Book Cover Preview
To say I’m a tad psyched is a massive understatement. My editor at Samhain Publishing sent me over the 1st draft of the cover for my book, Forest of Shadows, that is slated to come out this fall. Had to go through a totally new, much appreciated process this time to work with the art department. I was given a 3 page document to complete that listed main plot points, physical charactersitics of the hero and villain, my own suggestions and things I didn’t want to see on the cover.
It was nice to have some input and to find a first draft that is dead on with what I was picturing in my mind. As an author, you don’t often have much control when it comes to the look of your book. Huge thanks to Don D’Auria, my awesome editor, and the folks at Samhain Publishing. It seems every time I go through the publishing process, I learn something new.
Tell me what you think. Does this look like something that would grab your attention on a book shelf?
Forest of Shadows Cover
Job Security – Final Chapter
Because this was such a small town and Banks Textiles such a large company, Russell Banks saw his fair share of deceased employees walk through his door. Bob heard that by the third visit from a former employee, Hannah tendered her resignation and headed for her mother’s house inNorth Carolina.
Mr. Banks stuck to his guns, sighting labor laws and hygiene codes to each and every one of them.
Re-ans who worked in different companies had no better luck. In fact, going public like they did was starting to make things worse. A local paper picked up the story that the dead had come back, demanding their old jobs. The reporter called for a government investigation.
Lucky for them the government had bigger and better things on their minds than the concerns of some wacko report in aGeorgia.
But people were starting to talk.
The lobster pot was full and boiling and the lid was itching to blow.
Bob, meanwhile, had grown downright depressed. He barely paid attention at Re-an meetings and spent his days holed up in a mausoleum by himself. Their future was bleak, and that was looking on the bright side.
Then one night, Buford Jackson made an awful suggestion.
“We tried it the old way, and it ain’t workin’. I’ve been thinking a lot lately.”
“Thinkin’ and stinkin’, that’s all we can do,” Miles Welty shouted. A few Re-ans chuckled.
“The way I see it, pretty soon we’re gonna get found out, especially with our growing numbers.” They were about eighty strong now and increasing every day. Some corpses were fresh, others two, even three years old. “And seein’ as there hasn’t been a scientist or preacher among our numbers, it doesn’t look like we’re gonna find out why this is happening any time soon. Some time soon, we’re all gonna run out of places to hide. And then what?”
He scanned the audience of putrescent faces.
“You all remember those Frankenstein movies, right? All pitchforks and torches and angry villagers. That’s what we have to look forward to. And the sad thing is, all we wanna do is go back to being productive citizens.”
For the first time in a long while, Bob spoke up. “So what do you propose we do, Buford?”
A devilish smile crept across Buford’s shriveled black lips. “If we’re doomed to end like a bad movie, we might as well imitate a bad movie. Far as I know, in all those zombie movies, the zombies won.”
“Yeah, but they came back eating and killing machines,” Bob interjected.
“Exactly! So who’s to say we shouldn’t put a little fear of God and the devil into them people that are living and won’t give us a fair shake? They look at us like zombies, let’s act like zombies, dammit!”
“But we’re not zombies. We’re Re-ans,” someone said.
“Zombies…Re-ans…it’s all just words. Just look at the odds. The way we’re going, we’ll be the majority eventually. We want our old jobs back? Let’s just take them. If we have to kill a few people along the way, such is the price of progress.”
A swell of emotion began to grip the crowd, clutching their unbeating hearts and stagnant minds. First a few hands began to clap, then a dozen, then the entire church.
Except for Bob. It’s all over now, Bob thought. No going back. Maybe this is the way it was supposed to be. Maybe this was God’s plan. He couldn’t have expected them to just blend back in, not with the way they were.
It was terrifying, repulsive, damning, but maybe Buford was right.
So they hatched a plan. A bid for their independence. Had Bob had a working stomach he would have been sick.
If luck was a lady, she was certainly one who hated Bob Samson. Bob, Buford and five other former Banks Textile employees peeped through the windows of Russell Banks’ mansion.
There was Russell, sitting in his central air conditioned living room with his ex wife and two boys who were both in their early teens. Bob had heard Mr. Banks was divorced, but it looked as if his former boss was doing his best to make amends.
Could be his visit months back had something to do with that.
“Maybe now’s not a good time,” he whispered.
“It’s now or never. At ten o’clock, Re-ans are gonna strike across the entire county,” Buford hissed. “If you don’t have the stomach for it, why don’t you sit out here?”
“I just might.”
“If you do, don’t bother coming to us when all this is over. You have to make a choice now, Bob. Us or them. Which is it gonna be?”
Before he could answer, Buford’s digital watch started chiming. He whirled his hand in the air and every Re-an standing outside the estate went crashing through the windows. Russell Banks and his family screamed as one, and the Re-ans shouted like war beasts in return.
Across the still night air, Bob could hear the sounds of other living people shouting pleas to the man upstairs while Re-ans descended on them like the cinematic beasts they were supposed to be.
He looked in the window and saw Buford gnawing on Mrs. Banks’s neck. He was covered in blood, his teeth caked with dangling strips of flesh. The rest had attacked Russell and his sons, making quick work of them. In just two minutes, there wasn’t a beating heart in the room.
“Come on Bob,” Buford shouted. “Us or them?”
He held Mrs. Banks’ body out to him as if she were a sacred offering.
Bob clasped his head with both hands.
He had tried to go back, but they wouldn’t let him.
He had formed a group, and they had outgrown him.
Us…or them?
The crack of gunshots echoed in the darkness.
With great reluctance, Bob stepped through the broken window and stood before Buford. There was a gaping, red hole in the poor woman’s neck. Buford smiled with crimson teeth.
It would have to be us, then.
Bob buried his face into Mrs. Banks’ neck, mouth open, teeth gnashing. He tore a piece of her skin free and swallowed.
It sure didn’t taste like chicken, but it would have to do.
Check out Forest of Shadows by Hunter Shea : "Dark, intense and not afraid to get down and dirty."
Job Security (Zombies Hate To Be Unemployed) – Part 2
There was a loud thud and Russell turned to see Hannah passed out on the floor. Bob jolted up to help her but Russell stopped him with a raised hand. “Just, just stay seated, Mr. Samson. She’ll be all right.” Secretly, he hoped he was speaking the truth and she hadn’t, in fact, had a fatal heart attack. He felt a ball of vile rocket up his throat and covered his mouth with a handkerchief as he swallowed it back.
Okay old man, time to get off your heels and take charge of the situation, he scolded himself. Bob may be dead, but this is still an employee issue. He’s coming to you. You have the power, Russell. You hold the upper hand. Now deal with it!
Ignoring Hannah’s prone form behind him, Russell adjusted his tie, placed his handkerchief back in his breast pocket and straightened in his chair.
“Mr. Samson, let me first tell you that I appreciate your thirty years of hard work and dedication. No one, not even death, can take that away from you.”
“Thank you.”
“No, thank you. I think you’ll agree that you’re in a,” here he struggled for the right word, “unique situation. And you most certainly now possess some very intriguing qualities.”
Bob nodded his head vigorously and there was a squishing sound, like pockets of trapped bodily fluids were shifting from the movement of his neck. “You’d sure be hard pressed to find someone else that’ll be able to work a non-stop shift like I can.”
“True. However, there are laws I have to abide by, and one of them prevents me from letting a man work those kinds of hours.”
Russell was beginning to feel more like himself with each passing second. Here was the granddaddy of all conundrums and he was about to whip its ass.
“Plus, there’s the matter of personal hygiene. I know it’s not something you can control, given your state of being. I just don’t think it would be a good idea to have you in an enclosed area with dozens of other folks who might be a tad offended.”
“I was fixin’ to change that by getting some of those colognes.”
Hannah moaned when Russell moved his chair back into her leg. “Mr. Samson, you can put a tuxedo on a sow and bring it to the prom, but everyone will still know you’re planning on fucking a pig before the night is through. You get my point?”
And there it was. The white flag of utter defeat there in Bob Samson’s eyes.
“I do appreciate the offer, Mr. Samson, but we both know it won’t work.”
They sat in silence for a bit, then Bob hung his head and rose from his chair.
“Mr. Banks, if you’re telling me no, I honestly don’t know what I’m gonna do with myself. Working for Banks Textiles is all I know.”
Russell smiled, the head man in charge, and replied, “You have a new lease on life. Now that’s something only Lazarus and Jesus got the privilege of receiving. You don’t want to waste it in some old textile mill. Go out, do things you only dreamed of before you died.” Even he was shocked by the words as they fell from his mouth with such ease. “Hell, start a support group. I hear that’s a great way to get things back on track.”
Two phone lines rang at once and Russell Banks snapped the headset back on.
“Now if you’ll excuse me, duty calls.”
Bob Samson left with stooped shoulders, too polite to argue with the man, too sad to say so long.
*
Three weeks later, David Benderman, twenty year employee of Banks Textiles, died of a heart attack while attending a minor league baseball game. Four days after that, he returned home, dirt stained and confused, only to be cast out as a leper.
Buford Jackson had passed away a year before Bob Samson, only to “revive” a month after Bob’s failed attempt at re-employment. Buford was the worst for wear, his skin sloughing off at the slightest contact. He was nothing more but a skeleton with bits of hanging flesh within a week. He’d worked at Banks Textiles for eleven years before succumbing to cancer of the balls.
Melinda Wahlberg found herself standing on the outside of her crypt three weeks after a vicious car accident that killed her instantly. It was hard going, what with the twisted legs and torso, but she eventually made it back to her apartment, only to find it had been rented out to a nice Mexican couple. She hadn’t worked at or even heard of Banks Textiles, but she was damn sure in the same boat as Bob, David and Buford.
They had no homes and no one to talk to but each other. They met at the church in the Serene Pastures cemetery every night after closing. It seemed a fitting place to congregate.
As the weeks grew on, more people suddenly and inexplicably came back from what was formerly known as the permanent dirt nap. Within two months, they were over fifty strong. Most folks that had come in contact with them either refused to talk about it for fear of ridicule or sold their story to such reputable tabloids as The Weekly World News.
They had becomeGeorgia’s dirty little secret. For all they knew, it was only happening here, in this run down little town forged in heat and humidity.
It wasn’t until about their tenth meeting when a realization hit Bob Samson.
He had started a support group, just like Russell Banks had told him to.
And though he had found solace in a group of outcasts like himself, it did little to mend his shattered self worth. Here he was hiding by day, lurking in shadows, and congregating by night in a cemetery with its share of hollow graves. He was back, but what the hell was he doing with his time?
“I don’t know about you all,” he said one night, “but I need to find something constructive to do with my time. It wears on a man, all this hiding.”
There were a few murmurs of agreement, then Buford stood up and said, “I feel the same way you do, Bob, but what do you expect us to do? We’re zombies, for Christ’s sake. It’s not like the rest of the world is welcoming us with open arms.”
Now the murmuring was escalating to a chorus and decaying heads were nodding as one.
Bob answered, “First of all, I ain’t no zombie. I think we need to come up with a better term for ourselves, help build our self esteem. Zombies make me think of bad movies and filthy drive-ins. Second, we need to get off our rotting asses and get to work!”
“You already tried that and look where it got you,” someone chirped.
“Sure, I tried and failed. But did you? Or you?” He scanned the pews brimming with the undead. “Before we leave tonight, I say we better have a new name for ourselves and a plan to get gainfully employed. Maybe if we all try, someone will get hired.”
“And maybe we’ll all be hunted down like dogs,” Melinda Wahlberg interjected.
Bob sighed and said, “You’re right, maybe we will be hunted down like dogs. But I’d rather that than skirting around tombstones all day and night.”
And so it came to pass that the twentieth assembly of the recently undead came to officially call themselves Re-ans (thanks to the input of Thelma Donaldson, a former historian before her brain aneurysm) and set forth to win their jobs back.
To Be Continued…
Click here to read the final, gut wrenching chapter.
Check out Forest of Shadows by Hunter Shea : "Dark, intense and not afraid to get down and dirty."
Lord, I Love Me Some Elvira
From HorrorSociety.com, great news about my favorite queeen of the undead. I met her a couple of years ago and she couldn’t have been any nicer…
For those readers who may be unaware, Elvira’s Movie Macabre returned in October 2010. While her show is mostly screening old fan favorites, a few new titles from the 70s and 80s have been added to the list. More importantly, all the introductions, breaks, hosting, and shenanigans are brand new. This is a special treat for Elvira fans who have been waiting for her return to horror hosting. New episodes of Elvira’s Movie Macabre are airing in over 100 of the biggest cities in America. Check here to see if it is airing in your city: Elvira\’s Movie Macabre Listings. This week’s pick is Werewolf of Washington. Tune in if you want to see Elvira parody Sarah Palin.
Elvira’s Movie Macabre originally aired from 1981 to 1986. It consisted of 5 seasons and showed over 130 B-movie horror films. Her horror hosting show made her an instant celebrity. Since 1981 she has had three video games, two pin ball machines, her own brand of beer, the #1 women’s Halloween costume, two films, one reality show, one theme park ride, appeared in numerous other films and television shows outside of her character, appeared on the cover of multiple magazines including Playboy, 2 music videos, recorded two Cd’s, and multiple commercials. At age 59, Cassandra Peterson shows no sign of stopping her career.
My Inspiration For…By Guest Blogger Lynn Hones
One thing every single writer is asked time and time again is, “Where do you get your ideas?” I was recently at a talk given by R.L. Stine, and he said he’s always wanted to respond, “I don’t know, where do you get yours?”
Inspiration can come from anywhere. From a childhood event, to something you see on the news and even a mispronounced word (which sparked a short story of mine that has been published quite a few times). I want to peel back the skullcap of horror writers and take a peek inside their creative process for all to see. I’m going to kick off this series with author Lynn Hones and the childhood vacation that was the golem-esque clay for one of her novels.
So without further ado, the following page is Lynn’s stage…
My horror ebook, Laugh in the Dark, started this way. Back in the late 1960’s it wasn’t unusual for Dad to c
all out to my mom that we were taking a road trip. Keep in mind this was way back before seat belts were mandatory and the posted speed limit was 70 miles per hour. There were six kids and one Volkswagen Bug. Growing up in Ohio, near the Pennsylvania border, the usual response uttered under our breath was, “Dear God, not Gettysburg…again.”
He’d light a cig and smiled, “Nope, we’re going to Conneaut Lake Park.”
Now he was talking. We’d happily jump into that tiny car with big smiles dreaming of Devil’s Den with the infamous Wall of Gum. I made a mental note to have the mandatory wad of gum to stick on the wall as the cart went up the first hill.
Mom, depending on the year, was pregnant and holding a baby in the front seat, with the rest of us crammed into the back and the “puke bucket,” along with a random kid or two, stuffed in what we called “the well” in the way back.
Once there, us kids, green from Mom and Dad’s ciggy smoke filling the car, would jump out and run for the Conneaut Hotel. Old and spooky, built on Lake Conneaut, it was a fantastic place with long, uneven hallways and doorways with windows up top to let in the lake breezes. No televisions, radios, phones or air conditioning, it was right next door to the small park. We loved to hear the old-timers tell us about the young and beautiful bride, Elizabeth, who died in a fire there on her wedding day, and haunted the hotel ever since, looking for her lover.
Dad would buy the tickets and we’d run through the park and ride to exhaustion. Back in our room, we’d sleep with one eye open waiting for Elizabeth to float through the wall.
Fast forward to 2011. I now bring my own kids there and run around with them like the skinny little, Converse wearing, gum chomping girl I used to be.
The best part, is that the hotel, built in the late 1890’s, is still operating and…there are still no phones, radios, televisions or air conditioning. And yes, the Wall of Gum is still there. The park is just hanging on however, financially and may be seeing its last days in this economy. If you get the chance, go. The lonely bride will remind you that although she died over sixty years ago, her spirit lingers, just as the spirit of the old park lingers in the memories of anyone lucky enough to have visited it back in the day or as recently as last year.
For further information check out this website, http://www.clphotelconneaut.com/history.html, or go to my own website, www.lynnhones.com and look for my page, A Haunted Hotel. I’d love to hear from anyone who has been there and their memories.
Great Horror Novels Not by King or Koontz
Don’t get me wrong, Stephen King and Dean Koontz are great writers and I’ve read dozens of their books. But there are so many other excellent authors out there that most people have never heard of. So, I feel it’s my duty to spread the word about these captains of the horror world and some of their better books. Every month I’ll post 3 different books so you have time to pick them up and read them. Trust me, you won’t be disappointed.
1. The Store, by Bentley Little. — Bentley is a master at exposing the dark fears hidden behind every day people, places and events. He’s arguably the best in the biz now. The Store is a twisted story of a Walmart-ish superstore run by the worst that hell has to offer. Clean up in aisle 666! 
2. Necroscope, by Brian Lumley. This is the first in a series of vampire books that Lumley wrote in the 80’s. After all the crap we’ve seen about vampires, this should purge the sparkle from them. These beasts are otherwordly and downright savage. Possibly one of the best horor series ever written. 
3. The Magic Cottage, by James Herbert. Not many folks in the US know about his work. Basically, James Herbert is the Stephen King of the UK. And this book is one of his best. Thanks to my pal Karl the Welsh Dragon for turning me on to him.
So now the question is, what books do you think should go on this list?
Need more horror? Brave enough to enter the Forest of Shadows?
What are some of your favorite horror novels? It’s always great to discover new authors and books.
An Interview with Katrina Weidman from Paranormal State
Are you a fan of PARANORMAL LOCKDOWN? Want to find out more about Katrina Weidman? You’ve come to the right place!
Back in 2010, I was lucky enough to interview Katrina for a magazine that, unfortunately, fell on hard times, so the interview was never published.
For those of you who don’t know Katrina, she is a Penn State graduate with a dual degree in Integrative Arts. Katrina was born and raised in Bucks County, Pennsylvania. She joined PRS in 2006 along with Heather and became the team’s interviewer as well as an investigator. When Dead Time comes around (Dead Time begins at 3 a.m., when spirit activity is purported to be at its most potent), you can be sure Katrina will be sitting vigil, calling out to any spirits in the room, inviting them to make a noise or touch her hand, with nothing but her Katrina Cam for company. In those moments, we see that Katrina isn’t Superwoman. She’s just the same as we would be in her shoes; curious, cautious, often times brave and sometimes scared. The search for proof of the paranormal trumps any trepidation she may have and viewers quietly cheer Katrina and the team on while vacillating between wishing they were there, exploring the unknown, and being quite content to watch from the safety of their familiar couch.
HS : Is there any specific event from your past that sparked your interest in the paranormal?
KW : Yes! The first house I lived in (from the time I was born until age 6) had a lot of activity in it. I was very young at the time so all I remember was being scared to death to be left alone upstairs or in my bedroom. I have an older sister and I would constantly follow her downstairs. Even though we had our own rooms I fought to sleep in her bed.
My sister remembers a lot her experiences from that house. She used to see a man walk into the bathroom at night. According to her, this happened on several occasions. She also remembers seeing a little girl sitting on my bed. Assuming it was me, she thought nothing of it, until she got to the bottom of the stairs and I was sitting there putting together a puzzle. I actually remember this day, too. I was putting together a Winnie the Pooh puzzle and I remember my sister saying, “How did you do that!?” I obviously answered, “Do what?” Of course this went back and forth for some time until we realized that I couldn’t possibly have been in both places at once. Looking back at it, my sister does remember that there was something very “odd” about this little girl, although she could never put her finger on it. The next two families after that also experienced similar activity, all very childlike, and one of the last reports out of that house is a guest seeing a man walk down the attic stairs and disappear.
HS : Can you describe your first paranormal investigation and the feelings you experienced? Do you remember how it turned out?
KW : I remember it was mid-November 2006. I actually joined the investigation a day late because I was at a wedding the night before in Philadelphia. The team and I were investigating a house in between State College and Pittsburgh, PA. We named it “The Dark Man”. I remember feeling really shy, which if you know me, is NOT me at all! I was pretty quiet on that case as I had just met everyone, except Heather (my partner in crime). There was a crew of about twenty people, again, all of who I just met, and cameras were in my face the duration of the investigation. It was, to say the least, a little intimidating. I remember just wanting to do a good job. This is something I had always wanted to do and I just wanted to learn everything I could! The house felt uneasy. I’m not sure what was there, but if we’re labeling things I would say it was HAUNTED!
Heather and Eilfie shared the bed in the master bedroom and I was on the couch right next to the bed. I felt fine, until everyone started to fall asleep. I kept telling myself, “Even if you have to pee, you’re laying here!” I did not want to get up in the middle of the night in that house, that’s for sure! Evidence-wise, our crew had all their batteries drain consistently and they had numerous other problems with their equipment. We had a flashlight explode and overall everyone just had a very creepy feeling being there. I remember leaving and feeling really good about the work we had done. Helen, the client, had completely welcomed us into her home and treated us like family by the time we left. That is something I’ll never forget.
HS : Are there any special preparations you and the team make, whether physical, spiritual or emotional, before you enter a location or Dead Time that we don’t see on TV?
KW : I’m sure we all have something we do. Everyone is pretty private about it, though. For me, I just tell myself, “You can do this, don’t get scared”, because I still get scared from time to time. If I’m really scared I just ask for my brother to watch over me.
HS : You really do a great job interviewing children on a topic that I’m sure is frightening and confusing to them. They seem very at ease with you. How does your approach to interviewing children differ from that of interviewing adults?
KW : With children, you really need to take your time. It’s not something you can get done in ten minutes. You have to play with them, show them you’re fun and befriend them. We usually go to their bedroom because they feel the most comfortable and “at home” there and I ask them what kind of game(s) they want to play. Kids get bored if you ask them question after question after question. So we’ll play a game, then I’ll ask some questions, then play another game, then I’ll ask some more questions. I’ve never had to play a game with an adult client to get them to feel more at ease, but sometimes I wonder if it would help the process, just a little.
HS : Have you ever been frightened on a case (especially when it’s just you and your trusty “Katrina Cam” in a dark room)? If so, can you name an incident that frightened or, perhaps better, unsettled you the most? How do you cope with fear of the unknown?
KW : Yes! It was during the season four opener “Suicide Spirits”. Heather and I were in the kitchen after just hearing footsteps from above moments before, and we heard the basement door, which was just a few feet away, start to POUND, almost like someone was on the other side trying to kick it in. We ran! Our first thought was “someone broke into the house”. I don’t think I have ever held onto someone as tightly as I did that night! We took a few minutes and calmed ourselves down. After the initial fear and shock wore off, we remembered, “we are investigators and we have a job to do” so we went back in and checked it out. That’s usually what I say to myself whenever I do get scared, “you’re an investigator”, and I think about all the women out there who do this and that in some way I’m representing them and I’m not going to represent them by running out of a room with flailing arms screaming!
HS : With PRS, you have Eilfie on board as your resident demonologist. Do you feel all ghost hunting groups should have one as well, or at least someone they can contact in instances of a possible demonic haunting? In your experience, how often have you come across demonic entities?
KW : Eilfie is more of our resident Occultist. Whenever we do run into a darker haunting we usually consult with Lorraine Warren because she has worked on darker cases for the last forty some years. I do think it’s a good idea for teams to have specialists they can call on. Not just demonologists though, electricians, psychologists, doctors, etc. It’s always good to have people on hand that you trust because you may think you know how a case is going to go, but that can change quickly once you step into the field.
HS : What was your favorite investigation?
KW : My Favorite investigation was probably the “Pet Cemetery”, which aired during season one. I think it’s because if we got that case now, we probably wouldn’t even give it a second glance. The biggest thing the clients were claiming was that their dog was acting weird and that two previous dogs were hit by cars. Obviously, that stuff is pretty easy to explain away. There are a thousand different reasons why a dog would start acting different. Unbeknown to us at the time, there was actually something to it. Every owner of that house since the 1960s had a dog go haywire while living there, a complete personality change, then the dog would run out into the middle of the street and get hit by a car. This is a little town in Maine. Maybe ten cars travel on it per day, tops. The odds of four or five dogs getting hit by a car seemed pretty slim. Then low and behold, we find out a previous owner used to beat and kill dogs, for fun apparently. That was our AHA moment! I love this case because it showed us a thing or two, that even if it sounds outlandish or completely explainable, it just might not be. Never assume anything in this field.
HS : We all know that not every case reveals a haunting. How many investigations do you film for Paranormal State compared to the number that actually make it to air?
KW : We get asked this a lot. Every case we do is filmed and every case makes it to air. PRS has been an organization since 2001 and there were many cases that they investigated before the show came along, but since the show started everything has graced the screen. We are looking to do private investigations again. We all feel very strongly about that, however, with our schedule, it’s been hard to find the time to take on a private investigation. But it is something we’re working towards.
HS : Do you ever worry about “brining your work home” with you and finding you now have a haunting that’s attached itself to you?
KW : It’s really not something I’ve thought of or was concerned about. I did, however, have an experience after an investigation in Kentucky where I know something attached itself to me. Back home, I noticed that I had unconsciously changed my habits, like I wasn’t singing in the house…I normally to love to sing. I felt that someone was watching me and even heard breathing close to my ear a couple of times. I spoke to Ryan about it and he said not to give in to my fear because that would only give strength to whatever had found its way into my house. Thankfully, after 3 months, it eventually stopped and things went back to normal.
HS : Does filming during an investigation make it harder or easier to do your job?
KW : There have been times where it’s been harder. When you want to go investigate or talk to someone, you have to wait for the cameras. We haven’t always been great at that, but I think we’re pretty used to it now and it comes as second nature at this point. The only problem is when we run into people (witnesses or potential clients) who won’t appear on camera because they’re worried about how other people (the audience) will look at them. We have lost potential cases because of this. We also get the people who are just looking to be on TV, but we weed through them pretty quickly.
HS : I see PRS is now breaking from the Penn State campus and will become a national organization, yet the campus paranormal club will remain. Can you explain what that means for PRS?
KW : As of right now we are officially broken from Penn State. This is just because none of us are students and it was time to “stand on our own” if you will. At this point there is no longer a student club in existence, but there are students working to get the club up and running again.
HS : Are there any special haunted places you’d like PRS to visit in the future? What would be your dream investigation?
KW : I’d love to check out Waverly Hills, I’ve had so many investigators tell me crazy experiences they’ve had and I’ve seen some amazing evidence come out of there. My dream investigation though would be to investigate the house I grew up in. I’d like to finally have answers as to who or what was there.
HS : PRS seems to be a really tight knit family. Like any family, I’m sure you all have your ups and downs. How has it been working with Ryan, Sergey, Eilfie and Heather (just to name a few)? Who would you say you’re closest to?
KW : We definitely have our ups and downs. We have our arguments and our agreements, but we always manage to work everything out and come to a common ground, which is a key foundation in any relationship. I’d have to say I’m the closest to Heather. I think it’s because Heather and I went through training together, we were the newbies of the group, and Heather and I have a lot in common. I actually met her at my second meeting in PRS and we talked afterwards for a while. So we were becoming fast friends before we were picked for the team. Typical girls, what we both remember about each other the first time we met is each other’s shoes and how much we liked them.
HS : What’s next for you? Do you plan to stay with PRS and Paranormal State?
KW : Since I graduated I underwent training to become a crisis counselor and for the last two years I have been volunteering at a crisis centre. I definitely can’t wait to return to acting, music, writing, etc., but I don’t think I’ll ever leave the paranormal. It really is a passion and part of my roots. Every time I try to take a break from it I find myself picking up a book on ghosts, or doing research on UFOs, or telling a perfect stranger a ghost story with them giving me that, “she’s crazy” look. Being an investigator has been a great outlet to explore my passion for this field and given me the opportunity to meet and work with people who, just like me, want answers.
In the mood for a ghost story? How about a chilling tale of what happens when you hunt for ghosts…and they hunt back!
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Joining the Horror Writer’s Association Made Easier
When it comes to writer’s organizations, there are those who are natural born joiners and others who prefer to be the lone wolf. In my experience, there is no right or wrong here. (I made my first professional sale without being a member of an organization and without an agent, but I do know the tremendous value in each.)
For those interested in joining the HWA (Horror Writer’s Association), there is good news. It seems that they have made joining much, much easier. In years past, you needed solid professional sales in order to be a member. This is all well and good, but it did block out those who really needed the invaluable tools and contacts that membership provides. I’ve been a member in the past and plan on signing up again this year.
The key is to make the most of your experience. Volunteer, join in discussions, carefully read the information posted. Most of all, give as much as you get. The HWA represents a pretty impressive fraternity of horror professionals.
If this is your kind of thing, click here to read more about membership requirements.
The Rebirth of Horror
Like most people, I was devastated, angry and temporarily lost when Leisure Books (Dorchester Publishing) completely imploded last year. In just one month, they stopped printing paperbacks, lost most of their treasured authors and parted ways with their editor, Don D’Auria, the man responsible for keeping horror not only alive, but an important and valuable genre in the publishing industry.
After over a decade of trying to break into Leisure, Don had accepted my novel just a little over a month before it all fell apart. It was kind of like getting that pony you always wished for on Christmas, only to watch in horror as dad backed his SUV over it in the driveway.
I thought all was lost and I was truly ready to throw in the towel. I’m glad I didn’t (and big thanks to my agent Louise Fury for that). I know this was announced in January, but not everyone is aware that hope has arrived. (The following from sfscope.com)
Don D’Auria lands at Samhain |
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| By Ian Randal Strock | |
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Don D’Auria has joined Samhain Publishing as Executive Editor. He will oversee the company’s new horror line, which will launch in October. Previously D’Auria was executive editor for Leisure Books at Dorchester Publishing.
Samhain is looking for supernatural or non-supernatural, contemporary or historical horror novels from new or experienced authors (agented or un-agented). “Content can range from subtle and unsettling to gory and shocking. The writing is what counts.” |
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