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Welcome to this week’s installment of The Scariest Part, a recurring feature in which authors, comic book writers, filmmakers, and game creators tell us what scares them in their latest works of horror, dark fantasy, dark science fiction, and suspense. (If you’d like to be featured on The Scariest Part, please review the guidelines here.)

My guest is Lincoln Crisler, whose debut novel is Skinjumper. Here is the publisher’s description:

MURDER IS ONLY SKIN DEEP.

Rose Bennett, a young, recently-widowed mother, comes face to face with a newly-minted murderer and learns that there are much scarier things than raising a child alone in an unfamiliar town. Terry Miller has discovered three things in a very short amount of time: his high school sweetheart’s been cheating on him with his father, killing is fun, and if he does it just right, he can switch bodies with his victims.

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Lincoln Crisler:

One of the scariest parts in my first full-length novel, Skinjumper, doesn’t involve the main protagonist of the story — a single-mother working in a restaurant who discovers a brutal killer in her newly-adopted hometown. It doesn’t involve the killer’s unexplainable ability to “jump” his consciousness into the “skin” of his victims, either. The small bit of the supernatural I worked into the book does make for some interesting storytelling, at least according to the feedback I’ve received, but let’s be honest — that’s never going to really happen to someone. And after the first round of dead bodies she discovers, Rose, our heroine, is more or less on red alert for the better part of the novel.

There’s a part in the book, it happens about halfway through, that I think is far more terrifying simply because it’s the sort of thing that happens all the time. There’s a dishwasher outside a club our killer is stalking. He steps out into the rear parking lot to have a cigarette. The hairs are probably bristling on his bare arms in the cool air, still damp with wash water. Most likely, he’s taking a couple breaths of awesome fresh air, because the back end of any eating establishment is pretty damn rank.

There’s a stranger leaned up against a wall in our dishwasher’s usual smoking area, and our pal sidles up to the new guy and sparks up. He doesn’t seem to resent the intrusion. He might even welcome a few minutes of banter with someone not bringing him more crap to do. He certainly doesn’t expect to be murdered in cold blood and dragged behind a dumpster. There’s no way he figures his life will end just because a guy who’s killed a few people in fits of rage over the past few days simply wants to try his hand at the premeditated variety of murder.

Sure, the thought of your mind being invaded by the foul, psychic presence of a sociopath is a chilling prospect. So is getting your life’s blood sucked by a vampire. So is being eaten by zombies. But my book isn’t even the genre’s most recent example of how terrible humans can be to each other without otherworldly intervention — take a look at last week’s Walking Dead mid-season finale, for instance!

But of course, you can expect more than just the death of an innocent dishwasher between the pages of Skinjumper. You can check it out at the links below and enjoy a healthy body count, achieved through means both magical and mundane.

Lincoln Crisler: Website / Facebook / Twitter

Skinjumper: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Powell’s / IndieBound

Lincoln Crisler’s body of work consists of over thirty short stories, two novellas and editorship of two anthologies, most recently Corrupts Absolutely?, an anthology of dark superhero fiction. His work has appeared in a variety of print and online publications, to include HUB Magazine, Shroud Publishing’s Abominations anthology and IDW’s Zombies vs. Robots anthology. His debut novel, first novel-length short story collection and third anthology as editor are all scheduled for publication in 2014. He is a member of the Horror Writers Association. A United States Army combat veteran and non-commissioned officer, Lincoln lives in Augusta, Georgia with his wife and two of his three children. He enjoys music, cooking, web design and comic books. Lincoln and his wife own a virtual assistant business, Crisler Professional Services. You can contact him at lincoln@lincolncrisler.info.

Yesterday, the Horror Writers Association (HWA) announced a new scholarship in honor of Rocky Wood, the organization’s late president, who passed away on December 1st as a result of complications from Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), also known as Lou Gehrig’s Disease.

From the HWA’s press release:

The new scholarship, which joins the existing Horror Writers Association and Mary Shelley Scholarships, will focus on non-fiction. Rocky Wood, a two-time recipient of the Bram Stoker Award®, was best known for his extensive work involving the writings of Stephen King. The scholarship was proposed by HWA Treasurer Leslie Klinger, who will also oversee its implementation.

You can read the rest of the press release here, which also details who will be succeeding Wood for the rest of his term.

That’s all the information I’ve heard about the scholarship so far. I assume they’re still hammering out all the details. But I think the scholarship is a grand idea, not just to commemorate Wood, who was probably the most effective and forward-thinking president the HWA has had in quite some time, but also because of its focus on non-fiction, which I feel doesn’t get as much attention as fiction by the organization’s members. (The Outstanding Non-Fiction category of the Bram Stoker Awards is routinely filled with works by other HWA members, despite the hundreds if not thousands of eligible non-fiction books published every year, which to me is an indication that the membership doesn’t read much non-fiction in general.) The scholarship may not change how the award too often goes to another HWA member, but it just might raise non-fiction’s visibility among the membership, which can only be a good thing.

Welcome to this week’s installment of The Scariest Part, a recurring feature in which authors, comic book writers, filmmakers, and game creators tell us what scares them in their latest works of horror, dark fantasy, dark science fiction, and suspense. (If you’d like to be featured on The Scariest Part, please review the guidelines here.)

We’re doing something a little different on The Scariest Part. This week, we’re part of author Alex Hughes’s month-long blog tour in celebration of the release of Vacant, the fourth volume in the award-winning Mindspace Investigations series. And we’ll also be offering our very first e-book giveaway and taking part in an exciting blog tour scavenger hunt based on the board game Clue. You’ll find the details of both down at the bottom. But first, here is the publisher’s description of Vacant:

Nothing ruins a romantic evening like a brawl with lowlifes — especially when one of them later turns up dead and my date, Detective Isabella Cherabino, is the #1 suspect. My history with the Atlanta PD on both sides of the law makes me an unreliable witness, so while Cherabino is suspended, I’m paying my bills by taking an FBI gig.

I’ve been hired to play telepathic bodyguard for Tommy, the ten-year-old son of a superior court judge in Savannah presiding over the murder trial of a mob-connected mogul. After an attempt on the kid’s life, the Feds believe he’s been targeted by the businessman’s “associates.”

Turns out, Tommy’s a nascent telepath, so I’m trying to help him get a handle on his Ability. But it doesn’t take a mind reader to see that there’s something going on with this kid’s parents that’s stressing him out more than a death threat…

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Alex Hughes:

[Note: this post contains light spoilers.]

There were a lot of things about Vacant that scared me. First, taking Adam away from his comfort zone in Atlanta with Cherabino and police was incredibly scary. This character had defined himself for so long by other peoples’ expectations that breaking out of those put him in a cold sweat. I had to step back as a writer and ask myself some very difficult questions. What really makes Adam tick? And the answer, surprisingly enough, was fear.

Adam is terrified of failing, and more precisely, of being a failure. This is a fear that I’ve found in the mirror all too often, and the worst part about this fear is that it can never truly be banished. What if they find out I’m not really that good? What if I fall on my face and screw up? Adam’s fears in the book echoed my fears as I struggled with the book without the comforting repartee with Cherabino. I was terrified that I would screw this book up and not be able to write it, and Adam was terrified that he would fail Tommy, and that Tommy would die like he saw in the vision.

The strange part about Adam, as I got deeper into the book, the strange part about fear, is that there hits a point where you can no longer be any more afraid than you currently are. Adam looked into the very face of his death — and I, into the face of my struggles with the page — and we both found something more important than the fear. Having decided to move forward, having decided that we would finish, no matter the cost, the fear became less important. The mission became everything. If we failed, we failed. We must continue, if our minds bled from it.

I was certain at many points in the draft that Tommy would die. That Adam would have to face his real fear of failure, even if it meant he’d fall off the wagon. He would have to find himself lacking, and the world dim and small and horrible. If Tommy died, then nothing Adam did — nothing — would ever make him look himself in the mirror the same way ever again. And I was sure it was going to happen, certain in a way that made my heart pound and my stomach churn. Certain, in a way you only get from an outline and a heavily foreshadowing vision of the future. Nothing I could do — nothing — would save the boy I’d come to love.

And then the last piece, the worst piece. Tommy’s mother, who is no hero. To get inside her head, to crawl inside the skin of a woman like that (vague only to keep the spoilers minimal) — I had to embrace one of my personal definitions of petty evil, and understand what it was to be her. That was the scariest part of all. To know that Adam would be destroyed, a boy may die, a vision may come to pass in the worst possible way, and to get inside the head of a person who had played a huge part in it for ill — that was scary. Because it was true. I could be her, given enough time and choices. I could.

And I could be the boy, facing a known killer for hire who liked to play with his victims, a man who strangled face-to-face, slowly.

And I could be Adam, seeing it coming and powerless to stop it. I could be Adam, who I thought might fail, and be a failure.

This was a very scary book for me to write. The scariest part was understanding.

Alex Hughes: Website / Facebook / Twitter

Vacant: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Powell’s / IndieBound

Alex Hughes, the author of the award-winning Mindspace Investigations series from Roc (the latest of which is Vacant), has lived in the Atlanta area since the age of eight. She is a graduate of the prestigious Odyssey Writing Workshop, and a member of the Science Fiction Writers of America and the International Thriller Writers. Her short fiction has been published in several markets including EveryDay Fiction, Thunder on the Battlefield and White Cat Magazine. She is an avid cook and foodie, a trivia buff, and a science geek, and loves to talk about neuroscience, the Food Network, and writing craft — but not necessarily all at the same time!

Alex Hughes’s ongoing scavenger hunt Clue game ends on December 24th. The scavenger hunt checklist can be found here. For those playing, here is the latest clue:

(Update 12/23/14: The giveaway is now CLOSED!)

GIVEAWAY (Worldwide): Win an E-Book Copy of Any Mindspace Investigations novel by Alex Hughes — winner’s choice! (That includes Vacant, the latest novel!)

Here are all the details:

1) Leave a comment below to enter for a chance to win. Specify which Mindspace Investigations novel you’d like, and your preferred e-book format: epub or mobi.

2) Geographic restrictions: This giveaway is open to everyone worldwide. All you need is a valid email address to receive the e-book should you win.

3) This giveaway will end on Tuesday, December 23rd, 2014 (9:00 PM U.S. Eastern Time). The lucky winner will be selected at random, notified, and announced shortly thereafter.

Looking for books this Cyber Monday? I’ve written a few. Horror, fantasy, action-adventure, noir, short story collections, novels, novellas, novelettes — you’ll find something for everyone on your list. (Well, almost everyone. Grandpa may not like a book about a twenty-something heroin addict fighting a centuries-old dragon, but that’s his loss, right?) Click here to browse.