Cover reveal and backstory

When I was touring around Seville, I did a paranormal tour for ideas. While several things tickled my imagination, including a little stray dog that followed us all around the city, I only had random notes to go by. I found myself enjoying the sights more than tuning into story ideas (as it should be!). Then, on one of our last nights there, we passed a window. We'd walked by this same window dozens of times while we were coming and going, but apparently the lights weren't on previously. This particular night, it stopped me in my tracks. Next to the tapas bar. Next to the Mexican restaurant. Next to the hair salon. Next to the souvenir shop. But what was it? A warehouse? A fix-it shop? It wasn't accessible from the courtyard, but with the lights on, everything in the window sparkled. The clicking of my camera is the sound of my imagination tuning in.

Chandeliers

How to fit it into the story? I SO wanted to make this my cover, but it doesn't scream supernatural in any way shape or form. This picture looks more like a regency romance than a haunted house/ ghost/ demon novel. But I wanted to share it, so I'm sharing it here.

INSTEAD of the glittering chandeliers, I chose another picture. One that more accurately displays the genre you're getting with THE DEMON FROM THE CRYPT. Something dark and mysterious, and yet still representative of Seville. Something like...

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You like? This photo is from the Baths of Maria Padilla at the Real Alcazar (the royal palace). Oh yeah. The book is available for preorder, just in case you want to encourage me to keep writing 😉

Oh, and I should mention, personal appearances are being scheduled. First one will be at the Gail Borden Library in October. Check my "Karla in the Wild" page for updates.

 

It's October, after all

I'm in the mood for spooky movies/books. 

A million years ago, I watched a movie called The House That Would Not Die that stuck with me all these years. It was based on a Barbara Michaels book called Ammie Come Home. I tracked the made-for-tv movie down a few years back while I was writing Epitaph as reference for the seance Amy and Kevin sit through. Recently, as I work on my next series devoted more to haunted houses than ghosts, I've been thinking about it again, this time from the angle of the angle of the ghosts rather than the seance. Like I said in my post last week, they don't make scary movies the way they used to anymore. They're all about killers rather than tickling your imagination with the things beyond our five senses-- that sixth sense (anyone remember a show starring Gary Collins by that name?)

After watching the movie above, I tracked down the book to read, and have to say the movie was fairly true to the book. I went on to read several Barbara Michaels books, but they didn't all have that same punch. I went on to read other scary books - Bram Stoker's Dracula was one of my favorites, and of course no one does horror quite like Stephen King. Do you know, when I read 'Salem's Lot he had me guessing for half the book about what was going on? And this, from a devoted horror fan. I love the way he can keep you guessing. And then, of course, I read The Amityville Horror. That is the one book I couldn't have in the same room with me when I'd finished it! 

Do you have a favorite horror movie or book that sticks with you?

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If you want a spooky book to read, try one of my first-in-series-free books.

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