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This week on The Scariest Part, my guest is J.A. McLachlan, whose latest novel is The Occasional Diamond Thief. Here’s the publisher’s description:

What if you learned your father was a thief? Would you follow in his footsteps, learn his “trade”? If you were the only one who knew, would you keep his secret?

Kia is training to be a universal interpreter. Her plans go awry when she is co-opted into traveling as an interpreter to Malem. This is the last place in the universe that Kia wants to be — it’s the planet where her father caught the terrible illness that killed him — but it’s also where he got the magnificent diamond that only she knows about. Kia is convinced he stole it, as it is illegal for any off-worlder to possess a Malemese diamond.

Using her skill in languages — and another skill she picked up, the skill of picking locks — Kia unravels the secret of the mysterious gem and learns what she must do to set things right: return the diamond to its original owner.

But how will she find out who that is when no one can know that she, an off-worlder, has a Malemese diamond? Can she trust the new friends she’s made on Malem, especially handsome but mysterious Jumal, to help her? And will she solve the mystery in time to save Agatha, the last person she would have expected to become her closest friend?

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for J.A. McLachlan:

At first, considering this post, I didn’t think my book, The Occasional Diamond Thief, is scary. It definitely isn’t traditional horror. But then I began to think about the nature of fear. Sure, soul-eaters and zombies and paranormal occurrences are frightening — but they’re scary the way a roller-coaster is scary: you’re screaming as you plunge downward, but at the bottom you’re laughing, because you know the frightening thing was never real. It could never happen to you.

What is real, what is truly terrifying, are the things that could happen to us. Fatal illnesses destroying our body or our mind; public humiliation; failure at something that matters vitally to us; falling from a great height. A near miss with something horrifying doesn’t entertain us; it haunts us, appears in our dreams, and jumps out at us in all its gruesomeness when we try to ignore it.

One sunny day back when I was in university, a young man jumped from the top of a building where I was having a class. His body had been removed by the time I left my class, but the outline of his landing was there on the concrete, along with blood and bits of him. A friend of mine had been walking by when he jumped and was still shaking as he described with chilling detail seeing the young man land near him.

From that day, I have been afraid of heights — or, more specifically, falling from them. I have to steel my nerves to drive over a tall bridge. Ferris wheels, which I used to love, now terrify me — I mean, really, you’re not even strapped in! I imagine not the landing, but the long fall, knowing all the way down that I am going to hit, hard, and there’s no preventing it. I have nightmares of being on the top of very high, narrow buildings which begin to sway unsteadily in the wind…

The scariest things are things that are real to us because we have seen them ourselves and we know it could happen to us. My novel isn’t horror, but it is suspenseful, and Kia, the main character, has to face a number of terrifying things — exposure to the plague that killed her father, imprisonment, and the brutal justice of Malem, where the story takes place. While I haven’t written my fear of heights into Kia, I have given her the experience of witnessing something terrifying that might well happen to her, and then having to face that fear again and again.

In the following excerpt, Kia and her friends Agatha and Hamza have been rounded up along with all the citizens of Malem to watch justice being executed in the public square:

“Don’t look, Kia,” Agatha whispers to me. Her mouth moves in a silent prayer. Her face is so white that even her lips are a pale ivory color.

“You must look, both of you,” Hamza says quickly. “The guards are watching to see that we do. Try to look without seeing. Stare straight ahead but focus inward. If you can’t do that, watch the priest, not the boy. Under the law he’s still a child; they’ll only take off two of his fingers, not the whole hand.”

I swallow, hard.

In a loud voice that carries across the square, the priest cries out the name of the boy and his crime: theft. The priest’s face is impassive but in the sunlight I can see beads of sweat on his forehead. He grasps an axe which is leaning against the wooden block, and raises it. He holds it aloft for one terrible moment while he takes aim.

He won’t do it, I think, staring at the axe as it trembles in the air. It flashes down so quickly I don’t believe it’s really happening until I hear it thunk deep into the block of wood.

I lean forward and throw up.

That night, Kia has a nightmare…

I wake hours later. It is pitch dark. My left arm, minus the hand, lies heavy across my chest. I can feel the stump of my wrist above my breast. I cannot breathe, cannot move. I lie there paralyzed with terror. A strangled whimper gurgles in my throat, and I am breathing, sweating, but still too afraid to move, my every sense focused on the arm across my chest. Is there a hand or not? As nightmare and sleep recede, I force myself to raise my right hand, to feel along my forearm… and grasp my left hand with a relief so great it leaves me dizzy. I become aware of Agatha lying beside me in our bed, her breathing deep and regular. I am safe in the house on Prophet’s Lane.

Not safe. None of us are safe, stranded here at the mercy of barbarians.

I think of my bags and what’s in them, and close my eyes. My left hand is still cradled in my right, but I am no longer reassured. I listen intently: all is quiet. I get up and grope by touch in the darkness through my bags until I feel the smooth, hard surface of the little box of thieves’ tools Sodum gave me.

Oh, did I mention that Kia is in possession of a stolen diamond, not to mention a box of thieves’ tools? For the rest of the novel she is vitally aware of what will happen to her if they are discovered; she’s witnessed it first-hand. Yet she has to use both the diamond and the tools, risking their discovery, in order to save herself and those she cares about.

That’s like asking me to sky-dive in order to save people I love, after I’ve seen what happens to someone who falls from a great height. Believe me, I’d far rather be chased by zombies!

J.A. McLachlan: Website / Facebook / Twitter

The Occasional Diamond Thief: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Powell’s / IndieBound / Indigo / Goodreads / Kobo

J.A. McLachlan taught college ethics and has published two textbooks on professional ethics through Pearson/Prentice Hall. She is currently a full-time writer with two published science fiction novels: Walls of Wind and her most recent book, a young adult science fiction novel titled The Occasional Diamond Thief, published by EDGE Science Fiction and Fantasy Publishing.

This week on The Scariest Part, my guest is E.C. Ambrose, whose latest novel in the Dark Apostle series is Elisha Rex. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Elisha was once a lowly barber-surgeon, cutting hair and stitching wounds for poor peasants like himself in 14th century London. But that was before: before he was falsely accused of murder, and sent to die in an unjust war. Before he discovered his potential for a singularly deadly magic. Before he was forced to embrace his gifts and end the war…by using his newfound abilities to kill the tyrannical king.

So who is Elisha now? The beautiful witch Brigit, his former mentor, claims him for the magi, all those who have grasped the secrets of affinity and knowledge to manipulate mind and matter, and who are persecuted for it. Duke Randall, the man who first rose against the mad King Hugh, has accepted him as a comrade and ally in the perilous schemes of the nobility. Somehow, he has even become a friend to Thomas, both the rightful king and, something finer, a good man.

But there is another force at work in the world, a shadowy cabal beyond the might of kings and nobles, that sees its opportunity in the chaos of war and political turmoil — and sees its mirror in Elisha’s indivisible connection with Death. For these necromancers, Elisha is the ultimate prize, and the perfect tool.

When the necromancers’ secret plans begin to bear black fruit and King Thomas goes missing, England teeters on the brink of a hellish anarchy that could make the previous war look like a pleasant memory. Elisha may be the only man who can stop it. But if he steps forward and takes on the authority he is offered to save his nation, is he playing right into the mancers’ hands?

Why does it seem like his enemies are the ones most keen to call him Elisha Rex?

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for E.C. Ambrose:

One of the great things about writing the Dark Apostle novels has been researching and revealing the world of medieval surgery, a dark and dangerous realm of miscarriages, amputations and physician-ordered bleedings, where learned medical practioners believed that your astrological sign and the balance of your humors mattered more than your actual symptoms or the circumstances of the ailment. It’s a fascinating milieu for fiction, in part because the stakes are high, and yes, it does tend to make some of the audience (and sometimes the author) a little squeamish.

But even in this disturbing array of medical tactics, there is one operation so notorious that it looms above all others, even in today’s modern consciousness. Nowadays, open-heart surgery is commonplace, and most of us probably know someone who’s undergone it. Amputations are much less frequent than they once were, and, even when they are necessary, prosthetic technology provides opportunities for living that simply didn’t exist even a hundred years ago, never mind in the 14th century, when these books are set. But the idea of someone cutting open your skull and intruding into your brain, even with contemporary tools, techniques and knowledge still brings a chill to the heart and makes the scalp tingle. How much more so when you imagine undergoing trepanation, the medieval version of intracranial surgery.

This operation has taken on a special horror in modern consciousness because of the myth that it was most commonly used to “relieve” migraine headaches or to perform other sorts of neurological or psychiatric interventions. In fact, the operation is only recommended in the manuals of the time for compressed skull fracture, when a severe blow to the head (as might have been common in battle or accident) creates shards of bone that press on the brain underneath, a condition that can cause swelling of the brain, brain damage and death.

In order to perform the operation (according to Guy de Chauliac’s Chirurgia Magna) the surgeon must shave the head of the patient in the area of the wound, then perform a cruciform incision, cutting through the scalp in the shape of the cross to peel back the skin and expose the fracture. A small drill is then used to pierce a series of holes around the fracture. Through these perforations, a tool is introduced into the skull cavity to lift the sections of bone back into place. The perforations, and any sharp edges of bone, are lightly filed to remove any sharp edges that might cause further damage before the scalp is replaced and stitched back up again.

In short, without benefit of anesthetics or an MRI, without washing his hands or sterilizing his tools, by lantern light on an ordinary table, the surgeon will cut a series of holes in your head and fish around with an iron rod, all in an effort to save your life. The careful surgeon will be able to avoid piercing the dura, the thick covering of the brain, with either the drill bit or the probe and files. I understand the worst part is the anticipation, well, that and the sound of the drill echoing through the conductive bone of your skull.

Even today, surgeons are extremely cautious about cutting into the skull, and patients are justly cautious about allowing it, so the idea of a character I loved undergoing trepanation was both compelling and horrifying. And thus, it had to be done…

E.C. Ambrose: Website / Blog / Facebook / Twitter

Elisha Rex: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Powell’s / IndieBound

E. C. Ambrose is the author of “The Dark Apostle” series of adventure-based historical fantasy novels, beginning with Elisha Barber from DAW Books, and continuing in Elisha Magus, and Elisha Rex. Published works include “Spoiler Alert” and “The Romance of Ruins” in Clarkesworld Magazine and “Custom of the Sea,” winner of the Tenebris Press Flash Fiction Contest 2012. Additional stories are available in Fireside and through the Penguin Specials e-book program. The author is both a graduate of and an instructor for the Odyssey Writing workshop, and a participant in the Codex on-line neo-pro writers’ workshop. In addition to writing, E. C. works as an adventure guide, teaching rock climbing and leading hiking, kayaking, climbing and mountain biking camps. Past occupations include founding a wholesale business, selecting stamps for a philatelic company, selling equestrian equipment, and portraying the Easter Bunny on weekends. The author spends too much time in a tiny office in New Hampshire with a mournful black lab lurking under the desk.

This week on The Scariest Part, my guest is Max Turner, whose latest novel in the Night Runner series is New Order. Here’s the publisher’s description:

How can a guy who can’t find two matching socks be qualified to lead anyone?

An ancient prophecy declared that Zack Thomson, orphaned son of a great vampire hunter, would come back from the dead and either lead humanity into the light—or destroy it. Now the End of Days for vampires is here, the old order is eroding, and from the ashes of that ruin a new world will arise. Will Zack become the great leader the new order so desperately needs? And which of his friends, allies and enemies will survive to learn the answer?

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Max Turner:

Every writer has to be a sadist. We have to make our heroes suffer. It’s the only way to show what they’re made of. As a consequence, whether you read horror or not, you should at times, in any story, find your hackles rising in anticipation of something awful. Depending on your genre of choice, the nature of that awfulness will vary, but it must be present in some proportion for a story to move you. When writing my first novel, Night Runner, a YA coming of age story with elements of fantasy and horror, I was mindful not to go over the top when constructing my hackle-raising scenes. Now that the narrator, Zack, has suffered through two novels and grown up a bit (and my audience along with him), I thought I could take some chances in book three, New Order, and write a few scenes that were darker and more frightening than any I’d tried before.

This was a challenge. I do not live a terrifying life. My kids are well behaved. My wife is nice to me, even when I don’t deserve it, and I work in a high school, which hasn’t been scary to me since they got rid of the strap. I only experience horror in movies, print and in dreams.

I have nightmares. Dreams of apocalypse. They are not pleasant. Still — in terms of producing sheer terror, none rival a dream I had often, starting when I was a young teenager and continuing into my mid twenties.

It only happened in my parent’s home. I would experience a ‘false awakening.’ (I believed myself to be awake, but was still asleep and dreaming). From my bed, everything would look normal, my maps and Star Wars posters hanging where they should be, my desk, books and collectables all shelved and in order. But something was wrong. A sense of unease would settle in. I would try to sit up, then discover that I couldn’t move. No amount of concentration would change this. I couldn’t even close my eyes. At the same time, I’d become aware that something was approaching the door to my room. I can only describe this as an evil presence, a malicious entity whose intent was to take full advantage of my inexplicable paralysis. The slow tension and my growing sense of helplessness created a fear so visceral it easily eclipsed any terror I’ve experienced in real life (for which I am extremely grateful). Then I would wake for real, and relief would tingle through every muscle fibre in my body.

The evil presence never revealed itself. Still — it got the better of me every time.

I wanted to mimic that distressing combination of realism, powerlessness and fear in a scene involving Zack. This required a few changes, most notably how to properly represent the evil presence. Something so vague had the power to terrify me in a dream, but in print, a more concrete villain was needed.

I drew upon images of Cenobites, Giger’s aliens, cannibalistic humanoid underground dwellers (yes, I suffered the indignity that was C.H.U.D.), John Carpenter’s Thing, the aliens of the Mos Eisley Cantina, and even the late, great Vincent Price. The result was Pestilence, one of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, a pale, self-mutilating, spidery-limbed vampire with a corpulent face and body, covered head to toe in leaking pustules. Not the kind of guy you want to bring home to your parents. (The Addams Family being the pleasant exception).

In my scariest scene, Zachary’s dream is invaded by Pestilence who takes control of the dreamscape, renders Zack immobile (I can relate), then tortures and drowns him. Not a pleasant experience, but Zack has to suffer… Then he gets to show us what he’s made of.

Max Turner: Website / Facebook / Twitter / Goodreads

New Order: Amazon / Barnes and Noble / Book Depository / Books-A-Million / Kobo

Max Turner is an author of urban fantasy, and a science and phys-ed teacher. He lives in Ottawa with his wife and three kids. He is a lover of games, history, art, music, sports and all things creative. His first book, Night Runner, was a Red Maple Honour Book and was shortlisted for a Sunburst Award. The sequel, End of Days, was shortlisted for an Ottawa Book Award. The third book in the series, New Order, hit store shelves in 2015.

This week on The Scariest Part, my guest is Scott A. Lerner, whose latest novel is The Fraternity of the Soul Eater. Here’s the publisher’s description:

It’s been a while since Samuel Roberts was called upon to save mankind, and he’s getting restless. His girlfriend Susan thinks he’s a danger junkie, and he’s worried he has a hero complex. He’s back to his usual small-town lawyerly duties in Champaign-Urbana, handling divorces and helping people beat DUI raps. But then a young fraternity pledge calls. During an initiation ceremony he witnessed the live sacrifice of a young woman, but he had so much alcohol in his system that no one believes him. Except Sam. Lately Egyptian lore has been creeping into his life, his dreams, and his movie preferences, and he’s pretty sure he knows why. Evil is knocking on his door again.

Is the call welcome? Why can’t Sam be satisfied with his comfortable legal practice and gorgeous redheaded girlfriend? Maybe it’s because he knows that, as inadequate as he may feel to the task, he and his friend Bob may be humanity’s only hope against ancient supernatural forces combined with modern genetic engineering. Come hell or high water. Or in this case, the underworld or subterranean pyramids.

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is the third book in the Samuel Roberts thriller series, which began with Cocaine Zombies and continued with Ruler of Demons.

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Scott A. Lerner:

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater takes place on the campus of a major research university in the Midwest. It involves a campus fraternity who murders and then provides the souls of innocent co-eds as a sacrifice to an ancient Egyptian deity. The Soul Eater, also known as Ammit, was a nightmarish beast from Egyptian mythology. The creature had a body that was part lion, hippopotamus and crocodile — all scary creatures of their own right. Ammit would devour the undeserving souls whose hearts weighed more than a feather.

I do fear many mythological characters, not just Egyptian Gods. In this book confronting ancient evil is not the scariest part. The scariest part is the total disregard for humanity demonstrated by this group, who are modifying human DNA by combining it with animal DNA with no regard for suffering or the law of unintended consequences.

In some ways, my story could be from the pages of The New York Times. Scientists are working to modify human DNA. How can we as a society turn our back on the possibility of curing genetic disease? How can we resist the opportunity to make our children smarter, stronger or more attractive? Once we cross that line, where do we stop?

There is one particular scene in my book that is particularly disturbing. The main character views an evil experiment on video. A young woman is impregnated with a less than human fetus and the creature claws its way out of her uterus. The juxtaposition of the sterile environment with an abomination that is born, only to die soon after, is ghastly. That this is not the first or the last time this nightmare is replayed makes it far worse.

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is a book of fiction. Even if it might cause you to sleep with the lights on, it remains fantasy. Yet, the ideas within its pages are possible. People are willing to sacrifice one another for power and greed. It does not take great imagination to figure out that if something can be done, even something horrifying, it likely will be done.

Sam, the protagonist, must face his own demons. Can he kill in order to save the life of the woman he loves? Does he remain on the side of the angels even after he has blood on his hands? Do the ends justify the means?

There is potential for evil in all of us. I can’t think of anything scarier.

Scott A. Lerner: Website / Facebook / Twitter

The Fraternity of the Soul Eater: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / IndieBound / Smashwords

Author and attorney Scott A. Lerner resides in Champaign, Illinois. He obtained his undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Wisconsin in Madison and went on to obtain his Juris Doctor degree from the University of Illinois in Urbana Champaign. He is currently a sole practitioner in Champaign, Illinois. The majority of his law practice focuses on the fields of criminal law and family law. Lerner’s first novel and the first Samuel Roberts thriller, Cocaine Zombies, won a bronze medal in the mystery/cozy/noir category of the 2013 Independent Publisher (IPPY) Awards. The second book in the series is Ruler of Demons. The Fraternity of the Soul Eater is book 3. Book 4, The Wiccan Witch of the Midwest, will be released on Halloween, 2015.