Coffee Chat 10.0 with S.K. Anthony: Into the Nightmirrors with Raymond Esposito

Hi, everyone! I’m really excited about today’s Coffee Chat, because Raymond Esposito is going to be joining us to discuss his newest book, The Devil’s Hour. I sent S.K. to pick him up—oh, shoot! I forgot to tell him she was coming—but no matter, they should be here any minute. Actually, they should have been here a while ago . . .

Here’s the thing: I never know what kinds of adventures S.K. is going to get herself into, so this time, I took the small precaution of putting a return sticker on her. That might sound strange, and a bit degrading to some, but I think it’s just plain practical. It would have been easier to meet at Raymond’s house, but he wouldn’t tell us where he lived. I don’t know why. Thank goodness for Google.

[Hears a knock at the kitchen door.] Yay! I’ll bet they’re here!

[Opens door to find Raymond, holding a dripping wet S.K. by the hood of her sweatshirt. The look on his face is quite indescribable.]

Um . . . well. Hi, Raymond. Welcome to my house. I’m sure there’s a story behind this, but it’s probably best told over coffee. Come on in and we’ll get a towel or two for S.K. [Sighs.]

SKA: Or a blanket . . . err, thanks for returning me, Raymond.

RE: Hi, Lynda. Sorry we are a bit late. First I had to figure out why a strange woman was running around on my front lawn getting soaked by the sprinkler system . . . then I had to explain it to my wife before she dialed 9-1-1. I can attest that S.K.'s superpowers do not extend to being waterproof . . . or staying on the walkway.

ER: I guess the important part is that you're here now. [To S.K.] Why didn't you just go in the garage when the sprinklers started? You could have stayed dry.

SKA: Are you insane, Lynda? I’m not going in there! Didn’t you read what happens in The Devil’s Hour in the garage? I don’t trust it . . . or you, Raymond. I’m pretty sure at any moment you’re going to open that bag and throw diabolical bugs at me or something.

[Trembling.] I . . . I’ve been having nightmares. I can’t even look you in the eye.

ER: Let's reassure you: Raymond, how about showing S.K. what's in the bag. Did you bring us chocolate?

RE: S.K., of course I didn't bring diabolical bugs. I gave those to the demonic clown that is hiding under your bed. What I did bring is chocolate-flavored coffee because I think comfort foods . . . well, in this case, beverages . . .  go so well with Horror. I know that sounds crazy, but for me some of my fondest childhood memories are of watching horror movies and reading horror novels.

SKA: Demonic clown under my bed? O_O At least it’s not spiders, but umm . . . I’ll take that chocolate-flavored coffee while I set up my new bedroom in Lynda’s house.

ER: Great. Now I have a permanent houseguest. And thank you, Raymond, for reminding me of the demonic clown . . . because I had FINALLY gotten that out of my head for five whole minutes.

What got you hooked on horror? Can you trace it back to a certain time or event?

RE: It's interesting that as a kid I hated roller coasters, but loved being frightened. My mom was a big horror fan. She took me to see The Omega Man at the drive-in when I was, like, five. Together we consumed every creature feature program on television. I think horror is my drug. In fourth grade I did a shadow box on "The Tell-Tale Heart." In middle school I did book reports on John Saul's Suffer the Children, The Amityville Horror, and Peter Straub's Julia. When I discovered Stephen King's ’Salem's Lot, though, that's when I realized I wanted to write horror novels.

[Looks around.] Umm . . . is S.K. going to be okay with the coffee? She had a hard time operating the door bell, and coffee makers are a little more complex.

ER: I'd better check on her . . . she's usually okay with coffee (I think she can make it in her sleep) but this whole clown/bug thing has her pretty wigged out. I thought she was going to tackle you to the floor when she realized you had a bag in your hand.

SKA: I’m okay, I’m okay! I’ve been hiding by the door trying to keep an eye on Raymond. [Looks at him.] You don’t look all that dangerous, and this is awesome coffee, so I forgive you. Don’t give me that look. Your book petrified me, and you should be a little sorry. And now you’re laughing? Fantastic! 

ER: Okay, so let's talk about The Devil's Hour. People always say, "Write what you know." This makes me wonder about you just a little bit. Did you write this book in the bathroom while your friends and family tried to break in and kill you? 'Cause that would leave me with a permanent twitch, and I have to say, you look pretty serene for a horror writer.

RE: I think I do write what I know. Horror is just actual experiences ramped up with imagination. Fictional demons to exercise the real ones from the past . . . in my opinion. As a kid I often barricaded myself in a room while a real-life demon tried to get in to kill me . . . figuratively kill me, of course.

ER: Ahh, yes, the brother who ate the cereal full of ants . . .

RE: My childhood was a great world of imagination and fun, but it was also filled, like many people's, with my fair share of not-so-great experiences. There are as many psychological aspects to my story writing as there are "scary" things because I've always thought that horror is the celebration of human character and strength . . . even when it doesn't end well, it's about standing up.

SKA: Standing up? Sure, I can see that. But I’d rather run to my new bedroom, curl up and hide under my blanket. Speaking of running, originally I would have been all for going after the SUV to get away like they did in the book, but after what happened in the garage . . . I don’t know that I would still try to get the car out; I still have goosebumps.

RE: Well, I think courage is a situational thing. That's what I love about horror—take the worst situation and see which characters rise and which fall. It's a great world for the reader to ask, "What would I do?"

SKA: What was your favorite scene to write, Raymond? Or one of your favorite lines?

RE: I'm going to cheat a bit and say there wasn't one particular scene, but TDH is one part mystery and I really enjoyed weaving in the clues. I'm hoping when the reader gets to the end they go "a-ha."

But the demon under the bed was one of my personal childhood nightmares.

ER: The under-the-bed stuff was the same for me. No matter how hot it was, I couldn't allow my hands or feet to hang off the side of the bed because I knew something would grab me. I also had a fear of the killer bees after I'd read a National Geographic article. I was convinced they were coming up from South America to kill me. I was so happy you didn't have a swarm of killer bees in your book! I would have needed therapy.

Since I got the manuscript in parts, I had a lot of "a-ha" moments because of your excellent clue-weaving abilities. I couldn't wait to reread it for the final proof so I could look at those moments more purposefully.

Speaking of your abilities, I think you have the creep factor down pretty well. No need to work on that. Something you and I talked about during the editing process was the horror aspect of this book and how it was a little different than your other works. Can you elaborate on that?

RE: I remember the "killer bee" scare and the made-for-television movie. It gave me nightmares. And to answer your question, that's what TDH was about: nightmares. I've written a lot of short stories, but to date my novels are zombie/infected related. I really wanted to write a straight-out horror story. Something that would let me talk about all the nightmare stuff that scares me. I wanted it to be one of those books that fits the classic description of horror without relying on blood or guts or slasher-type elements. I'm hoping readers will find at least one thing in it that visits them when they lie in the dark and sleep won't come . . . but I guess that's every horror author's goal.

SKA: Let me assure you, your goal was achieved. I love everything zombies, so I’m probably okay with blood and guts. But the creepiness you have in TDH? That was not expected and I’m pretty sure most readers will agree with me. My skin is still crawling. And the fact that I finished reading at 3:00 a.m. didn’t help matters with me staying awake after reading The Devil’s Hour. What are the odds? Needless to say, I lay in the dark and sleep did not come when I was done . . .

RE: I think the odds are about right—maybe it was a warning. [Laughs.]

ER: Did it end up being therapeutic, or creating more nightmares for you? I'll bet you don't have any happy clown nightlights in your house.

RE: Unfortunately, no, it wasn't therapeutic, because the more I've seen of this country and the more I've learned, the closer I come to believing that maybe these fictional "fears" have some truth. It does seem everything we imagine comes true—like flying, magic potions that cure disease, space travel. So perhaps the monsters are real. Maybe they're just good at hiding . . . until that one time they grow tired of waiting . . . that time you forget to look under the bed or you chance not turning on the light and you reach into the darkness. Maybe I don't have a good imagination, but instead, maybe I just know something that's hard to explain any other way but in stories . . .  Okay, I just creeped myself out. See? Horror is an itch but it’s like poison ivy: the more I scratch, the worse it gets.

ER: You're creeping me out, too, and making me want to run, screaming, into S.K.'s new room. You said you were going to bring a movie for us to watch. Pleasepleaseplease let it be something like The Sound of Music or The Princess Bride.

RE: Sure. It's just like those movies. Nothing to fear at all . . . just turn off the lights and have a look.

It begins with a car accident and a mysterious wall of smoke. Something horrific has arrived in Sam Drake's neighborhood—something that will unleash their every nightmare and test the limits of sanity. Sam and his friends must find a way out . . . a way to survive the terrors in the darkness. But every neighborhood has its dark secrets and some nightmares are inescapable . . . when the hour comes.

ER: Not . . . The Princess Bride . . .

You can get your own copy of The Devil's Hour on Smashwords or Amazon. In fact, Raymond has provided a coupon code (WS98R) to get it FREE on Smashwords if you're one of the first 25 people to get there and grab one. 

You can find Raymond Esposito on his own blogs, Writing in a Dead World and Nightmirrors. You can also find him on Twitter @Nightmirrors666.

As always:

You can find S.K. Anthony in a number of places. She's on Twitter @SKathAnthony, her website is www.skanthony.com, her Facebook page is S Katherine Anthony, and on occasional occasions, she'll be right here with me, drinking coffee and laughing it up over our latest plans and schemes. And possibly even talking about books and writing. 

You can find me here. I'm always here.

Book Review: This Changes Everything

I was recently given a pre-pub e-copy of This Changes Everything (Volume 1 of The Spanners Series) by Sally Ember, Ed. D., in exchange for an honest review.

What if the world as we know it isn’t exactly as we’d always believed? What if we’re not the only sentient beings in the universe? What if the universe were not “only” a universe, but a “multi-verse” where many timelines occurred simultaneously?

The book’s title really says it all: this changes everything. Clara Branon is visited by the holograms of alien beings one night in her home, and her life from that point on is forever changed. She’s chosen as Chief Communicator, the contact person between the Many Worlds Collective and the Earthers, as they’re known by other species; it becomes her job to tell the rest of the world about the MWC and to help them accept it in order to transform our world into a better place for future generations.

I like the way opportunities for “re-sets” are available—how many of us would go back and change certain events if we could?—but are also shown as not always being the best option. Our life experiences shape us into who we are, after all, and if one or more of those is altered, we may not get what we want in the way we think we want it. I also appreciate the nods to authors like Douglas Adams, with the language-interpreting “fish” reminiscent of the Babel fish in his Hitchhiker’s Guide books.

Because Clara is writing/telling of the events occurring in multiple timelines, all the narrative is in the present tense, even for past or future events, which, as an editor, drove me crazy at first. Eventually, I got used to it, but it was occasionally a distraction…after all, past events require past tense verbs, unless the past is happening during the present or the future, in which case...oh, forget it. You’ll get used to it too, after a few pages.

Since the book is essentially a documentation of the initial visitation and transition time, there’s a lot of narrative with little dialogue, which slows down the pace in many spots. I’m a dialogue person, so the long stretches of complex details in the form of transcripts were a lot to absorb and at times felt like too much for one book. [Note: after contacting the author about this, I was informed that the manuscript had been revised and more dialogue had been added to the version that will be published in December.]

At times it felt like it had a definite political slant, with a lot of liberal push, demonizing those who are staunch in their religious or moral beliefs as inflexible and unenlightened, classifying the wealthy as greedy, etc.  I have to admit, I didn’t really care for that aspect of it, but that reflects my own personal beliefs and has nothing to do with the quality of the book itself. The novel also has a lot of Buddhist practices and teachings in it, including reincarnation (or ReInvolvement, as the MWC refers to it). I feel the need to mention these things because they’re so present within the book, and many readers prefer to be made aware of any controversial topics or religious leanings prior to reading.

There were parts that really tickled me, such as the explanation of crop circles: teenage alien graffiti, not much different than Earth teens taking a joyride and spray-painting the sides of bridges or boxcars, then racing back home before the authorities catch them.  A recounting of an exchange between Clara and her son, Zephyr, over speakerphone had me giggling out loud, because it reminded me so much of phone conversations with my own mother.

The writing is complex and done extremely well. I didn't see an editor listed, and I’m happy to say that Ms. Ember is excellent at self-editing. Grammar, punctuation, and spelling were non-issues, which was very refreshing in an indie book. There were times when I almost forgot I was reading a work of fiction and not a news account of real events, and I would consider that to be skilled writing indeed.

Because different book sites have different meanings to their ratings, I think of the star system as looking at a scale: did I enjoy more of it than not? Yes. Four stars. Did I like the overall content? Most of the time. Three stars. Was the writing of good quality? Oh, definitely yes. Five stars.

My overall rating: four of five stars.

Ms. Ember's book will be available for pre-orders next week via Smashwords, nook, iBooks and Kobo through December 19, with release date planned for sales December 20, 2013.