Woo hoo!

The cover for book #6 in the Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror Series is ready to be unveiled…INTO THE HOLLOW

Please click on the links to take a look­see and say hello to the fol­low­ing great blogs who are par­tic­i­pat­ing in the tour. And if you haven’t got started with the series yet and feel like get­ting to know a snarky hero­ine and her even wit­tier partner-in-crime (and some creepy stuff), each post links to the FREE books…Darkhouse (#1) and The Ben­son (#2)

Crunch­ings and Munchings

A Life Among Pages

Paw­ing Through Books

Lit­tle Red Read­ing Hood

Sin­fully Deli­cious Book Reviews

Para­nor­mal Book Club

See­ing Night Reviews

Hackaroo’s Reviews

And the FABULOUS designer Najila Qam­ber talks about the cover here

In other news, Heather at Supa­Girl Books saw a pic­ture I posted of “Dex” and got cre­ative with it — if you want to add her but­ton to your blog, go right ahead (fea­tures a quote from The Dex-Files, “But­ter­fly Caught” I believe…OK I should know).

 

I’ve been feel­ing on top of the world lately. I’m writ­ing full-time, I’m mov­ing to a beau­ti­ful local island with a Mediter­ranean cli­mate (yeah, it exists in Canada!), my part­ner is leav­ing his thank­less job and tak­ing over a busi­ness. My books are sell­ing well, The Dex-Files con­tin­ues to win over read­ers (well, sort of…so many still on the Dex fence!). My agent is going to start pimp­ing EIT to pub­lish­ers come the fall. Things are good. I’m happy.

I’m just keep­ing my head down, deal­ing with the cover for Into the Hol­low, plus cool posters and graph­ics for The Devil’s Metal. I’m writ­ing it every day and think it’s really com­ing along. I love Dawn. I love the 1970’s. I love the music and the creepy aspect and I love Sage. I have my doubts, of course, as every writer does. Am I good enough? Will peo­ple want to read this? Why do I have to write things that aren’t straight-up com­mer­cial fare? Is this going to suck? You know, nor­mal doubts.

Then I get kicked in the fuck­ing gut.

A book comes out a month before mine is set to. It deals with pretty much the exact same thing as The Devil’s Metal. And it’s already #66 on Ama­zon kindle.

You guessed it, I’m talk­ing about The Mighty Storm by Saman­tha Towle.

So, with a bleed­ing heart, I look at the reviews to see how sim­i­lar the books sound and the results shat­ter me. Like, make me feel like jump­ing off a bridge. How fuck­ing rot­ten is my tim­ing. How am I com­pete with this book? Why would peo­ple want to read mine when they can read one that is highly-acclaimed? And seems to be almost the same! And how on earth am I going to stop read­ers from com­par­ing the two when I’m doing it myself?

Now, I know there are dif­fer­ences between the books. But the sim­i­lar­i­ties are there. Both are about a young female music jour­nal­ist who goes on the road with her favorite band and falls in love with the hot, tat­tooed bad-boy rock­star. There are shenani­gans with bad behav­ior and groupies. There’s angst. There’s sex. There’s music. Etc.

As I noted, there are dif­fer­ences. Mine is hor­ror. It’s set in 1974. I was/am a music jour­nal­ist and many of my own sto­ries have found their way into the book. In Storm, the two lovers were child­hood friends and sweet­hearts and are reunited. There’s another man in the mix. In Metal, Dawn is a fish out of water and Sage is one of her idols. There’s no other man. Mine’s not erot­ica, it’s horror/romance (I’d say para­nor­mal romance but that has strange con­no­ta­tions with it).

For all I know they are totally dif­fer­ent books. As a friend pointed out, you can’t com­pare Cujo and Old Yeller because they both have dogs with rabies. And I know that. I hear Towle did a fab­u­lous job with The Mighty Storm, mak­ing it the next Beau­ti­ful Dis­as­ter and I do intend to read it.…one day, when mine is all done so that I don’t get wrongly influenced.

But the prob­lem I am hav­ing — the one that makes me afraid to pub­lish this book — is the accu­sa­tions that I might get, the ones that say I’m jump­ing on this book’s band­wagon and that I’m copy­ing it.

Not true. Coin­ci­dence is a funny thing but I can say with utmost hon­esty that The Devil’s Metal came from my lit­tle whacked head.

For one, I am a music jour­nal­ist and I, one day, sick of deal­ing with real-life groupies of another band, thought wouldn’t it be great to write a period piece that dealt with this stuff, but had a demonic, scary spin on it. I wanted to put my expe­ri­ences down but make it fun, sexy and enter­tain­ing. The Devil’s Metal came to me in sum­mer of 2009. I even tweeted about it and called it The Devil’s Death Metal, before a friend sug­gested that The Devil’s Metal would be better.

I wrote the book into the fourth Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror novel, Lying Sea­son. It’s a hol­lowed out book in Dex’s office that Perry finds.

I started talk­ing pub­licly about the book at the start of the sum­mer of 2012 and even talked about it in an inter­view here: http://www.maryse.net/behind-the-books-interviews/behind-the-books-interview-with-karina-halle-15-gift-gard-giveaway.html

“I’m just about to start a book called The Devil’s Metal, which I am hop­ing for a Sep­tem­ber release date. It’s a 2–3-book series, adult para­nor­mal romance. A lot of it is based or inspired by my work in the music indus­try. It’s set in the 1970’s and it’s: Almost Famous but with demons instead of groupies. I’m super freak­ing excited to start it.”

And August 2nd, I wrote the blurb for it here: http://experimentinterror.com/2012/08/07/the-devils-metal/

I know this all seems like a bit much, but I feel it’s best to nip this in the bud before read­ers, or god for­bid, the author accuse me of pla­gia­rism. Not that I think the author would because she seems like an awe­some and tal­ented lady who is soar­ing into best-sellers list, but speak­ing from expe­ri­ence, I know what it feels like when you see books that come out after yours that read a lit­tle too much the same (don’t get me started on a para­nor­mal YA book I saw about a light­house on the Ore­gon coast and a mys­te­ri­ous guy called Declan or “Dex” because that one did my head in). I’d hate for any author to feel that way.

So there you have it. This is my dilemma. I’ve spent most of my day grap­pling with whether I should still release the book or not. I still don’t know. I know if I do, I’m going to get some back­lash, even with this blog post. I know peo­ple will com­pare my wee lit­tle horror/70’s piece to a book that’s not only sell­ing well but get­ting 5-star reviews across the board. My book will be com­pared and it will not mea­sure up. It’s not what peo­ple want — it’s not straight-up romance and it’s not a tear­jerker. I have my work cut out for me and there’s a chance this book will flop…all because of bad, rot­ten timing.

Of course, it could flop because it flat out sucks but that’s some­thing I was wor­ried about anyway.

Sigh. I don’t know what to do. I might not pub­lish. I might post­pone it. Or I still might release it on Sep­tem­ber 21st and hope for the best. Plug my nose and take the leap.

I will keep writ­ing it though, because it’s a story I always wanted to tell. I just hope my muse is gen­tle with me and that every­thing hap­pens for a reason.

I’ll keep you posted.

 

I get a lot of ques­tions from peo­ple. A lot of com­ments. I wish I could address them all, but that takes up a lot of time and time is some­thing I need to write. I need buck­ets full of time. But I don’t like ignor­ing peo­ple either.

So I thought I’d answer some of the most com­mon ques­tions I’ve been get­ting right here, right now:

1. Why did you end On Demon Wings on a cliffhanger? Did you do that to entice peo­ple to read the next book? You’re a cruel bitch and I hate you.

- I know peo­ple are going to buy the next book. I did not end it on a cliffhanger for that rea­son. I ended it because to me that is where I had ALWAYS planned to end the story. Deduct points for that if you want, but to me that’s how that book was sup­posed to end. It fol­lowed the struc­ture I set out for it. The cli­max was the exor­cism scene. I’d be adding an extra cli­max in a sense if I were to add in the res­o­lu­tion of that cliffhanger. Could I have ended it right after the exor­cism scene? I guess. But that didn’t seem right to me either. Dis­agree with me all you want, but those were my reasons…NOT to sell more books. I’m pretty sure if I wrote a book about Perry and Dex shop­ping at Tar­get, that would sell.

That said, Book 6 will NOT end on a cliffhanger. So, breathe easy!

2. Why didn’t you write about the “blah blah” scene in The Dex-Files? Why wasn’t it longer?

- The Dex-Files was never intended to be a full-length novel and it was never intended to pro­vide every answer or every­one of his view­points to all scenes in the books. Some­times you have to trust that the author knows what they are doing. I don’t believe in lay­ing all the cards out for you guys to see. Dex needs to still be a mys­tery. There still needs to be top­ics and issues for future books. And, really, if you must know how Dex would react, what his thoughts would be dur­ing a cer­tain scene, just think about it. There were enough tid­bits in The Dex-Files and On Demon Wings for peo­ple to draw their own con­clu­sions (lol,  I hope).

3. When is Into The Hol­low com­ing out? Can you release it today?

- Octo­ber 23rd and no. The book has not been writ­ten (aside from the first few chap­ters). Also, I’m in no rush. The sooner I release books, the sooner the series is over…and who wants that? That thought gives me major sad face.

4. Can’t you write more than eight books, then?

- Don’t you hate a series that goes on and on when they should have ended a long time ago? Yeah, I don’t want that to hap­pen to EIT. I want to go out while peo­ple still love it. But, remem­ber, that tril­ogy in a few years

5. Why isn’t this a movie?

- I don’t know. I’m a writer, not a film­maker. If we’re lucky, my agent will sell the film/TV rights to the series. And if we are really lucky, it’ll go beyond being an “option” and actu­ally get made! *fin­gers crossed*

6. Is Max­imus Dex’s brother?

- Lol. Whut? How does that work? Sure, they can both be doucheca­noes but no, Dex has a brother called Michael. You will see him in Book 8. He’s a real, breath­ing, nor­mal dude.

7. What is up with Max­imus anyway?

- Many things.

8. Why is Dex so horny?

- He’s a dude. Maybe a more sex­ual, fucked up dude, but still a dude. Dudes get bon­ers around pretty girls they like/love. Dudes think about sex. Dudes have sex (and yes, from an early age). Or maybe I just tend to hang around horny dudes.

9. What’s with strong Dex in Bailout?

- Read Old Blood.

10. Why can’t I buy (insert book here:______) for NOOK? I can’t find it at Barnes and Noble.

- Because B&N are doucheca­noes, remem­ber? They take a long time to upload my books to their site, some­times over a month. HOWEVER you can always buy an epub Nook com­pat­i­ble Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror book at Smash­words — this site pub­lishes instan­ta­neously, it’s just as cheap as B&N and if you fol­low the instruc­tions, easy to use! I rec­om­mend them. https://www.smashwords.com/profile/view/khalle

Ahhh, any other news while I have you here? Well, on Sep­tem­ber 23rd I’ve got 30 days of Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror com­ing. That means 30 days of cool posts, awe­some give­aways, inter­views, excerpts, etc. So stay tuned for that!

Awe­some pod­cast for Dark­house at Books for Bitchez: http://booksforbitches.tumblr.com/

Hmmm, oh! The Dex-Files made the Gal­l­ey­Cat Weekly Best Sell­ers List this week. Not long ago, Old Blood was kick­ing ass up there for 5 weeks in a row. NOW IT’S DEX’S TURN (we came in at #2 out of all fic­tion books in the Smash­words store).http://www.mediabistro.com/galleycat/self-published-bestsellers-list-for-august-20-2012_b56292

Here’s a great review from the AWESOME For­ever Young Adult for Old Blood and Dex Files: http://foreveryoungadult.com/2012/08/21/a-good-companion-novel-is-like-a-good-sidecar/

HOLY FUCK check out this AMAZEBALLS DRAWING OF PERRY IN ON DEMON WINGS by the Fab­u­lous Leabharlann

http://leabharlann.deviantart.com/art/On-Demon-Wings-Perry-322424268

And once again, much love to the read­ers who have been send­ing me kind emails, com­ments and mes­sages and who are tire­lessly pimp­ing out the books to their friends, neigh­bours, dogs. YOU guys rock my world and help me live my dreams, so THANK YOU.

OK…back to writ­ing. I hope to have some Devil’s Metal excerpts soon

Ah, the day is upon us my friends. Today, instead of get­ting up at 7 AM to get ready for work, I had the choice of sleep­ing in…after all, this is the first day of being self-employed. The first day of being a full-time writer.

Ahh, lucky you, you say. And yes, I know I’m lucky. Lucky that I have such a loyal and slightly rabid fan­base, lucky that I’ve not given up when the going got tough, lucky that I had sup­port from my fam­ily and friends. I’m lucky that I can do what I love for a living.

Does this mean it’s an easy life from now on? HELL NO. As any free­lancer will tell you, once you take away the “secu­rity” of a “nor­mal” job, every dol­lar com­ing in and dol­lar going out has more mean­ing. As in, OH MY GOD WHAT IF I NEVER SELL ANOTHER BOOK I’LL DIE AND BE HOMELESS.

Of course, if we lis­tened to these valid fears, no one would ever take the leap. So here I am, leap­ing off the cliff and build­ing my wings on the way down. It’s going to be a chal­leng­ing and ter­ri­fy­ing jour­ney at times but you know me — I love being scared.

This is a time to develop solid writ­ing habits, to put my nose to the key­board and grind words out. I have more free­dom now but that free­dom is teth­ered to my writ­ing, some­thing that will always have to come first. This will prob­a­bly result in many people’s fallen and con­fused faces when I tell them I can’t go to their party because I need to write or I can’t go on a trip because I need to go through edits, or I can’t go for din­ner because I’m upload­ing to Kin­dle. Most peo­ple will prob­a­bly think I can do what­ever I want, and while I can, it doesn’t mean I should.

This morn­ing I had the free­dom and choice to sleep in. My first day of self-employment, I’m my own boss, right?

Right. But I’m a bitch of a boss.

So instead of wak­ing up at 7AM for work like I would have done on a week­day, I woke up at 5AM to write.

That’s right. First day as a full-time writer and I’m up at 5AM. Hope­fully this kind of behav­iour will get me a raise in the long run

In other news, well actu­ally the same news, I AM writ­ing. This month has been crunch month for The Devil’s Metal. It’s a whole new ball­game and it’s not easy. Writ­ing EIT is sec­ond nature to me. Five books and three novel­las and I can spew about Perry and Dex in my sleep.

But start­ing a whole new book with whole new char­ac­ters, plot and world (not to men­tion time period) is some­thing entirely dif­fer­ent. This is keep-you-on-your –toes, chal­leng­ing stuff. You’re wor­ried about pac­ing, you’re wor­ried about keep­ing the time period authen­tic, you’re wor­ried that peo­ple won’t love your char­ac­ters as much as they love your tried-and-tested char­ac­ters. You worry you will suck. Balls. BIG BALLS.

All I can do, how­ever, is keep going. I will try to keep those voices at bay and I will try my best. This isn’t Exper­i­ment in Ter­ror and it’s not try­ing to be (THOUGH EIT fans will notice one sim­i­lar thread/item in The Devil’s Metal hee hee). This is strictly adult. It’s the 1970’s. It’s rock and roll. It’s about per­sonal demons and real demons. It’s about two peo­ple com­ing together in a very unlikely way. And know­ing me, this isn’t main­stream, insta-luv fare. Oh, there are plenty of sexy times and romance, don’t get me wrong, but it’s not stan­dard. That’s all I can really say.

Although I’ll also say, man, get­ting up at 5AM is a bitch.

The Dex-Files is now avail­able on Kin­dle HERE and Smash­words HERE — Nook/Kobo/iTunes ver­sions should be up in a month but you can always buy the epub ver­sion through Smash­words if you don’t wish to wait.

Remem­ber, this com­pan­ion book con­tains scenes of a graphic sex­ual nature (nat­u­rally, it’s Dex’s POV) and harsh lan­guage and is not rec­om­mended for either read­ers 18 yrs of age and younger OR peo­ple who have not read the entire series — includ­ing Old Blood. Though it is a novella, Old Blood con­tains infor­ma­tion that will have The Dex-Files and the rest of the EIT series make a lot more sense (and I’m not just say­ing that).

ALSO I have pre­pared a playlist for The Dex-Files, since almost all of the chap­ters are named after songs — please give it a visit HERE.

Want more infor­ma­tion on The Dex-Files or to read reviews, please visit the GoodReads page HERE.

 

Thank you and happy read­ing (you pervy weirdos!)

I have a new book com­ing out soon.

Per­haps add it to your TBR list, mmmk?

GoodReads

It’s the sum­mer of 1974 and 21-year old Dawn Emer­son has only three things she wants to do: com­pete one last time in the Ellens­burg Rodeo, win back her ex-boyfriend Ryan, and become the best damn music jour­nal­ist at Cen­tral Wash­ing­ton Uni­ver­sity. But all her plans are left in the dust when she’s con­tacted by Creem mag­a­zine to go on the road with one of her favorite groups, the up-and-coming metal band, Hybrid.

At first the assign­ment reads like a dream come true. Not only will Dawn land some much-needed cred­i­bil­ity as a female music jour­nal­ist, but she’ll finally get to expe­ri­ence life from the other side of the stage, and maybe crack the drunken, enig­matic code that is gui­tarist Sage Knightly. Instead, Dawn finds her­self on an aging tour bus filled with ego-maniacs, band pol­i­tics and a whole lot of sex, drugs and rock n’ roll. When mon­sters start show­ing up in dress­ing rooms and some of Sage’s groupies become increas­ingly strange and dan­ger­ous, Dawn dis­cov­ers the band is not only going places – they’re going straight to Hell.

And Dawn has a back­stage pass.

***

The Devil’s Metal is the first book in a two-part New Adult Horror/Paranormal Romance and very (very!) loosely based on the author’s exploits as a music jour­nal­ist. Hell comes in dif­fer­ent forms