Guest Post Tamara Thorne & Alistair Cross

A Girl’s Worst Nightmare is Her Mother …

Priscilla Martin. She’s the diva of Morning
Glory Circle and a driving force in the quaint California town of Snapdragon.
Overseer of garage sales and neighborhood Christmas decorations, she is widely
admired. But few people know the real woman behind the perfectly coiffed hair
and Opium perfume.

Family is Forever. And Ever and Ever …

No one escapes Prissy’s watchful eye. No
one that is, except her son, who committed suicide many years ago, and her
daughter, Claire, who left home more than a decade past and hasn’t spoken to
her since. But now, Priscilla’s daughter and son-in-law have fallen on hard
times. Expecting their first child, the couple is forced to move back … And Prissy
is there to welcome them home with open arms … and to reclaim her broken
family.

The Past Isn’t Always as Bad as You
Remember.

Sometimes it’s Worse …

Claire has terrible
memories of her mother, but now it seems Priscilla has mended her ways. When a cache of vile family secrets is uncovered, Claire struggles to
determine fact from fiction, and her husband, Jason, begins to wonder who the
monster really is. Lives are in danger – and Claire and Jason must face a
horrifying truth … a truth that may destroy them … and will forever change
their definition of “Mother.”

Publication Date:	April 9th, 2016
Series:	–
Genre:	Psychological Thriller
Pages:	538
Formats:	eBook
Available at:	Amazon

 

When Stephen King came out with The Dead
Zone, many were disappointed because he stepped away from ghosts and vampires.
While The Dead Zone is loaded with telepathy, that gift has never been in the
same supernatural league as haunted houses, demonic possession, or flesh-eating
zombies. At first, The Dead Zone just didn’t feel like horror.

But of course we both bought it – and
devoured it – and loved it. And it remains one of King’s best novels even if it
doesn’t fit the definition of traditional horror. In fact, The Dead Zone is
about politics. While that is a horror unto itself, there is only a precious
whiff of the ghostly at the end of the story when Sarah Bracknell visits Johnny
Smith’s grave and she hears his voice tease her with a familiar phrase, “You
still sniffing that wicked cocaine?” And we’ll admit it – that’s our favorite
part. It satisfied the ghostly jones perfectly because we took that as a sign
that Johnny’s ghost was present.

We loved the book all the more for it and
learned that no matter where Stephen King went, we would follow, genre be
damned. That doesn’t mean that we don’t jump for joy whenever King returns to
his supernatural roots, but it reminded us that good writing transcends genre
labels.

All artists need to grow. Tamara loved
Bruce Springsteen best in his Born to Run and Thunder Road era, but she likes
the later works, too. Alistair likes Stevie Nicks the most on her own, but
enjoys her in Fleetwood Mac as well. Artists grow, artists change, artists try
new things, but very few lose the essence of what makes us love them.

Writers need to grow as much as any
painter, sculptor, or musician; stagnation is deadly to all.  Robert
McCammon was tired of being pigeon-holed into the horror genre by his publisher
and began writing more mainstream novels. His coming-of-age tale, A Boy’s Life
is one of his all-time greatest books.While he ostensibly left horror out of
it, he is a writer – like King, Koontz, and Bradbury – who always has a spooky
sensibility. Love of the dark side shows in the words he chooses and the scenes
he sets. Spookiness is inherent in the work of such authors.

Conversely, there are writers who are known
for historicals, or political or family thrillers like Stuart Woods and Anne
Rivers Siddons who have each tiptoed over to the dark side and written some of
the best horror we’ve ever read. Woods’ Under the Lake is terrifying and eerie
and Siddons’ The House Next Door is a modern Hill House. There’s a reason these
two authors excel at the eerie – if you read some of their very mainstream
work, you’ll easily detect hints of the macabre in turns of phrase,
descriptions, or even in the ruthless people they write about.  

As for us, we love scary stories and
usually write books with supernatural elements, but with Mother we wanted to stretch. Not only was it a joy to explore
new territory, the storyline simply didn’t call for ghouls, ghosts, and
hauntings. But make no mistake: Mother is all about monsters. In this case,
however, we wanted to entertain a different kind of beast, the worst monster of
all: the human monster.

After all, one look at the news or the
history of humanity tells us that human beings are scarier than any creature we
could possibly make up. And the worst part is this: Statistically, a crime
against you is far less likely to be committed by a stranger with candy than by
someone you know and trust. These are the facts that set the stage for Mother. We
wanted to address the reality that not all the monsters are lurking in dark
alleyways or haunting the depths of our cellars. Most of them are at home
wearing familiar faces and baking cookies in a pinafore apron, smiling as they
size you up.

What does all this mean? It means that
there is horror in almost any tale but it isn’t necessarily supernatural. We
feel that with the exception of traditional tropes – vampires, werewolves and
so forth – horror is not so much a genre as it is a sensation of unease, a
creeping feeling that you’re being watched. Horror is the mysterious creak on
the stairs that raises your hackles.

All that said, there may well be a ghost in
Mother. Many of our readers as well as our editors are convinced there is, and
they may be right. What do we think? Well, this book is about reality, and in
the real world you can rarely be sure if there’s a ghost haunting you or if
you’re just imagining things. All you can do is guess. And just as in The Dead
Zone – when Sarah hears Johnny’s ghostly greeting – in Mother, it’s up to the
reader to decide whether it’s real or phantasm.

We will never abandon supernatural  horror – we love it – but we’ve tasted
the real world and want more. Mother, we now know, is the first in a loose
series of familial thrillers we call The Trilogy of Terror that will be coming
out over the next couple of years in between more traditional fare. We don’t
expect any supernatural elements in these novels but we never know what might
pop up. That’s for our characters – and in some cases, our readers – to decide.

Tamara Thorne is the author of many novels
including international bestsellers, Haunted, Moonfall, Bad Things, and The
Sorority. She’s been interested in ghost stories all her life and has been
published since 1991. Alistair Cross’ debut novel, The Crimson Corset, was
an immediate bestseller which earned praise from vampire-lit veteran Chelsea
Quinn Yarbro, and well as NYT bestselling author of The Walking
Dead, Jay Bonansinga. In 2012, Thorne and Cross joined forces and they
have since completed three novels, The Cliffhouse Haunting, which
reached the bestsellers list in its first week of release, the successful
Gothic The Ghosts of Ravencrest, and Mother, which is due
out this spring. They are currently working on their next projects, which are
slated for release throughout 2015 and 2016.

Together, Thorne and Cross host the popular Horror/Thriller/Paranormal-themed
radio show, Thorne & Cross Haunted Nights LIVE!, which has
included such guests as worldwide bestseller, V.C. Andrews, Laurell K. Hamilton
of the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter novels, Charlaine Harris of
the Southern Vampire Mysteries and basis of the HBO series True
Blood, Jay Bonansinga of the Walking Dead series, Peter Atkins,
screenplay writer of Hellraiser 2, 3, and 4, Chelsea Quinn Yarbro of
the Saint-Germain vampire series, Jeff Lindsay, author of the Dexter novels
that inspired the hit television series, and New York Times bestsellers
Christopher Rice, Jonathan Maberry, Christopher Moore.

You can visit Alistair Cross’ website at www.alistaircross.com and
Tamara Thorne’s website at www.tamarathorne.com.