Welcome To The Dark Side Back to Blog
Third novel in the DEEP IS THE NIGHT trilogy by Denise A. Agnew
Thanks so much to Cynthia for inviting me to spend some spooky time with all of you. 🙂  Like her, I love October and Halloween.
One thing that usually spurs me toward writing stories with a paranormal bent is the fall season. For some reason I seem to be at my best during the fall, when the leaves are crisp, the air is beginning to cool, and the sun goes down earlier and earlier as the days pass.
As a grade school student, I loved to dress up Halloween day and participate in the parade of costumes around the school. (Do they do that anywhere anymore?) Trick or treat was so much fun, and so was consuming all the candy. These days I celebrate Halloween by holing up with dim lighting (usually spooky candles), a heaping bowl of popcorn, and several spooky movies.
So, it stands to reason that I love to write novels of spine tingling romance, sex, and danger. When I wrote my vampire trilogy at Ellora’s Cave DEEP IS THE NIGHT (DARK FIRE, NIGHT WATCH and HAUNTED SOULS), I wanted to scare the beejeebers out of my readers, plus thrill them with steaming hot romance.
Though I’ve never seen a ghost that I know of, I believe hauntings, ghosts and other extraordinary phenomena do exist. I was allowed to read pretty much whatever I wanted from a young age, and I believe I was about eleven when I first read The Exorcist and Audrey Rose. Not to say I didn’t find them absolutely scary, but I also found myself wanting to write stories that gave people that same forbidden, scary thrill. Call me twisted, but the paranormal creeps into many of my stories with great regularity even when I don’t plan it.
I’ve written about ESP (Sins and Secrets is one such novel, as well as Dangerous Intentions and Treacherous Wishes), otherworldly dimensions (Clandestine and Hideaway are but two of my tales that deal with other dimensions), hauntings and ghosts. In my life I’ve had a few bizarre things happen.
Writing something that scares the reader’s pants off is my ultimate thrill. Why? Probably for the same reason any other writer must write what he or she loves. It is difficult for most writers of paranormal romance to pinpoint every facet of why they write romance with a twist. Perhaps it starts with what the writer experienced as a youth.
As a child, I loved to read Poe. My television preferences ran to Alfred Hitchcock, Dark Shadows, The Night Stalker and The Twilight Zone. Strange for a girl scared of so many things. While I appeared timid on the outside, my mind preferred a more adventurous realm. I could have the thrill without getting more than a chill, unlike the poor fools experiencing danger. Within the sphere of the paranormal is a belief that it can’t touch you if you caress it first. If you create the monster, you can control and kill the monster. If someone else writes the beast, then you’re in trouble.
Once I reached my teens, Gothic novels held my attention. From that point forward, I loved the combination of love and mystery and sometimes horror that these tales offered. Hence, my current enjoyment of Dean Koontz, Stephen King and Anne Rice.
These days I write stories that skirt the edge of gritty, nasty horror and the terrors of everyday life. I want my readers to fall in love and still be scared witless. I want pseudo reality to slither into the reader’s living room and bite them on the behind. As my audience, the reader should be gripped with a creeping sense of apprehension that gathers force until the frightful ending.
In my writing, I combat monsters. Monsters that have a form, no form, a name or no name. Most prominently they are ghosts or spirits, or an indefinable something that lurks just at the edge of the protagonist’s conscience…waiting to erupt onto the cinematic screen of my page. An awareness of danger, hiding or dormant but not dead, is enough to give anyone nightmares. If I can take that horror and attach it to the excitement, confusion, and heated sexuality of romance, then I have a story with beef. In my DEEP IS THE NIGHT vampire trilogy (Ellora’s Cave www.ellorascave.com), I made sure that vampires weren’t the only thing lurking in the night to scare the characters. I wanted a sense of dread, a fine edge of uncertainty in my fictional Colorado mountain town of Pine Forest.
In a pure horror tale, I might let the protagonist be eaten by the monster. In paranormal romance, I want the hero and heroine to battle the monsters and still come out the victors. As a bonus, they find love with each other. Ahem…the hero and heroine…not the monsters. Love that can span the centuries, defy the space time continuum, or even the final shadow of death is love going the extra mile. Think about it. A romance story without barriers isn’t very exciting. Throw in some major conflict and the hero and heroine have to resolve their problems to come together at the end. Toss in something otherworldly and they have more to fight and their love will becomes stronger.
By letting myself experience the adrenaline of beating the evil, the ghost, or the monster, I have conquered. I have kicked the dragon’s butt, and I’m taking names. The icing on the cake is the love.
Meltdown, to be released October 12 at Liquid Silver Books.
Therefore, if you enjoy your romance with a paranormal twist, I suggest you stop by and check out my buffet of paranormal romance at www.deniseagnew.com. My next story with a hint of paranormal is MELTDOWN (Liquid Silver Books www.liquidsilverbooks.com October 12), which also features a hot firefighter! I have other stories coming up in 2010 that are sure to make your spine tingle.
Will I continue to write paranormal when it is no longer the toast of the town? The answer is simple: I have to write it. I have no other choice. I have so many spooky stories running around in my head that if I don’t write them I will simply explode. And that’s a whole ‘nother horror story, indeed.
So, because I’m in the mood to hear about haunts, tell me yours! I’m dyin’ to hear a good rip snorting scary or weird experience. I’ll pick the story I think is the scariest and you’ll win a paperback of my choosing from my backlist. I’ll announce the winner at the end of the day.
Uh…maybe you’d better sleep tonight with the light on, eh?
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Hi Cynthia & Denise 🙂
Thank you for a wonderful post Denise.
I loved learning more about you.
My story is:
My sister & I were travelling in Grand Rapids, Michigan when we were struck from behind by a stolen car travelling at over 120 miles/hr. The seats were twisted, the seatbelts snapped off, things flew to the ceiling & windshield as we 360d a couple of times to end up in the ditch. Remarkably we both only had sore necks (which still bothers me) even though the car was totalled. What was eerie was we both said simultaneously “Thank you, Grampa”. Now, he had died a few years prior to this, and we both looked at each other in amazement & shock. I believe to this day that his spirit protected us that day.
🙂
All the best,
RKCharron
xoxo
Hi RK! Thanks for stopping by. That is a truly amazing story of survival. Glad to hear you were both all right. Grampa must have been looking out for you!
Denise A. Agnew
OK, another experience I had in my house. It is 275 years old and apparently built alongside an Indian burial ground – or so said the previous owner. It is true, at least, that it was built along an old Indian trial, now the main street in front of the property.
Anyway, one night I awoke to hear the kitchen floor creaking like someone was pacing. My bedroom is next door so I heard it quite distinctly. Back and forth and back and forth, I was really starting to freak and pulled the covers up tighter around me. As if that would help if it were a real intruder! 🙂 Anyway, it went on for about five minutes then suddenly stopped. Did I get up to investigate? Ha! I’d rather sweat under the covers and hope whoever/whatever it was would go away soon!
I answered the phone. There was a lot of static and a woman’s voice with a very think VA accent asked to speak to my mom. When my mom picked up the phone the line went dead. It was my grandmother! I knew it was her but I was too shocked to tell my mom before she picked up. This is very common. “Phone Calls from the Dead”.
I went to a cemetary late one night with two friends. We split up and after walking around a bit I decided to rest. With my arm on a headstone I could ‘hear’ a man speaking to me. He told me ‘they’ were glad I stopped by. I just knew there were 2 men buried side by side. When I walked around to the front of the tombstones there was a man and his son buried there.
Susan,
Very scary girl! That would get anyone’s ticker going. Did anything else happen in the house?
Denise A. Agnew
Mel,
Chilling stuff. Even if it was your grandmother wanting to say hello, that’s something that would startle anyone. I think I read a book once about this particular phenomena. As for the graveyard, that’s a walking quickly away from the area thing. LOL.
Denise A. Agnew
Hi!!
Oh, looks like it’s going to be another day of interesting posts!!
Unfortunately, I don’t really have a scarey story, so good luck to everyone!!!!
Valerie
in Germany
When I was younger (much younger) we had this “parking” place out in the county. It was part of an old deserted farm, and one July 4 we went out there to party and shoot off fireworks. My best friend and I got into a conversation with this young couple who had come over to us, and later our dates asked us what we were doing. When she told them we were talking to the couple, both guys told us that there was nobody there but the four of us. We later found out that over the winter a young couple had parked there and were sitting there with the car running and got overcome by carbon monoxide, and died right there where she and I were standing. We never went to that place again.
My youngest daughter went to a special invitation visit with a psychic. You were supposed to write something down and the psychic would tell you something about it. Well, my aunt had just died a few months before and we felt like she was sending us signs after her passing. She told my daughter how my aunt had always hated her name (Ethyl and she had told us this herself how she hated it)and that she was around us and when she was near we would smell baking, like cookies and that we would find ladybugs. Well the funny thing was, we had smelled the baking cookies and it seemed like everywhere we turned around we would have a ladybug land on us or see one, even on her grave when we visited. I thought this was kind of eery.
Denise, there are schools that still do the costume parade on Halloween or the closest school day to it. All six of my nieces and nephews go to the elementary school where my siblings and I went and there will be a parade there on Friday, October 30th.
As for a scary story, I think the spookiest one I’ve heard but not been a part of is something that happened to my cousin a few years ago. She was living in Fredericksburg and had gone to a tea room with her mother that is supposedly haunted. The stories are about Civil War era ghosts haunting the house where the tea room is and causing problems with the customers. While my cousin was having her tea, she felt like someone was touching her back but nobody was there. But when she got home later that day, she had scratch marks down both sides of her back.
Valerie,
Glad you could stop by anyway! 🙂
Denise A. Agnew
I’ve always been a bit “sensitive,” but it “came home” to me on one vacation when we visited the Alamo. We were touring the inner area when I suddenly felt surrounded by many sounds and voices. Nothing was really clear, just very dizzying and I felt as if I were losing consciousness. My husband noticed that I was in some distress and put his arm about my shoulders. When he touched me, everything began clearing up and I was
less confused. We left the building and in a few minutes
I was much better. We have never visited there since
that day!
Nancy,
Holy cow! Now that is scary. Did you describe to everyone what they looked like?
Denise A. Agnew
Karin,
I’ve heard of the scratch mark thing before showing up without the person feeling scratches happening. Scary stuff! I love Halloween parades. I was in my element as a little kid dressing up. Maybe I should have been an actress? 🙂
Denise A. Agnew
Pat,
So perhaps you were sensing that other time and place. I think that probably happens to more people than we realize. But most people won’t admit it when it happens to them. 🙂
Denise A. Agnew
Linda,
I believe in signs like what you’re describing. A sort of syncronicity thing as well as perhaps signs from a loved one that has passed on.
Denise A. Agnew
I’ll be back a tad later to announce a winner!
Denise A. Agnew
My two sons’ last school, they always had you bring in their costume. At one parents could come up to help their children dress in their costumes, and then the children line out in front of the school for a mini parade. They only march a block or two, letting younger children, the elders, and parents see their kids march in a costume parade. I’m not sure how this school here is.
Hi Denise! I really don’t have any scary stories to tell, but I did want to tell you that I have your Deep Is The Night trilogy and I love it! Thanks for stopping by today, and for the fantastic post.
Scariest experience was when I was visiting relatives…I was staying overnight at their place…I woke up in the middle of the night because I heard someone call my name…It sounded like it coming from the doorway which had been left slightly ajar…so I turned my head towards the opening…and saw a beigy coloured face just staring at me and it was moving its’ lips and I could tell it was pronouncing my name..although I could hear it saying my name in my mind…just a head and nothing else…I was terrified and I kept wanting to scream but my vocal chords were frozen and all I could do was stare at this thing while trying desperately to scream! I finally started yelling and the room was flooded with lights b/c I was sharing the room with an aunt and when I turned back to look at the doorway…there was nothing there…It totally freaks me out everytime I think of the occasion!!!
Happy Reading!!!
Anna Shah Hoque
s7anna@yahoo.ca
Raonaid,
I loved the school parade when I was a kid, and I’m so glad that tradition is still around!
Denise A. Agnew
Why thank you Barb! Thanks for the kind comments on the Deep Is The Night trilogy. I so appreciate it! And thanks for stopping by to comment.
Denise A. Agnew
Anna,
Now that is a frightening experience and not something I’d ever want to go through. Here’s a toast to it not happening again, eh? 🙂
Denise A. Agnew
OKAY DRUM ROLL!!! The winner of the backlist book is NANCY!!! Congratulations Nancy!
And thank you to Cindy for having me here. It was a blast being with you all and hearing your stories. Looking forward to Halloween and I’ll be thinking about all of you. 🙂 Talk to you again soon.
Denise A. Agnew
OOPS. Uh, Nancy, email me at danovelist@cox.net so you can claim your prize. 🙂
Denise A. Agnew