Interview with Sam Whittaker: Writer of "A Ghost of Fire"

Continuing our month-long celebration of all things spooky (though, around here, is that any different from the rest of the year? :p), we sit down with Sam Whittaker, author of A Ghost of Fire. While the rest of the horror world, it seems, is still ate up with zombie or vampire fever, Sam's going old school, telling a classic ghost story with a modern twist.

Greg Mitchell: Thanks for stopping by, Sam. Tell us a bit about yourself.

Sam Whittaker: I feel like I wear a lot of hats these days. Part of that is due to the fact that I’m a bi-vocational church planting pastor on a pastoral team of two in Port Orchard, WA, so I live in the workaday world as a maintenance assistant at a private school and I try to navigate through the waters of starting up something fresh from the ground up. So there’s administrative things I do, operations stuff, dreaming and shaping the vision, teaching/preaching, small group leading, etc. Our new church is called “The Bridge” and you can find out more about that at www.thebridgepo.org. We’re getting ready to launch weekly gatherings on October 23rd. We’re exceptionally excited.

Then there’s the family side of things. I’m married and we have (so far) three energetic little hobbits that run around and make life VERY interesting.

And, as if that all weren’t enough, I love to write. I’ve got three books under my belt now with plans for more. Aside from that I’ve just started writing articles for an online magazine called “Surrender,” which is completely free, and based locally here in western Washington state and I also write a blog from time to time on writing and creativity issues.

GM: Busy indeed! Your debut novel A Ghost of Fire was just released. What’s the book about?


SW: Basically we meet Steve Nicholas--by the way, the whole story is told directly from his perspective--who’s pretty much your “everyman” who struggles to get by because he’s been unemployed for six months. As fate would have it, he lands a position as a janitor and that’s when things start to get interesting. He starts to smell smoke when there’s no fire. He also starts to hear echoes of childlike laughter and strange messages get left on his answering machine…and then some more sinister stuff starts happening and he realizes he’s being haunted. So he has to come to terms with that and figure out why so he can make it all stop. The story basically grows and builds in intensity and mystery from there.

GM: This is the first in a series, correct?

SW: Yes, this book is 1 of 4. The reason for that is this: The series is called the “Ghostly Elements.” In classical thinking, the Greeks believed the cosmos was made of 4 elements--Fire, Water, Wind, & Earth (And possibly something else called “Aether” which was intangible and sort of spiritual). So, each of the books will focus on one of these 4 elements as a sort of backdrop to the story. I wanted each book to be more or less self-contained, but I also wanted a way to have an over-arching theme to the series.

Steve is the primary protagonist in all four, though he’s joined by a few others, some of which you will meet in A Ghost of Fire, and some others will join along the way. Aside from the ghosts themselves (not all of which are bad, by the way) Steve is going to have to overcome some other personal challenges in each of the books. You see, I don’t like reading stuff where the characters are static or perfect so I promised myself I’m not going to write that way either. I think it makes for much better writing overall and it makes the characters themselves easier to relate to, because if we’re honest, that’s how we are too: we’re all in process.

GM: Looking at your site, I see you’ve previously written two non-fiction books. Why the jump to fiction?

SW: Part of it’s the need for a challenge. I’m used to thinking and writing stuff where you essentially have an essay and you’re dealing with themes and concepts and it’s not always easy to make those things concrete. I really wanted to try my hand at a different style and form.

Additionally, I just love a good story. And I think because that’s how we live (in story, not in detached concepts) that we communicate and gain understanding first through narrative. If you’re a Christian, ask yourself, how much of the Bible is an essay? Basically, none of it is. Now, how much of it is narrative, or narrative poetry? Basically, all of it is.

GM: Very true. What was the inspiration behind this book/series?

SW: Part of it was my own fear growing up of just the idea of what a ghost is. I mean, you can always stake a vampire in the heart or shoot a werewolf with a silver bullet. Unless you have a proton pack handy, you’re pretty much screwed with ghosts. They’re not going anywhere any time soon.

I just sat down and asked myself, what’s the scariest “monster” I can think of? The answer for me is ghosts. Hands down.

GM: I’m assuming, given the subject matter, that you’re a fan of the genre. What were some of your favorite scary stories/movies growing up?

SW: You know, one of my favorite movies growing up was Ghostbusters. I liked it because it had a bit of a scary edge to it (if you were five like I was when I first saw it, anyway) but it was also funny. I mean, Bill Murray still makes me laugh in those films. It was well balanced. Then I saw a lot of the A Nightmare on Elm Street movies, probably when I was way too young to see them. It’s a “slasher,” but Freddy is also kind of a ghost too, you know? And those definitely left a mark, which I think the discerning reader might see in A Ghost of Fire.

GM: That's funny that you just named two major influences in my own childhood, ha ha. Product of the '80s, I suppose. Now that you mention it, I suppose Freddy is a traditional ghost--excepting haunting minds rather than houses. So, what authors inspire you? Who do you love to read?

SW: For fiction, I love to read Stephen King, but more because of his writing style than subject matter. I think he’s one of the most readable writers out there today. His Dark Tower series is fantastic and I loved Duma Key. For the aspiring writer his book, On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft, should be required reading.

GM: Yeah, I think it's a shame that there are so many Stephen King fans out there who have never read (or, in some cases, even heard) of the Dark Tower stuff. I love that series and am pretty excited about the new book he's writing for it.

SW: I’m also a HUGE Star Wars nut so I read a lot of those novels.

GM: Me, too!

SW: My favorite authors in the Star Wars universe are Matthew Woodring Stover and Timothy Zahn.

Non-Fiction is completely different. I love N.T. Wright, Brennan Manning, and Donald Miller, just for starters. Anything written by them is fair game for my library. I’ll occasionally read a biography too. Steve Martin’s Born Standing Up was good. I could go on and on…but I won’t.

GM: I love what you said on your site about metrosexual sparkling vampires aren’t scary to you—so you chose to write ghosts because ghosts scare you the most. I think, in the current trend, ghosts are kind of an underplayed “monster”. Everyone’s all about zombies and vampires and the occasional werewolf. Why ghosts? What is it about ghosts that scare you/interest you? Any real life ghost stories in your sordid past?

SW: I think you’re totally right about Ghosts being underused in the genre at present. I think the thing about ghosts is that there’s always going to be this sense of mystery about them. There’s an undeniable mystique there that’s hard to put into words. In the stories you hear people tell about alleged real experiences they’re ephemeral, intangible, but somehow they can manipulate the physical environment. If you encountered that in some kind of menacing form and you didn’t soil yourself as a result, you’ve either got massive mental problems, or you’re Chuck Norris.

GM: Chuck Norris scares ghosts back to life.

Your non-fiction work is Christian teaching--how much of a role does your faith play in your fiction? Or does it? Would you say your non-fiction and fiction are designed for the same audience?

SW: The faith is a lot more subtle in my fiction. What I want to do with the series is work through basic issues of belief that there is much more to life than what we perceive through our five physical senses. But I want to do that in a way which serves the story and doesn’t interrupt the flow of the narrative. I’m not really hammering out a philosophy in my fiction as would someone like Terry Goodkind. I love Terry’s characters in the beginning of the Sword of Truth series, for example, but by about book 6 in that series the speeches are getting really long, and boring. By book 8 I just found it annoying. Shut up and tell the story.

GM: I'm sure there are many readers who will agree with you! Now, A Ghost of Fire is self-published. I know those waters all too well from my earlier experiences! What made you decide to go the do-it-yourself route? Are you still interested in being traditionally published?

SW: Right now I’m a little intimidated by the huge machine that is traditional publishing. To be honest, I wouldn’t mind getting picked up by a respectable traditional publisher, but I worry sometimes about how much the commercialism can overtake the art. I understand the grammar has to work, and I’m cool with that, but at the same time I don’t want some study or focus group somewhere to determine how I’m going to have to rewrite a scene or section.

GM: Well, that's understandable, but I think you can rest a little easier on that front. We've all heard the horror stories of editors who want to rewrite an author's story--but I think those have sort of become myth. Talking to other authors, I think that's not usually the case. I've had a great experience with my publisher, and while there are compromises to be made from time to time--so far very very minor--publishers seem way too busy with running the business to get that involved in your story :p Moviemaking on the other hand, is a whole different beast with lots of people sticking their fingers in your paint and smearing things up and that's when focus groups often enter the equation, but with a novel, it's not near as bad. It largely depends on finding the right publisher for your project and developing a good working relationship with them. I wouldn't give up!

How has your self-publishing experience been so far? What are the pros and cons of taking this road that you’ve seen?

SW: Every once in a while I perform a seminar I created called “The Peaks and Pitfalls of Self Publishing” where I go through my experiences and some of the nuts and bolts of what the Self-Pub industry is really like.

The great thing about Self-Publishing is you don’t have to wait weeks and weeks just to get rejection letters from agents or publishers. The path to publication is pretty much already paved for you if you have the patience (or the money to pay someone who has the patience to do it for you). It affords greater freedom and pushes you to think more creatively. You basically have to become the publisher and that makes you do some serious work, but it can be very rewarding work when you hold that first copy of your own book in your hands.

The really hard thing with Self-Publishing right now is that there is such an enormous amount of people out there who are putting material out that it’s super hard to get an audience. The marketing is totally in your hands unless you can pay someone a few thousand dollars to do it for you…which I can’t.

GM: I'll let you in on a little secret: Even in the traditional publishing world--unless you're Stephen King, probably--you've still got to be out there in the mud trying to get an audience and promote your work. And it is tough. A lot of voices in the crowd and you're trying to stand out.

Thanks for talking with us today, Sam. I hope we've done a little to get your voice just a little louder than the others for awhile. Where can people buy your book?

SW: You can go to my website,where it is available in trade paperback and multiple E-book formats (Kindle, NOOK, PDF, etc) through Smashwords. You can also get the paperback and Kindle format directly from Amazon.com.

Thanks again to Sam, and to you guys for participating in today's discussion. Visit Sam's site and check out his book. The ebook is available for less than a $1! However, if you're like me and need a little more convincing on trying out new writers, Sam's provided this handy link where you can read the first five chapters of A Ghost of Fire for free! Take advantage of that--you might just find a new favorite author.

Once again, let me remind you to stay tuned here. On October 30th, I'll be posting the first ever released excerpt from my next fright tale Enemies of the Cross!

Interview with Christian Horror Author Bruce Hennigan!

It's October, folks, and what better way to celebrate the season than to settle down with a good old-fashioned monster tale. Since you've all already read my book (you have read it, right? :p) I want to direct you to Bruce Hennigan and his new frightening tale The 13th Demon in stores today courtesy of Realms Fiction!



I was familiar with Bruce as a reviewer, as he offered some fine insights into The Strange Man when it was featured in the Christian Science Fiction and Fantasy Blog Tour. Doing a little background check, I discovered Bruce was an author as well, specializing in that odd realm of "Christian Horror". When I found out a month or so later that my very own publisher had picked up Bruce's book, I was super-excited. In honor of today's release, me and Bruce sit down to talk about his book, the struggles we've shared in writing in this sub-genre, and chatting it up about Halloween, monsters, and all things kewl.

Greg Mitchell: Bruce, thanks for coming by! Tell us a bit about yourself for the readers at home.

Bruce Hennigan: I don’t want to reveal everything about myself. That might land me in an institution! After all, if you are an author you understand that there is a darkness in us that fuels our imagination for good or for bad. And, in my darkness there are monsters!

GM: Of course!

BH: Okay, so my alter ego is that of a doctor, a physician practicing in the field of radiology. I really do have X-Ray vision! It took me four years of college, four years of medical school, and four years of residency but now, I can see through just about anything! Not really. I rely on diagnostic imaging for that. But, my true love is writing.


I started writing when I was 8 and I haven’t stopped. I love to write poetry, mysteries, science fiction, fantasy, and horror. I live in Shreveport, Louisiana with my wife, Sherry. My son is married and getting a master’s degree in Austin and my daughter lives at home and is going to college. They know I’m not quite right so they tolerate my writing.

I have a book of children’s plays “Montana Holmes Adventures in the Bible” published by Contemporary Drama. I co-authored “Conquering Depression: A Thirty Day Plan to Finding Happiness” by B&H Publishing. Now you know where the darkness comes from! I was the drama director for my church for fifteen years and in the time wrote dozens of full length plays and over 150 short dramas as well as screenplays for many short films.

Out of my doubts and questions and the relentless questioning of my medical colleagues I have become a trained apologist through Reasons to Believe and I am a Certified Apologetic Instructor with my own denominational convention. I am also a graduate of the Arthur Murray School of Dance (something to escape to while in medical school).

GM: Your book—The 13th Demon—hits stands today. Exciting stuff! What’s the book about?

BH: I have a background in apologetics, or the defense of the Christian faith. And, as I learned all the cool stuff that makes Christianity true and rational, I wondered why hasn’t anybody written about this? One of my favorite authors was Michael Crichton and he wrote these fast paced books with a scientific core of truth. My favorite is The Andromeda Strain and next, Jurassic Park.

I wanted to write a story that used some of this information and I realized our society really doesn’t accept that evil is real or that demons exist. So, why not start with the basics. That is where The 13th Demon came from. It’s about a mysterious man, Jonathan Steel, with amnesia traveling the countryside looking for people who are under the oppression of evil; people for whom there is no rational help. His real goal is to locate a creature known as “the 13th demon”. This creature brought tragedy to the life of Jonathan Steel. He goes to help a pastor in a small town whose church has come under the possession of evil in the form of vile creatures such as giant spiders and a few other creepy things I don’t want to mention for fear of spoilers. When Jonathan Steel arrives, he discovers his nemesis is in this church and he sets out to put together a team to confront and defeat “the 13th demon”. In the process, he has to examine his motives. Does he really want to help others? Or, does he just want revenge? He discovers that the evil events in this small town are intricately woven into his past and he must confront the man behind the creature, an evil businessman who has ties to the ancient world of the Aztecs and their practice of human sacrifice. Somewhere hidden in the small town is an arcane altar craving for fresh blood! It is the Altar of the Spiral Eye. The book has elements of horror and mystery and romance and a touch of science fiction, and, oh yes, a few monsters thrown in!

GM: Wait, giant spiders, human sacrifices, Aztec cults, and an altar craving fresh blood? I'm sold! How many books have you got planned for this series? How far are you along now?

BH: When I first tried to get the book published, I ran into the typical barriers most speculative fiction writers do in the Christian fiction realm. This was way back in 1999. But, one editor really liked the story. He said the problem was, “No one in the CBA will ever publish this story.” But, he asked me a simple question. Are there twelve more demons?

I hadn’t really thought about it at that time. I was looking at a trilogy at best. But, as the possibilities of telling thirteen stories with a specific demon at the heart of the story would allow me to really explore all the cool apologetic stuff I had learned. I saw the possibility of exploring many of our modern “myths” such as vampires, werewolves, zombies, UFOs, extraterrestrial life, voodoo, Wicca, virtual reality, and any number of cool paranormal phenomena and use those elements to convey the truth of Christianity. So, there will be twelve more books. I have a five book contract and the first four books are written. The others are outlined. And, I’ve written two books near the end of the series, one that details all of Jonathan Steel’s past and the last book so I would know where I’m headed.

GM: That's encouraging to hear. I always love it when the authors of my favorite series know where they're going. Otherwise, they tend to ramble or chase rabbits. I like me some clear direction :p So, what was the inspiration behind Jonathan Steel and his adventures? Take us back to the beginning.

BH: The story for The 13th Demon seemingly came from out of nowhere. I had finished writing a non-fiction book, “Conquering Depression” and decided to take six weeks out of my writing schedule and read. At the end of that six weeks, I was going to pick up one of my two dozen novels in various stages of development and finish it. During that time I had two “what ifs” come up. What if an assassin or mercenary became a Christian? How would he change? How would he deal with his past? And, the other question was, if a Christian lost his memory, would he still be a Christian? Does the conversion experience transcend mental damage? I filed those away. Two other factors in the book were my love of apologetics as I mentioned above and my recent battle with a recalcitrant group of church members who didn’t want to relocate our church from a declining neighborhood to an up and coming area. I was the vice chairman of that committee and I was amazed at how many of our members “worshiped” the building!

The last night of my six weeks found me empty and directionless. I had not been able to get excited about any of my books. So, I turned to God in desperation and prayed for guidance realizing that I may never write anything again! I woke up the next morning with the story of The 13th Demon in my head. I started writing on August 1st and finished on the 31st. The book came out of a combination of “what if” questions, a real life situation, my desire to use apologetics in a creative way as C. S. Lewis had, and a huge dollop of divine inspiration.

And, the book would give me the chance to write about monsters! The Dialing for Dollars 3:30 Movie had a lot to do with it. I grew up in the country and every day when I came home, an afternoon movie was always shown on one of our local channels. Those films featured a monster movie from the 30’s, 40’s, and 50’s. I would make myself a mayonnaise and mustard sandwich (we were kind of poor and didn’t have lunch meat) and a glass of chocolate milk and I would hunker down in front of the television and get the willies scared out of me.

GM: That sounds heavenly. Seriously...well, without the mayonnaise and mustard sandwich. I prefer to enjoy my horror with a glass of milk and cookies.

BH: I was always fascinated with science fiction and monsters. My scariest movie of all time growing up was Attack of the Crab Monsters where giant crabs on an island would pinch people’s heads off, eat them, and then telepathically lure the other people into the caves with that person’s voice. To this day crabs really creep me out!

GM: We’ve got something in common in that both of our books were originally self-published before being picked up by Realms. Were there any unique challenges in making the journey from self-publishing to traditional publishing? Is there anything different about this version than the original?

BH: My frustration with getting the book published came out of a lack of understanding by traditional Christian publishers of a growing market for Christian “speculative fiction”. I saw early on that with the popularity of the Left Behind series, Christians were ready for something gritty and more realistic. It took someone like Ted Dekker to break through that glass ceiling for those of us who write this kind of fiction.

My delays in getting my book published were due to this factor and having two agents in a row who dithered away my time and never did the job they promised to. One was a fraud. The other refused to represent fiction! Six years passed after the book was written wasting time with agents and a clueless publishing industry. In desperation, I decided to self publish. My rationale was to get the book out there and see if I had an audience. If the audience responded, I would have a track record. If not, I’d go back to my X-rays and be a happy, but frustrated doctor. I self published The 13th Demon in 2006 and hired a marketing firm. The book sold fairly well for a self-published book. But, I was very pleased when reviews came in saying things like “I can’t believe this is a self-published book. It’s too well written. And the cover is too good.” I knew then I had a chance. I hooked up with the Cadillac of self publishers, BookPros for my second book, The 12th Demon: Vampyre Majick and that was when one of my author friends recommended four different agencies. I contacted all four literary agencies and the best of them took me as a client. Of course, it helped I had a book by B&H Publishing on depression. But, the track record of my two self-published books gave me credibility. My new agent, Jeff Jernigan of Hidden Value Group took my third book and within a month we were contacted by Realms. Four months of back and forth and negotiation resulted in a five book deal and they wanted to pick up the first two self published books.

Now, having a contract and with some breathing room, I went back and rewrote major portions of the first two books. By this time, I had four books finished and I had a better idea where the story arc was headed.

GM: Same here. That really gave me the opportunity to go back and add little touches that would be paid off later in the series.

BH: I was able to fine tune and tweak both books. Both books are much, much shorter. That was my main frustration: being held to a word limit. I had to excise entire characters from both books to make them shorter. In fact, reading my first book now, I can see the fine scars where I did the plastic surgery.

GM: I share your pain, ha ha.

BH: I know what is missing although the story holds together much better after having worked with my excellent editor, Andy Meisenheimer. In fact, Andy did something that was very dangerous. He said, “Make it scarier!” And, so both books are much scarier than the originals and, yes, have a few more “monsters” in them!

GM: That's incredible! I think my editors would be too scared to give me that charge :p

This being the glorious Halloween season and all, I’d be remiss not to talk about some of your favorite Halloween memories. Do you have any—that is, I’m assuming since you’re writing a book about demons and monsters, Halloween is a special time for you :p

BH: My favorite year was when I dressed up as Beetlejuice. Full makeup and hair – the works! My kids were tiny and I had a blast driving through MacDonald’s and asking the girl for a Happy Meal. Being in drama and theater and having a best friend who dabbles in horror makeup helped. My favorite Halloween was the year we created a “Christian” themed haunted house called Eternity House and populated it with all kinds of evil beings from the past. We took this really tall guy and created a neck stump and shoulders to build up his height. We brought his shoulders down to his real arms and it looked like Goliath was holding his severed head. People would walk into the room and think Goliath was slumped in the corner with his severed head in his lap and then the eyes would open and he would talk! They ran like frightened sheep! Lots of creepy makeup for the demons in hell, too. We had a blast.



I still dress up every Halloween. This year, I’m going to be the Witchking from Lord of the Rings. I have a replica of the actual sword in the movie. Not the plastic one. The real sword!

GM: That's ambitious. I'm planning on going as a dime store Dracula :p

BH: I was eight and dressed like Wolfman, one Halloween. I lived out in the country and I was outside waiting for dark so we could go Trick or Treating. My brother was a taxidermist and he lived on the same property as my parents. He would take all the “offal” down in the woods and dump them out. Those scraps attracted some strange creatures. I was standing in my driveway when suddenly this cacophony of howling came out of the woods. I was paralyzed with fear! The howling grew closer and all I could think of was the wolfman was coming! Out of those woods burst a pack of wild dogs fighting over a deer skull. They had the spine and skull stretched out between them growling and howling and they were coming right toward me! I didn’t move a muscle and the dogs swirled around me, howling and snarling and fighting with each other and moved across the yard into the woods on the other side of my front yard. That was the most scared I think I have ever been. I took off the wolf man costume and I was Superman instead! To this day, werewolves frighten me far more than vampires. In 2009 we went to London and I stood at the top of one of those escalators leading down into the Underground (subway) where a famous scene from An American Werewolf in London was shot. I couldn’t go down the escalator! We walked another block to a different entrance. That is how strongly werewolves frighten me.

GM: I love werewolves. My favorite monster growing up. What were your favorite scary stories or movies growing up? How has that changed since you’ve gotten older, or has it?

BH: I guess you gather that my favorite scary stories were from those old monster movies. Frankenstein (1930’s), The Wolfman, Dracula, The Blob, those crab monsters, The Black Scorpion, the UFOs from Invasion of the Flying Saucers (You know, the one where the UFO crashes into the Washington Monument). I read science fiction voraciously and when I was old enough, moved on to Stephen King.

As I have gotten older, the movies that “scare” me do so more through suspense or psychology. I still recall the first time I saw Alien in a dark theater! That movie ruined my underwear. But, this may sound silly, but the movie that was most frightening to me in my late teens was Jaws. I had to get out of a lake in central Louisiana after I saw the movie because I was convinced there was a shark in the water! I loved Aliens but that was because it was more action oriented. I loved Jurassic Park although the book was much better to me than the movie could ever be. The Thing still haunts my nightmares and I’m debating whether or not I can take the prequel! I could go on and on. But, I would say the two books that frightened me most and that I have read more than once just to see how the author did it were The Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris. I still think the movie adaptation of Silence is the most faithful and well done movie adaptation to date.

GM: I get asked this question a lot, so let me turn the tables a bit: Have you experienced any push back from the Christian community over your macabre subject matter? Likewise, how does the horror community react to the overt Christian elements?

BH: Just yesterday I got this email from a local Christian radio station. I had bought an ad for my upcoming book launch “party” here in Shreveport and the person had an issue with me calling my book “Christian horror”. “You can’t do that.” She said. So, I pulled the ad.

Way back in 2000 I gave my manuscript to a fiction editor for a large publisher. I met with her in person and she was well aware of my manuscript for “Conquering Depression” and my freelance writing for an online publication with LifeWay “Extra”. She was so excited about The 13th Demon. She loved the entire concept and couldn’t wait to read the next book. But! There was always that, But! Then she went on to tell me how my book was too violent, too edgy, too far out on the fringe for the CBA. That was when I found out what the CBA was. “I love your book, but let’s face it. No Christian publisher will EVER publish this book.”

GM: I've heard that before.

BH: I ran into that time and time and time again over the ensuing six years. To his credit, my first agent who later turned out to be a fraud and was being prosecuted for it, believed in my book and thought I had a chance to get published because of the popularity of Ted Dekker, at that time a new author on the scene. But, he got nowhere. I still don’t know for sure if he ever really submitted my book proposal to publishers!

Now, what is very interesting is my second book about vampires received some amazingly positive reviews from the secular book review community. They were not put off at all by the Christian elements. Of course, I wasn’t too heavy with the “preaching”, if you will. I let my character’s Christian worldview carry the story. And, the apologetic elements were presented in a very objective fashion with convincing science or history. One book reviewer even admitted that he was going to rethink his revulsion toward Christianity because of my book! He said “If a Christian author can be this honest with his work and not back off from the reality of evil, maybe there is hope for Christianity. I am willing to reconsider my opinion of Christians.” Now that was astonishing!

GM: Wow, that is fantastic. What a testimony!

BH: I was hoping my book would have just that kind of reaction to a “cross over” market and have an appeal to non-believers and skeptics.

Of course, my greatest frustration is having my book tucked way back in the corner with the other Christian fiction books instead of being with the horror or science fiction or fantasy sections! I’m sure you know exactly what I’m talking about.

GM: I do. It's like the kiss of death. No joke, I went to my local Hastings and the "Christian Fiction" section was tucked in the very back of the store. Waaaay back there, in a tiny little corner. People who would like the horror of our stories just don't seem interested in walking to the "Christian" section of their bookstore. It's a buzz kill, I guess. Horror is often equated with rebellion and going against the norm--I sometimes fear those people see a horror novel in the Christian section and it might as well have a big ole stamp that says "Your Mother Approves of This Book" :p Not cool.

Okay, got off on a tangent! Despite those obstacles of trying to get the horror world to take us seriously, I still see that the “Christian Horror” sub-genre is really starting to grow. What do you think is the draw of these types of stories that blend fear and faith?

BH: Fear is the driving force in our culture. It has been since 9/11. Politicians have mastered the “fear factor”. Reality shows rule due to the “fear factor”. But, does our fear have a face? Is there something real and tangible to fear? We can’t put a face on terrorism. Osama Bin Laden doesn’t wander around on our streets and a terrorist could be anybody!

So, our fear has to have a face. It has to be visible so we can deal with. How to do that? Take those things we fear the most and give them a body, a voice, a visibility. I thought vampires were passé after Anne Rice wrote them to death. But, now vampires are manageable, sparkly, even loving. That which we fear can now be embraced. But, we still fear it. A little. At least we fear the evil side of the, uh, evil that is now good. See how confusing it has become. We live in a time of postmodernism and relativism. There is no such thing as absolute good and evil. And yet, God has put eternity in the hearts of all men. We know evil exists. We have a morbid fascination with it. It is there for us to see but it can’t be real.

So, we put it in our movies and our television shows and our books.

Christians are not immune to these changes. Most churches today emphasize missional work, good deeds, changing community through love. You don’t hear hell and demons and the devil preached very often. Hell is off limits! But, we know it’s there. We feel the breath of demons every day. We see the effect of evil all around us. As Christians we should have no doubt evil is real. But, Christianity isn’t what it used to be.

I think this need to explore the dark side of our nature fuels the desire of many Christians to read our kind of books that mix the reality of evil with the reality of Hope. This is one reason why I want to capitalize on that desire to read compelling stories about spiritual warfare to take the opportunity to tell Christians we have sound, evidential, rational reasons for what we believe. Don’t take what our culture holds up as “truth”. It doesn’t even believe there is truth. And, they believe that to be absolutely true!

I think you said it best. Our stories mix faith and fear. We thrive on fear. It thrills us. But, we subsist on faith. It guides us and sustains us.

GM: Great thoughts. Fear is something every human being lives with and horror is a great safe place to explore that and face it. Thanks so much for hanging out with us, Bruce. Best to you and The 13th Demon.

You can keep up with Bruce at his website at www.brucehennigan.com or find him on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/pages/SteelChronicles. He's known as brucehennigan on Twitter, as well.

Thank you everyone for reading and be sure to take a look at Bruce's book.

Also, stay tuned to this very site. On Halloween Eve, I'll be posting a special treat--the first ever excerpt from my upcoming sequel Enemies of the Cross! You won't want to miss it! Make the monster-most out of your October, and to help you along, we take a page out of Bruce's book and look back on a classic! Enjoy!

Moanin' At Midnight: The Crawlin' Chaos Blues

There is nothing wrong with your internet. Do not attempt to adjust your browser, do not hit reload. We are controlling transmission….We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your internet. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind….nah, it’s just me, Ed Erdelac.

Where the heck’s the ever-lovin’ Greg Mitchell though, you might ask, having come to his site...well, he’s over at my blog, talking about what I suspect is his favorite subject. No, not himself…well, partly. Monsters, Halloween, that sorta stuff.

But who am I?

I write the Merkabah Rider series from Damnation Books, among other things. It’s a weird western about a Hasidic gunslinger tracking down the renegade teacher who betrayed his mystic Jewish order of astral travelers across the 1880’s Southwest territories. There are two books in the series, Tales of a High Planes Drifter and The Mensch With No Name. But if you wanna hear about all that and about me, Greg’s got an interview with me right here on his site somewheres. Basically I write spooky stories, and I know Greg from our Star Wars writing.

Anyway, Greg’s given me free reign today to talk about whatever I want on here, so (cracking my knuckles), today children we’re gonna be talking about my short story The Crawlin’ Chaos Blues, but mainly we’re gonna talk about the blues. Because I’ll take any chance I can to talk about the blues, and in particular my favorite blues artist. But I’ll get to that directly.

Blues music got its start in the Mississippi Delta (some will say New Orleans, but that’s inarguably the seat of Jazz, if you ask me) by way of Chicago, but its roots reach back into antiquity, back through the chants of slaves on work gangs across the Middle Passage to the calls of native Africans to their gods.

Blues music evolved into the voice of the downtrodden in the gutter. It’s the primal wail of the oppressed man at the end of his rope, the poor man, the cuckold and the thief and the murderer and the addict, the wild sinner down at the bottom of his luck. It’s not often happy music, but boy do I love it. It’s got a white cousin named Country, and that’s good stuff too. The real country, like Hank Williams or Bill Monroe….not that bubblegum stuff Nashville tends to pump out nowadays.

The soul of the blues is a dark one. There’s a famous and oft-repeated story about one of the kings of the Delta blues, Robert Johnson.



It’s said that he went to a country crossroads at midnight and shed some blood, calling up the Devil himself to come and teach him to pick his guitar and sing. Johnson himself sings about it in the Crossroad Blues, the same song Eric Clapton re-did, and the movie Crossroads with Ralph Macchio revolves around that legend too.

So does my story, The Crawlin’ Chaos Blues. Except in mine, it isn’t the Devil who comes to answer the crossroad sacrifice.

If you’ve ever read any HP Lovecraft, you know the monsters in his tales, the extraplanar entities who frequent his dark universe are worse than evil. At their best, they’re entirely apathetic to humans. At their worst, they’re totally malicious and insane. And the worst of the latter bunch is Nyarlathotep, the Dark Man.

He traipses through horror fiction under a bunch of different names. Stephen King acknowledges that the Walkin Dude Randall Flagg is Nyarlathotep. He appears in the forthcoming third book of my own Merkabah Rider series too.

In my short story The Crawlin’ Chaos Blues, when two would-be blues musicians, King Yeller and Harp Elkins are set upon by a pair of white supremacists in the midnight crossroads and turn the tables on them, it’s the Dark Man who rises out of the road when their blood seeps into the ground.

Now in the story of Robert Johnson, the Devil gets his due. After coming to the cusp of making it big, Johnson was poisoned in a bar and died.

In my story, King Yeller quickly becomes renowned for his playing and singing, drawing in the crowds from all over the south. But the success comes with a price, an awful twist to amuse the Dark Man. King Yeller has quickly accumulated a catalog of popular songs, but the Dark Man has taught him one special song that puts all the rest to shame. The problem is, if he plays it, he is guaranteed to lose all he has gained.

And this gnaws at King Yeller. Every song he plays pales in comparison to the one the Dark Man taught him. The Crawlin’ Chaos Blues.

Then one night, he decides to play it anyway.

And what happens next, that’s the story.

It all stems from my love of the blues and Lovecraft. I like to drop little easter eggs into my work as well, and since this story takes place in the 1960's, I had to write in a cameo early on for my favorite blues musician of all time.


Chester Burnett, AKA Howlin’ Wolf.

Now you know with a name like that he’s gotta be good right? The man is so cool he even appeared as himself in a Marvel comic playing his song Wang Dang Doodle in a band WITH ALIENS. IN SPACE!!



He earned the moniker from his distinctive singing style. He’s got a voice low and throaty like a bullfrog’s, but he lets out these long, wailing notes in some songs, particularly in one of my favorites, Smokestack Lightnin’ about a poor boy watching a train go by in the night and wishing he was on it.

When the man who discovered him, Sam Phillips, heard him sing, he said; “This is for me. This is where the soul of man never dies.”

I adore the Wolf. What’s most interesting about him to me is his dichotomy. A lot of the blues musicians of his era lived up to the Robert Johnson legend. They lived fast and loose, played it hard and not too smart. But Chester was different. He was a complete wild man on stage, going on all fours and kicking up his heels, licking his chops and rolling his eyes like a man possessed. And at six foot six, black as midnight and three hundred pounds, that was a sight to see.

But as soon as he stepped off stage, he put on his horn rimmed glasses and drove his modest car home to a quiet life with his wife, who managed his finances and to whom he was faithful. He didn’t drink to excess or do drugs, and he took his fellow musicians to task for spending their money stupidly on flashy cars and clothes and worse things.

The tragedy of H Hn’ Wolf is that he left his home in Mississippi at the age of thirteen. In the sixties, at the height of his success, he returned to the south and put out the word in his hometown that he wanted to see his mother.

He waited in a barber shop for an hour or so and finally one of the locals produced her. He rose to his full height to embrace her. He’d brought wads of cash to put in her hands.

“Lookit all the money I made, momma. It’s for you.”

But his mother stiffened and backed away from him. She wouldn’t take a bit of it, and rebuked her son for playing the Devil’s music. She turned, and left him standing in the barber shop.

His bandmates said he wept uncontrollably the entire rainy ride back up to Chicago.

Take some pity on the Wolf. Go to youtube and listen to some music. I’d recommend Killin’ Floor and I Ain’t Superstitious. Perfect Halloween listening.

Also click over here to read an excerpt from The Crawlin' Chaos Blues!

Hey you guys have been great. Thanks for reading. We now return you to your regularly scheduled Greg Mitchell awesomeness.

My Movie Is Filming!

Tomorrow's a pretty big day, now that I think of it.

My first movie begins filming in the morning.

A few years ago I was contracted by friend and frequent collaborator Rich Christiano to come up with a movie that retells a Bible story--any story. I got to pick. The Bible is filled with tremendous accounts of men and women against all odds in the name of their faith, but there's one little prophet tucked in the corners of obscurity who has always meant a great deal to me:

Hosea.

Who?

Hosea is a man who God called to marry an unfaithful woman. Why? Because God's own bride--the nation of Israel--was playing the harlot by falling into idolatry. God wanted someone to identify with Him; He wanted someone to share in His pain. Someone to relate to. Hosea was chosen to marry this woman--not as a punishment, but because he was faithful. God led him into a difficult situation so that God could share His own great pain with a mere mortal. What a story!

I've taught the story of Hosea for many years in Bible studies, and I wanted to bring Hosea's story to the big screen. Now, these many years later, my script is in production. The movie is tentatively titled:

Amazing Love: The Story of Hosea.

But this is not just an adaptation of the Hosea story. In fact, it's crouched within a modern day context. In the film, we follow Staurt, a youth group leader who takes his teens on a camping trip. There they deal with strife within the group and Stuart begins to share the story of Hosea's love--a lesson that will impact all the kids.

Now, obviously, this is not my usual kind of story. There's no monsters or bogeymen. This is a much gentler, heartwarming tale of a few kids learning the value of friendship and unconditional love. It's a family movie. That might not be your cup of tea--it's rarely mine :p But I'm proud that Hosea's story will be brought out of obscurity and get some screen time.

Over the years, Rich and his brother Dave have worked on the script. It looks a little different than when I left it, but I'm eager to see the finished product. It is being directed by Kevin Downes--an actor, producer, and director--who is currently starring in Courageous.

I'm SUPER pumped to reveal that the actor who will be playing the part of Stuart, the counselor who tells Hosea's story, is none other than Sean Astin! Better known (by my circle of friends at any rate) as Samwise Gamgee from The Lord of the Rings films!


I was also able to see the kids who will be starring in our movie and we've got some incredible talent lined up for this picture. I'll keep everyone in the loop as the production progresses. We're looking at having this finished by February--which is coincidentally when Enemies of the Cross, the next novel in my supernatural thriller series The Coming Evil, is being released! So, you've got two sides of Greg Mitchell coming at you at the same time: Hallmarky warm and fuzzy, and unrelenting terror :) Take your pick.

"Supernatural" Giveaway Winner!

And we have a winner!

Congratulations to CaptJack! You have won your very own signed copy of Supernatural: Night Terror!

Thanks to everyone who participated and special thanks to John Passarella for being a good sport :) Enjoy the book, CaptJack!

"The Strange Man"...The Movie Poster?

I had a reader send this in today: A mock "vintage" movie poster for The Strange Man!



Super cool!

Alas, for now we can only dream of seeing the Strange Man on the silver screen. Maybe one day, yeah? We'll keep at it!

Special thanks to A.V. Runeby for cooking this up and passing it along.

Interview with 'Supernatural' writer John Passarella--and Contest!

UPDATE #2: The contest is officially closed! Thanks to everyone for participating.

UPDATE: We are now running a contest where you can win a free signed copy of the book! Read after the interview for details.

I am very honored today to welcome horror author John Passarella to the blog to discuss his latest novel Night Terror (due out September 13th from Titan Books) based on the hit TV show Supernatural--now nearing its seventh season.

I have been a huge fan of Supernatural since the very beginning. While I've not been very excited by the more "cute" comedic direction the show's taken in recent years, I can still watch episodes like "Devil's Trap" and be reminded of this show's potential to be a great gritty drama. I've seen the amazing Animated Series, read the comics, and collected the novels--I even starred in Supernatural: Bone Key...okay, it was a cameo, but it still counts :p

Having said all of that, I'm a starstruck fanboy today, talking to a man who's written in this fictional universe. But enough of my drooling! On with the interview. Warning: Some spoilers for Supernatural Season Six ahead.

Greg Mitchell: Welcome, John! Thank you so much for giving me the opportunity to pick your brain for a bit. We’ll start off with an easy one. Tell us a bit about yourself.

John Passarella: I’m an author of supernatural thrillers. My co-authored first novel, Wither, won the Bram Stoker Award for Best First Novel and the movie rights were purchased by Columbia Pictures. Since then I’ve written two standalone sequels to Wither, Wither’s Rain and Wither’s Legacy, a paranormal thriller, Kindred Spirit, and Shimmer, another supernatural thriller. I’ve written three media tie-in novels, Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ghoul Trouble, Angel: Avatar and Angel: Monolith. Supernatural: Night Terror (September 13, 2011) will be my ninth published novel, and fourth original media tie-in. In addition to writing, I’m the owner of AuthorPromo.com, a website design company with several New York Times bestselling authors as clients, including Harlan Coben, Nicholas Sparks and Michael Palmer.

GM: You wrote a Supernatural novel! How awesome! What’s Supernatural: Night Terror all about?

JP: Here’s the semi-official description, subject to change: Alerted to strange happenings in Clayton Falls, Colorado, Bobby sends the boys to check it out. A speeding car with no driver, a homeless man pursued by a massive Gila monster, a little boy chased by uprooted trees — it all sounds like the stuff of nightmares. The Winchesters fight to survive a series of terrifying nighttimes, realizing that sometimes the nightmares don’t go away — even when you’re awake...

GM: Where does it fit in Season Six? Are we talking Soulless Sam, here?

JP: Night Terror takes place after Sam’s soul restoration, between the episodes “Frontierland” and “My Heart Will Go On.”

GM: Does Night Terror have any connection (other than the obvious) to the other two Supernatural novels that have recently been released?

JP: One Year Gone is about the year Sam and Dean were separated. I believe Coyote Kiss, the novel that precedes mine takes place during Soulless Sam time. Actually, I think somebody said Night Terror is the first novel with Sam’s soul restored.

GM: How much did you know about Supernatural going into this project? Were you already a fan?

JP: Yes, big fan. I’d been watching since year one, episode one.

GM: Wow, that's great. I think that can really make the difference. Which season has been your favorite?

JP: I enjoyed the build-up of the apocalypse arc and resolution. Hard to beat the apocalypse for suspense value and ultimate stakes. However, I’ve enjoyed all the seasons to various degrees. With Kripke out as showrunner and not knowing how they would follow-up the averted apocalypse, I had concerns for season six, but it turned out well and the ending was certainly a surprise twist.

GM: What were some of the challenges of coming into this series?

JP: With any tie-in novel, the first concern is getting the voices right. The people who read these books are fans of the show. They notice when the voices or the characters don’t ring true. So job one is make sure that feels right. Since I had been a day-one fan, I knew the characters well, but writing them is another level of involvement and understanding. My editor gave me production scripts weeks before the episodes aired, so I was able to stay in tune with current situations and relationships in the show. Finally, I had to pitch four to five ideas initially, so I spent a week or two coming up with original ideas, something the show hadn’t used, and then hope the powers that be would like at least one of them enough to give me the green light to submit an outline. My guidelines were season six and monster story. No angels/demon arc. The show had passed that. Fortunately, most of my own novels deal with monsters and supernatural suspense so Supernatural is a good fit for me.

GM: How much did you know about Season Six’s outcome when you came on board to write the book?

JP: I was anywhere from five to six weeks ahead of the air dates as far as the scripts I had on hand. But I had to finish the first draft and the novel while there were still about three episodes left in the season. So I had no idea how the season would wrap up. As I was writing the novel, I put in references to upcoming (now long past!) episodes and kept pushing my story as late in the season six timeline as I could. Even though Castiel isn’t in my story, it takes place before the Winchesters’ suspect his involvement with Crowley. At that point in the season, their focus changes drastically so my between-episodes story would have been burdened with subplot that I couldn’t really address in a meaningful way.

GM: Did you see the finale? What did you think about the wrap-up for this year’s storyline?

JP: Yes, of course, I’ve seen it. I never miss a week. It’s appointment television for my wife, sons and me! Honestly, I thought Castiel was a goner. I didn’t see the twist coming. So I was pleasantly surprised. I have no idea where the show will go from here. Castiel is my oldest son’s favorite character in the show and I have the impression from outside news tidbits that he will appear less frequently next season.

GM: Any thoughts on where you, personally, would like to see Season Seven go?

JP: I like to be surprised. I thought reading the scripts ahead of time would kind of spoil the show for me, but my reactions just moved to the printed word rather than the television screen. What I mean is, I would be totally absorbed in the script and experience the emotions there first. Also, by reading the scripts, I absorbed more of the nuances of the show, what the writers intended. Unless you watch the episodes repeatedly, you miss a line here or there, don’t catch a look or an inference. In the script, all that stuff is there, unfiltered and uninterrupted.

GM: Wow, that's got to be really cool. A personal complaint about Supernatural is its limitations. We all know it’s on a very tight budget—affording little opportunity for really amazing creature effects or big scale action sequences. Plus, the scope has grown so big over the years—perhaps too big, given the budget—that Sam and Dean feel left out of the action so many times, such as the Civil War in Heaven. For the last few years, the big mythology stuff—first with the Demon War in Season Three, then with the angels trying to stop the seals from being broken in Season Four, to hunting Lucifer in Season Five—has largely occurred “off camera”. However, in a novel, is there a real opportunity to go “all out”, since you don’t have those budgetary constraints, and show some of these larger than life aspects of the SPN world, or do you feel that it’s the responsibility of a tie-in novel to not stray too far from what you’d be able to see in any given episode?

JP: I think that limitation applies to most genre shows. They don’t have summer franchise movie budgets to work with, so the superheroes stop being so super on a weekly basis, and the monsters stay in the shadows more than we’d like. Someone with the show called me and basically told me to take advantage of the “no censors” and “no budget constraints” aspects of the novel realm. So that’s what I did. There is a level of destruction and creature “effects” and gore in the novel which would not be possible on the show or would be left to the shadows or to the viewer’s imagination. Obviously a book leaves everything to the reader’s imagination, but when you’re watching a show (as opposed to reading a book) you want to see what you’re supposed to see and you sometimes feel cheated when it’s not there or doesn’t live up to your expectations or involve cutting edge CGI. As far as viewers being left out of the angel civil war, I came to understand during the season that without Sam and Dean in those situations, they may not have resonated with viewers. The Winchesters humanize the situations for us. Godlike beings battling amongst themselves might have been entertaining for a short while, but without the human scale, it may have left viewers uninvolved and unmoved. Season six helped bring things back to a human scale, but also gave us some resolution to the civil war in heaven.

GM: How hard is it to break into the media tie-in business? Is it harder than getting an original novel published?

JP: My first tie-in novel was Buffy the Vampire Slayer: Ghoul Trouble. I approached the editor about writing a Buffy book, but I already had a Wither book credit. And one reviewer helpfully compared Wither to Buffy, so I thought that was a natural calling card. I had to submit an outline and sample chapter before I got the job. While writing that, the editor invited me to do an Angel novel. Angel: Avatar was the result. A subsequent editor contacted me about writing another Angel novel and Angel: Monolith was the result. The Titan Books editor was looking for fresh blood for the Supernatural books and she found my website on the web and invited me to pitch. Having the professional credit got my foot in the door, then having a good working relationship with the editor kept me in the game. Then my track record came into play for the last two tie-ins. The Wither movie rights sold before the book sale, which is unusual. I don’t think my writing career path is a blueprint somebody can follow in a straightforward way.

GM: Speaking of original novels, tell us about Wither. Is that series finished, or are their more Wendy Ward adventures waiting to be told?

JP: I’ve continued the Wither/Wendy Ward mythology in a series of (sometimes long) short stories, most available in eBook form. The most recent – and longest – is “Blood Alone” in an anthology called The Stories In Between. I’m planning another story that will go in a fiction collection later this year. All the Wendy Ward stories and my other short fiction will be available first in eBook form, then possibly in trade paperback. I may write another Wendy Ward story, but I’m undecided at the moment. With that last story, I provided a resolution of sorts for Wendy. If I think of a novel-length story to tell with her, I will write it. E-publishing has made some things possible that were mostly impossible before. With the fiction collection coming and some other novels on the backburner, I’ll have time to let ideas for Wendy percolate.

GM: I agree about the interesting market changes thanks to the advent of eBooks. What’s up next for you? Any more Supernatural novels on the horizon?

JP: I’d love to do another Supernatural novel. Sales of the current batch will determine if the license is renewed. So any readers out there who like them should support them. Spread the word. Buy some as gifts for friends, fans of the show who may not know they exist or donate copies to your local library. But, short term, I want to write one last original story for the fiction collection. Then possibly a sequel to Shimmer: I wrote 12,000 words of it during NaNoWriMo before stopping to write Night Terror. And I have some other novel ideas I’d like to begin.

GM: With your obvious knowledge and passion for the show, I think it's safe to say we could use someone like you writing more Supernatural novels! Now, final question: I know you wrote Buffy, that other famous television monster hunter of recent memory. In the interest of total frivolity, be honest--if Buffy and the Winchester Brothers were bound by some demonic force to have a fight to the death, who would win? Or would there just be lots of witty banter?

JP: That’s a tough one. Without the demonic force controlling them, I think they’d really get along. Definitely kindred spirits. If the duel came down solely to hand-to-hand combat, I’d have to give the edge to Buffy, as she has the whole “Chosen One” supernatural strength, agility, etc. advantage. If weapons were allowed, the Winchesters are resourceful enough to turn the fight in their favor, but it would probably come down to a coin flip.

GM: Thank you for sitting down and hanging out with us.

JP: Thanks, Greg!

GM: And thanks to everyone for stopping by to read! Now go pre-order your copy of Night Terror today and look for it in stores September 13th!

The giveaway is now closed! Head over to the winner announcement!