Photographic Evil: An interview with paranormal novelist Christopher Savio

1) Please tell us about your book. 

The Daguerreotypist is a book that is much more than your typical paranormal romance. Don’t get me wrong, it has its fare share of romance and has the ability to scare the pants off most any reader. Mostly the book is about what happens when people don’t realize the wonderful things they have in life. Too many times we all wish we had something or someone else. Often we think that our lives are much too boring. After reading The Daguerreotypist, you will be grateful for what you have and hug and kiss your significant other.

2) Please tell us a bit about your main characters.

The antagonist, Isaiah Whitfield, is a loner who wants to change the world by eliminating its sins. He believes that in so doing he can and will bring about the Second Coming. In the 19th century, he bounced around from one job to the next before finding himself in business as a daguerreotypist (photographer). Taking pictures of the rich or other people he loathes drives him wild with frustration. They don’t listen to him and continue their sinning. Due to his anger and failed attempts to get people to change, he devises a crusade to kill the sinners and scare people into changing their lives. His favorite hangout or place to go and people watch is a coffee house around the corner from his 1842 New York City apartment. Here in an attempt at human contact and to spread his message of eradicating sin, he often gets into political and religious debates. To everyone but him, it is blatantly obvious why he has few people who can tolerate his presence.

The protagonist, Rachel, is a beautiful photojournalist who lives in Isaiah’s apartment in the year 2012 with her fiancée Brian. Rachel is outwardly brave, successful and happy. On the inside, she yearns for something else. She needs something a bit more exciting than her safe and loving life with Brian. Once she finds Isaiah’s Daguerreotype in her wall, she finds herself obsessed with him, despite his horrific history. It turns out to be an obsession that may ruin much more than her safe and loving life she has found with Brian.

Brian, Rachel’s fiancée, is a high school history teacher who recently has mustered up the guts to move into New York City with Rachel. He is Rachel’s safety net and rock. Brian is loyal and devoted and is the kind of guy who will stick by here through thick or thin. Given this is partially because he believes himself to be out of her league and endures much more than most men will to stay with his true love.

The Devil, for the most part is only visible or seen by Isaiah. Once he is revealed for what he really is, he appears sporadically through the book to antagonize Isaiah and drive him even madder. The Devil pushes Isaiah to do his bidding, which appears to be solely for his own amusement. As the story unfolds, amusement may not be his sole motive. The reader may have to read the sequel to find out the true evil of the Devil’s true motives.

3) You have a background in, among other things, teaching criminology. How did that inform some of your character development in this novel?

In teaching criminology I have learned much about serial killers and their behavior. (It makes watching shows like Criminal Minds much more interesting.) I have blended that into my character Isaiah Whitfield. The dementia of a serial killer can be seen when the reader is shown his inner most thoughts. The reader will see him acting erratically and desperately. He clearly displays the actions of a paranoid disorganized killer who is fighting for his survival with the Devil biting at his heels. I believe it only adds to frightening and disturbing actions of my antagonist. It may also lend itself to the reader almost feeling sorry for him. Well, maybe for a moment until the reader continues on with the novel.

4) Why do you center certain elements of the plot around an daguerreotype? Have you always had an interest in the history of photography?

One of my favorite scenes in movie history comes from The Dead Poet’s society. When Robin Williams asks his students to listen to the pictures on the wall in order to hear what they are saying. Well, my imagination did not hear “seize the day” it heard something far more sinister or downright odd. It wondered what could happen if the people could come out of their pictures and time travel back and forth between our world and theirs. What would they do? Would we want them here? Those thoughts are what eventually gave me the idea to write The Daguerreotypist.
I have always loved history and looking at old pictures. I often thought of what if the people in them could come out of them. (A vivid imagination I know, but to be a writer you have to be a bit different.) Although, I am not really into photography, I have always been captivated by daguerreotypes and the story of the people in them.

5) Books featuring serial killers, paranormal or otherwise, continue to draw in readers. Why do you think people are so interested in engaging with some of the darkest creatures that can still be called human?

It is a basic human instinct. People say they hate the sight of blood or horrific scenes, yet they slow down at every accident on the highway to get a good look. Although many love to think of sunny days or utopian existences, people can’t get away from their own dark sides. Reading books about it is a safe way to feed that part of themselves,

6) Do you any links to any excerpts you'd like to share?

I would love to do so. My website Scaryreads.com is currently on the fritz. I will post them as soon as I can get word press to get me up and running again. Please stay tuned.

7) Please tell us briefly about your other works.

I currently have one other book, The Beckoning, out on the market. That book is about a young girl of fifteen finding her inner strength and coming of age. Rest assured however that this is not your typical coming of age story. Forced to relocate to a rural Virginia plantation house, my main character Marissa soon finds herself haunted by a demon who is trying to kill her family. All alone, except for her dog Max, Marissa almost falls victim to despair. That is until the ghost of the fifteen-year-old boy who used to inhabit her very room over a hundred years befriends her. Not only does he hold the key to getting rid of the demon, but he also leads her down a path to understanding her family’s mesmerizing yet eerie past that she never knew. Falling in love with the ghost, Zachary, Marissa not only learns about true loves powers, but gains bewildering powers of her own. Can she use these powers to free her family and the souls of her long lost relatives from the demon who is desperately trying to kill her?

I am currently working two other books, the prequel to The Beckoning and another involving vampires and Billy the Kid. I hope to have these two works hitting the market during 2013.

The Daguerreotypist is available for sale at Amazon.

A Cornucopia of Mysterious Creatures: A Review of Carnival of Cryptids

So, last week I interview several of the authors associated with the Kindle All-Stars Carnival of Cryptids anthology, but I hadn't a chance to read through t thoughts on it he entire anthology and give my thoughts on the ARC I received from a representative of the authors. For full disclosure, I am also friends with one of the authors, though I didn't know any of the others until interviewing them last week.

I always approach anthologies with trepidation. If an anthology is remotely worthwhile, it won't be filled with the same sort of story over and over. I typically expect a sort of normal distribution of story quality and interest, whether they are by one author playing around with style or a multi-author affair where the differences in stories often are even more extreme. Accordingly, I usually find a few stories I adore, a few that were okay, and a few that just plain annoyed me. Surprisingly, that didn't happen to me with this anthology.

In Carnival of Cryptids, the unifying concept of the anthology is that each story contains a cryptid in some way. A cryptid is a creature that is alleged to exist yet is not recognized to exist by the general zoological community. Although in the early days of zoology, this applied to a lot of creatures, advances in technology and science over the years have winnowed most cryptids down into a smaller group of legendary monsters. The Loch Ness Monster and Sasquatch/Bigfoot are perhaps two of the most well-known cryptids.

Given the subject matter, it would have been far too easy for the various stories to end up some sort of feeble X-Files clones where various mysterious monsters are encountered in roundabout places doing the sort of spooky-boo things that people often associate with mysterious creatures of legend. It is a testament to the imagination and quality of the anthology writers that, instead, these variety of creatures are approached in radically different types of stories. Indeed, there's no real general style, theme, or approach used. Some stories are rousing tales of action and pure-fun; others are thoughtful meditations on the nature of existence. Even style is played with rather widely, and the anthology is almost worth checking out for the various approaches to writing used alone.

Admittedly, it's hard to love every single story in an anthology, depending one's personal tastes in terms of content and style. That said, this is the first anthology I've read in a while where I didn't dislike any of the stories. I have my personal favorites, but, in general, enjoyed all the stories, albeit for different reasons.

I'll also note that though I have a particular interest in cryptids, I don't actually think that knowledge or previous exposure to the concept or creatures is necessary to enjoy the stories. In fact, several of the stories involve some pretty obscure creatures that aren't as famous as something like the Loch Ness Monsters.

So unless you positively hate the very idea of stories featuring cryptids in some manner, you should check out this anthology.

Carnival of Cryptids is available for purchase at Amazon.

Death Is Just The Beginning: An Interview with Paranormal Author Michelle Muto

Today I'm talking with paranormal Michelle Muto about her dark YA paranormal book, Don't Fear the Reaper.

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1) Please tell us about your book.

It's a novel about a 17-yr-old girl who finds herself trapped in purgatory after her suicide and her determination to find her deceased sister. In the afterlife, she meets a bounty-hunting reaper and sarcastic demon, both of whom have a hand in how and where she spends her eternity.

2) Please tell us about your main character.

Keely Morrison is a girl lost. She's overwhelmed with grief over the murder of her twin sister. But, she's is also tough and resilient. I think readers can relate to her if they've ever lost someone they loved.

3) What inspired you to write this particular book?

When I was querying agents with a different book, they asked for something darker, more edgy.

4) Your book is initiated with a character so overwhelmed by loss that she commits suicide. This is dark emotional territory. Did you find it difficult to plump these depths when writing the book?

Very difficult. To authentically write Keely's grief, I had to look into my own despair of having lost much of my family. While I was never suicidal during those times, the emotional pain was immense. Reliving those memories opened up old wounds.

5) What primary themes do you feel your book explores?

Grief, friendship, love, devotion, coming of age.

6) How is this book similar and different from some of your previous work?

Don't Fear the Reaper is similar to The Haunting Season in that it's for a more mature young adult audience. Both books are drastically different than The Book of Lost Souls, which is more upbeat, humorous.

7) Do you have any links to any excerpts you'd like to share?

People can read the entire first chapter of Don't Fear the Reaper on my blog.

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Thanks, Michelle.

If you'd like to learn more about Michelle, please visit her at http://michellemuto.wordpress.com/.

Don't Fear the Reaper is available for purchase at the following vendors:

Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble
iTunes
Smashwords
Sony
Kobo
Createspace (Paperback version, if outside of North America)

Carnival of Cryptids Review Delayed Until Tuesday

Due to various factors, my Carnival of Cryptids review will be delayed until Tuesday.

Caging the Yeti: Introducing Simon John Cox

The Kindle All-Stars Carnival of Cryptids interview week continues! The anthology is available from Amazon. Please note that I've only interviewed half or so of the authors, so there are even more cryptids, subgenres, and styles on display in the anthology than I've shown this week.

This will be my last interview, but this weekend I'll be reviewing the anthology.

The Kindle All-Stars are a select group of authors from around the world who donate their work in the name of charity. All profits from Kindle All-Stars anthology are donated to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Today I'm talking with Simon John Cox, author of the "The Cage" in the anthology. He was born in Tunbridge Wells, England, has a degree in chemistry, a job in marketing, and a black belt in Taekwon-Do, and has been writing fiction for as long as he can remember. He has had various short stories published and is currently focusing on writing novels.

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1) Please give a brief blurb about your story.

A ringmaster in a travelling circus is quickly making his fortune from a captive yeti, but when he discovers something shocking about the creature his plans - and his perspective - are thrown into disarray.

2) The Yeti is among the most famous of cryptids. Even people who otherwise have no clue what a cryptid is probably have heard of it. Do you feel this added any pressure to your story depiction that may not have been felt by some of your fellow authors who wrote about cryptids  that are a bit more obscure?

I don't think so - at least, I didn't feel it - as for me the story isn't really about the yeti being a cryptid, it's more about the idea of keeping an intelligent creature in captivity. Rocky isn't really about boxing - it's the same kind of thing. Except that the yeti is a better actor than Sylvester Stallone.

3) One of the interests of this anthology is the varied tones and angles the various authors utilize in their stories. You went for a more philosophical approach. Tell us a bit about why you decided on that course and a story featuring a cryptid either facilitated that or made the task more difficult?

As I alluded to above, what interests me most about the yeti is that it could feasibly be a "missing link" or a near relative of homo sapiens (I have a deep affection for Tintin In Tibet, which also makes that point), and as a result I think the approach wouldn't have worked with most other cryptids. I couldn't see it working with the Mongolian Death Worm, for example.

4) Do you feel your particular setting was critical for the themes you were exploring, or was that more an aesthetic choice on your part?

It was mostly an aesthetic choice, as I just think that something that sets up for one day and then disappears the next is somehow magical and unreal. That said, the circus has traditionally been a place for freaks and sideshow acts, so the yeti seemed to fit nicely into that as well.

5) Please give us a brief overview of your other works.

All of my other works are linked to on my website, www.simonjohncox.com, but the one I'd most like to draw attention to is my novella The Slender Man, which is a horror story based on an internet meme - and what could be more exciting than that?

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Thanks, Simon.

Check out www.simonjohncox.com for more from Simon.

The Carnival of Cryptids is available from Amazon.