Presenting "The Dark Dozen"

It's finally here! The kick-off to the Dark Dozen Interview Series starts now!

12 questions! 12 authors or pod-casters! 12 weeks!

I hope you are as excited as I am for this unique Horror Interview Series. I have had the honor and privilege of having some great email conversations with some excellent authors over the past few weeks, some that I consider legendary, at least in my mind. Scott Nicholson and Iain Rob Wright are two of my absolute favorite authors, next to the King, of course and they are both being featured in the series, along with quite a few others. Stephen King will always rule my horror universe but I am very excited to report that the other four of my Top Five authors are in this series! I could not be more excited about this line-up if I tried. Sadly, there were several top-notch writers that I did not get responses from, which I do understand, perhaps I will receive messages from them at a later date and can do solo features on them. I'll keep you guys posted if that happens.

If anyone can put me in touch with Stephen King, well, I might just faint. A conversation with that man would make my life complete! I literally just had a brief daydream of meeting him and just got teary-eyed. Sitting here in my Victorian library, with eyes full of tears, just thinking about meeting my idol. Well, maybe one day.

Anyway, I digress, back to the line-up. The sheer volume of books and stories that these writers and pod-casters have put out is astounding and I strongly encourage you to check them out. If you have not heard of these writers, then you are truly missing out. While they each have their own unique styles, you will be served horror, fear and some awesome punch lines. Each author and podcast that I am featuring responded to my polite request for an interview with grace, enthusiasm and encouragement for my own journey. A couple of them also explored my website and saw that I do book reviews too and asked if I would like to review their newest works coming out soon! Of course I said "Yes!", so you'll see a few more book reviews being added to the site over these next few months!

This has been my life for the past three weeks, emailing possible authors and writers, getting to know them, having some really fun interactions with great people and discovering some new authors and podcasts for myself! That is always the best part, finding someone new to add to the library, to add to the nights when I read into the darkest hours of morning. No one was rude or dismissive and I tell you what, for someone new like me, an introvert like me, that was the best experience. Being able to tell you that each person was truly genuine and encouraging means the world to me. Being able to promote talented authors that are also great humans is the entire purpose of this series.

Sometimes, those in the horror industry get a bad reputation. Other people that sway towards less morbid genre's see horror as tasteless, crass, vulgar or gory and those that write it as uncaring, un-feeling or closet sociopaths, of which I am none of the above. What I have found, is that most often, those that write it, are the ones that have been most exposed to it. Most exposed to the horrors that life brings, to the trauma, to the violence caused by others; they write it to deal with it, to express their own pain, to heal their own demons, to maybe help another person deal with their pain and trauma.

The things humans do to each other are far more horrifying than most of what you will ever see on a movie screen. We write it because we know it. We know the fear. We are intimate with the nightmares, with the demons in the dark. We live with it, the darkness in our hearts, in our souls. We write it for those of you, that need to feel something other than your own horror, your own fears. Those of you that love reading what you dare not speak aloud.

I hope you each tune in every Saturday night to check out a new interview and find someone new to add to your reading list! Bring a friend, pull up a chair to my dark corner and stay a while.

That's all for now. Head on over to the Dark Dozen now and meet a new friend!

Stay tuned. Stay safe. Stay uncomfortable.