August 2025 Group Read #2 with Guest Author, MJ Mars

[Kenneth]

This is the thread for the August 2025 Group Read #2 with Guest Author, M.J. Mars. M.J.exploded onto the horror scene with her haunted house tale, The Suffering. This month, she’s joining us as we read her new release, The Fovea Experiments: A Novel. Grab your copy at the link below and please help me welcome to HA…M.J. Mars!

https://www.amazon.com/Fovea-Experime...

[Latasha]

Welcome MJ and ty for joining us.

[Blaine]

The Punk Rock Princess of horror herself!

[M.J.]

So happy to be here! Thank you all for having me

[Kenneth]

Welcome MJ!

First and foremost, let’s talk about this cover. Can you tell us who did the artwork and how the design process went?

[M.J.]

Yes! The artwork was created by Christy Aldridge from Grim Poppy design. I had a fairly strong idea in my head of what I wanted (a demon hand coming out of an eyeball with sepia tones) and having worked with Christy before on my cover for We've Already Gone Too Far, I know she's excellent at taking my wacky ideas and bringing them to life!

[M.J.]

Not a particular experiment, but a particular instance of me spooking myself before sleep! I'm not a great sleeper at the best of times (I have to confess, I'm often a nightlight kind of adult), and one night I focused on the colours and shapes that came to mind when I had my eyes closed. It morphed into quite a spooky-looking old man's face, and the idea to create a book around a sleep experiment was born.

I wanted it to play on people's minds when they tried to sleep, which is when I find the spookiest books and movies always come back to me, whether I want them to or not! As a horror writer, the idea of even a handful of readers being genuinely afraid to close their eyes after closing the book really appealed to me. It's been a long time since I had that experience myself, but it's always a love-hate scenario as a horror fan.

[M.J.]

Can I ask a question of all of you guys?
Whats your most terrifying dream/spooky thing that’s happened at night time that you can recall? Spooky hauntings and creepy experiences especially 👻

[Kenneth]

Growing up, I used to sleep on my stomach with the covers up to my chin. One night, my eyes flew open. I had no idea why. The house was quiet as a tomb. I remember lying there thinking “Why am I awake?” Suddenly, I felt the room get cold, and I mean COLD! At the same time, I had this nagging feeling that someone was at the foot of my bed. I slowly turned my head and there was a shadowy outline standing near my feet. I whipped my head back around, squeezed my eyes shut as tight as I could and heard my heartbeat trip-hammering in my head. What felt like forever, but I’m sure was less than a minute, the room warmed back up. I finally dug up the courage and looked back toward the foot of my bed. Nothing but a wall. I eventually fell back asleep and awoke the next morning with nothing more than a vague feeling that I had a nightmare that I couldn’t remember. I went downstairs and my mother was in the kitchen crying. When I asked her what was wrong, she told me that my great-grandmother, whom I’d never met and lived half way across the country, died during the night.

[M.J.]

😮 that’s incredible! Do you feel that it was her, or do you feel like there’s another explanation? I’ve had a few scary night moments, but I also suffer from night terrors, so I know it discounts a lot of my experiences. Still, I’m sure some of them are genuinely unexplainable because of additional factors, and yours falls into that category for me. Fascinating! Thanks for sharing x

[WendyB]

I'm a somewhat restless sleeper and I often get up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water in the kitchen. The kitchen window looks out on my backyard. One night, within just the last year, I saw two objects running around. They seemed like small dogs playing but the night was too dark to make out anything else. I don't have dogs and there is an almost 6ft block wall that runs the entire perimeter of the backyard, way too high for something like a small dog to get over. I also have a security camera aimed at the yard and this is the creepy part - the camera footage didn't show anything in the yard that night.
I haven't seen this happen again but I have to admit to watching for it on any night I'm up getting a glass of water.

[Alan]

For some reason, when I was younger (late teens-20s) a few times over the years I dreamed I was walking down the basement steps of some ratty old apartment building and at the bottom was a body hanged on a rope. I think the body would turn towards me and the eyes/mouth would open at which point I would scream and wake up. No idea why I had this dream multiple times, but it was pretty terrifying at the time.

[Kenneth]

M.J. wrote: "😮 that’s incredible! Do you feel that it was her, or do you feel like there’s another explanation? I’ve had a few scary night moments, but I also suffer from night terrors, so I know it discounts a..."

I really couldn’t say. The analytical side of my brain wants to brush it off as something that has some sort of rational explanation. But what? It never happened before and I’ve never had anything like it happen since. 🤷

[M.J.]

WendyB wrote: "I'm a somewhat restless sleeper and I often get up in the middle of the night to get a glass of water in the kitchen. The kitchen window looks out on my backyard. One night, within just the last ye..."

That's so cool! I love anything that could be cryptid related and that very much sounds like it could be something unknown creeping around your yard! And I'd be camped out watching for them again so I completely understand you looking out for them x

[M.J.]

Alan wrote: "For some reason, when I was younger (late teens-20s) a few times over the years I dreamed I was walking down the basement steps of some ratty old apartment building and at the bottom was a body han..."

That's probably the scariest dream I've ever heard of. You poor thing!

[Alan]

M.J. wrote: "Alan wrote: "For some reason, when I was younger (late teens-20s) a few times over the years I dreamed I was walking down the basement steps of some ratty old apartment building and at the bottom w... That's probably the scariest dream I've ever heard of. You poor thing!"

Just about the only dream I even had multiple times, and it was before I really got into horror. Fortunately I haven't had that dream in years.