Humour From The Dark Side - an Interview with Stuart R. West

Stuart R. West is the author of Demon with a Comb Over and Dread and Breakfast among others. He has an uncanny knack of combining dark humour with horror – and getting away with it. Quite simply – it works. I’m delighted to welcome him back here today.

Cat: Hi Stuart. Great to see you again. A lot has been happening this past twelve months, hasn’t it? Tell us how it’s been for you.

Stuart: Thanks for putting up with me again, Catherine. Yes indeedy, a lot has been happening. We’ve all been busy scrambling trying to find new homes for our Samhain Publishing orphaned books. Tons of anxiety and ridiculousness and time that I’d rather spend writing. But Demon with A Comb-Over landed at a new home. Dread and Breakfast went to another horror publisher, Grinning Skull Press (very nice to work with and their covers are spectacular). And I’m currently trying to polish a horror short story collection. Oh! Like a warrior, I’ve been battling every dang flu and virus unleashed on mankind.

 Cat: Demon with a Comb-Over has just been reissued by Riverdale Avenue Books in a new edition that combines it with The Book of Kobal. Tell us more about how that came about and what to expect.

Stuart: Demon never had its time in the sun, never given a fair shake. No one knew about the book and I think that extended to its first publisher, Samhain. Not to speak ill of… Oh, the hell with it! Samhain threw the book under the bus without a skidmark of marketing.

Sorry. I know I’m inviting bad karma to the party by speaking ill of the dead. Anyway, RAB rose to the challenge. But I thought there should also be new content upon a rebirth. Hence, my titular demon’s origin tale, The Book of Kobal. In all of its glorious bad taste (spanking Hitler, a slap fight with Jesus, you know…history), it just had to be spewed out. You’re welcome!

Cat: I know you must have been asked this a lot recently, but did you have anyone in mind when you settled on the title Demon with a Comb-Over?

Stuart: Honestly, I didn’t. I wrote the book a couple years ago before the Orange One rose above being a blip on bad reality TV radar.  But now he’s such an ugly, loud, orange blight on the world, it’s hard not to draw post-comparisons. Both Kobal and the Cthulhu-like Orange One want to end the world.  My book’s fiction. But in reality, I have fingers crossed that there won’t be a whole lotta’ nuking going on in the next four years. Keep hope alive!

Cat:  Dread and Breakfast is a great read. I love stories where everything is homey on the outside – but scratch the surface and there lies something scary. You say your home state, Kansas, is scary so I wondered if there was a model there for the Dandy Drop Inn?

Stuart: Not a physical model, Catherine, but I think the tale represents our wondrous, red-state of mind, peculiarity of Kansas. Pretention time! I’ve only scratched the surface, though. As I’ve said before, Kansas is creepy. Our serial killers really take the cake (whatever that means).

Cat: So, what next from Stuart R. West? Any more books coming out this year?

Stuart: The aforementioned short story horror collection, all tales taking place within Kansas. It started as a lark, then I discovered I had a lot to say about the Midwest. Kinda’ driven by political angst and fall-out but I hope I don’t let that get in the way of the entertainment and spooks and chills and laughs.

I’m also considering writing a novel based upon one of these tales. There’s something about a teenage girl, in early ‘60’s farmland Kansas, whose father is a mortician, and happens to dwell in a peculiar town full of supernatural events. 

 Cat: I’ll look forward to reading it. I think 2016 was a great year for horror books. What were your favourite reads of last year?

Stuart: I’m copping out here, Catherine. There wasn’t a bad book I read and yours were among the best. I’m also fond of L.X. Cain’s book, Bloodwalker. Girl can write.

Cat: Thank you, Stuart! It was a pretty good year for horror films too. Any particular ones that stood out for you?

Stuart: Yeah, there were some really good flicks. Lights Out, Don’t Breathe, What We Do in the Shadows (maybe a little old, but still one of the freshest, finest horror comedies ever). Hangman was seriously sinister and creepy and nightmare-inducing. There’re many more I’m forgetting.  Oh! The Nicolas Cage “Left Behind” film was absolutely hilarious. What’s wrong with Nic Cage these days?

Cat: You’re a prolific author and cover many different genres. Is there any genre you wouldn’t tackle – and why?

Stuart: I used to say “romance,” but I’ve changed my mind about that as I have a fun idea, I think. I kinda’ want to say science-fiction (because I don’t want to research science), but I’m never gonna’ say never there either. Possibly porn/erotica. Only because it bores me after the first several paragraphs. Then again, my idea about gay, Christian, werewolf erotica probably needs to be spilt.

Cat: When you sit down to read a horror story, what do you look for in your ideal read?

Stuart: Characters, always characters first.  Scares don’t come if you don’t care about the characters. And even though humor keeps sneaking into my horror books (can’t help it; it entertains my bad boy), I would never sacrifice character or plot to end up in inane farce. So there.

Cat: What is the best piece of advice anyone has ever given you?

Stuart: Always wear clean underwear.

Cat: What advice would you give to your 21 year old self?

Stuart: Value your hair while you have it. And invest in computer stock.

Cat: Thank you for being my guest today, Stuart

Stuart: Thanks for letting me darken your cyber doormat, Cat!

 Demon with a Comb-Over (featuring The Book of Kobal) by Stuart R. West and Riverdale Avenue Press. Available in Kindle format and paperback.

Dread and Breakfast: Kindle and paperback.

Stuart R. West Blog: Twisted Tales from Tornado Alley

Stuart R. West Amazon author page

Stuart R. West Facebook

Stuart R. West Twitter: @StuartRWest

The Devil's Serenade - The Demon is Hungry...

Maddie had forgotten that cursed summer. Now she’s about to remember…

When Maddie Chambers inherits her Aunt Charlotte’s Gothic mansion, old memories stir of the long-forgotten summer she turned sixteen. She has barely moved in before a series of bizarre events drives her to question her sanity.

The strains of her aunt’s favorite song echo through the house, the roots of a faraway willow creep through the cellar, a child who cannot exist skips from room to room, and Maddie discovers Charlotte kept many deadly secrets.

Gradually, the barriers in her mind fall away, and Maddie begins to recall that summer when she looked into the face of evil. Now, the long dead builder of the house has unfinished business and an ancient demon is hungry. Soon it is not only Maddie’s life that is in danger, but her soul itself, as the ghosts of her past shed their cover of darkness.

Reviews

"Catherine’s writing is intelligent and brings an elegance back to horror that has been missing for years. The Devil’s Serenade is a true testament to her body of work." - Beneath The Underground
 
“An excellent, back-to-the-basics haunted house story - a Gothic horror which doesn’t get too mired in on itself. The Devil’s Serenade builds a sense of dread, with genuine scares, right up to the climax.” —Daniel G. Keohane, Bram Stoker nominated author of Solomon’s Grave
 
"I absolutely love Cat's books. Hers are very different from what you may be used to. If you've never read one of her books before, I highly recommend you start here” – Cat After Dark
 
“The denouement scared me pale. Read with the lights on...and ignore those noises upstairs.” – Mallory Heart Reviews
 
"This is a haunted house tale as full of memories and regrets as it is demons and spirits. More importantly, it's a story where the house itself is part of the story." - Beauty in Ruins  
 
"I would recommend this book to anyone who is looking for a good creepy story." - FangFreakin-tastic Reviews
 
"Ms Cavendish weaves a mysterious and spine tingling tale." - Just a Little R&R

"Fans of gothic horror are sure to eat this book up" - Examiner.com

“There's plenty of twists, turns, and doubt… horror and ghost-loving fans will really like to sink into this one.”- The Reader’s Hollow
 
 "Great, classic horror. Keeps you turning the pages faster!" - Maddie's Book Reviews

 
 "The Devil’s Serenade is a great, new haunted house tale that is packed with tension and has a few fantastic surprises along the way." - 2 Book Lovers' Reviews

 
 "A great book to curl up with on a stormy night." - Horror Maiden's Book Reviews

 
  "This is definitely a must read. It was hella scary. I couldn’t get enough" - Mello and June's Book Reviews 

 
"Dark and strange... The Devil's Serenade will keep you on your toes and leaving the light on to keep away the shadows." - Bibliophilic Book Blog

New edition from Crossroad Press. Available from
Amazon
 Barnes and Noble 
and other online retailers 

Also available now: 

Can the living help the dead...and at what cost?

When Alex Fletcher finds a painting of a drowned girl, she’s unnerved. When the girl in the painting opens her eyes, she is terrified. And when the girl appears to her as an apparition and begs her for help, Alex can’t refuse.

But as she digs further into Grace’s past, she is embroiled in supernatural forces she cannot control, and a timeslip back to 1912 brings her face to face with the man who killed Grace and the demonic spirit of his long-dead mother. With such nightmarish forces stacked against her, Alex’s options are few. Somehow she must save Grace, but to do so, she must pay an unimaginable price.

Available from:

 Amazon 
Barnes and Noble
and other online retailers

 

 Have you ever been so scared your soul left your body? 

All her life, Lesley Carpenter has been haunted by a gruesome nursery rhyme—“The Scottish Bride”—sung to her by her great grandmother. To find out more about its origins, Lesley visits the mysterious Isobel Warrender, the current hereditary owner of Linden Manor, a grand house with centuries of murky history surrounding it. 

But her visit transforms into a nightmare when Lesley sees the ghost of the Scottish bride herself, a sight that, according to the rhyme, means certain death. The secrets of the house slowly reveal themselves to Lesley, terrible secrets of murder, evil and a curse that soaks the very earth on which Linden Manor now stands. But Linden Manor has saved its most chilling secret for last.

 Available from:
Amazon 
Barnes and Noble
and other online retailers
 

Four hundred years ago, ten convicted witches were hanged on Gallows Hill. Now they are back…for vengeance.

Laura Phillips’s grief at her husband’s sudden death shows no sign of passing. Even sleep brings her no peace. She experiences vivid, disturbing dreams of a dark, brooding hill, and a man—somehow out of time—who seems to know her. She discovers that the place she has dreamed about exists. Pendle Hill. And she knows she must go there.

But as soon as she arrives, the dream becomes a nightmare. She is caught up in a web of witchcraft and evil…and a curse that will not die. 

Available from:

Amazon  
Barnes and Noble

and other online retailers 

 

 Don’t hurt Jane. You may live to regret it.

Bullied by her abusive father, Jane always felt different. Then the lonely child found a friend in a mysterious dark lady who offers her protection—a lady she calls her “angel”. But that protection carries a terrible price, one to be paid with the souls of those Jane chooses to suffer a hideous and eternal fate.

When Jane refuses to name another victim, the angel reveals her most terrifying side. Payment must be made in full—one way or the other.

Available from: 
 Amazon 

 and other online retailers

Saving Grace Devine - New Edition Out Now!

“Great characters, great unexpected turns and a climax the feels true to some of King’s less forgiving conclusions” – Matt Molgaard, Horror Novel Reviews

"Prepare to be terrified! Prepare to be captivated!" - Mallory Anne-Marie Forbes at Mallory Heart Reviews

"If you love Gothic literature, Cat's the new author on the prowl... - Erin Al-Mehairi, Oh, For The Hook of a Book

"Wonderfully creepy" Kelly @ Reading the Paranormal

Can the living help the dead...and at what cost?

When Alex Fletcher finds a painting of a drowned girl, she’s unnerved. When the girl in the painting opens her eyes, she is terrified. And when the girl appears to her as an apparition and begs her for help, Alex can’t refuse.

But as she digs further into Grace’s past, she is embroiled in supernatural forces she cannot control, and a timeslip back to 1912 brings her face to face with the man who killed Grace and the demonic spirit of his long-dead mother. With such nightmarish forces stacked against her, Alex’s options are few. Somehow she must save Grace, but to do so, she must pay an unimaginable price.

Out Now - New edition from Crossroad Press!

Available from:

 Amazon 
Barnes and Noble
and other online retailers

Also out now!

 Have you ever been so scared your soul left your body? 

All her life, Lesley Carpenter has been haunted by a gruesome nursery rhyme—“The Scottish Bride”—sung to her by her great grandmother. To find out more about its origins, Lesley visits the mysterious Isobel Warrender, the current hereditary owner of Linden Manor, a grand house with centuries of murky history surrounding it. 

But her visit transforms into a nightmare when Lesley sees the ghost of the Scottish bride herself, a sight that, according to the rhyme, means certain death. The secrets of the house slowly reveal themselves to Lesley, terrible secrets of murder, evil and a curse that soaks the very earth on which Linden Manor now stands. But Linden Manor has saved its most chilling secret for last.

 Available from:

Amazon 
Barnes and Noble

and other online retailers
 

Four hundred years ago, ten convicted witches were hanged on Gallows Hill. Now they are back…for vengeance. 

Laura Phillips’s grief at her husband’s sudden death shows no sign of passing. Even sleep brings her no peace. She experiences vivid, disturbing dreams of a dark, brooding hill, and a man—somehow out of time—who seems to know her. She discovers that the place she has dreamed about exists. Pendle Hill. And she knows she must go there.

But as soon as she arrives, the dream becomes a nightmare. She is caught up in a web of witchcraft and evil…and a curse that will not die. 

Available from:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

and other online retailers

 

 Don’t hurt Jane. You may live to regret it.

Bullied by her abusive father, Jane always felt different. Then the lonely child found a friend in a mysterious dark lady who offers her protection—a lady she calls her “angel”. But that protection carries a terrible price, one to be paid with the souls of those Jane chooses to suffer a hideous and eternal fate.

When Jane refuses to name another victim, the angel reveals her most terrifying side. Payment must be made in full—one way or the other.

Available from:

 Amazon

 and other online retailers

Maddie had forgotten that cursed summer. Now she’s about to remember…

When Maddie Chambers inherits her Aunt Charlotte’s gothic mansion, old memories stir of the long-forgotten summer she turned sixteen. She has barely moved in before a series of bizarre events drives her to question her sanity.

The strains of her aunt’s favorite song echo through the house, the roots of a faraway willow creep through the cellar, a child who cannot exist skips from room to room, and Maddie discovers Charlotte kept many deadly secrets.

Gradually, the barriers in her mind fall away, and Maddie begins to recall that summer when she looked into the face of evil. Now, the long dead builder of the house has unfinished business and an ancient demon is hungry. Soon it is not only Maddie’s life that is in danger, but her soul itself, as the ghosts of her past shed their cover of darkness.

Available from
Amazon
 Barnes and Noble 
and other online retailers

Linden Manor - New Haunts!

“A memorable ghost story needs two things: a chilling backstory and a terminally isolated setting. Luckily Linden Manor fulfills both requirements so well that I didn’t want to stop reading.” – Long and Short Reviews

  

"There are some TRULY terrifying features, and characters, in this story. So I finished it this morning, in daylight--and I'm STILL scared!" Mallory Anne-Marie Haws (Mallory Heart Reviews)

"Cavendish brings ghostly ancient legends of the land back with her gothic tale."-  Oh! For the Hook of a Book

"Run and hide, far and wide,

Run and hide from the Scottish Bride.

Don’t turn your head,

Lest it be said,

You saw the lace,

On her blackened face.

Don’t you stumble,

Or take a tumble.

Don’t catch her eye,

Or you’ll surely die."

Have you ever been so scared your soul left your body? 


All her life, Lesley Carpenter has been haunted by a gruesome nursery rhyme—“The Scottish Bride”—sung to her by her great grandmother. To find out more about its origins, Lesley visits the mysterious Isobel Warrender, the current hereditary owner of Linden Manor, a grand house with centuries of murky history surrounding it. 

But her visit transforms into a nightmare when Lesley sees the ghost of the Scottish bride herself, a sight that, according to the rhyme, means certain death. The secrets of the house slowly reveal themselves to Lesley, terrible secrets of murder, evil and a curse that soaks the very earth on which Linden Manor now stands. But Linden Manor has saved its most chilling secret for last. 

Excerpt:

Have you ever been so scared your soul left your body?

Don’t laugh, or mock me. One day it could happen to you, for I am just like you. Or I was, before I laid eyes on her. Before I set foot in this cursed place.

Ten years ago, I was plain Lesley Carpenter, mature student of history. College was out for the summer and I had decided on my research project—the real history behind old folk rhymes.

Not for me, the usual nursery rhymes like “Ring a Ring o’Roses”. No, they’d been done to death. I picked something different. A grim rhyme my great-grandmother used to sing to me when I was a small child. My mother hated it. Only later did I discover the real reason why.

“You’ll give the child nightmares,” she would say, but Great-Granny just smiled and chanted it all over again, swinging my hands up in the air as I giggled with glee. I loved Great-Granny Davies. Even in her eighties she knew how to have fun. She’d been a flapper in the twenties and I don’t suppose she ever came to terms with being respectable. I remember the heady aroma of pot all over her house when we went to stay once. My mother and Great-Granny had a row about that and I was never allowed there again.

Great-Granny died just weeks after my eleventh birthday. I still miss her, and that damned rhyme that would spring into my mind when I was least expecting it. The tune was infectious. It went round and round in my head. A simple little hummable refrain that I thought every other child knew, until I found out that no one had ever heard of it before. Well, no one I went to school with, anyway. Of course we lived two hundred miles away from our Davies relatives and it turned out to have strictly local connections. That’s what got me intrigued. That’s why I decided on my research project. And that’s what took me to Linden Manor.

Now I have to tell you, so you’ll know and keep away from the place, and from me too because, you see, I just don’t trust myself anymore.

(Copyright © 2017 Catherine Cavendish)

New edition - out now from Crossroad Press

Available from:

Amazon 

Also out now!

Four hundred years ago, ten convicted witches were hanged on Gallows Hill. Now they are back…for vengeance. 

Laura Phillips’s grief at her husband’s sudden death shows no sign of passing. Even sleep brings her no peace. She experiences vivid, disturbing dreams of a dark, brooding hill, and a man—somehow out of time—who seems to know her. She discovers that the place she has dreamed about exists. Pendle Hill. And she knows she must go there.

But as soon as she arrives, the dream becomes a nightmare. She is caught up in a web of witchcraft and evil…and a curse that will not die. 

Available from:

Amazon
Barnes and Noble

and other online retailers 
 

 

Can the living help the dead…and at what cost?

When Alex Fletcher finds a painting of a drowned girl, she's unnerved. When the girl in the painting opens her eyes, she is terrified. And when the girl appears to her as an apparition and begs her for help, Alex can't refuse.

But as she digs further into Grace's past, she is embroiled in supernatural forces she cannot control, and a timeslip back to 1912 brings her face to face with the man who killed Grace and the demonic spirit of his long-dead mother. With such nightmarish forces stacked against her, Alex's options are few. Somehow she must save Grace, but to do so, she must pay an unimaginable price.

Available now from:

Amazon 

Barnes and Noble

 Coming soon - from Crossroad Press*

 Don’t hurt Jane. You may live to regret it.

Bullied by her abusive father, Jane always felt different. Then the lonely child found a friend in a mysterious dark lady who offers her protection—a lady she calls her “angel”. But that protection carries a terrible price, one to be paid with the souls of those Jane chooses to suffer a hideous and eternal fate.

When Jane refuses to name another victim, the angel reveals her most terrifying side. Payment must be made in full—one way or the other.

Maddie had forgotten that cursed summer. Now she’s about to remember…

When Maddie Chambers inherits her Aunt Charlotte’s gothic mansion, old memories stir of the long-forgotten summer she turned sixteen. She has barely moved in before a series of bizarre events drives her to question her sanity.

The strains of her aunt’s favorite song echo through the house, the roots of a faraway willow creep through the cellar, a child who cannot exist skips from room to room, and Maddie discovers Charlotte kept many deadly secrets.

Gradually, the barriers in her mind fall away, and Maddie begins to recall that summer when she looked into the face of evil. Now, the long dead builder of the house has unfinished business and an ancient demon is hungry. Soon it is not only Maddie’s life that is in danger, but her soul itself, as the ghosts of her past shed their cover of darkness.

*All titles previously published by Samhain Publishing