Shivaree

With The Source (Witching Savannah Book 2) in the final stages of copy editing, and The Void (Witching Savannah Book 3) in the hands of my (first) editor, I am turning back to Shivaree, the novella I began late last summer.

Shivaree is my take on the vampire tale. I know, I know.The world is awash in stories about vampires.

What makes Shivaree unique is that this dark Gothic dream unfolds in a time (the early 1950s) and place (the fictional town of Conroy, Georgia) where supernatural evil is more than given a run for its money by the evil engendered by racism and other forms of bigotry. In fact, one of the challenges in writing Shivaree has been making my vampire more frightening than my human monsters. Although evil, through and through, in many ways Shivaree's vampire remains a more empathetic character than many of Conroy's other residents. The blurb follows:

Shivaree

At the close of the Korean War, sturdy army nurse Corinne Ford turns her back on a troubled past to travel to rural Georgia and marry her battlefield sweetheart. Corinne soon learns she was not the first woman in her fiancé's life. The once exquisite Ruby, failed actress and dabbler in dark magic, had been brought back from Hollywood to her father's house, sick, broken, changed. Her death cleared the way for many who had wished that she had never returned. Soon, Corinne is confronted with evidence that her fiancé's first love is neither forgotten nor truly gone. Backlit by the Klan's burning crosses and scored by the cacophony of shivaree, the traditional wedding night abduction of the groom, SHIVAREE (A Novella) looks into a world where the monsters of folklore confront the monsters of history. SHIVAREE (A NOVELLA) is a work of Southern Gothic Horror running approximately 30K words.

NEWS ROUNDUP!

***
The Line gets a mention on Forbes.com

***
J.D. to appear on Charleston's
 ABC Channel 4
Lowcountry Live
March 20th, 10 AM


***

Meet J.D. in Savannah -

Book signing at Savannah's

 Bob's Your Uncle
305 East River Street
Savannah, GA 31401
Saturday, March 22nd
2-4PM


***

Release date for The Source (Witching Savannah #2)
has been pushed UP from July 15 to June 3,2014!

The Examiner Interview

Recently had the pleasure of being interviewed by Rachel Desilets for The Examiner! Click on the link below to read the interview.


Click here to read Examiner.com Interview!

White Knuckling on the Roller Coaster

White Knuckling on the Roller Coaster

 

Wow! Have the last few weeks been a breathtaking experience. Doing my best to take a centered and spiritual approach to the ups and downs, by remembering how much I have to be grateful for. 

 

I'm still very much missing the little fellow in the photo, Quentin Comfort Horn. He was my partner in crime for many wonderful years, and losing him (days before my book came out as part of the Kindle First program) has knocked a major emotional support out from under me. That said, I know my little man is in a better place where the health problems he experienced at the end of our adventures together are no longer weighing him down.

 

Still I am blessed with a loving and supportive spouse and many friends who are with me on the journey of seeing The Line (Witching Savannah #1) come out on the market. And when I stop and really think about it, even the difficult parts, like when my book has failed to connect with a reader and they choose to be very vocal about that fact, this is all a huge dream come true. Even if I never see my name on the NY Times bestseller list, I have had the joy of creating a world others have wanted to visit. I love writing, and I am so incredibly blessed to be able to live my dream of leading the writing life.

 

Thanks to everyone for the kind words of encouragement I have received here, on Twitter (@TheLineSavannah) and Facebook (www.Facebook.com/TheLineSavannah).

 





#1 Kindle Contemporary Fantasy and #1 Kindle Occult Horror!

 

 

 

The Line (Witching Savannah #1) reaches #1 in both Kindle Occult Horror and Kindle Contemporary Fantasy!

 

Get The Line via Kindle one month before its official release date through Kindle First!

 

CLICK HERE TO FIND THE LINE ON KINDLE FIRST

 

Infamous Reign

Check out the latest from fellow 47North Author, Steve McHugh!

In late 15th century England, two young princes are given over by Merlin to the protection of their uncle, King Richard III. They soon vanish from sight, igniting tales of their demise at Richard’s hand and breeding unrest throughout the land. Nathanial Garrett, also known as Hellequin, is sent to London to decipher fact from rumor and uncovers a plot to replace the king. But his investigation quickly becomes personal when he learns that an old nemesis is involved. He soon finds himself racing against time to rescue the boys before their fate, and the fate of all England, is sealed in blood. Infamous Reign is a novella in the Bestselling Hellequin Chronicles series, mixing gritty and action-packed historical fantasy with ancient mythology.

Click Here to Buy "Infamous Reign"

About Steve McHugh

Steve’s been writing from an early age, his first completed story was done in an English lesson. Unfortunately, after the teacher read it, he had to have a chat with the head of the year about the violent content and bad language. The follow up ‘One boy and his frog’ was less concerning to his teachers and got him an A. It wasn’t for another decade that he would start work on a full length novel that was publishable, the results of which was the action-packed Urban Fantasy, Crimes Against Magic. Steve McHugh lives in Southampton on the south coast of England with his wife and three young daughters. When not writing or spending time with his kids, he enjoys watching movies, reading books and comics, and playing video games.


Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/hellequinchronicles
Twitter: https://twitter.com/StevejMchugh
Website: http://stevejmchugh.wordpress.com/

 

Primal Urges

A Guest Post by Author Joseph Brassey

My son lies in his crib, his breathing even and rhythmic. I watch him. I do not lay beside his bed anymore, like I did in the first few months after he was born. I do not fear that he will suddenly stop breathing. His mother is asleep in the other room. She has work tomorrow. I am not in bed yet because I have the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that something is wrong. I hear my son fidgeting and whimpering like he always does when he’s waking from a disturbed dream or a fit of gas. I bend at the waist, leaning over his crib to check. I see a drop of red on the mattress, marring the sheets. “Shit,” I think, “He’s scratched himself.”  

My son abruptly screams. I pick him up without thinking, on reflex. His screaming face looks back at me as I pull his hands away from it. He has no eyes.  

I haven’t actually had that dream. The fears come to me when I’m awake. I sometimes think I write these sorts of things down expressly to jettison the images from my head so I don’t have to keep them rolling around in my brain. For years, my wife has asked me why when sitting in a car looking out the window I’ll suddenly give a minor - seemingly involuntary - convulsion. It’s because I just looked at a barbed wire fence and was struck by the mental image of a rolled spool of the stuff being wrapped around my body, and then spun off by some sort of vast sewing machine. Everyone I think has that primal urge when they see the fire to plunge their hands into it out of pure curiosity. The weird thing I’ve found about being a writer is that indulging that urge in the hypothetical brain-space of creativity doesn’t actually make it go away. 

 Fear is in the mundane, I think. I always hear that it’s in the cosmic unknown, but I think this disregards the extent to which most of our night terrors are rooted in the ordinary aspects of our life. The scissors on the counter that we could theoretically perforate our hands with because I wonder what it would feel like! I don’t consider myself a horror writer even a little, but there’s this sort of macabre fascination that drives my work on some days. It’s all the needles that I haven’t pricked myself with, pushing pushing pushing against skin that’s terrified but also kind of curious. The gift of storytelling to the teller is the freedom to conceptualize the unthinkable on paper and act the mad scientist on their hapless characters. An unmarked page is this beautiful space full of white walls on which we may paint with whatever colors and whatever materials we desire. Last week it was the Teal and Fuchsia of True Love. This afternoon it’s the fire-engine red of staccato screaming.  

Or maybe writers are all just closeted serial killers.

Joseph Brassey lives in the Pacific Northwest with his wife, son, and two cats. In his spare time, he trains in, and teaches, medieval martial arts to members of the armed forces. He has lived on both sides of the continental United States and has worked everywhere from a local newspaper to the frame shop of a crafts store to the smoke-belching interior of a house-siding factory with questionable safety policies.

 

Click here to buy Katabasis!