélie
A castle under siege. A magic amulet. Amélie is on her own. She knows that the enemy has come a long way and will take no prisoners.
Artemis' Wings
Cross the cursed lake with Artemis to face an evil sorcerer. But beware. Something is lurking in the dark waters.
Aura
Breitenau is in flames. Marielle can’t control the fire. Who will she turn to for help when there is no one left to trust?
Anguish
Enjoy an evening in the gardens of Asterbury Hall with Mary. But careful! The creature in the hedges has teeth, and it will bite.
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– excerpt from Amberflame
Lisa Hofmann's debut novel, Stealing the Light, received top star ratings and reviews on the Writer's Digest and Publisher's Weekly platforms for independently published works.
Lisa is a European-based writer, born in 1975. She was educated in the nerd factories of Germany and the mystery moors of Ireland. Before she began writing medieval and shapeshifter fiction in her late thirties, she worked internationally as an interpreter, translating specialized publications on early education and literacy.
She is a genuine Dr Jekyll and Mrs. Hyde: a teacher of multilingual children by day, and producer of character-driven fantasy novels by night. Since Stealing the Light, she has published three other novels and several shorter works. She writes predominantly in English and works with a weather-proofed Pennsylvania-based American editor.
Lisa lives in Germany with her husband, their three outrageous children, and a house full of exceptionally vocal pets. Whenever she finds herself teetering on the brink of boredom, she will generally resort to exploring old towns and castles, walks in the woods, and reading anything that other people throw at her.
The 10 Best 2021 Thriller and Horror Novels You Haven’t Read (But Should IMMEDIATELY) Rebecca Webster Okay, you already devoured Verity and...
Guest Post || Rebecca Webster - The Best 2021 Thriller and Horror Novels You Haven't Read (But Should IMMEDIATELY)
The 10 Best 2021 Thriller and Horror Novels YouHaven’t Read (But Should IMMEDIATELY)
Rebecca Webster
Okay, you already devoured Verity and The Silent Patient (and let’s be honest, every other mass-market thriller that’s hit the shelves). What’s going to prompt you to check the locks on the doors five times before bed now? (Especially with the spooky season right around the corner.)One Left Behind
The Lies She Told
One Child Alive
The Thicket
Cross My Heart
The Evidence
The Forever Home
A Good Mother
Widow’s Island
The Liar’s Daughter
Publication date: June 3rd 2021 Links: Amazon | Goodreads The first letter seemed harmless enough. Possibly even just the result of a mis...
Feature Fiction || Of a Mad Brain by Scott Donnelly
Publication date: June 3rd 2021
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Publication date: November 10th, 2020 Links: Amazon | Goodreads Charlie Tate has just begun living his smashmouth, slightly deranged drea...
Feature Fiction || They call him Sizzleborne by Bret Tallman
Publication date: November 10th, 2020
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Here is August's roundup of anticipated horror releases! ( If you plan on purchasing any of the books on this page, it would be awesome...
Today's Author Spotlight is author Peter W. Blaisdell! Read on for the full interview. Publication date: November 1st, 2020 Amazon | G...
Author Spotlight || Peter W. Blaisdell, Author of The Lords of The Summer Season
Today's Author Spotlight is author Peter W. Blaisdell!
Read on for the full interview.
What's your latest release?
(Content warning: I tried to capture some of the 'edginess' of this time and place, so there is vulgarity in certain scenes and dialogue. Also, even the supernatural and animal characters aren't the usual cuddly fantasy tropes; they can be a bit unhinged at times!)
Can you start out by telling us a little about your latest work?
However, this era had a darker side, so there are scenes where creative forces run amok. The villains represent this – I’ve included some really vile villains. Even Bradan sometimes gets carried away and unleashes powers he really can’t control.
I was after contrasts, so some of the novel is painted in shades of psychedelic pastels while other scenes are done in dark grey.
As in all of my novels, I’ve included (I hope) cool supporting characters, including the aforementioned 6th century witch, tons of ghosts (including the one haunting his motorcycle), and Bradan’s eccentric band-mates. Bradan also has a pet wolf, Tintagel. ‘Pet’ is probably the wrong word. Tintagel represents atavistic, implacable nature and has a sardonic sense of humor often directed at Bradan.
When you developed the characters, did you already know who they were before you began writing or did they develop organically?
What attracted you to the genre(s) you write in?
What is one of your favorite words? OR Is there a word you find yourself using too often?
Would you rather live in a haunted mansion or a cottage surrounded by fairytale creatures?
Are you on social media and can your readers interact with you? What are your links?
Do you have a favorite line that you've written? What is it and why do you like it?
Bradan needs Lubna’s acquiescence to study in the Caliph’s libraries. He may need her help to survive.”
The lines above are from a flash-back scene in another of my fantasies, THE LORDS OF POWDER. I like them because they try to capture a setting and a mood. They also introduce the two characters and then show that one of the characters, Bradan, is in mortal danger.
Peter Blaisdell lives in the LA area. He has a PhD in Biochemistry and has conducted postdoctoral research in molecular biology as well as publishing peer-reviewed research papers in these fields. He has also published business articles on managing research in technology companies. None of this has much to do with the literary side of his life, where he is an active reviewer of fantasy, science fiction and magical realism as well as general literature. The Lords of Powder and The Lords of Oblivion are novels in a fantasy/thriller series. Each book can be read as stand-alone novels or together as part of a series.
Part of the fun of having a 1500 year old protagonist in this series is that the author can plunder history for exiting times and places to deploy in the story. To that end, most of The Lords of Powder and The Lords of Oblivion take place in modern times, respectively, Miami circa 1978 and San Francisco today. However, some chapters were set in tenth-century Spain, eight-century Lindisfarne, and fifth-century Tintagel. Future books in the series will use other cool settings.
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