Horror Aficionados discussion

This is the thread for our March 2018 Group Read with Guest Author, John Everson. John is a Bram Stoker Award winning author and has scared the pants off many a reader with eclectic brand of horror. For March, we get to confront our arachnophobic fears with his excellent, Violet Eyes. Please help me welcome, John Everson!

MORE spiders? Consider me in!

And welcome, John Everson!

Welcome, John--you're a champion! Guess I'll be taking another dose of fictional aversion therapy.:)

I have arachnophobia! But besides that, Welcome Mr. Everson.

Thanks guys! Looking forward to a fun month talking about things with too many legs :-)

Good evening Sir.

Good evening and welcome. I shudder at the sight but am too fascinated to look away.

Hello John! Great to see you here

Welcome, John. I've been intrigued by your work and bought several e-books, including Violet Eyes. But, like many other works they sit on my shelves until I get around to them. Thanks for the incentive to start reading.

Hi John! :D Welcome to HA! Yay! Spiders! <3 I love horror books with creatures, especially bugs and spiders. :D Violet Eyes has been on my TBR list for a year now. I can't wait to finally start reading it. :D

I loved Violet Eyes even if it did ruin some certain sexual experiences for me. I’ll let you all find that one out on your own.....shudder...

Thanks for joining us John.

LOL... sorry about that Greg.

Hi Catherine, Barbara and Livey! Can't wait to hear what you think of it, Ami and Michael! I know how the TBR pile is. I have books on mine from five years ago or more ;-(

THANKS FOR JOINING

Just finished reading The 13th and Covenant and they are excellent. I have Siren on my to read list and am excited to start Violet Eyes. Keep up the good work, John. Thank you.

I loved this one, but I noticed I never wrote an actual "review", so I'll be joining in for a re-read!!

welcome and thank you John. I'm not ready to confront my arachnophobic fears so i'll be sitting this one out.

This sounds fun, I will get a copy and join you!

Latasha wrote: "welcome and thank you John. I'm not ready to confront my arachnophobic fears so i'll be sitting this one out."

I get it! What's your tolerance for demons, the occult, or sirens? I could suggest an alternate! :-)

Thanks Joe and Kimberly et al!

I can handle all that, just not those awful, terrible things. I don’t like anything super violent either.

Latasha wrote: "I can handle all that, just not those awful, terrible things. I don’t like anything super violent either."

Got it! My demon novels can be pretty violent (Covenant, Sacrifice, Redemption, The 13th, NightWhere). Maybe take a peek at The Pumpkin Man, Siren or The Family Tree and see if any of those pique your interest?

I'm not sure how I'm going to deal with this (I loathe the eight legged kind and that cover!) but welcome, dear author.

John wrote: "Latasha wrote: "I can handle all that, just not those awful, terrible things. I don’t like anything super violent either."

Got it! My demon novels can be pretty violent (Covenant, Sacrifice, Redem..."

ok, thanks! I'm going to look those up right now.

ok, The pumpkin man, siren and the family tree all sounds SO AWESOME!!! <3 I added them to my to read list and hopefully I will get to them soon. thanks for the suggestions!

I loved this book, great story and characters. I hope everyone enjoys it too. :D

Thanks Kate! So glad you enjoyed it!

JaeRavenClaw... sorry about all the legs!

Latasha - let me know what you end up diving in to when you do!

TGIF!

Ok John. Yes!! TGIF! Only 6 more hours til I’m free!

I'm vowing to become a more active participant here so what better time. Welcome John and I can't wait to check out your book!

Definitely the subject of my nightmares! welcome John!

John, I love that this book (and many of your others, from the sounds of it) were created in the back of various pubs across the country. Is this still your location of choice for writing?

I'd already purchased this one, so I plan on joining too, but can't start until next week. Looking forward to it! My youngest son just got himself a tarantula to keep in his room, so I have a new perspective on spider horror now...

I have to shamefully admit that this book has been waiting on my virtual shelf for four years, so this is the perfect occasion to finally get to it!

I'm currently busy with the 'other' spider story, but after that I'm all in.

Hi John, Barb, Hannah, Terry and Elke! Looking forward to talking with you all this month!

Ken - Yep, I'm still a pub writer! It kind of happened by accident. For my dayjob, I've had to travel a lot, and I hate sitting in my hotel room. So I always look for a pub with good beer, good music and a comfy dark corner that I can hole up in after work for a few hours and write. And when I'm not traveling, while I do write at home, if I really want to force myself to focus on writing and not family, I have found it useful during the "thick" of a project to force myself to do a "writing night" every week. "Writing night" means... go directly from the dayjob at the end of the day to a local bar and work on the book for 3-4 hours instead of going home. If I went home, I'd talk with the family, have dinner with them and probably lose at least 2 of the 4 potential writing hours of a weeknight. And by the time I'd get started... I'd be too tired to do much anyway. So... Writing night away from home forces me into the groove early in the evening and I usually get a lot written.

I've tried writing in the morning for an hour every day before work (did that in particular with SIREN) but... I am NOT a morning person, and it often takes me 30-40 minutes to really "get going"... so it was hard for me to get much done using that method. I get more done in a single shift of 3-5 hours than I do in 5 one-hour shifts.

Great book John! I really enjoyed Violet Eyes. I read through it pretty quick. It was fast paced and creepy, disgusting too. The prolog really set the horror early with interesting descriptions, making me cringe and shudder. At various times during the book I would catch myself scratching aimlessly over my body. Well done. Next on my John Everson list is Sirens. Can't wait to start. Thanks John.

Thanks Joe! Glad I was able to evoke the "itching" response ;-) Hope you dig SIREN as much!

And John - I love your spoiler idea about Billy... now I wish I would have written that. Could have been awesome!

John wrote: "Thanks Joe! Glad I was able to evoke the "itching" response ;-) Hope you dig SIREN as much!

And John - I love your spoiler idea about Billy... now I wish I would have written that. Could have been..."

Perhaps for the sequel. ;)

John, how did a Windy City boy create the Everglades setting of the story with such realism?

42% in and I just have to comment on (view spoiler)[ Nate blowing his spider-filled wad. That's just messed up. Lol (hide spoiler)]

Thanks Ken - hopefully the Everglades setting comes off realistic enough! I've been to Florida a few times, but admittedly never walked through the everglades... just seen movies! So... I just imagined how it should be! (ie... I made shit up, LOL!)

As for the spoiler, well... :-)

Hey Kate - I've had Jerry Chandler, one of the guys from Synapse Films, telling me to write a sequel since the book came out. Strangely enough though, out of all of my novels, this is the one I'm interested in sequeling the least. I really have wanted to write sequels to The 13th, The Pumpkin Man, NightWhere and Family Tree... but Siren and Violet Eyes just feel... complete to me. At least today. Who knows how I'll feel tomorrow! Covenant was not originally intended to have a sequel and it spawned my only trilogy!

John wrote: "Hey Kate - I've had Jerry Chandler, one of the guys from Synapse Films, telling me to write a sequel since the book came out. Strangely enough though, out of all of my novels, this is the one I'm i..."

I’ll keep my fingers crossed you change your mind some day. Until then, I have plenty of your work still to read. :D

John wrote: "Hey Kate - I've had Jerry Chandler, one of the guys from Synapse Films, telling me to write a sequel since the book came out. Strangely enough though, out of all of my novels, this is the one I'm i..."

I'd say stick to your principles then, John. I know we live in an age of writing to market serials, but, sometimes, when the story has been told it is best left as done. Just my opinion, of course. ;)

LOL... I love that! Classic drive-in B-movie setup!

John wrote: "John wrote: "Hey Kate - I've had Jerry Chandler, one of the guys from Synapse Films, telling me to write a sequel since the book came out. Strangely enough though, out of all of my novels, this is ..."

Ha! Now that would be a time to relocate to another state...or continent!

I read your Violet Eyes in October and loved it, even though I am creeped out by any arachnid!! This is a great book for a group read and people are going to have fun with you here while reading this one. BTW I became a fan after reading Violet Eyes and have since purchased several more of your books!!

Awesome! I've been looking forward to this one for some time. I'll start it tonight. You know I love your work, John.

Thanks Luvtoread! I'm creeped out by arachnids too... that's why I wrote it ;-)

Glenn - can't wait to hear what you think!

Wow! Now I'm really creeped out! Ticks flying? Maybe a great idea for a new book? (Double hints). Ticks standing up
and hiding behind bushes and big rocks!! Scary and goosebumps are happening!!

Yeah... ticks are pretty disturbing... the whole burrow under the skin to suck your blood thing could be pretty frightening. One or two is nasty... but a horde? Yikes!

John. Some authors make their bread and butter from creature features. Hunter Shea comes to mind. Is this something you’d like to do more of or was Violet Eyes a side dish you wanted to try once?

I'm a bout a third of the way through. I LOVED Violet Lagoon, and so far, these characters have me sucked in. Poor Billy.
Fantastic so far. I didn't want to put it down.