Blood Ties by Gilbert M. Stack

My novel Blood Ties is on sale for 99 cents for the next three weeks on Amazon and it’s always free on Kindle Unlimited.

 

https://www.amazon.com/Blood-Ties-Gil...

 

I’ve always enjoyed reading books with a supernatural element, but with a few exceptions the stories I’ve written in this genre have tended to come down on the urban fantasy rather than the horror side of the supernatural equation. The difference is pretty clear. Werewolves and vampires and what have you may be very frightening in an urban fantasy, but the focus of the story is usually on destroying the monster. In horror, the focus is more purely about survival. If that involves destroying the supernatural threat, that’s okay, but it shouldn’t be obvious that the heroes can destroy the big bad guy. After writing nearly a dozen urban fantasy style stories (Pembroke Steel, Preternatural, Among Us) and an urban fantasy romance (High Above the Waters) I decided I wanted to take a more traditional look at the great monsters of the horror genre and see just how scary they could truly be. In doing so, I wanted to pay tribute to the great masters who really created this genre.

 

So, what are the key elements to a successful horror novel? I’m sure that every author has a slightly different take on this, but the key difference to me between horror and my urban fantasy books was that I wanted unempowered characters—people who were out of their element and unable to get help with their problems. That required an unhealthy dose of isolation for my protagonists and at the same time, a healthy dose of normality for them. No Navy Seals who just happen to stumble into something way above the average person’s pay grade. No tenth-degree black belts who just happened to encounter something way out of the ordinary. I needed your average everyday Jane and Joe and had to put them into a situation that anybody reading the story could imagine themselves—given the circumstances—getting caught up in.

 

And that’s what you get in Blood Ties—a lawyer still-traumatized from a years old assault—trying to save her practice and a man that just discovered that his recently deceased family were not his last remaining relatives. They’re two scarred and lonely people desperate enough to fly halfway around the world to try and put their lives back together—not realizing, of course, that in a horror novel their pathetic lives are exactly what the big bad is really interested in.

 

So, if you like horror novels, why don’t you take a trip to Carpathia with Liz and Ryan? It’s right next door to the legendary Transylvania and vampires aren’t the only classic threat to inhabit the region.