Guest Blog and Giveaway with Catherine Olson

Famous (in some circles) director, David Cronenberg, who made B horror movies like the Dead Zone starring Christopher Walken, thinks “of horror films as art, as films of confrontation. Films that make you confront aspects of your own life that are difficult to face.” (http://thinkexist.com/quotes/with/keyword/horror/4.html )

Wow, that was entirely too serious. Here is what I think. I don’t want to actually confront anything, so make my horror victims special with real hopes and desires, make my monsters sweet yet horrible, and make the settings fun. And let me enjoy the confusion of my attraction to the revulsion I know I should be feeling.

In the really, really, really olden days when guys in white blankets tied at the shoulder decided what is so called Tragic, people wanted to watch the rich and powerful fall to misery and death. Whatever. We watch rich and powerful on the news every day sticking it to us in various ways that we can’t even figure out. I wish they would fall. That would be a Comedy. What is tragic is watching a person who might possibly help out my future fall into oblivion. That is why the main character in After Eventide is young girl, Lorraine, who wants nothing more than to grow up and be a teacher. The world needs to back off of her and let her reach her goals, damn it.

The truly frightening monsters are the ones we don’t see coming. They are hot and tell us stories of glory and friendship, while dropping bombshells of hints that they would kill us if they ever choose to. That monster could raise his hand to smash your face in, but you love him even more because he restrained himself. You know who you are- sicko. Man, I have to stop calling myself names. In After Eventide, the monster entices a fifteen-year-old girl into a world of death and violence and a part of you hopes she goes off with Harold to wage war on the human race. Sicko. She needs to be a teacher, remember.

And my horror is always funnest in places that I know and love. When I read a novel, I want to loose myself for a little while, and that is always fun in places I love. How many horror movies are at the amusement park? And what I love is the beach. How fun is it to have death and violence at the beach? Bright sunny days, blood filled nights. Too awesome.

David Cronenberg is totally right about horror as an act of confronting, “aspects of your own life that are difficult to face.” And one of the most difficult aspects of our modern life is figuring out the values we choose to hold regarding those of the opposite sex. Questions like- what level of violence is sexy in a man? At what point does a girl say, “I am outta here.” How old is too old, or too young? I like to examine these tough questions while cracking up along the way, so I wrote a fun novel about a monster that confronts modern realities while holding onto his thousand year old ideas of violence. Bet you’d like it too.

~Catherine

In honor of Halloween, answer this question and I will randomly choose a comment to receive a free hard cover copy of After Eventide.

Which would you rather be, a medieval vampire or modern vampire? And why?

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Winner TBA on Wednesday Oct 20

Just a note I haven't had the chance to read this book for review yet but my daughter read it and loved it, in fact she couldn't put it down.

It went everywhere with us until she finished reading it. That says so much about this book.

I've only seen her do that with one other book- Nightshade which she has declared to be her all time favorite so that says After Eventide is a fang-tastic read.