Tate is afraid of the dark. But his junkie sister has disappeared into the terrifying storm drains below Las Vegas. The tunnels stretch hundreds of miles beneath the city, housing the homeless and Sin City’s criminal element. Armed with only his flashlight, Tate wades into the gritty depths of the storm drains to rescue his sister from her demons.

Every step into the smothering darkness challenges Tate’s resolve. With his sister’s life and his own sanity at stake, Tate must face his fears or risk fading into the dank oblivion of the Las Vegas tunnels.

Contains an exclusive excerpt of INTO THE DARK.

The cover was done by Laura Morrigan, and she did a great job. Also thanks to Shannon Jones Janeczak, Stacey Joy Netzel, Kristine Kelly, and Julie Glover for their editing help.

I’ve also got an official Amazon Author Page and a Goodreads Author Page. Feel free to check out/like/review.

INTO THE DARK has received its first 5-Star Review!

Some highlights:

“Well written and skillfully crafted…”
“Characters quickly come alive and keep gaining depth throughout the book…”
“While the thriller plot kept me turning the pages, INTO THE DARK is also an intelligent study of how past actions and events affect who we are and what we strive for…”
“Highly recommended.”

Read the full review here.

Contest Alert!

The official release of Welcome to Las Vegas will also kick off the INTO THE DARK Charity Blog Tour, and you’ll hear more about that next week. However, I’m planning some very special extras, and in order to get the advanced scoop – and a chance at a signed print copy of INTO THE DARK – you’ll need to sign up for my newsletter. The first edition will go out November 9th, and the winner of the signed print copy will be announced then as well, so you’ll need to be signed up by then. Go HERE to add your name to the mailing list.

INTO THE DARK’s cover reveal is October 29th at Night Owl Reviews. They will be running a contest, and I’ll send a reminder to you all. I’m sure it will be great, so don’t miss it. I’m also really proud of the cover, because my artist was able to use a stock photo I’ve had forever but couldn’t use.

Thank you all so much for your awesome support! Can’t wait to share INTO THE DARK with you all!

You write horror – have you always been interested in darker fiction? How did that develop?

My first idea of horror was actually movies, especially Vincent Price. I loved B movies and Japanese horror movies. Later, I watched a lot of crime documentaries and read a lot of crime fiction, which is different from horror but close. When I came to writing, I thought I’d like to try something creepy and viola, The Mountain City Bronzes was born.

When did you start writing? Was it a childhood calling, or something that came along later in life?

As a child I did a lot of drawing and writing poetry. My father kept all these little ‘books’ pages stapled together that I had given him of poetry written when I was a child. I wrote stories later, in my teens, I liked science fiction then and my English teacher said she’d never read such a good student short story. This encouraged me but I didn’t really know how to go about it, so I left it and pursued drawing and painting, until the ninties, when I took a correspondence course in writing. I was in my thirties.

I love the tagline for THE MOUNTAIN CITY BRONZES: How far will a community go to protect the safety of their children when they start to disappear? The story is a compelling, engaging read – what inspired it? 

I wrote this for a student story, when I started the writing course. My first lesson was write what you know, so I wrote something about a sculptor and a small town. I took a lot of literary license with sculpting techniques.

Kevin is in an interesting character–is he based on anyone close to you? 

Kevin represents ‘boy’ to me, just a typical boy, based on every boy I’ve ever known who worshiped his father.

Do you have a favorite horror story? One you’ve read over and over?

No favorite horror story. There are so many good ones. Of course, Poe is a favorite.

What’s the scariest thing that’s ever happened to you?

The scariest thing that happened to me was when I was about two and we went to an inn. There was a pier and my sister and I ran out on it. I fell off the end and under the pier was a giant spider. It was so huge that sometimes I think that it was only because I was so small that I thought it was so big. I had a terror of spiders for years.

Put yourself in the townspeople’s shoes–what would YOU do if your child disappeared?

I would search forever if my own child disappeared and probably become morose and even feeling guilt,y and I’d never move so the child could always find  me. My original story had the line. “It is so hard to lose a child, the searching never stops'” but my editor wanted it out. But that’s how I feel.

Let’s get personal. You live in Eastern Canada, a beautiful part of the world. How does that play into your writing? What do you do for fun?

I like the seasons in Eastern Canada, so a lot of my writing has a lot of seasonal things in it. I do like to walk and do genealogy research.

What’s your next project, and where can readers find you?

I’m working on some more dark fiction, maybe not so dark as the first. I have a bio on amazon.com and on the museituppublishing website. I also have a blog at http://madworldca.blogspot.com.  On Twitter I’m known as Madoxane, and I have a facebook and linkedin page.

Excerpt from THE MOUNTAIN CITY BRONZES:

The jail was a great refuge in June, but even in the winter, I found it pleasant to play in. There was so much fun imagining the structure when it was full, back in the gold rush. I could almost hear the walls and floors resounding to the voices of the thousands of lawless men that lived back then. In the large, empty vastness of our jail, I loved pretending I needed to find escape routes.

One day after tromping through the halls for an hour, I found a locked door.

Why is it shut tight?  What is behind that door?

Buy At MuseItUp (99 cents)

Buy At Amazon (99 cents)

Coffee Time Romance (59 cents, on sale)

Thanks so much for Madeline for stopping by. Please make sure to leave her some love!