Blog Archives
Remembering the Bad with the Good
Frostbend follows a woman who returns to her hometown after the death of the man who terrorized her childhood, only to find herself drawn into a chilling supernatural mystery. Where did the idea behind this novel come from?
I’ve always been fascinated by old, formerly beautiful buildings and the secrets they hold. I knew for a long time that I wanted to write a haunted house story, but it took me many years to realize that my experience living in the Ozarks was something truly valuable that I could bring into the horror space. After deciding that I wanted to set it in the Ozarks, the idea of two sisters battling it out over the fate of a haunted house came to me next, and then the ideas continued to build until I finally had what today is Frostbend.
The Desmond mansion feels like a character in its own right, with its history, secrets, and unsettling presence. How did you go about creating such a vivid haunted house?
This is a wonderful compliment, as this was exactly the impression I hoped to leave with readers. Building the mansion at Frostbend was a culmination of all the gothic novels I’ve ever read and loved, all the sumptuous gothic horror movies I couldn’t stop watching, and a dash of research. I looked at many photos online of real buildings, picking and choosing elements that I thought most fit my novel and researching architectural terms. I love the feeling of wandering an old place alone, wondering what stories it would tell and making up fictional histories in my head. Frostbend is a natural extension of those interests.
Something else that I find fascinating is the way in which different spaces and buildings affect the psyche. For example, old gothic cathedrals that are impressive to behold. It’s hard not to feel small and a bit intimidated by spaces with such a presence. For Frostbend, I also wanted to feature a larger-than-life space that elicits a strong feeling. But I also felt it was important to include some beauty in the midst of the house’s horrible history, which is where touches like the mother’s stained-glass window come in. There are shafts of light and glimmers of beauty, even in the most horrible places. That feeling is an important thematic thread in Frostbend.
Isla is fiercely independent, sarcastic, and emotionally guarded. What drew you to writing a heroine whose greatest challenge is confronting the past she’s spent years avoiding?
I think most people can relate to the feeling of avoidance. There’s a temptation when you have a difficult past to try to leave it all behind, but the danger there is never processing the trauma in a healthy way. I think we all have things we would rather forget, and there’s a temptation to “demolish it.” Isla is redeemable and relatable for precisely that reason—who hasn’t wanted to leave all the unpleasantness of the past behind?
But the hopeful thing about Isla is that when she returns to her past, she discovers she’s not the same person she used to be. She is more capable. She has more people on her side. The scales have shifted, not because the horrors are less vivid, but because she has more resources and power.
The story asks whether escaping the past is ever truly possible. Was that question one of the driving themes you wanted readers to consider?
I think Isla could have escaped her past. She could have hung up the phone and never gone back to Frostbend, but she chose love for her sister instead. Even if she was kicking and screaming and cussing her way through it, she chose not to fully flee her past because of her love for Willa. And I think that is one of the themes I wanted readers to consider. That perhaps even a dark and terrible past is worth remembering, because you can’t always fully untangle the good memories from the bad ones. There is space in the heart to keep the good while putting the bad in its proper place. One question both sisters grapple with is whether they will allow their pasts to rob them of love, and this is a choice I think we all have to make at some point.
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But when Isla returns home to rural Missouri after building a life in Chicago, the presence she encounters is much more personal and powerful than she or her estranged sister, Willa, could ever imagine.
As Isla and Willa’s relationship evolves from mistrust to a sisterly bond, they delve into their shared history, illuminating the darkest corners of their pasts. What they discover in the mansion is sure to change their lives and the future of Frostbend forever, if they manage to survive it.
Welcome to a town where you can’t escape your past. Welcome to a mansion where the dead are just as sentient as the living. Welcome to Frostbend.
UTTER DARKNESS
Tony Knapp’s Utter Darkness is a Christian supernatural thriller that combines a small-town police investigation, human trafficking, family drama, and an increasingly visible war between good and evil. Ryan Fletcher arrives in Cedar Grove, Tennessee, hoping his move from the FBI to a police chief’s job will give his family a quieter life, but he’s already carrying memories of something inexplicable and frightening from Seattle. When seven-year-old Becky Perkins disappears, the investigation pulls Ryan toward an abandoned farm, a trafficking operation, corrupt local officials, and beings that don’t fit into an ordinary criminal case. What starts with Ryan wondering whether the evil he once witnessed was real eventually becomes a story in which the unseen spiritual world is every bit as consequential as the physical one.
The book works especially well when its supernatural conflict becomes personal. Ryan’s determination to protect Laura and their children gives the story an emotional center, while former police chief Walt O’Brien becomes its most complicated character. Walt’s grief over losing his son, resentment over losing his career, wounded pride, and spiritual bitterness make him vulnerable to exactly the kind of temptation the story wants to explore. His arc gives the book more weight than a straightforward battle with demons would have, because the darkness operates through recognizable human weaknesses before it ever shows its claws. Rebecca is another standout. Her repeated efforts to protect Becky and later Rachel give some of the book’s most frightening scenes a strong human counterweight. By the climax, the story has brought police officers, pastors, parents, children, skeptics, and believers into the same conflict, making the central idea quite clear: courage here means choosing whom and what you’ll trust when fear gives you every reason to surrender.
Readers familiar with Frank Peretti’s This Present Darkness will recognize some of the territory. Both books treat spiritual warfare as a literal struggle in which demonic forces influence ordinary events while angels intervene in ways most people can’t see. Knapp gives that idea the rhythm of a police thriller, though, moving between crime scenes, interrogations, forensic evidence, corrupt officials, missing children, hospital emergencies, and supernatural encounters. The frequent shifts in point of view keep the story moving, and the dialogue has a direct, plainspoken quality that fits Cedar Grove and its law-enforcement characters. Scripture isn’t simply decoration here. It shapes the characters’ decisions and ultimately becomes part of the action itself, especially when Ryan, Jesse, Will, and Roger confront Murgley together and discover that their strength comes through faith, loyalty, prayer, and their willingness to stand beside one another.
What I liked most about Utter Darkness is that its real subject is allegiance. Ryan has to decide whether protecting the people he loves means sacrificing himself to evil or trusting God when he can’t see a way out. Walt has to confront what his anger and pride have cost him, and his final return to faith gives his story a painful but meaningful resolution. Even Roger’s crisis of faith matters because the book allows courage to include fear, doubt, retreat, and the decision to come back anyway. The final chapters provide a satisfying victory without pretending Cedar Grove’s spiritual war has ended. Ryan has his family and friends around him again, Rebecca has found a temporary home with the Fletchers, and Michael’s identity as Ryan’s supernatural protector becomes unmistakable, but Murgley is already gathering forces for another confrontation. That ending fits the book well. Utter Darkness is an energetic, faith-forward thriller about family, redemption, temptation, and the conviction that the darkest forces are real, but so is the light that opposes them.
Pages 299 | ASIN : B0FTTVWCTD
The Worst In His Psyche
The Darkness Within follows a fading author who takes an experimental serum that restores his health and sends his creativity soaring, but also amplifies the violent darkness inside him. What first inspired the idea for The Darkness Within?
Frankly, I wanted to write something from an author’s perspective, but for a considerable length of time I was thinking of something along the lines of “Misery” by Stephen King. It wasn’t until I read “The Strange Case of Dr. Jekyll & Mr. Hyde” that I realized that I wanted to do it along those lines in a modern-day reimagining.
How did you approach making Tanner someone readers could understand even as his actions become increasingly disturbing?
I truly believe that every indie publisher can utterly relate to Tanner’s hopes and fears… as well as his plight. Knowing that, I knew that I had to create a character who might be repulsive. The serum that Tanner ingests simply brings out the worst in his psyche. It serves as a megaphone. He’s a bit narcissistic, bitter, irritated, and angry. His worst qualities get amplified by the serum, and they are given an outlet and license to act through it.
Ambition is one of the novel’s central themes. What interested you about the emotional effects of reviews, rankings, sales, and other measures of creative success, and the point where healthy ambition can become destructive obsession?
Well, we’re all familiar with the effects of sending our books off into the ether riding on all our hopes and fears, and then seeing it fall flat, right? We must be gluttons for punishment because we do it over and over and over again. The drive is there to produce something people will love, that will sell well and resonate, that will climb up the charts, that will help us establish a career for doing this. But that drive can definitely become destructive. We are not our hustle, though we may think we are. We are a valuable human being independent of our hustle, and Tanner has to learn that the hard way.
Did writing a novel about an author’s obsession with success change the way you think about your own relationship with writing and publishing?
Sure, it made me commit to avoiding any and all genome-enhancing serums. 🙂
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A chilling reimagining of Jekyll and Hyde set inside the cutthroat world of self-publishing.
Struggling author Tanner Barrett is desperate for a breakthrough. When a mysterious serum offers a shortcut to the perfect book, he takes it… and something ancient and violent awakens inside him. The monster wears his face. It knows his enemies by name.
Told through deteriorating diary entries that crack and splinter in real time, The Darkness Within follows Tanner’s slow, irreversible unraveling. His career rises. His mind fractures. The line between the writer and the beast disappears.
What would you sacrifice to write the perfect book?
Literary horror at its most intimate and relentless. Tanner Barrett wanted to be remembered. He got his wish; just not the way he imagined. A slow-burn psychological descent that builds dread page by page and leaves an ending that stays with you.
Powerful Internal Struggles
Daywalker: Hybrid Vampire follows the son of a human mother and a dangerous vampire father who has to embrace his supernatural powers in order to save the people he loves. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?
I wrote my novel because, although I have read many books featuring hybrid vampires, few explore the deep and powerful internal struggles faced by dhampirs (hybrid vampires). Specifically, they must fight the urge to drink blood even though they can survive on regular food. This struggle allows them to pass as human, avoiding typical vampiric traits such as ruby-red eyes, elongated incisors, a deathly pallor, or skin that feels cold to the touch. I wanted to create a compelling story about the battle between good and evil, as well as the internal dilemmas many of us encounter when striving to do what is right and just. It’s a narrative that many readers can identify with and appreciate.
Christian spends much of the novel trying to understand where he belongs. Why was that theme important to you?
I aimed to create a character with whom many readers can identify. Christian Jorgensen is an outsider; he is not completely human and is only half vampire. He believes that society would shun him, or even try to destroy him, if his dark secret were revealed. At the same time, he feels rejected by the vampire community, which views him as an abomination and inferior to full vampires, leading him to believe that he has no right to exist. I think most of us, at some point in our lives, have felt rejected or like an outsider. I aimed to make the character relatable so readers could empathize with his struggles and become emotionally engaged with Christian and the story as a whole.
Music plays an important role throughout the novel. Did particular artists, genres, or performances influence the story?
Yes, as you pointed out, music is an integral part of the story. Growing up in the 1960s and 1970s, I was heavily influenced by the great bands of that era, including The Beatles, The Moody Blues, and later in the 1970s, bands such as The Eagles, Manfred Mann, Blue Öyster Cult, 10cc, Kansas, and Boston.
Among the songs that made a lasting impression on me as a teenager, I would have to say that Blue Öyster Cult’s 1970s hit song, “Don’t Fear the Reaper,” has stuck with me the most. Given my love for horror, particularly vampires, it was easy to adapt some of the song’s lyrics to include themes of vampirism, with the band’s hit song in the novel, “Don’t Fear the Vampire.” This adaptation perfectly suited the story of a dhampir rockstar who masquerades as a vampire alongside his bandmates. It is the character’s way of performing on stage without makeup or false fangs; in essence, the band’s vampiric theme lets Christian Jorgensen reveal his true identity to society.
Do you see Christian’s story as complete, or are there more chapters still to be told?
It’s a challenging question to answer. I don’t typically write a story intending to create a sequel or a series. Sometimes, though, that happens years later when I find myself reflecting on my characters. I start to wonder if the ending feels incomplete and whether there are certain questions about my characters that need to be addressed. Depending on how well the book has performed in sales and with readers’ questions, it may prompt me to write a sequel about a certain story.
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Christian’s band, the Vamps, is taking the world by storm. He is living a life he never dreamed possible, soon to perform at Eurovision, and deeply in love with his fellow band member, Kjell.
However, underneath his remarkable talent, Christian harbors a dark secret—he is a Daywalker, a hybrid vampire born of a mortal woman and a bloodthirsty vampire.
Abandoned as a baby and given up for adoption, Christian was eventually raised by a loving couple who allowed him to believe that acceptance, normalcy, and peace were possible, as long as he kept his dark secret hidden.
Everything changes when his father, Wolfgang, reappears in his life, seeking revenge and furious about the public’s growing fascination with vampirism, which has been fueled by the vampiric theme of Christian’s band. Now, more than just Christian’s dreams are at stake—so are the lives of those he loves.
Christian made a vow long ago to eliminate his father in order to stop the spread of vampires and hybrids like himself. But does he possess the strength to endure his father’s wrath? Can he withstand the incredible danger that comes with awakening the vampire killer within him?
Sword and Sorcery
Drop follows a ruthless Fort Worth cop turned supernatural enforcer as he battles sorcerers, monsters, and shifting alliances in a hidden war that threatens to spill into the everyday world. What were some sources that informed this novel’s development?
My imagination. I also talked to several police officers to get information about police procedures. One of my degrees is a Bachelor of Science in Criminal Justice with a minor in police procedures. I live in Fort Worth, which gave me insight into the city, streets, and neighborhoods.
The combat scenes in Drop are described almost move by move; did your interest or experience in martial arts influence how you choreographed Jax’s fights?
I have always been a fan of martial arts and sword and sorcery. I have also taken Kung Fu lessons as a teenager.
Jax’s magical gauntlets allow him to summon different weapons depending on the situation. Where did that idea come from, and how do you decide which weapon he uses in a particular battle?
The idea of using different weapons kind of grew organically in the story. The original idea and his staple weapons are Dai Katana’s or Japanese short swords. A scene came about, and I remember watching the movie Ninja Assassin and loving the weapon scenes. The choice was made.
Drop features several competing factions and characters whose loyalties continually shift. How do you keep track of those alliances while plotting the larger supernatural conflict?
When I bring in a character, I have some idea of what their purpose is. So it is a matter of the character finding their way through the story to their conclusion. There are some characters I do not plan on dying, but it just happens that way. I also tried to play on their motives, like greed and power. At a certain point, a person reaches a plateau in their life and will either be happy there or want to move past their “master” kind of like Sith.
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Gritty, fast-paced, and unapologetically raw, DROP plunges readers deep into the underbelly of urban crime, where loyalty is tested, trust is deadly, and one wrong move can end everything. Perfect for fans of hard-edged police procedurals and modern crime thrillers that don’t flinch from the truth.
A Character’s Voice is Unique
Fangs for Hire follows a resistance fighter who, after being executed during WWII, is resurrected as a vampire and transforms personal tragedy into a lifelong quest for justice. What inspired you to combine wartime history with vampire fiction?
I am a history buff as well as a science buff, and I enjoy reading historical magazines, historical novels, and watching fascinating documentaries about World War II. I was inspired to write this novella by several influencing creative forces, such as the TV series Forever Knight, about a 13th-century vampire who became a 20th-century cop to save as many innocent humans as possible and redeem his past sins when he fed on the innocent and guilty alike. Another inspiration came from reading about the resistance against the Nazis in occupied Belarus, from 1941 to 1944. I thought: why not combine the dark fantasy and realism of real military conflict to tell a story of an ordinary teenage girl who fought for her country and was presented with a unique opportunity to strike at her enemies after her moral death? The result was Fangs for Hire, and I am very proud to be able to see this project from start to finish. Larisa Tokar is a unique character who is a survivor and a vampire with a human heart that is no longer beating.
Larisa balances confidence, compassion, and ruthlessness throughout the book. How did you approach creating her voice?
This is a very good and interesting question. A character’s voice is unique, and since Larisa is the main protagonist of the story, she has a unique voice and actions that define who she is. Born as an average human female with no special powers and no particular or unique talent, she nevertheless is an honest, kind, and compassionate person. The brutal Nazi invasion of her country and her desire to fight back against a brutal oppressor make her a person not only influenced by Soviet propaganda, but also a young woman who learns not only how to survive but also strikes at the enemy from a unique angle. She narrates the story with strong personal feelings based on her life experience. Her execution, death, and resurrection as a vampire alter her perspective about the war and the dark truth that was hidden from her. Born again as a vampire, with inhuman abilities that make her into a unique warrior, Larisa navigates through years in prison, during and after the war. She survives and adapts to her condition, and learns new skills to help those who deserve her love and respect. Larisa Tokar is a unique kind of time traveler.
The Urtama functions more like an international society than a traditional supernatural clan. How did that idea evolve?
Fangs for Hire is a novella that is related to my other vampire novels such as Beyond Sunlight, Eighteen Forever, Innocent Eyes, Heatseeker, and Before the Dawn. All of them feature a secret race of nightwalkers who call themselves Urtama. They are a very ancient species that have been living alongside mankind before the dawn of recorded history, stretching all the way back before the time of the last Great Ice Age. My idea about vampires came from the realization that, as a secret species, they had to remain in the shadows while adapting to the new times, as humanity had evolved from hunters and gatherers to farmers and eventually to city builders. Urtama represents a secret race of immortals who depend on human blood to survive, and therefore human lives are precious to them. And while I liked reading about supernatural clans and traditional vampire fiction, I imagined a different and secret world of vampires with their own rules and traditions and system of punishments for the crimes against humanity and their fellow immortals. No society can exist without rules and regulations, and Urtama has their own.
What is the next book that you are working on, and when will it be available?
I am currently working on a sword and sorcery story, which has evolved from a short story I wrote in my experimental science fiction and fantasy writing group in the year 2012. It will most likely be a novelette-length, but with a rich, dense, and hopefully interesting story about kingdoms, battles, knights, love, ambition, and ancient super weapons. This is a unique project, because I seldom work on fantasy tales involving warriors and magic. I hope to complete and present the next book for review sometime in the early Fall. For me, writing is a labor of love, and I want to make this story a unique tale that is not only about action, adventure and magic, but also a morality tale with values that remain true both in the real and magical realm. The best part is that my work schedule permits me two days per week to work on my novels, and each novel I write, I want to make it interesting and informative for my readers. Please stay tuned. A new book is coming!
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Literary Titan Gold Book Award: Fiction
The Literary Titan Book Award honors books that exhibit exceptional storytelling and creativity. This award celebrates novelists who craft compelling narratives, create memorable characters, and weave stories that captivate readers. The recipients are writers who excel in their ability to blend imagination with literary skill, creating worlds that enchant and narratives that linger long after the final page is turned.
Award Recipients
Restoration by Laura Brooke
Even Angels Wear Leather Jackets and Ride Motorcycles by J.A. McGovern
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
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
Crescent City Requiem by Brian Kaufman
The Suicide Council by Victer Hugo Basurco
Departure from Innocence by WILLIAM WILSON
Steel & Ballast by Markella Kara
Visit the Literary Titan Book Awards page to see award information.
