One of the great things about publishing my works for Kindle fans has been the great authors I have met. Those of us who focus on the new world of the ebook have to do a lot of networking and connecting – mostly via social media (yes, you can find me on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Pinterest and Google+). That has allowed me to branch out and find some great thriller/horror writers that, maybe, you have not heard of.
Since it’s almost Halloween, you might be itching to scare the bejeezus out of yourself with some good horror. Here are a few authors you should check out if you have a Kindle and you are looking to download a few things to scare you. Some of them also have works available in print, so you print hold-outs can also get a copy of their books.
Scott Nicholson’s The Red Church
Scott Nicholson – I stumbled across his novel The Red Church while browsing in the Kindlestore via my Kindle. It sounded like an interesting novel about a, well, red church, that hides a truly horrific evil. It was a page-turner. I have read several of his works, including another set in the same town as Red Church, Drummer Boy. I also just read his novel The Harvest earlier this year and checked out Liquid Fear last year. I have now downloaded his novel The Home, which will soon be a movie, but I have not read it. Scott has a great way of developing realistic characters and then putting them in truly scary and bizarre situations. He is from the Appalachian area that he writes about, so he knows his stuff, and you feel like you are right there. He also manages to scare and creep you out without getting too gross and without torturing people, which is a plus to today’s horror world. Finally, Scott happens to be a good guy and supporter of us indie writers with multiple businesses set up to help writers promote their works, which is awesome.
Iain Rob Wright’s novel Same
Iain Rob Wright – He happens to be a fellow author signed with SalGad Publishing, in the interest of full disclosure, but that doesn’t meant the man doesn’t know how to write a proper chiller. I have only read his most recent one, Sam, but it was a definite thrill ride of a read. It manages to mix humor and horror in a way that is so rare these days, but done so well here. It’s a take on the “child-possessed” genre, but has a nice twist that I will not reveal. I am also putting his novel Sea Sick on my must-read list.
Ian Woodhead’s Duplicity
Ian Woodhead – Another fellow writer on SalGad. Ian mostly does zombie stories, a genre that I am not the world’s biggest fan of. However, his novel Duplicity is a sci-fi story that bends the body-snatcher tale into a new light. I also have his novel The Mirrored Blade on my Kindle, ready to read, sometime later this year. Again, there is a perverse kind of humor to Ian’s work, mixed in with a heaping helping of gore and even a good amount of sex,, which is always interesting.
JA Konrath’s AFRAID
JA Konrath – The man who has become a kind of “king of the horror indie” publishers. Konrath got a major publishing deal writing his Jackie Daniel mysteries, but he also wrote these totally twisted and disturbing thrillers and horror novels. I have read Disturb, The List, Origin, Trapped and Afraid. Each of them is thriller, fast-paced, terrifying and profoundly disturbing. They are also filled with great characters, a dash of humor, and more scares per page than most recent novels by some of the bigger published names in horror. If you have not yet experienced Mr. Konrath, and you love horror, why deny yourself any longer?
Blake Crouch’s new novel PINES
Blake Crouch – Probably my current favorite author in the horror/thriller genre. Last year he published his novel RUN and I downloaded it for my Kindle. I proceeded to completely lose myself in the novel, unable to stop reading it for a minute. The characters were so real, the terror so absolute, that I lived and died with them. When it was over, I wanted more. Then, this year, he published his follow-up: PINES. I figured there was no way he could match RUN’s intensity and paranoia. He met it and then surpassed it. I also just read his novel co-authored with his brother, Eerie. That novel worked right up until the end and then it lost me a bit. However, the other two books are absolute, must-have for any fan of the genre.
My Novel VICIOUS
OK, those are my top picks. I would be remiss if I did not take this opportunity to promote the fact that my latest novel, VICIOUS, is one of my scarier thrillers, my first with a publisher who is not me, and currently for sale for less than $3.
Happy Halloween and pleasant, but scary, reading!
BWA