John Everson's Blog, page 20

~ SIREN hits #1 in Horror on Amazon.com!

Yesterday morning, I woke up expecting to log onto my computer to find that my e-book sales had quieted after a month of excitement.

Amazon.com had been featuring The 13th and Sacrifice at $2.99 throughout January, but I knew when those went off sale at midnight on Jan. 31… things would probably settle down.

Instead… I found that on February 1, Amazon.com took those titles off… but put Siren on their next Kindle 100 promotional list – a perfect “antidote” book, actually, for Valentine’s Day month!

This time though, they plugged my novel into the top promotional sale spot on the SF/F page — and priced it at $0.99. That means that all the Amazon promotional emails that went out today featured Siren‘s bookcover in them!

How awesome is THAT?

 

It’s been hard to take my eyes away from the Siren page on Amazon for the past 24 hours, as its sales rank gradually climbed from 60,000 to 30,000 to 15,000 to 1,000. This morning, it was in the 400s.

Tonight?

It’s currently the #161 Top-selling book on all of Amazon — and the #1 book in Kindle’s Horror Section!

 

This is a crazy, amazing thing for me. Back in 2010, Covenant got to #699 on the Amazon charts and sold a couple hundred books, thanks to a .99 cent sale, but that has been the highest I’ve ever gotten, and it was very short-lived.

Since Siren will be featured on the Kindle 100 Books Under $3.99 page all month, it should have strong sales and positioning all month long.

I’m extra happy about this because Siren pretty much got the shaft on its paperback release. A week or two after it hit stores in August 2010, Leisure Books pulled the plug on its entire mass market line — after 40 years of monthly releases! They tried to revamp their line, and Siren was reissued the following summer in trade paperback format… but even that release was gunned down. It was heavily stocked in Borders Books… and less then a month after the “new” Siren hit shelves, Borders declared bankruptcy.

Maybe Amazon should be careful – this book might have a hex!!

But maybe, just maybe, this could finally be my Siren, Ligeia’s year. She’ll even have a translation released in Germany this spring: http://www.festa-verlag.de/ligeia.html

I’m pretty excited about it all, and hope readers will check out the book … and more importantly, enjoy the read!

~ VIGILANTES OF LOVE – 10th Anniversary Edition!

It’s hard to believe, but it was 10 years ago that Twilight Tales Books in Chicago issued my 2nd collection of short fantasy and macabre stories, Vigilantes of Love. A decade ago!

Since Twilight Tales is no longer around, to celebrate the anniversary, I’ve gone back and retooled the cover, added a new introduction and six more short stories that didn’t end up in the original release and have never been collected in my other fiction collections – “Hair of the Dog,” “Tomatoes,” “Tunnel,” “The Key To Her Heart,” “Why Do You Stay With Him?” and my very first published story, “Learning to Build.”

I know a lot of my readers have copies of the original edition, but might want the new version for the extra content, so for a (very) limited time, you can get the new edition on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo and Apple iBooks for just $0.99!

Amazon: www.amazon.com/Vigilantes-of-Love-ebook/dp/B004FEFAIY

Barnes & Noble: www.barnesandnoble.com/w/vigilantes-of-love-john-everson/1006954688

iBookstore: https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/vigilantes-of-love/id597240161?ls=1

Kobo: www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Vigilantes-of-Love/book-xJ6O1z7lc0GcPa46UZH3pA/page1.html

 

~ My novels SACRIFICE and THE 13TH are on Amazon’s January “Hot 100″ List!

It’s truly a “Lucky ’13″… at least so far.

Amazon has picked my 2nd and 3rd novels, Sacrifice and The 13th, to feature in their January 2013 “hot 100″ list! They’ve put both e-books on sale for just $2.99, so if you haven’t gotten these yet, I hope you’ll grab them this week while they’re on sale!

You can see them listed in the 100 Kindle Books Mysteries & Thrillers section (just scroll down a bit) or visit their book pages directly here:

SACRIFICE: http://www.amazon.com/ Sacrifice-ebook/dp/ B00280LOVO/

THE 13TH: http://www.amazon.com/ The-13th-ebook/dp/ B00390BEDK/

 

If you already have the books, please visit the book pages on Amazon and click the “Like” button at the top if you enjoyed them (those “Likes” help other people find them!). And if you could share my post about this from my Facebook  page — I’d really appreciate it! I’d really like to get the word out on this sale as far and wide as possible!

 

~ Goodbye 12, Hello Lucky 13!

2012 was a strange year of dichotomy for me. I can point to parts and say it was one of the best years of my life. Conversely, I can also point to moments that made it one of the worst. It was a year of transition in many aspects … but then, isn’t every year? It’s all just a journey, right? With good and bad detours along the way. The trick is always to enjoy the good and forget the bad.

So as I look back at my own trail through 2012, I will only talk about the highlights… why focus on the lowlights?

These are the things I want to remember in years to come:

2012 was the year that I managed to swim at midnight in the Pacific Ocean and then walk in the Atlantic Ocean just a few hours later. It was a pretty cool moment for a landlocked kid from Chicago.
This was the year I visited Europe for the first time (Munich, Germany). And amazingly, the first time I visited Vegas.
It was the year my sixth novel NightWhere came out, garnering some of my best reviews ever.
It was the year Covenant was released in Turkish, and I signed translation deals in Germany for three of my novels (Siren, The Pumpkin Man and NightWhere)
It was the year I met John Carpenter (and gave him a copy of The Pumpkin Man!)
It was the year I finally made it back to Horrorfind in Gettysburg after 8 years away, and met the staff from my new publisher as well as my labelmates there.
It was the year I took my family on a beach vacation to the Gulf of Mexico and trapped a jellyfish in a bucket.
It was the year I returned to New Orleans for the first time since the ’90s — twice within a month!

Books and Stuff:

On the writing front, 2012 was the year that my journey with Dorchester / Leisure Books was finally over. I’ll miss the people I worked with there over the past five years; they were good people caught in a horrible situation — working for a business that was crashing in slow motion, like a flaming zeppelin. In the end, after circling the drain of bankruptcy since mid-2010, Dorchester finally sold off their entire catalogue to Amazon.com’s publishing division. So, at the end of August, I officially became a 47North author (Amazon’s SF/F/H imprint). Covenant, Sacrifice, The 13th, Siren and The Pumpkin Man are all published now by 47North, and should have paperback editions available again next year.

This summer was also when NightWhere, my first post-Leisure novel came out — on Samhain Publishing, overseen by Don D’Auria, who was also my editor at Leisure. Sometimes the path winds to new places, but still feels familiar.

This summer was also when V-Wars, a collaborative shared world anthology, came out on IDW, with a limited edition through Cemetery Dance. Jonathan Maberry masterminded the project, and I wrote a 20,000 word novelette for it last year, so I was very excited to walk into Barnes & Nobles and see it on the “New in SF” shelf. And recently an audiobook edition also hit — with some big name narrators behind the stories, including Wil Wheaton.

Over the course of the spring-fall, I spent a lot of my free time writing my next novel for Samhain, Violet Eyes. And before I even finished the final draft, the publisher had created a pretty cool cover for the book. It won’t be out til Halloween, but I’m looking forward to it.

Conventions:

I was an author guest at a handful of conventions this year, including DucKon, the Chicago Horror Film Fest, Chicago’s Printers Row Lit Fest and Horrorfind in Gettysburg.

I also gave a guest lecture on writing at Columbia College in Chicago (thanks to Mort Castle!). I always kind of wanted to be a college professor, so it was pretty cool to be invited to speak to a college class.

Music:

While I was bummed that my beloved Naperville Ribfest didn’t have any acts worth seeing this year, we did take Shaun to see The Smithereens at the outdoor Naper Days (he called them his favorite band after that) and we also took him to see Sarah McLachlan at Ravinia.

And in October, Geri and I relived our youth at The Vic Theater with Psychedelic Furs. But I’m not totally retro – a week after the Furs, I finally got to see Brandi Carlile, who put on a phenomenal show at The Chicago Theatre.

 

Getting Around:

This was a year of transition in travel for me. I used to run around a lot to promote and do book signings for my Leisure novels. This year, I travelled more than ever before, but almost all of it was for my dayjob.

That culminated in May/June when I actually went out of the country three times within a month — to Vancouver, Toronto and, the capper, Munich. It was my first time in Europe, and now I can’t wait to go back.

I posted a long blog and lots of pictures about that here.

In the end, the year’s itinerary took me to:

Fort Worth
Las Vegas
Miami
Los Angeles
Dallas
Vancouver
Munich
Toronto
Melbourne, FL
Dallas (again)
Gulf Shores, AL (vacation)
Santa Fe
Gettysburg (Horrorfind Weekend)
New Orleans
Baltimore
New York

It’s no wonder the year slipped by in a rush. Somehow, amid all the dashing about, I still wrote another novel, and did spend time with the family.

This was Shaun’s first year in Cub Scouts and we built our first Pinewood Derby car together (with an Angry Birds theme), as well as the Raingutter Regatta boat. As I write this, it’s already time to do it again — we’re designing our 2013 Pinewood Derby car this weekend. We’ve graduated from Angry Birds to Minecraft.

With some of my long-overdue Leisure royalties (paid by Amazon when they bought the catalogue this fall), I bought an air hockey table this Christmas for the family, so I’m looking forward to some good at-home tournaments in the coming weeks.

I have a new book coming in 2013, and a film option being considered for Siren. Some books will be translated, and I suppose I’ll have to get started on writing something new.

It should be a pretty exciting year.

But I’ll never forget 2012…the year that brought me here. What will lucky ’13 bring?

I’ll be summing it up, I suppose, right about his time next year. Let the journey continue!

Happy New Year!

PS. I sampled a lot of microbrews as I travelled the world this year… and took pictures when I did. Here’s a quick gallery:

 

~ Goodbye 2012, Hello Lucky ’13!

2012 was a strange year of dichotomy for me. I can point to parts and say it was one of the best years of my life. Conversely, I can also point to moments that made it one of the worst. It was a year of transition in many aspects … but then, isn’t every year? It’s all just a journey, right? With good and bad detours along the way. The trick is always to enjoy the good and forget the bad.

So as I look back at my own trail through 2012, I will only talk about the highlights… why focus on the lowlights?

These are the things I want to remember in years to come:

2012 was the year that I managed to swim at midnight in the Pacific Ocean and then walk in the Atlantic Ocean just a few hours later. It was a pretty cool moment for a landlocked kid from Chicago.
This was the year I visited Europe for the first time (Munich, Germany). And amazingly, the first time I visited Vegas.
It was the year my sixth novel NightWhere came out, garnering some of my best reviews ever.
It was the year Covenant was released in Turkish, and I signed translation deals in Germany for three of my novels (Siren, The Pumpkin Man and NightWhere)
It was the year I met John Carpenter (and gave him a copy of The Pumpkin Man!)
It was the year I finally made it back to Horrorfind in Gettysburg after 8 years away, and met the staff from my new publisher as well as my labelmates there.
It was the year I took my family on a beach vacation to the Gulf of Mexico and trapped a jellyfish in a bucket.
It was the year I returned to New Orleans for the first time since the ’90s — twice within a month!

Books and Stuff:

On the writing front, 2012 was the year that my journey with Dorchester / Leisure Books was finally over. I’ll miss the people I worked with there over the past five years; they were good people caught in a horrible situation — working for a business that was crashing in slow motion, like a flaming zeppelin. In the end, after circling the drain of bankruptcy since mid-2010, Dorchester finally sold off their entire catalogue to Amazon.com’s publishing division. So, at the end of August, I officially became a 47North author (Amazon’s SF/F/H imprint). Covenant, Sacrifice, The 13th, Siren and The Pumpkin Man are all published now by 47North, and should have paperback editions available again next year.

This summer was also when NightWhere, my first post-Leisure novel came out — on Samhain Publishing, overseen by Don D’Auria, who was also my editor at Leisure. Sometimes the path winds to new places, but still feels familiar.

This summer was also when V-Wars, a collaborative shared world anthology, came out on IDW, with a limited edition through Cemetery Dance. Jonathan Maberry masterminded the project, and I wrote a 20,000 word novelette for it last year, so I was very excited to walk into Barnes & Nobles and see it on the “New in SF” shelf. And recently an audiobook edition also hit — with some big name narrators behind the stories, including Wil Wheaton.

Over the course of the spring-fall, I spent a lot of my free time writing my next novel for Samhain, Violet Eyes. And before I even finished the final draft, the publisher had created a pretty cool cover for the book. It won’t be out til Halloween, but I’m looking forward to it.

Conventions:

I was an author guest at a handful of conventions this year, including DucKon, the Chicago Horror Film Fest, Chicago’s Printers Row Lit Fest and Horrorfind in Gettysburg.

I also gave a guest lecture on writing at Columbia College in Chicago (thanks to Mort Castle!). I always kind of wanted to be a college professor, so it was pretty cool to be invited to speak to a college class.

Music:

While I was bummed that my beloved Naperville Ribfest didn’t have any acts worth seeing this year, we did take Shaun to see The Smithereens at the outdoor Naper Days (he called them his favorite band after that) and we also took him to see Sarah McLachlan at Ravinia.

And in October, Geri and I relived our youth at The Vic Theater with Psychedelic Furs. But I’m not totally retro – a week after the Furs, I finally got to see Brandi Carlile, who put on a phenomenal show at The Chicago Theatre.

 

Getting Around:

This was a year of transition in travel for me. I used to run around a lot to promote and do book signings for my Leisure novels. This year, I travelled more than ever before, but almost all of it was for my dayjob.

That culminated in May/June when I actually went out of the country three times within a month — to Vancouver, Toronto and, the capper, Munich. It was my first time in Europe, and now I can’t wait to go back.

I posted a long blog and lots of pictures about that here.

In the end, the year’s itinerary took me to:

Fort Worth
Las Vegas
Miami
Los Angeles
Dallas
Vancouver
Munich
Toronto
Melbourne, FL
Dallas (again)
Gulf Shores, AL (vacation)
Santa Fe
Gettysburg (Horrorfind Weekend)
New Orleans
Baltimore
New York

It’s no wonder the year slipped by in a rush. Somehow, amid all the dashing about, I still wrote another novel, and did spend time with the family.

This was Shaun’s first year in Cub Scouts and we built our first Pinewood Derby car together (with an Angry Birds theme), as well as the Raingutter Regatta boat. As I write this, it’s already time to do it again — we’re designing our 2013 Pinewood Derby car this weekend. We’ve graduated from Angry Birds to Minecraft.

With some of my long-overdue Leisure royalties (paid by Amazon when they bought the catalogue this fall), I bought an air hockey table this Christmas for the family, so I’m looking forward to some good at-home tournaments in the coming weeks.

I have a new book coming in 2013, and a film option being considered for Siren. Some books will be translated, and I suppose I’ll have to get started on writing something new.

It should be a pretty exciting year.

But I’ll never forget 2012…the year that brought me here. What will lucky ’13 bring?

I’ll be summing it up, I suppose, right about his time next year. Let the journey continue!

Happy New Year!

PS. I sampled a lot of microbrews as I travelled the world this year… and took pictures when I did. Here’s a quick gallery:

 

~ CHRISTMAS TALES…in Color!

I’m a Christmas junkie. Always have been.

I’m that guy who watches It’s A Wonderful Life every year on Christmas Eve, and still tears up every time!

Over the years, I’ve built up a number of personal traditions around the holiday. As many people on my mailing list know, part of my holiday tradition for many years was to write and record a new Christmas song every year for family and friends, usually with my sister-in-law at the microphone. Every season I post a link to one of my favorite tracks, “Show Me Christmas” which I recorded in a basement studio with a live band and a guest singer – probably one of the most polished productions of my holiday songs (most of the others were done on a 4-track recorder in my office). You can still listen to “Show Me Christmas” at http://www.johneverson.com/xmas.htm.  That page also has a link to a Christmas Tree blog from last year, where you can see pictures of my tree.

I’ve always loved giving something creative that I made with my own hands as a Christmas gift, whether that was a song or a batch of holiday caramels.  I’ve given Christmas chapbooks, and CDs of original Christmas songs to family and friends over the years. A couple years ago, I  published a short collection of some of those creations — stories and lyrics — in an ebook called  Christmas Tales.

This year, I’ve updated the Christmas Tales ebook with color and some graphic touches, to make it a little more festive, now that e-readers are a bit more advanced. I’ve also made the ebook available from  Apple’s iBook store, the Kobo store and from Google Play.

If you’ve downloaded Christmas Tales in the past from Amazon or B&N, I hope you’ll update  your version (I believe you can re-download it for free since you’ve bought it in the past.)

If you haven’t read it yet, I hope these stories and lyrics will bring some Christmas cheer to  your week! Here are links to the book’s various pages:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-ebook/dp/B004GUS980/

Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chris...

Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/John_Everson_Christmas_Tales?id=fJh3IfD8S10C

iBookstore:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/christmas-tales/id585300980

Kobo:

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Christmas-Tales/book-0KJpIUTdnUyXY6oowLqz3g/page1.html

 

I hope all of my friends and readers have a Merry Christmas!

-John

 

~ CHRISTMAS TALES… Now in Color!

I’m a Christmas junkie. Always have been.

I’m that guy who watches It’s A Wonderful Life every year on Christmas Eve, and still tears up every time!

Over the years, I’ve built up a number of personal traditions around the holiday. As many people on my mailing list know, part of my holiday tradition for many years was to write and record a new Christmas song every year for family and friends, usually with my sister-in-law at the microphone. Every season I post a link to one of my favorite tracks, “Show Me Christmas” which I recorded in a basement studio with a live band and a guest singer – probably one of the most polished productions of my holiday songs (most of the others were done on a 4-track recorder in my office). You can still listen to “Show Me Christmas” at http://www.johneverson.com/xmas.htm.  That page also has a link to a Christmas Tree blog from last year, where you can see pictures of my tree.

I’ve always loved giving something creative that I made with my own hands as a Christmas gift, whether that was a song or a batch of holiday caramels.  I’ve given Christmas chapbooks, and CDs of original Christmas songs to family and friends over the years. A couple years ago, I  published a short collection of some of those creations — stories and lyrics — in an ebook called  Christmas Tales.

This year, I’ve updated the Christmas Tales ebook with color and some graphic touches, to make it a little more festive, now that e-readers are a bit more advanced. I’ve also made the ebook available from  Apple’s iBook store, the Kobo store and from Google Play.

If you’ve downloaded Christmas Tales in the past from Amazon or B&N, I hope you’ll update  your version (I believe you can re-download it for free since you’ve bought it in the past.)

If you haven’t read it yet, I hope these stories and lyrics will bring some Christmas cheer to  your week! Here are links to the book’s various pages:

Amazon:

http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Tales-ebook/dp/B004GUS980/

Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/chris...

Google Play:

https://play.google.com/store/books/details/John_Everson_Christmas_Tales?id=fJh3IfD8S10C

iBookstore:

https://itunes.apple.com/us/book/christmas-tales/id585300980

Kobo:

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Christmas-Tales/book-0KJpIUTdnUyXY6oowLqz3g/page1.html

 

I hope all of my friends and readers have a Merry Christmas!

-John

 

~ Next Big Thing: VIOLET EYES

There’s a blog chain going around called “The Next Big Thing.” The idea is, each writer answers some questions about their next  big project… and lines up more authors to do the same, encouraging people to discover other authors’ books and blogs. My friend – and amazing werewolf-oriented thriller author W. D. Gagliani did one of these last week, and tagged me. I’ve tagged four more authors (see the bottom of this blog). So here are my answers:

What is your working title of your book?

Violet Eyes. And that’s also the final title, since the cover art has already been created by the publisher (see below)!  The novel was contracted back in February based on an outline and a completed version of the prologue (which originally appeared as a short story in my collection Creeptych).

I literally am finishing the last edits on it and turning it in tonight, after I finish this blog.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

People are really creeped out by spiders… I wanted to play with that!  I outlined the novel about three years ago, but at that time, Leisure Books already had a series of “spider” books from Sarah Pinborough, so the project was put on hold for awhile. In the meantime, I turned the outlined prologue into a standalone novelette for my Creeptych “bug” short stories book.

What genre does your book fall under?

Violet Eyes is a horror /sci-fi thriller. (My spiders have been genetically altered for a nefarious purpose…)

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Rachel would be played by Katie Holmes. Because Katie was actually my model for her!

Every time I start a project, I try to find some photos of people who my characters might look like (so I describe them the same way throughout the story).

When I started writing Violet Eyes and was looking on the web for someone who matched the vision I had for Rachel in my head, I found this photo of Katie, and knew she was the one!

Rachel’s boyfriend, Terry, could be played by Christian Bale and her ex-, Anders, should be portrayed by someone like a young Nick Nolte.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Rachel Riordan moves to a small town near the Everglades to escape her abusive ex- and start a new life… but she soon finds there are things that can bug you even more than a bad marriage. Things that can bug you to death…

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Violet Eyes will be published by Samhain Publishing in October 2013. This is my seventh novel, and my second book for Samhain, who published NightWhere, my current novel, in October 2012.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It took me about eight months to write Violet Eyes, though there were a couple months in there that I didn’t work on it. I started it in March, and finished the first draft in October. That’s been about the usual writing time for my novels — I start them, work on them a couple months, get pulled off in other directions for a few weeks, and then come back and force myself to dig in for three-four months to really drive through the rest. I’ve spent the past month editing the manuscript so I could turn it in the week of Thanksgiving.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Honestly, I don’t know – I’m sure there are lots of other books out there that deal with spiders and other creepy insects… but I haven’t read them!

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

When I was a kid I saw a movie called Kingdom of the Spiders starring William Shatner. There’s a scene towards the end that shows an entire town covered in spider webs. That image has been stuck in my head for over 30 years, so I figured, I should do something with it!

Plus, my wife Geri still asks me to kill spiders for her.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Violet Eyes starts out with a quartet of college kids essentially recreating The Blue Lagoon on an abandoned Key off the coast of Florida… but only one of the two couples returns from their erotic vacation, after they’re attacked by flesh-eating spiders and swarms of fiercely biting flies. It would have been all good if the creatures had continued to be quarantined on the island… but then there wouldn’t have been a novel!

Samhain finished the cover art a couple weeks ago based on a scene from the book before I actually finished writing it! Here’s what it’s gonna look like:

I hope you’ll keep an eye out next fall for Violet Eyes. In the meantime, check out the blogs of the other authors I’ve tagged as part of “The Next Big Thing.” Their blogs should go live around December 3rd:

P.S. Gifford, author of The Curious Accounts of the Imaginary Friend and Dr. Offig’s Lessons from the Dark Side: http://paperbacktheweirdcrap.blogspot.com

Cynthia Pelayo, author of the innovative macabre fiction collection Loteria, as well as editor of Burial Day Books: http://www.burialday.com/blog/

Gord Rollo, author of The Jigsaw Man and Valley of the Scarecrow: http://gordrollo.com/

Armand Rosamilia, author of  Dying Days and Highway to Hell: http://armandrosamilia.com

Lucy Taylor, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Safety of Unknown Cities and Unspeakable and Other Stories:  http://www.lucytaylor.us

And my inviter:

W. D. Gagliani, author of the Bram Stoker Award finalist Wolf’s Trap and Wolf’s Edge: http://www.wdgagliani.com/blog.htm

 

Message for the tagged authors and interested others:

Rules of the Next Big Thing

***Use this format for your post

***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)

***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:

What is your working title of your book?

Where did the idea come from for the book?

What genre does your book fall under?

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Include the link of who tagged you and this explanation for the people you have tagged.

Be sure to line up your five people in advance.

~ My Next Big Thing: VIOLET EYES

There’s a blog chain going around called “The Next Big Thing.” The idea is, each writer answers some questions about their next  big project… and lines up more authors to do the same, encouraging people to discover other authors’ books and blogs. My friend – and amazing werewolf-oriented thriller author W. D. Gagliani did one of these last week, and tagged me. I’ve tagged four more authors (see the bottom of this blog). So here are my answers:

What is your working title of your book?

Violet Eyes. And that’s also the final title, since the cover art has already been created by the publisher (see below)!  The novel was contracted back in February based on an outline and a completed version of the prologue (which originally appeared as a short story in my collection Creeptych).

I literally am finishing the last edits on it and turning it in tonight, after I finish this blog.

Where did the idea come from for the book?

People are really creeped out by spiders… I wanted to play with that!  I outlined the novel about three years ago, but at that time, Leisure Books already had a series of “spider” books from Sarah Pinborough, so the project was put on hold for awhile. In the meantime, I turned the outlined prologue into a standalone novelette for my Creeptych “bug” short stories book.

What genre does your book fall under?

Violet Eyes is a horror /sci-fi thriller. (My spiders have been genetically altered for a nefarious purpose…)

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Rachel would be played by Katie Holmes. Because Katie was actually my model for her!

Every time I start a project, I try to find some photos of people who my characters might look like (so I describe them the same way throughout the story).

When I started writing Violet Eyes and was looking on the web for someone who matched the vision I had for Rachel in my head, I found this photo of Katie, and knew she was the one!

Rachel’s boyfriend, Terry, could be played by Christian Bale and her ex-, Anders, should be portrayed by someone like a young Nick Nolte.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Rachel Riordan moves to a small town near the Everglades to escape her abusive ex- and start a new life… but she soon finds there are things that can bug you even more than a bad marriage. Things that can bug you to death…

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

Violet Eyes will be published by Samhain Publishing in October 2013. This is my seventh novel, and my second book for Samhain, who published NightWhere, my current novel, in October 2012.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

It took me about eight months to write Violet Eyes, though there were a couple months in there that I didn’t work on it. I started it in March, and finished the first draft in October. That’s been about the usual writing time for my novels — I start them, work on them a couple months, get pulled off in other directions for a few weeks, and then come back and force myself to dig in for three-four months to really drive through the rest. I’ve spent the past month editing the manuscript so I could turn it in the week of Thanksgiving.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Honestly, I don’t know – I’m sure there are lots of other books out there that deal with spiders and other creepy insects… but I haven’t read them!

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

When I was a kid I saw a movie called Kingdom of the Spiders starring William Shatner. There’s a scene towards the end that shows an entire town covered in spider webs. That image has been stuck in my head for over 30 years, so I figured, I should do something with it!

Plus, my wife Geri still asks me to kill spiders for her.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Violet Eyes starts out with a quartet of college kids essentially recreating The Blue Lagoon on an abandoned Key off the coast of Florida… but only one of the two couples returns from their erotic vacation, after they’re attacked by flesh-eating spiders and swarms of fiercely biting flies. It would have been all good if the creatures had continued to be quarantined on the island… but then there wouldn’t have been a novel!

Samhain finished the cover art a couple weeks ago based on a scene from the book before I actually finished writing it! Here’s what it’s gonna look like:

I hope you’ll keep an eye out next fall for Violet Eyes. In the meantime, check out the blogs of the other authors I’ve tagged as part of “The Next Big Thing.” Their blogs should go live around December 3rd:

P.S. Gifford, author of The Curious Accounts of the Imaginary Friend and Dr. Offig’s Lessons from the Dark Side: http://paperbacktheweirdcrap.blogspot.com

Gord Rollo, author of The Jigsaw Man and Valley of the Scarecrow: http://gordrollo.com/

Armand Rosamilia, author of  Dying Days and Highway to Hell: http://armandrosamilia.com

Lucy Taylor, author of the Bram Stoker Award-winning novel The Safety of Unknown Cities and Unspeakable and Other Stories:  http://www.lucytaylor.us

And my inviter:

W. D. Gagliani, author of the Bram Stoker Award finalist Wolf’s Trap and Wolf’s Edge: http://www.wdgagliani.com/blog.htm

 

Message for the tagged authors and interested others:

Rules of the Next Big Thing

***Use this format for your post

***Answer the ten questions about your current WIP (work in progress)

***Tag five other writers/bloggers and add their links so we can hop over and meet them.

Ten Interview Questions for the Next Big Thing:

What is your working title of your book?

Where did the idea come from for the book?

What genre does your book fall under?

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Include the link of who tagged you and this explanation for the people you have tagged.

Be sure to line up your five people in advance.

~ NIGHTWHERE is Samhain’s November Book Club Selection; B&N calls it “a Dark, Decadent, and Deeply Disturbing Masterpiece”

NightWhere is the November selection of the  Samhain Horror Book Club!

This means until this Friday, November 16th, you can get the trade paper edition or e-book copies for 40% off.

Just visit www.samhainpublishing.com/bookclubs/

 

I’ve been really excited about this novel over the past few weeks, because NightWhere has gotten a string of amazing 5-star reader reviews on Amazon and Goodreads as well as from regular ‘zine and website reviewers.

Last month, Paul Goat Allen wrote an amazing review titled NightWhere is a Dark, Decadent, and Deeply Disturbing Masterpiece on the Barnes & Noble Book Club Forums.

The review opens with a great image: “I’ve likened the impact of reading certain horror novels to being sucker-punched by a brass-knuckled fist, slapped in the face, and getting kicked in the groin by a steel-toed boot – but reading John Everson’s latest release, NightWhere, was so much more… it was like being brained by a wrecking ball!  The intensity – and audacity – of this narrative is just skull crushing.”

Hellnotes posted a review last week that said “John Everson has written what I already consider to be a true classic in every sense of the word. The author has invited the reader on a journey into the depths of Hell, knowing that once the last page is turned, the individual (man or woman) will never be the same again. I kid you not.”

Dreadful Tales did one of the first reviews of the book and called it “a batshit crazy, hot, wet ride into hell!”

Sizzling Hot Book Reviews said: “While it is bloody, a bit gory, very shocking, and might give you unusual dreams – NightWhere is also very gripping. I can’t seem to get a lot of scenes out of my head and that’s not just the gory ones that made me gasp. I do highly recommend NightWhere. It has opened my eyes to a new author for sure.”

Dark Haven Book Reviews gave NightWhere a glowing review despite the reviewer admitting that she generally avoids horror at all costs! She went on to say this: NightWhere is a darkly erotic, deeply disturbing and hauntingly engaging tale that took my breath away – literally – and now weeks after I’ve read it, still pops into my psyche. I almost wrote above that NightWhere was ‘a hauntingly beautiful tale’ but that wouldn’t be accurate. This tale of heightened eroticism, degradation, masochism, graphic violence and often horrific imagery is the proverbial scrape across a chalk board or the fingernail stroke down one’s spine that elicits an aching twinge and shudder; and, weirdly, leaves you wanting more. NightWhere may not be ‘hauntingly beautiful’, but it’s a hell of a good read.

Dark Arts Magazine said this a couple weeks ago: “NightWhere is a demented journey into the most vile and disturbing depths of the human soul… This is easily the best novel Everson has crafted. Having read much of his work, this was the quickest read with the most relatable characters and a plot that kept with some interesting twists leading to an ending that will leave you cursing at the pages in a good way. As you are left with an ending cursing for more, begging for more of the pain.”

Not Now… Mommy’s Reading said “NightWhere can best be summed up in two words – FREE. KEY.”

The review went on to say: “I am a hardcore horror fan. I’ve read the likes of Edward Lee and Richard Laymon and not blinked an eye. *brushing my shoulders off  However, there were several times during my reading of this novel where I had to put down my Kindle and look around like, “WTFD?! (What The Front Door?!). Yeah – it was that disturbing. The thing I’d like to applaud Mr. Everson for though is where other authors in the horror genre have seemed to forget the art of the telling of a damn good story in favor of grossing the reader out – Everson takes the reader by the hand, leads them to bed, pulls the blanket under their chin and then sits back and tells a story that is so entertaining, so gripping you are instantly drawn in and kept there for the duration.”

Naturally, I’ve been blown away by the reception the book has received, and just hope in the coming weeks that readers keep finding it… and enjoying whatever crazy attraction it holds!