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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 New York Times bestselling author Karen Harper, whose latest novel is Forbidden Ground, part of the Cold Creek series. Here is the publisher’s description:

Let the dead stay dead…

Despite a traumatic childhood in Cold Creek, Ohio, the Lockwood sisters have reunited there for the wedding of youngest sister Tess to the town’s sheriff. Maid of honor Kate Lockwood is determined to break through best man Grant Mason’s defences. An anthropologist, Kate makes her living studying the dead. She is particularly interested in the prehistoric Adena civilization that once called the area home. A large burial mound sits on Mason family land, and Kate wants permission to excavate. But Grant refuses and tells Kate to stay away from the mound.

Kate respects Grant’s desire to honor his grandfather’s belief that the dead should not be disturbed. However, the more she researches the more it becomes clear that Grant is hiding something. When one of Grant’s friends is killed — and the sheriff is away on his honeymoon — the couple joins forces to assist the deputy in the investigation.

When Kate comes under attack she is certain it is connected to the burial mound. Grant seems concerned for Kate’s safety, but despite their explosive attraction she can’t help but be suspicious of his motives. Can Kate trust the man she’s come to love, or will the wrong decision be her final act?

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Karen Karper:

As a child I was terrified by those old “mummy” movies or any about the dead stalking the living. Even today, I can’t stand to look at zombie movies. But the Egyptian cult of the dead with its elaborate tombs with sacrificed slaves and gifts meant for the afterlife still fascinates me.

So I was totally intrigued when I learned that there was an ancient society which left burial mounds with preserved bodies and artifacts throughout Ohio, where I grew up, live and write. This prehistoric Adena culture was perfect for my suspense novel, Forbidden Ground. But as I researched and wrote, I had to fight to keep myself from being, as we say in the heart of Ohio, “creeped out.”

Kate Lockwood, my heroine, is an archeologist who is desperate to lead a dig in what she believes is a major, untouched Adena tomb. But it’s on private property, and she can’t convince Grant Mason, the owner — her love interest too — to permit this. “Let the dead stay dead,” he tells her, his family motto started by his grandfather and father who once protected the tomb. But is he really hiding something else in there? As Kate works to sway Grant to her obsession, she starts to either imagine or experience visits from the dead interred in the tomb.

The Adena people are quite mysterious in their origin as well as in their mortuary practices. Early Ohio pioneers and some archeologists excavated Adena tombs and found corpses of their elite laid out on beds, surrounded by sacrificed slaves and relics. The most famous of the artifacts is called The Adena Pipe and has been recently named the state’s official artifact.

Named for a site where many remains were found, the prehistoric Adena left their burial mounds from the East Coast of the U.S. to the Mississippi River, where they flourished, then mysteriously disappeared. Remember that old 1970s book and movie Chariots of the Gods, which claimed brilliant ancient cultures could be the result of alien visitations? I’m not claiming that, but what a thought — maybe for another book, another time.

But the scariest part inForbidden Ground comes when Kate enters the tomb, and not of her own volition. Not only is there the danger of a cave-in, but the sights and smells in the tomb, and its possible still-living presences, hit her hard. It is the culmination of her dreams, but may also be the culmination of her life.

I felt I was trapped there with her and hope my readers do too.

Karen Harper: Website

Forbidden Ground: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Powell’s / IndieBound

Karen Harper is the New York Times bestselling author of contemporary suspense and the historical thriller, Mistress of Mourning. Forbidden Ground is the middle book in her edge of Appalachia trilogy, The Cold Creek Novels. Winner of the Mary Higgins Clark Award, Harper divides her time between Ohio and Florida. She is dying to excavate the two Adena mound tombs in Highbanks Park near her home, but, alas, she’s only a former Ohio State University instructor of English, not archeology.

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.)

It’s very nearly Halloween (hooray!) and today’s offering on The Scariest Part is a debut horror novel that fits the season well. My guest is author Maria Alexander, and the novel in question is Mr. Wicker. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Alicia Baum is missing a deadly childhood memory. Located beyond life, The Library of Lost Childhood Memories holds the answer. The Librarian is Mr. Wicker — a seductive yet sinister creature with an unthinkable past and an agenda just as lethal. After committing suicide, Alicia finds herself before the Librarian, who informs her that her lost memory is not only the reason she took her life, but the cause of every bad thing that has happened to her.

Alicia spurns Mr. Wicker and attempts to enter the hereafter without the Book that would make her spirit whole. But instead of the oblivion she craves, she finds herself in a psychiatric hold at Bayford Hospital, where the staff is more pernicious than its patients.

Child psychiatrist Dr. James Farron is researching an unusual phenomenon: traumatized children whisper to a mysterious figure in their sleep. When they awaken, they forget both the traumatic event and the character that kept them company in their dreams — someone they call “Mr. Wicker.”

During an emergency room shift, Dr. Farron hears an unconscious Alicia talking to Mr. Wicker — the first time he’s heard of an adult speaking to the presence. Drawn to the mystery, and then to each other, they team up to find the memory before it annihilates Alicia for good. To do so they must struggle not only against Mr. Wicker’s passions, but also a powerful attraction that threatens to derail her search, ruin Dr. Farron’s career, and inflame the Librarian’s fury.

After all, Mr. Wicker wants Alicia to himself, and will destroy anyone to get what he wants. Even Alicia herself.

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Maria Alexander:

Since the inception of Mr. Wicker 17 years ago, I’ve faced many grim encounters both in and out of the story. But the scariest part was that I might not have lived to write the book at all.

You see, before I had the astonishing experience that ultimately inspired the book, I’d fallen into a deep despair. My health, occupation, relationships and finances — all were devastated. As a result, I was in the grip of a depression so profound that I could not see beyond the next day. Much like the protagonist Alicia Baum in Chapter 1, I felt only the cold, empty embrace of The Void. I understood Salieri’s rage in the film Amadeus. I had done everything right, I thought, yet God was against me. Unlike Salieri, I had no recourse against God, no symbolic enemy to thwart. So, I turned against myself. My computer had died. The only backups I had of my stories and scripts were printouts I kept on a shelf in my bedroom. In my wounded logic, the only way to spite God would be to burn my writing. Destroying such a precious part of me would be the symbolic precursor to the next — and absolutely final — act.

Some Hamlet scholars argue that the Prince of Denmark doesn’t commit suicide prior to the “To be or not to be?” soliloquy because he doesn’t have enough energy. That was certainly true in my case. I was too drained to do anything, really. But more importantly, no matter how much life upturns my emotional soil, some part of me remains firmly rooted in sanity. I’m lucky. I’ve experienced situational depression, but never chronic clinical depression, which might have made me more vulnerable to the charms of self-destruction. If I had, you might not be reading these words. Many of my short stories, my poetry, and especially Mr. Wicker might not have ever existed. We never know the impact of our writing. This may or may not have been a great loss to some. I don’t know. But I do know that my death would have affected many people. I thank the Loa every day that those thoughts never animated my actions.

This isn’t some sort of Halloween-time version of It’s a Wonderful Life. Rather, this is a stark testimony to the terrifying power of depression. Ever the trickster, depression hoodwinks us about the nature of reality. It suspends us in grief, convincing us that we are already dead, that the sun will never rise again. And, in a perverse way, it empowers us, telling us that we can change a hopeless situation by rooting out the “true” problem: life itself.

A bald-faced lie, to be sure. But a mind trapped like an insect in the cloudy amber of biochemical dysfunction can’t see the deception.

As depression eclipsed me, I “met” Mr. Wicker in a life-changing experience. Unlike Alicia, I didn’t have to die or hurt myself in any way to find him. I reveal the extraordinary true story through a brief series of puzzles, starting with the first puzzle that appears at the end of my book trailer. (Did I mention I’m also a game designer?) A couple of people have so far solved it: the first was online community guru and legendary Monkey Island game designer Randy Farmer, followed by the renowned actress and YouTube sensation Whitney Avalon. If you solve it, feel free to claim bragging rights by posting the solutions. I’m working on some kind of reward for the next person who contacts me with the answers.

Released last month, the novel is generating a good bit of critical acclaim. But even if it had never been published, meeting Mr. Wicker proved this: It doesn’t matter what we lose or what we are “less.” Whether we are friendless, jobless, hopeless, or even handless, it is in our lessness that we are so much more. We have so much more because, when we stand in the darkness like Alicia, embraced by The Void, our humor, imagination and spirit can finally grow.

Be well. Be safe. And, most of all, remember that, if you reach out for help, you can shatter the amber.

Maria Alexander: Website / Facebook / Goodreads / Amazon / Twitter / Pinterest

Mr. Wicker: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Raw Dog Screaming Press

Maria Alexander is a produced screenwriter, published games writer, virtual world designer, award-winning copywriter, interactive theatre designer, fiction writer, and poet. Her short stories have appeared in acclaimed publications alongside living legends such as David Morrell and Heather Graham. Her debut novel, Mr. Wicker, was released by Raw Dog Screaming Press in September 2014. Publishers Weekly calls it “…(a) splendid, bittersweet ode to the ghosts of childhood.” Naming it Debut of the Month, Library Journal gave it a Starred Review and called it “a horror novel to anticipate.” When not wielding a katana at her Shinkendo dojo, Maria is being outrageously spooky or writing Doctor Who filk. She lives in Los Angeles with two ungrateful cats and a purse called Trog.

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 Erik Williams, whose latest novel is Demon. Here’s the publisher’s description:

Mike Caldwell is a CIA assassin who thinks he’s finally got a real case to work on. At a remote construction site in Iraq, something deadly and dangerous has been unearthed, and Mike believes he’s dealing with a powerful pathogen that turns the infected into primal killing machines. The truth, however, is far worse.

The ancient prison of the fallen angel Semyaza has been uncovered, and for the first time in thousands of years he is free to roam the earth, possessing the bodies of the humans he hates. And everywhere he goes, Hell is sure to follow.

Now Mike is on Semyaza’s trail, hunting a demon whose mere presence turns every living thing near it into a weapon of mass destruction. Both merchants of death are on a collision course, while the fate of humanity hangs in the balance.

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Erik Williams:

So, I wrote a book called Demon. It’s about a CIA assassin going up against a, well, demon. Or fallen angel. Whatever you prefer. Anyway, it’s not your normal ho-hum horror novel. It’s got action! It’s got drama! It’s got carnage! And yes, quite a few scares. Don’t believe me? I dare you to buy a copy and read it. Go on.

Seriously, what happens on page 150…scariest thing you’ll ever read.

Now I won’t tell you what the scariest part of the book is. That would be spoiling. Nor will I pretend something I wrote scared me. That would be silly. But I can tell you what the scariest part of writing the book was: tapping into the past.

February 2003. I’m in the Navy. I’m on a ship in the Northern Arabian Gulf. The war’s about to start. Shit’s about to get real.

As soon as we sailed into the Gulf, we got issued gas masks and auto-injectors (the stuff you shoot into your body if you’re exposed to chemical weapons). We’re required to carry this stuff on us at all times. Just in case, you know.

But we didn’t know. No one took it seriously. No one actually thought Saddam was going to launch chemical weapons at a ship in the Gulf. Maybe at the Marines in Kuwait but not our-

And then the alarm went off. A chemical alarm went off in Kuwait. Our ship (only a few miles of the coast) went to General Quarters (that’s like Red Alert). We were ordered to MOPP Level 4 (that’s means everything gets worn). And we were told this was not a drill.

Holy shit.

In a span of thirty seconds, I saw grown men start crying. People’s hands shaking so bad they couldn’t get their gas canisters on the masks or their masks pulled over their heads. People freaking the hell out because they couldn’t get a good seal on their masks. People having panic attacks because they instantly became claustrophobic from wearing their masks.

It was insane. And possibly the scariest thing that’s ever happened to me. Because at that moment, it was real and instead of doing things the way we were trained to, instead of maintaining order and discipline, we turned inward and let chaos take over. If this was happening before actual exposure to chemicals or biologics, what the hell was it going to look like if we actually sailed through a cloud of mustard gas or something? Were people going to start fighting over auto-injectors while others choked to death on their own spit? Were we going to go batshit crazy and kill each other in a panic before any chemicals did?

Of course, there was no chemical attack. It was a false alarm. We laughed it off and then didn’t talk about it. The war started a few days after that. I was lucky to do my time and make it home without another scary incident.

But obviously, that moment stuck with me. So much so that when I first got the idea for Demon (imprisoned demon escapes its prison and causes havoc was the initial idea) I zeroed in on that chaos, that complete breakdown of order I witnessed, and gave it to my demon in the book, making him the agent of chaos that brings absolute disorder to anything that comes into contact with him. Just like I saw in 2003, albeit with a lot more death and destruction.

Erik Williams: Website / Twitter

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

Erik Williams is a former Naval Officer and current defense contractor (but he’s not allowed to talk about it). He is also the author of the novel Demon and numerous other small press works and short stories. He currently lives in San Diego with his wife and three very young daughters. When he’s not at his day job, he can usually be found changing diapers or coveting carbohydrates. At some point in his life, he was told by a few people he had potential. Recently, he told himself he’s the bee’s knees. Erik prefers to refer to himself in the third person but feels he’s talked about himself enough and will grant your eyeballs the freedom they deserve.

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.)

I’m very pleased to have six-time Bram Stoker Award-winning author Lisa Morton as my guest. I’ve known Lisa for a long, long time, despite living on opposite ends of the country from each other, and her tireless work in supporting and promoting the horror genre is legendary. She also happens to have a new novel out called Zombie Apocalypse! Washington Deceased. Here is the publisher’s description:

There is nothing to fear, but fear itself . . . and Zombies!

A novel set within the Zombie Apocalypse! mythos created by Stephen Jones for his bestselling trilogy, Washington Deceased is sent during the second half of Zombie Apocalypse! Fightback, when the zombies’ intelligence is increasing and they have formed themselves into a society, and an army. New York and Los Angeles have fallen to the walking dead and there has been no news out of Chicago, but Washington DC is still holding out and the South is still free. Time is running out, though, for the battalions defending Capitol Hill . . .

As the most powerful symbols of American democracy begin to fall, the President and her advisors must be protected at all costs. But what if there are people in her own government who are prepared to do a deal with the living-dead invaders to retain power at any cost?

Meanwhile, “Zombie King” Thomas Moreby is making his own plans to rule the United States as his control increases across the country. Moreby claims to have “foreseen” his victory, but there are emerging factions in his own ranks who are starting to question their role in the war between zombies and humans.

And how does the mysterious New World Pharmaceuticals fit into the New Zombie Order?

And now, let’s hear what the scariest part was for Lisa Morton:

Zombie Apocalypse! Washington Deceased is a big, cross-country sprawl that charts the fall of the United States during a (surprise!) zombie apocalypse. As such, this is not a horror novel of subtle chills and quiet terrors, nor does it venture into SLC (Spring-Loaded Cat for the uninitiated) territory. I wanted it to disturb readers, to occasionally gross them out, but overall to create a sense of terrible doom.

The pivotal sequence in the book is a battle that occurs around the White House. At this point in the book, martial law has given way to a provisional government that’s holed up in a secret underground bunker complex beneath Washington. Zombies have overrun the world, leaving scattered pockets of human resistance. The acting president believes retaking the White House — the architectural symbol of American power — is crucial in unifying these fighters, and it needs to be done while there are still enough human forces left to unify.

The ensuing battle was important not just for setting up plot points that play out in the second half of the book, but also for setting up that sense of dread, that unnerving feeling that you’re right smack in the middle of watching the final, definite failure of your way of life. Two protagonists fly into the scene; only one makes it out alive, and her faith in their efforts is so severely shaken that it changes her.

One of the things I knew early on that could easily derail this sequence was the believability factor. The reader needs to be thinking, “Oh my God,” not, “But that doesn’t make sense,” or (in case the reader has military knowledge or experience), “They wouldn’t have that tank in that situation.” Now, I’m far from an expert in war machinery or strategy, so I started researching this stuff early on, even while I was writing earlier parts of the novel. I spent weeks, maybe months, reading up on skirmishes and battles, military leadership and chain of command, guns, armor, drones and their missile payloads, tanks, RCVs (Route Clearance Vehicles), the layout of Washington (and especially the grounds surrounding the White House), and all the military bases and supply depots within a day’s drive of Washington. I studied reports from the Iraq and Afghanistan conflicts that had been made into bit torrent files by Wikileaks, I read books on politics and government, I went to the websites for all the bases and looked at what they made and stored (did you know you could do that? I didn’t), I watched YouTube videos of guns and tanks and drones in action…and slowly I began to chart out the sequence.

It wasn’t enough to know merely how an RCV would work; it was equally important to my uses to know how these pieces of equipment would fail. In some cases I just plain had to guess, or make something up. You can’t find quite everything online, after all.

Watching America’s high-powered arsenal fall before the zombies was central to this sequence, and to building that all-important dread. Wound around these big set pieces were the smaller actions of the two protagonists who are in the middle of the conflict. I chose one of these two to be the main point-of-view character in the sequence, and so the horror had to be experienced through her eyes. She’s been involved with planning this attack, and now she’s watching it fail, very badly. For all the research into machinery and weapons, it all has to come back to what one person is feeling. Without her, it just becomes a big, spectacular but empty battle. With her, I hope it worked as a large-scale, adrenaline-pumping, realistic exploration of shock and awe.

Lisa Morton: Website / Facebook

Zombie Apocalypse! Washington Deceased: Amazon / Barnes & Noble / Powell’s / IndieBound

Lisa Morton is a screenwriter, author of non-fiction books, award-winning prose writer, and Halloween expert whose work was described by the American Library Association’s Readers’ Advisory Guide to Horror as “consistently dark, unsettling, and frightening.” Her most recent releases include the novella By Insanity of Reason (co-authored with John R. Little) and the novel Zombie Apocalypse! Washington Deceased. She lives in North Hollywood.