Blog Archives
Unapologetic Ambition
Roots & Wrath centers around five former friends and witches who find themselves bound together by their deceased professor’s will. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
You know, ideas come from everywhere. I had a friend who was fascinated by tontines–a type of will where the last person living gets everything (it’s now illegal because it incentivizes murder). But from there it became a story about ambition, friendship, power, vulnerability, and those bad choices we make while coming of age that cannot be undone. Hopefully, for most of us, those bad choices aren’t as costly as for these young witches.
The novel focuses as much on broken friendships as it does on magic. Why did you want the emotional history between the women to drive the story?
Because this concept started with the concept of a tontine, it was always necessary that this story focus not on an individual but on a group. Then, I needed compelling reasons for them not to trust each other–the incentive of a will simply is not enough to make it believable that five friends, or even five strangers, would move to murder as the solution. There had to be compelling reasons for divide, mistrust, and… well, proactively defensive action, if you will.
Alicia is a wonderfully complicated protagonist—sharp, defensive, funny, and deeply wounded. What did you enjoy most about writing her?
Thank you! Yes, I absolutely loved writing these deeply flawed ladies. Alicia and her friends let me really let loose my darker side with their unapologetic ambition, ego, judgement, and snark. I find the most flawed characters are the ones I love the most in other stories, and I think that deeply flawed women in particular are so important–we need to get women out of these glass cases and let us be fully, problematically human, in stories and in life.
I find a problem in well-written stories, in that I always want there to be another book to keep the story going. Is there a second book planned?
For now, at least, Roots & Wrath is a standalone. I think it has duology potential to see what happens to Beverly when she grows up and goes to Millinocket herself, but I’m not sure where that goes–yet.
Author Links: GoodReads | Amazon
Six young witches hungry to achieve remarkable things…until they performed a clandestine ritual in the dark wood. Only five witches returned. The secret they buried beneath a hungry great oak split them apart forever.
Now there are five.
Eighteen years later, the death of their legendary mentor forces them back together. In her will, the professor binds them to carry on her work until their magical bond is shattered for good…by death.
Soon, there will be four.
The remaining witches scramble to uncover who is willing to kill to escape their bond. Magical spells and broken alliances—not to mention a relentless ghost of their past deeds—drive them back to the dark wood to unearth their past.
Can any of them survive the specter of the dark wood and finally put the past to rest?
Roots & Wrath is a standalone dark fantasy featuring ruthless, unapologetic female characters in a twisty, suspenseful whirlwind of a plot. Perfect for fans of The Craft, Yellowjackets, Plain Bad Heroines, The Return, and Once and Future Witches.
That Very Human Fear
Viscera Varnish follows a Chicago artist who returns to a grisly private ritual after a humiliating gallery opening confirms his fears that the art world has lost faith in his work. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
The story actually began as a short story concept. Toward the end of last year, I saw a publisher looking for submissions in the vein of The Twilight Zone or Tales from the Crypt—stories where a character’s flaws ultimately lead to their downfall or where there’s a dark moral at the end. I outlined six different ideas with that theme in mind, intending to submit one to the anthology.
Ironically, Viscera Varnish was the one I almost threw away. Of the six concepts, it was probably my least favorite. Before scrapping it completely, I decided to revisit it one last time and realized the biggest problem was the main character. My original version of Daniel was far too cartoonish to be compelling.
Once I reimagined him as an artist desperately searching for inspiration, the story finally clicked. That idea came from a very real place. At the time, I was wrestling with my own creative process, trying to come up with ideas for future books and wondering where inspiration actually comes from. Daniel became an exaggerated reflection of that struggle. Thankfully, I don’t resort to the horrifying methods he does, but I took that very human fear of running out of ideas and pushed it to its darkest possible conclusion.
Daniel Virek is both repulsive and strangely compelling. How did you approach writing a protagonist whose inner logic remains believable despite his monstrous actions?
At his core, Daniel’s motivation is actually very relatable. He’s searching for inspiration, and I think anyone who works in a creative field—whether it’s writing, painting, filmmaking, or music—knows that feeling of desperately wanting to create something meaningful and wondering where the next great idea will come from. That part of him is rooted in my own experiences as a writer.
Where Daniel becomes frightening is in how far he’s willing to go. I enjoy exploring what happens when an ordinary human desire collides with someone who’s willing to cross a moral line that most people never would. That contrast is what makes him compelling to me. Readers may understand his frustration without ever condoning his choices.
My hope was that readers would find themselves following his logic for a while, even as they become increasingly uncomfortable with where it’s leading. Eventually there’s a point where you can no longer go along with him, but by then you’re invested enough to see how it all ends. I also wanted his ultimate fate to feel earned—a conclusion that reinforces the consequences of the choices he makes throughout the story.
The novella gradually shifts from psychological horror into something more supernatural and metaphysical. Did you always intend to widen the story in that direction?
Yes, absolutely. I always intended the story to expand in that direction. Most of my creative influences come from film, television, and books that embrace the paranormal, the supernatural, and the cosmic. I’ve often described my work as what might happen if David Lynch and H.P. Lovecraft were somehow merged together, and that’s still probably the simplest way to explain my approach.
What I enjoy most is starting with something ordinary and grounded. I like stories that feel believable, even mundane, before gradually allowing the impossible to seep into them. I think the supernatural is far more effective when it intrudes on everyday life rather than existing in a world that’s already fantastical.
To me, that contrast is what makes the strange feel believable. If the world around the characters feels authentic, then when reality begins to fracture, it invites readers to wonder if the impossible might be lurking just beneath the surface of their own lives. That’s the feeling I always hope to create—the sense that maybe there really are monsters under the bed after all.
What is the next book you are working on, and when will it be available?
I’m currently working on my next novel, The Day the Sky Died, a work of cosmic horror wrapped in an archaeological mystery. If I had to describe it in one sentence, I’d say it’s what you might get if H.P. Lovecraft wrote and directed an episode of The X-Files.
The story follows an archaeologist who uncovers evidence tied to a decades-old mystery, only to discover that some things buried beneath the earth were never meant to be unearthed. Like much of my work, it starts from a grounded premise before gradually descending into something far stranger and more unsettling.
I’m aiming to release it either late this summer or very early fall in time for Halloween season, though I haven’t announced a firm release date just yet. I’m working with the great Matthew Wildasin for the cover art. He did a great job on Viscera Varnish and I know what he comes up with for this one will be good too.
After that’s finalized, I’m all in on writing a sequel to my first book Reflections in the Dark.
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Now he’s fading—creatively, spiritually… and dangerously.
As critics turn cold and inspiration dries up, Daniel becomes obsessed with reclaiming the raw, visceral power that once made his work undeniable. His search leads him away from galleries and into the city’s forgotten spaces—where desperation, suffering, and whispered promises begin to take shape.
What starts as a desperate pursuit of artistic truth becomes something far more unsettling.
Something that doesn’t just demand creation…
but transformation.
Viscera Varnish is a psychological horror novella about art, identity, and the cost of creation—where genius rots, obsession festers, and the line between artist and medium begins to dissolve.
The Devil Inside
The Devil Inside by Barb Jones is a supernatural horror thriller that drags H.H. Holmes out of the historical record and turns him into something more insidious than a murderer: a story that refuses to die. The novel begins in the Murder Castle of 1891, with Julia and Pearl caught in Holmes’s brutality, then shifts to Julie and her father, Frank, as they are pulled into a modern haunting shaped by ledgers, cabins, static, mirrors, and pages that seem to breathe. What starts as a ghost story becomes a battle over authorship, memory, and whether evil survives because it is remembered too well.
What struck me most was the book’s unnerving sense of atmosphere. Jones does not rely only on sudden shocks; she lets dread seep in through small disturbances, the wrong smell in the air, a vibration in the walls, handwriting where no hand should be. The recurring imagery of ink, gold script, fire, ash, and breathing architecture gives the novel a feverish cohesion. I liked how the horror felt both physical and textual, as though the characters were not merely trapped in haunted places but inside a manuscript that kept revising them.
I also appreciated the emotional spine between Julie and Frank. Their relationship keeps the novel from becoming only a parade of eerie set pieces. Frank’s need to protect his daughter, and Julie’s gradual recognition of her own strange power, give the story a human pulse beneath all the supernatural machinery. The book’s repetition of “he’s not gone” and its escalating cycle of drafts, ledgers, revisions, and returns can feel intentionally labyrinthine. Still, that relentlessness fits the central idea: Holmes is not just haunting them; he is trying to syndicate himself through attention.
Readers who enjoy supernatural horror, occult thrillers, haunted house fiction, and dark paranormal suspense will be the strongest audience for The Devil Inside. Fans of Stephen King’s Doctor Sleep or the more metafictional terror of Paul Tremblay may recognize a similar fascination with trauma, memory, and the terrible appetite of stories. This is a novel for readers who like their horror smoky, ink-stained, and a little unquiet after the final page. The Devil Inside is a chilling reminder that some monsters do not return from the grave, they return from the margins.
Pages: 214 | ASIN: B0GFQ2YH9R
Frostbend
K.M. Bennett’s Frostbend is a haunted house novel with its feet planted firmly in family trauma, small-town memory, and the messy bond between sisters. Isla Desmond returns to Frostbend after the death of Lionel, the man who terrorized her childhood, and what should be a grim but practical trip becomes something much stranger. The old Desmond mansion isn’t just a setting here. It feels active, hungry, and deeply tied to everything Isla has tried to leave behind.
The book works best when it lets the house speak through sensory details. The mansion is full of rot, dust, old polish, ruined rooms, and memories that don’t stay politely in the past. One of the strongest lines captures that mix of tenderness and horror: “It was the prosaic smell of their mother’s sweetness covering their father’s sins.” That’s really the heart of the novel. Every room holds two stories at once: the life Isla and Willa once had and the violence that warped it.
Isla is a compelling lead because she’s sharp, guarded, and often difficult in a very believable way. She’s not written as someone who has neatly processed what happened to her. She’s someone who has built a life out of control, distance, and sarcasm, then gets dragged back to the one place where none of those defenses work. Willa gives the story much of its warmth. Their relationship is prickly, funny, painful, and gradually healing, with moments like “But you’re my crazy bitch” showing how Bennett lets affection come through in imperfect, authentic language.
There’s plenty of supernatural horror in Frostbend, especially as the mansion, Lionel’s presence, and Isla’s strange ability become more intense. Still, the emotional story is just as important as the ghost story. The book is about what abuse leaves behind, how secrets calcify inside families, and how survival can look cold from the outside. Bennett also gives Frostbend itself a strong identity, from diners and funeral food to local history and buried art, so the town feels like more than a backdrop.
Frostbend is a dark, heartfelt gothic horror novel about confronting the place that made you and deciding what parts of yourself you still want to keep. It has creepy imagery, a bruised but stubborn heroine, and a sister relationship that gives the story its pulse. Readers who enjoy haunted houses with emotional weight, family secrets, and a strong thread of supernatural revenge will find a lot to settle into here.
Pages: 251 | ASIN : B0H1QM8V36
Viscera Varnish: A Novella
Viscera Varnish, by Jason Garman, is a horror novella about Daniel Virek, a celebrated Chicago artist whose talent has begun to curdle into repetition, panic, and desperation. After a humiliating gallery opening confirms that the art world is losing faith in him, Daniel returns to the grisly private ritual that once made his work feel alive: murder as medium, the body as pigment, suffering as process. What begins as a portrait of artistic decay soon slips into stranger territory, where guilt, ambition, and something occultly bureaucratic gather around him like wet paint refusing to dry.
I liked how confidently the novella marries the grotesque with the mundane. Garman does not treat Daniel like a mythic monster at first; he lets him move through apartments, galleries, fast food bags, traffic, bad parking, and petty professional humiliations. That ordinariness makes the horror feel less theatrical and more contaminating. The violence is extreme, but the more unsettling element is Daniel’s almost clerical calm. He has turned atrocity into workflow, and the book keeps asking whether the world around him is horrified by that or merely waiting to see if the result sells.
What I appreciated most was the way the book skewers the appetite of the art scene without flattening it into parody. The gallery patrons, managers, and critics are ridiculous, but they are not harmless; their hunger for genius gives Daniel’s monstrosity a market. The prose has a slick, nasty elegance when it wants to, especially in the descriptions of canvases that seem less painted than coagulated. I also liked the late turn toward the uncanny, where the story stops being only about a killer artist and becomes something more metaphysical: a grim little fable about inspiration, extraction, and the cost of being “special.”
Readers drawn to horror novellas, psychological horror, body horror, supernatural horror, occult and dark art thrillers will find plenty to admire here, especially if they like their nightmares intimate, bloody, and morally rancid. Fans of Clive Barker’s The Hellbound Heart may recognize a similar fascination with the border between ecstasy, creation, and mutilation, though Garman’s voice is grimier, more contemporary, and sharpened by satire of artistic prestige. Viscera Varnish is a savage little gallery of ambition and appetite, where the masterpiece is never as frightening as the price paid to make it.
Pages: 131 | ASIN : B0H1DSB67X
Roots & Wrath
Roots & Wrath, by E. J. Wenstrom, is a dark fantasy thriller about five former friends, witches who once formed a powerful pentam at an elite magical school, being dragged back together after the death of their old professor. What begins as an uncomfortable memorial turns into something much darker when Alicia, Everyn, Isa, Rachel, and Sybil learn that Professor Berriman’s will has bound them to her unfinished work through an old blood oath. From there, the novel becomes a sharp, witchy story about power, guilt, ambition, betrayal, and the awful weight of the past refusing to stay buried.
I liked how prickly the book allows its characters to be. Alicia, especially, is not softened for the reader. She is angry, defensive, vain, wounded, and often funny in a cutting way. I found that refreshing. The story doesn’t pretend that old friendships, especially ones forged under pressure and broken by trauma, can be fixed with one heartfelt conversation. These women hurt each other. They also know each other in ways no one else can. That tension gives the book its pulse. The magic is fun and dangerous, but the emotional history is what kept pulling me in.
Wenstrom’s choices give the novel a nice bite. The alternating “now” and “then” structure works well because it lets the dread build in layers. We see the adult witches circling each other like knives, then we go back and watch how they became that way. I also appreciated that the school setting isn’t just nostalgic window dressing. Millinocket feels enchanted, with its rituals, codes, and old power, but it also feels like a place where ambition can curdle. The book is candid about how institutions can reward brilliance while ignoring harm. That idea sits under the plot like a root system.
I would recommend Roots & Wrath to readers who enjoy dark fantasy, witch fiction, and supernatural thrillers with messy adult friendships at the center. It will especially appeal to readers who like stories about magical schools after the shine has worn off, when the graduates are older, angrier, and still paying for what happened there. This isn’t cozy witchcraft. It’s sharp, moody, and full of grudges. And for the right reader, that is exactly the fun of it.
Pages: 397 | ASIN : B0GSGPD2PD
A Modern Theme
Zara’s Gothic follows a paramedic who, after a life-altering road accident, retreats to a secluded property where she lives in a handmade van beneath the shadow of an abandoned Victorian house. Where did the inspiration for this novel come from?
I have always wanted to write a gothic novel, being most inspired by Daphne DuMaurier’s Rebecca and The Beckoning Fair One by Oliver Onions. I was taken by the sight of an old, crumbling house, now in its last stages of collapse. It spoke to me. Maybe the story is a way to preserve the house’s memory.
What drew you to combining paramedic trauma with Gothic haunting?
Although I love the standard repertoire, I wanted a modern theme people could relate to. And, something different, something unique.
Zara’s inner world feels intensely sensory and unstable—how did you approach writing her perception?
It is said that there is a normal. I believe there are other ways of perception. Zara’s on the outside because she’s not like ‘normal’ people. The book is dedicated to Professor Elaine Aron, whose pioneering work on HSP, highly sensitive people, tells us that there is nothing wrong with ultra-sensitivity. It exists in humans and animals; it is not a mental disorder. No more of this “you’re just over-sensitive” rubbish.
If a reader remembers only one image from the novel, what should it be?
Oh, there are many. Without spoilers, it’s when Zara is hit with the reality that the immutable laws of physics no longer apply. Imagine how abjectly terrifying that would be!
Author Links: GoodReads | Website | X (Twitter) | Facebook | Amazon
Guilt ridden accident survivor Zara Wilander thinks she is taking on the renovation of a crumbling mansion. But instead, the house takes her on—Zara is progressively haunted. Or, is she simply losing her mind?
Flamboyant estate agent Jenner Reid believes this to be the case and encourages her to continue. But Reid has history with this house. When Zara learns his dark secret, and those of the old house, it may be much too late.
Mounting horror and astonishing word craft result in a masterpiece of the macabre, with all the elements of the classic romantic Gothic style. It is, however, refreshingly different. In the best traditions of The Beckoning Fair One and Rebecca, Zara’s Gothic will thrill your mind and chill your blood.
If you dare…
Literary Titan Silver Book Award
Celebrating the brilliance of outstanding authors who have captivated us with their skillful prose, engaging narratives, and compelling real and imagined characters. We recognize books that stand out for their innovative storytelling and insightful exploration of truth and fiction. Join us in honoring the dedication and skill of these remarkable authors as we celebrate the diverse and rich worlds they’ve brought to life, whether through the realm of imagination or the lens of reality.
Award Recipients
Blame the Devil by Joe Colicchio
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
