Author Spotlight: Benjamin X. Wretlind, Author of A DIFFICULT MIRROR

Benjamin X. Wretlind ran with scissors when he was five. Consequently, he likes llamas, although it's widely known that llamas don't care one way or another. He is the author of Castles: A Fictional Memoir of a Girl with Scissors, Sketches from the Spanish Mustang and Regarding Dead Things on the Side of the Road: Collected Stories.

He lives in Colorado with his wife and kids...but no llamas (yet).

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What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society? 

Reality sucks, and we all know it. Finding escape in speculative fiction is one of those therapy methods we're all offered, but how many actually take part it in? Few. Why? Because therapy sucks. In the end, the reader and the writer need to embrace this method of escape, and in all honesty, it is only speculative fiction (specifically science fiction) which improves the world over time.

Why do you write in this genre?

I embraced speculative fiction as my escape, as my own personal therapy. You can write what's real for only so long before you want to escape it yourself. When I "sketched" my last novel Sketches from the Spanish Mustang, I didn't really want to do anything speculative or paranormal. I wanted it to be "real." In the end, I had to escape my own horrors by getting out of the real world, even if only for a paragraph.

How did you come up with the idea for A Difficult Mirror?

This idea has been with me since I was 17 in a creative writing class. My teacher gave us an assignment about writing something in a setting that was real. When I asked if I could write about Milton's "gulf" between Heaven and Hell, Troy Hutchings (my teacher and mentor) asked: "Do you believe it exists?" I said yes, and 24 years later I finished the novel.

What was your biggest challenge in writing it? 

Experience. When I was younger, I hadn't really lived life that much, so how could my characters? It was necessary for me to live through pain and indignation so my characters could live through--and grow out of--those same experiences.

What are you working on now? 

I'm starting to plot out the second novel in this series. I want to make sure I cover the background of the Jim Jones-like cult in A Difficult Mirror and also set up the following novel. It's going to be a lot of work, but I'm excited to see it through. I've lived with these characters for decades, and now they have a story to tell.

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About A Difficult Mirror

Four-year-old Justine has been lost to the world and with her an ability feared by many. But the balance of power has been shifting for years, and Justine may be able to tip those scales for good...if someone can find her in a pitiless place of sorrow and pain.

When Marie Evans meets a strange man on a deserted road and a body is found mutilated in the desert, a deep resentment teetering on the edge of release is about to explode. Someone, somewhere has drawn a line in the sand, and when Harlan Reese, Marie's ex-lover, enters a forest in central Arizona looking for his daughter, that line will be crossed.

In a world between Heaven and Hell, the past becomes the present as Harlan and Marie find each other once again. Their journey across an unforgiving land to find a way home with Justine by their side will be wrought with both pain and triumph.

Life is, after all, A Difficult Mirror.

"Combining horror, fantasy and mystery with elements of the traditional hero's journey, A Difficult Mirror is a doorway into a world where demons and painful memories from the past hold sway. With a unique and detailed plot, rich characterization and a very real sense of danger, it is sure to appeal to readers of all genres." - Amazon Review

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

You can connect with Benjamin X. Wretlind at his website, Facebook or Twitter.

Author Spotlight: Keith Pyeatt

Today we feature Keith Pyeatt and his novel Dark Knowledge. Keith lived in an isolated log cabin in Vermont for ten years. He entered that decade an engineer and came out of it a novelist. He won't say what happened in those rural woods that turned him, but it's easy to suspect it had something to do with things that go bump in the night. He writes paranormal thrillers.

Keith's published novels include Struck, Dark Knowledge, and Above Haldis Notch. A fourth novel, Daeva, is scheduled to be released in June 2014. All novels contain a strong paranormal element, well-developed characters, and a psychological bent.

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What role do you believe speculative fiction plays in society?

Good speculative fiction--like a good night's sleep--provides an excellent getaway from reality. Just as things tend to look clearer in the morning, escaping into speculative fiction for a few hours gives your mind a rest and can add focus once you return to your life. Think about some of the wild scenarios and images our minds produce when they're set free to dream. I figure our minds must need that kind of release. Speculative fiction provides the same type of escape for the waking hours.

Why do you write in this genre?

I enjoy the extra leeway a paranormal element gives my imagination. I like the unusual threats I can force my characters to face. When I brainstorm ideas for a new novel, I always start with the paranormal element. Will this novel have an alternate world, a demon locked in a character's mind, the afterlife bleeding into character's normal lives, supernatural powers stolen from the spirits...? That's what gets me going until my character's motivations take over.

I read many genres, but I've always particularly enjoyed speculative fiction. I write what I enjoy reading the most.

How did you come up with the idea for Dark Knowledge?

I wanted to unleash my imagination by creating a strange, dangerous, and ever-changing world with no conventional limitations. I also intended to use temptation as a key element. I set the world inside the mind of a mentally challenged man who longed to be able to interact and reason like his friend. The mind-world could then tempt him with what he longed for the most: the means to improve his intelligence.

Almost immediately into writing the first draft, this crafty mind-world that I'd barely created took good and evil and wrapped them tightly together. I loved it. I revamped my plans to focus on this slightly warped version of the old "good vs. evil" theme. I refused to let the two extremes separate. If you took one, you got the other too, a restriction that led to many stressful dilemmas. So even though my original intent was to thread a temptation theme through this novel, it's the "good and bad together" theme that actually runs rampant throughout the story, manifesting itself in various ways. There's even a character, Lydia, who is the personification of that theme.

I had such fun!

What was your biggest challenge in writing it?

Much of the novel takes place in a group home for mentally challenged men and women, and my main character, Wesley, is mentally challenged. I wanted to portray him with compassion but not sugarcoat the guy. He's got a dark heritage, a darker destiny, a traumatic past, an uncertain future, and a mind that doesn't function as well as most. He's a fascinating, tormented man with an amazing inner compass, but it was difficult to write from his point of view and to nail the setting of the group home where he lives.

Among the people I turned to for help were my sister and her friend. They each had over ten years experience working with mentally challenged men and woman as well as with private group homes. Their experience, added to the little bit of direct experience I have, helped me be sensitive and real enough for my needs. I'm very happy with the result.

Oh, and this was the second novel where a character challenged me by refusing to go away. Stuart, a doctor who was meant to deliver bad news and then disappear, became a major character. Turns out I needed him, but adding a major character I hadn't planned on complicated my writing process.

What are you working on now?

I'm writing first draft on a novel with a working title Sirens of Sayhurn. The paranormal element in this one is also an alternate world, but it's quite different from the mind-world in Dark Knowledge. The only way to reach Sayhurn is to follow the call of its sirens, and they only lure people over to fill specific needs. It's a fun novel to write, full of passion, seduction, addiction, lust, greed, and even some romance. It has a very dark side, which, as always, is a nice contrast to the light.

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About Dark Knowledge

With knowledge comes a dark destiny...

A whole new world beckons inside the mind of mentally challenged Wesley Henson, a world that offers him a gift he can’t resist: knowledge. He carries bits of knowledge back to the physical world and returns for more, unaware of the dark instincts that come with them. The knowledge builds Wesley’s intellect and gives him abilities he’s never had before--to reason, to understand, even to heal a sick friend--but the instincts thrust him into an evil contest he can’t yet understand, against opponents who have been trained to compete. And kill.

To survive, Wesley must keep moving forward. He fights for his life in two worlds while piecing together his mind, coming to terms with his heritage, and facing a terrifying destiny he almost escaped. The more he understands, the harder it becomes to tell good from evil. The greater his intellect, the more difficult his choices. What must he sacrifice to save the world from his dark knowledge...his life, or his soul?

"Pyeatt has created an intense tale of horror that is one of the most gripping reads I’ve read this year. From the very first page, you are thrust into a story that has you begging for more...I highly recommend diving into Dark Knowledge if you’re looking for an entertaining read that is as dark as it is brilliant." - Fictitious Musings

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

You can connect with Keith at his website, Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: House and Garden by Deb Victoroff

Elise, a socially awkward professional single woman finally buys a piece of real estate – a house with a garden – which she feels she can shape to her own desires. Her need to control her surroundings, her fatal flaw, will never be directed to a human partner. Instead she turns her energy toward taming nature.

An odd-looking real estate agent has sold her the parcel after the previous owners have abruptly abandoned the house, a bungalow with a creepily over-grown garden. As Elise attempts to weed and groom her property, it seems to fight against her. Bugs bite her, thorns pierce her, gardening tools are ripped from her hands and mysteriously disappear.

She feels the dislike of the townsfolk toward the city people who keep buying up the countryside only to domesticate it to city tastes. Are they behind the creeping dangers that assault her at every turn? Or is there some larger malevolent force in play?

“…The tension and fear crawl right under your skin...along with all the other creepy crawly creatures. Terrific fun and terror.” - Amazon Review

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Please visit Musa Publishing for more information.

Debra Victoroff is a writer with eclectic interests. She has written several short plays that have appeared in regional theatres around the country. In 2009, her play “Letter From A Soldier” took second place in the New Works of Merit Play Competition in NYC, and was performed at the Vancouver, British Columbia Fringe Festival.

Debra also writes a monthly Horoscope parody for the women’s online humor magazine Happy Woman Magazine.

You can connect with Debra via Facebook.

Book Feature: Born of Blood by SB Knight

The Blood Chronicles is a series of three books chronicling the life of one family as they struggle to survive while an unimaginable evil pursues them relentlessly. 

In Born of Blood, the first book of the series, Jesse Banks unknowingly steps in the middle of a battle between good and evil that has raged on for generations. As the danger escalates she begins to put the pieces of her clouded past together.

Jesse discovers the truth about her ancestors and the horror that relentlessly pursued them; a horror that now pursues her. For her to survive she must join the fight. But the immortal monster that stalks her has other, more sinister plans and will stop at nothing to see those plans accomplished. Can Jesse escape a fate worse than death and defeat an age old evil?

"Our author, S.B. Knight has given us one of the most wicked and evil vampires to grace the pages of a novel." - 5-Star Review

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

Since the release of his debut novel, Born of Blood, SB Knight has worked diligently to establish his name in the writing world. Having completed two more novels, it is clear there is no end to the stories in SB Knight’s mind. With even more novels planned there is little doubt SB Knight feels right at home in the Dark Fantasy genre.

You can connect with the author at his website, Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: A Human Element by Donna Galanti

One by one, Laura Armstrong’s friends and adoptive family members are being murdered, and despite her unique healing powers, she can do nothing to stop it. The savage killer haunts her dreams, tormenting her with the promise that she is next. Determined to find the killer, she follows her visions to the site of a crashed meteorite–her hometown. There, she meets Ben Fieldstone, who seeks answers about his parents’ deaths the night the meteorite struck. In a race to stop a mad man, they unravel a frightening secret that binds them together. But the killer’s desire to destroy Laura face-to-face leads to a showdown that puts Laura and Ben’s emotional relationship and Laura’s pure spirit to the test. With the killer closing in, Laura discovers her destiny is linked to his and she has two choices–redeem him or kill him.

“Galanti’s debut is a thrilling ride full of believable characters, a terrifying villain, an epic battle for survival, and a love worth killing for. A page-turner filled with fascinating twists and turns!” - Marie Lamba, author of What I Meant and Drawn

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

For more information, please visit the author's website.

Donna Galanti the author of the paranormal suspense novel A Human Element (Echelon Press). She is a member of International Thriller Writers, SCBWI, and Horror Writers Association. She’s lived from England as a child to Hawaii as a U.S. Navy photographer. If she couldn’t write she would bike, hike, and kayak every day. Donna lives with her family in an old farmhouse in PA with lots of nooks, fireplaces, and stinkbugs but sadly no ghosts. You can connect with her at her website, Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: Kransen House by Sara Brooke

The Kransens live in an expensive, elegant home in the small town of Flening, Florida. Majestic and private, the grounds are surrounded by lush trees and colorful flowers. But there is an ugliness underneath the manicured and perfect facade... Secrets hide within the walls and curses whisper through the air.

Newlyweds Ben and Ana Kransen are moving into the house with their in-laws. They’ve got high hopes and expectations for a better life. But soon after they move in, strange things start to happen. Noises fill the air, dark rooms unlock nightmares of the past, and it becomes clear that some people are not welcome in the Kransen House. Their lives are infiltrated by death, evil, and an unspoken religion. Ana knows something is wrong and her family is in danger. Left with few choices, she must find a way to save the ones she loves or face the consequences of an evil legacy.

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Barnes & Noble

For more information, please visit the author's website. 

Sara Brooke is a horror and suspense novelist living in South Florida. A lifelong avid reader of all things scary, Sara's childhood dream was to write horror books that force readers to sleep with their lights on. Sara's influences and favorite authors include Bentley Little, John Saul, William Blackstone, and Joe McKinney. You can connect with Sara at her website or on Facebook. Also be sure to read our interview with her here.

Book Feature: Sin by Shaun Allan

Sin is an paranormal thriller that follows Sin Mathews, who wants to be just an ordinary guy. Unfortunately, the asylum, the deaths and the ghost of his dead sister mean that being 'ordinary' is something Sin can never be.

People die around him and, though he can't help it, someone else knows and he must go on the run from the man he went to for help... and himself...

Sin has been compared to Dean Koontz, Stephen King and been called 'dark, disturbing and amazing'.

"Masterful characterisation, mental health and insanity played to the bone, and an amazing ensemble cast, this book is good. More than good, it's haunting." - D. Kai Wilson-Viola

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

A creator of many prize-winning short stories and poems, Shaun Allan has written for more years than he would perhaps care to remember. Having once run an online poetry and prose magazine, he has appeared on Sky television to debate, against a major literary agent, the pros and cons of internet publishing as opposed to the more traditional method. Many of his personal experiences and memories are woven into the point of view and sense of humour of Sin, the main character in his best-selling novel of the same name, although he can’t, at this point, teleport.

A writer of multiple genres, including horror, humour and children’s fiction, Shaun goes where the Muse takes him–even if that is kicking and screaming. Shaun lives with his one partner, two daughters, three cats and four fish! Oh, and a dog.

You can connect with Shaun at his website, Sin's blog, Facebook and Twitter. You can also read our interview with him here.

Book Feature: How to Disappear Completely by Annika Howells

In Greenwood, fitting in is a matter of life and death.

Cynical seventeen-year-old Lycia wakes up in the dark, twisted town of Greenwood, unable to remember how she got there. Aside from her mother, who is trapped in a coma-like sleep, Greenwood's only other inhabitants are the hostile and eerily identical students who attend the school.

Lycia befriends the school outcasts; the eccentric Aster and his shy companion, Meg. Together they discover a trapdoor into a bizarre, dream-like underworld called Bassisha. When the violence in Greenwood escalates to deadly new heights, Bassisha seems like their only hope of freedom. But Bassisha has dangers of its own.

As madness sets in and reality crumbles, Lycia, Aster and Meg must find a way to escape from a nightmare of their own creation.

Available at:

Amazon US

Amazon UK

Please visit this link for more information.

Annika Howells began writing at the age of four, when she would scribble across the pages of blank notebooks. Her work improved immeasurably once she actually mastered the alphabet. She began writing her first novel, How to Disappear Completely, when she was 16. She subsequently graduated from school, dropped out of university, fell in love and lost her mind. She lives in Brisbane, Australia.

You can connect with her via her website, Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: Vincent Hobbes Presents: The Endlands (Volume 1)

Do you believe in a place outside human knowledge-a place where myth and legend collide-where the unthinkable is the mundane?

There is a thin veil between reality and make believe. When you take a moment, and push the veil aside, perhaps you will see this place, a place not of the imagination. Everything you see here is real.

Nothing is what it seems-noises are not what you think. Nothing is off limits-no place is safe.

You might find yourself lost in the past or trapped in the future-amidst vampires and werewolves-or in a most peculiar lost and found department.

This is where unimaginable creatures roam wild-where humanity is absent, and dreams turn into nightmares. If you are looking for refuge, this is not the place to stop.

Welcome to the Endlands.

12 authors. 17 short stories.

“There is little more primordially frightening to us than the unknown. "The Endlands" is a collection of short stories aimed to frighten and ponder what we all fear the most, what's behind that corner, what is there to antagonize us and what we simply cannot explain. With plenty to ponder and plenty to make it quite hard to put down, "The Endlands" is an excellent read and very highly recommended.”
- Midwest Book Review

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

For more information, please visit Hobbes End Publishing. You can find The Endlands Facebook page here.

Vincent Hobbes was born in Dallas, Texas in 1975. He has been actively writing most of his life. His love, his roots, is horror. His recent releases primarily consist of horror, though he knows no limit in genre. His 2012-2013 releases range from horror, to dystopian, to science-fiction and fantasy. He's been widely reviewed, his fans having compared him to the likes of such greats as Philip K. Dick and Stephen King.
Mr. Hobbes writes with elegant prose, has unique plot-lines and great character development. His work is mind-boggling, his characters life-like, his ideas fresh in a dull market.

You can connect with Vincent Hobbes via his website or Facebook. Hobbes End Publishing can be found at their website, Facebook or Twitter.

Book Feature: Still Lake by Sara Brooke

It’s always been there, but now something has changed.

Flening has always been a quiet, friendly town. Nestled in the forests of Northwestern Florida, it's home to a small population of familiar faces and the natural beauty of Still Lake.

But now, the town is changing. People are getting sick and some are going crazy. A mysterious illness is sweeping through, destroying families, and threatening to spread farther.

People are changing.

Dr. Craig Lenton is desperately trying to stop the sickness before he and the people he loves become part of the carnage, but time is running out and the calm waters of Still Lake may be hiding something sinister and evil underneath….

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK
Barnes & Noble

Click here for more information.

You can visit Sara Brooke at her website or connect with her via Facebook.

Book Feature: Ash: Return Of The Beast by Gary Val Tenuta

Ash: Return of the Beast is a supernatural crime thriller, a tale of revenge steeped in the occult and inspired by a little known fact about the death of Aleister Crowley (1947), the notorious occultist the British press once called "The Wickedest Man In The World". Crowley's body was cremated but the urn containing his ashes mysteriously disappeared. Its whereabouts has remained a mystery… until now.

A series of curiously interconnected events, beginning with Crowley's death in 1947, leads to the 1990s when a Seattle “death-metal” rocker with the unlikely name of Rodney Duckworth bursts onto the scene. Suddenly, the city's clergymen are mysteriously dropping dead… nine days apart. Is there a connection?

Brian Kane, a street-worn Seattle Police Detective, reluctantly teams up with the enigmatic Rowena Ravenwood, an attractive female FBI agent, to solve the case. But is it really murder? Where's the evidence? What are the strange symbols branded onto the bodies of the victims? And what is the disturbing secret that Detective Kane is holding so close to his chest?

A bloody carnage of unimaginable horror is about to be unleashed upon the world. The survival of the entire human race hangs in the balance and the clues to help solve the case are in desperately short supply. Worse yet, so is the amount of time left to stop the mysterious killer's reign of terror before all Hell breaks loose. And - according to Special Agent Ravenwood - that's not just a figure of speech.

Available at:
Amazon US
Amazon UK

Click here for more information.

Gary Val Tenuta is an author and book cover designer. His illustrations and articles dealing with the UFO phenomenon and other subjects related to the paranormal and esoteric lore have been published in Fate Magazine in the U.S., Beyond Magazine in the U.K., and other periodicals. He resides in a cozy condo in the Pacific Northwest of the U.S. with his big black cat, Bear.

Ash: Return Of The Beast is his second novel, preceded by The Ezekiel Code and his award-winning short story, A Bite Out Of Time, all available at amazon.com.

You can connect with him  by visiting his website and via Facebook or Twitter.