The Kindness Resolution

'Tis the close of the old year and the time when we humans engage in that old tradition of making resolutions.

Some of us, perhaps, set the bar a bit too high and those resolutions fall by the wayside after a few weeks or a month or two. A few decide the resolutions weren't what they wanted in the first place and reassess.

Some succeed, or surpass.

It's good to make goals. Little ones, especially, since obtaining them gives us confidence and the desire to build from those successes. Of course, setting the bar too low doesn't provide much inspiration, because they should challenge us in some way.

I never really make any resolutions. If I want to achieve something or change something about myself, I attempt it the year through. It does not matter if it is New Year's Eve or any other day.

But this year I would like to ASK for a resolution. Something not too big, but not too small, either. I would like everybody to resolve possibly just to be a little nicer to one another. To be a little more tolerant of others' differences and likes. To get along just a little bit better. Maybe it will start a trend, spread to those who are insolent and rude, those who thrive on hate and selfishness.

Start small. Smile more. Help without grumbling or expectation of reward. Just a bit. Resolve to attract kindness and understanding.

To all the readers of my books and this blog, have a wonderful, successful and most of all safe Happy New Year.

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback

Secrets from The Chloe Files: Episode 21

There's a woman who works at the Museum of Natural History here in New Salem, Maine. Her name is Genie Lansing. She owns a 600-year-old monkey...that's what she tells me, anyway.

But that's about ALL she tells me. There's something about her I can't figure out. She vanishes from closed rooms, shows up in locked houses. She says she's not allowed to interfere when I need her...yet finds a way to do just enough...and nothing more.

I can't tell if she's friend or foe...or working on her own agenda. All I can say is I don't trust her. Especially around my fiance.

There are things about her I'm starting to put together. Paranormal things. Something about her is hauntingly familiar. I've got a feeling when I find out...I'm not going to like it much.

Once thing I do know, she's somehow connected to the things going on in this cursed town. And maybe even to the disappearance of my sister. Whatever secrets she has, I'll discover them.

Until then she better stay the hell out of my way...
--Chloe Everson


Welcome to New Salem...Where Hell comes home...
$2.99 Limited time price on Kindle & Nook
The Chloe Files #1: Ashes to Ashes
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK

Vengeance is a Dish Best Served Bloody

I'm pleased to announce Blood Creek is now available exclusively for Amazon Kindle. A Western novel of vicious revenge upon those who committed a heinous crime long ago and thought they got away with it, Blood Creek was originally published in hardcover under the Black Horse Western line and in large print Linford Library paperback edition under my Lance Howard penname. With a completely redesigned cover, this is its first electronic imprint, published under my own name, and will remain an exclusive Kindle release through arrangement with Amazon.com.

From the Blurb:

Fifteen years ago five unruly sons of rich parents committed a heinous crime against a young Ute woman, only to walk away unpunished.

Now a ruthless killer bent on revenge is stalking them, murdering their wives, and destroying their lives piece by piece.

After manhunter Calin Travers is mysteriously attacked, then lured under false pretenses to Sundown, Colorado, a town to which he swore he’d never return, he discovers himself face to face with old guilts and a brutal killer who has marked him for death.

"This author does miracles with the written word. He takes the reader to the heart of the story and holds them glued to the pages with passion to the very end..."
--Romance and Friends Reviews

"...believable characters and settings will have you breathing 1800s dust and seeing by the flickering light of an oil lamp as you turn every tension-filled page."
--Tim Greaton, Maine's Other Author (TM)


Vengeance is a dish best served bloody...
Blood Creek by Howard Hopkins
Now available exclusively for Kindle.
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B006QD6VK8

Secrets from The Chloe Files: Episode 20

Days have gotten shorter here on the Ghost Coast of New Salem, Maine. And with the longer nights a deeper darkness takes hold.

That darkness is always there, saturating the very fabric of this cursed town's reality, but it grows stronger as winter begins.

I see Patricia's ghost more and more. At times I'm convinced it is indeed her, but at other moments...I see evil glaring through.

What does she want? Why, if it is her, has she come back to lead me into the abyss? There's something...dangerous about her now. Something that is meant for only me. And yet I still miss her terribly...and search desperately for any clue to her whereabouts.

I tell myself a ghost is better than nothing at all. I wonder if it will be one of those weak moments that kills me...
--Chloe Everson

Will you believe?
Put some Chloe in your Christmas Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Monkey's First Christmas

Since Christmas is nearly upon us, I thought I might tell my Christmas monkey story again. I was lucky enough as a kid to have a number of monkeys as pets, some nice, some not so much. They were cute, but could be quite naughty, and did have some bad habits. But they ere also fascinating little creatures. One of them I pay homage to in my paranormal horror series The Chloe Files, with Bob, the 600-year-old capuchin.

Anyway, Twas the night before Christmas, late ‘60s, and all through the house…not a creature was stirring…

Except for the monkey.

Sometimes pets and Christmas trees just don’t mix. I had a beagle who somehow thought ornaments constituted a new food group. That was good for four or five days of sparkly poop.

But monkeys and trees…

His name was Porky and he was a red macaque. One of those stubby monkeys with virtually no tail and a little red ass that made him look like he’d spent a bit too much time at the local House of Pain. He had a bit of an attitude when it came to the Christmas tree. Whenever he was out of his cage, he gave it the evil monkey eye. I can’t imagine what was going through his simian mind when he stared at that multi-colored, glowing glittering faux fir, and you just knew Santa had a poop fling with his name on it.

Porky managed to figure a way out of his cage one not-so-funny Christmas Eve. Did you know monkeys like to fling Christmas balls? We lost two lamps that way.

That loud crash? Well, that wasn’t Jolly Old St. Nick coming down the chimney. Something came down, all right. With a loud boom and a shrill monkey screech.

We got up to find faux fir D-O-A in the middle of the living room, along with the two deceased lamps. Christmas balls—the ones that survived—had to be dug out of various places—behind the couch, chairs. Tinsel was strewn everywhere, including wrapped about the monkey like a shiny new silver coat. The Christmas Angel tree topper? We still miss her...

And Porky himself? Porky was hanging from one of those ceiling lamps that had the chain-encompassed cord running down the wall. The look on his face was one of fear mixed with a weird monkey satisfaction. I think he was pretty happy he’d finally given that fake tree its just desserts.

Well, at least he hadn’t eaten any tinsel, so flying silver poop or hurled foil vomit wasn’t a problem…


Will you believe?
Put some Chloe in your Christmas Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Secrets from The Chloe Files: Episode 19

The Ghost Coast of New Salem, Maine, appears calm this night. A soft breeze rustles the color-splashed leaves and waves wash in, glazed with moonlight. But it's a facade. Because Evil lurks beneath the serenity. Waiting.

What do you fear most? What brings you to a state of razor-edged anxiety? Of terror so pure it makes you want to crawl out of your very mind?

Losing my loved ones. That's what scares me the most. And I've been through it. Over and over.
My parents, my sister...all of them...gone. The people I love have always been taken from me. Tragically.

And that's somehow connected with this cursed town. So I have no choice but to fight it, and risk losing what I have left. But I won't let whatever force is threatening me have it easy. That much...I swear.

There's gonna be hell to pay.
--Chloe Everson

Welcome to New Salem...Where Hell comes home...
The Chloe Files #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
$2.99 on Kindle & Nook
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK

Drama Drama Everywhere

The older I get the more tired of drama I get. And it seems the holidays while bringing out the best in many also bring out the worst.

Some folks will always want the spotlight shining on them, especially in certain types of family dynamics. I saw far too much of that growing up. The minute the holiday season approached it started to become impossible to find joy and be happy because certain close individuals decided misery loved company. Lots and lots of misery.

I recall Christmas Eves sitting in front of the tree looking at the lights alone. I also recall strained silent tables and the opposite--big family non-crisises where the people involved could not stand to have the attention on the season's meaning instead of themselves.

I think just as bad--maybe even worse in some ways--are work situations where somehow the insecure control freak winds up in charge--which happens far too often--and decides to cause either constant turmoil in the work place or put the other employees under the stress of losing their jobs. Why do employers seem to wait until right before the holiday to lay off folks? Losing your job is a stressful enough situation, but add that to the stress of the holiday, something that is supposed to be happy and it's ten times worse. Is it any wonder that the suicide rate goes up this time of year? And of course the control-freak manager gets to go home secure in his/her job and have a warm holiday with their own family.

Some people can't seem to survive without drama and causing strife to bring others into their dark little worlds. Their philosophy seems to be, I'm miserable so everyone else has to be. And if it affects children who should be basking in the magic of Christmas (and not only Christmas since Halloween and Thanksgiving and others were spoiled for me as a kid) I think it is just unpardonable.

Life is hard enough without manufacturing drama to make it harder. Those who like to dwell in drama, fine, go do it somewhere else and don't bring others down (and I am NOT talking about people with serious depressive disorders or who have undergone tragic events--I am talking about drama kings and queens who love to cause trouble because of their own insecurity). You are entitled to ruining your own holiday if you like. But you are not entitled to ruin it for those of us who want to find joy and celebrate.

Whether you have a lot of a little, please try to be better to each other for at least this time of year. Maybe in the end you'll find that's the only real drama you need. And remember, you are not entitled to magic; but you can make it...

There's an old saying that goes, Dead men tell no tales. That saying might be true...anywhere else but on the Ghost Coast of New Salem, Maine. Here they tell many tales, and they seldom stay dead.
--Chloe Everson

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback

Dark Clouds

Do you ever have those days where you wake up feeling like one of those cartoon characters who's always walking around with a black rain cloud above his/her head?

Sometimes I feel like I have entire weeks like that. Because whatever can go wrong usually does.

Maybe that's one reason some of the characters in my books have so much grief. Chloe Everson in my paranormal horror series The Chloe Files always has that dark cloud above her head, usually put there by some demon out to ruin her day.

Of course, most of us don't have a demon chasing us around, but sometimes it sure feels that way and maybe that it would be easier to explain the bad luck days.

Those are the days you just want to stay in bed and pull the covers over your head. But not many of us have the luxury of doing that. So we get up, muddle through our day hoping the sky doesn't fall on us and that the rain cloud will be replaced with a bright shining sun the next.

On those days I find I need to escape into my fiction worlds the most. Not just writing them, because if my day is going crappy, my writing is probably sure to follow. But just taking a few hours--or as much time as you can spare--to escape into somebody else's fictional world. I like to plunge into the old pulp series Doc Savage myself, because I can just get caught up in the escapism and adventure. Or in comic books where the heroes overcome their black clouds. And in spooky books where characters like Chloe are usually plagued by far darker clouds than I am and still manage to persevere and come out stronger.

Dark clouds are going to follow us all from time to time. Sometimes they are just annoying clouds and we spend the day tripping over things or battling a series of minor irritations that add up to one big crapfest. Other days awful things happen that aren't so easily dealt with.

All we have is our ability to regroup and overcome. The small things that give us escape, like books, movies or games help, because they get out minds off the bad for at least a bit and that is sometimes enough to give us a new perspective on our problems, or at least a few moments away from them.

Here's hoping your dark cloud days are fewer and farther between And on those days when they do hover above you find I hope you find your place to escape the rain...

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Secrets from The Chloe Files: Episode 18

There's an old saying that goes, Dead men tell no tales. That saying might be true...anywhere else but on the Ghost Coast of New Salem, Maine. Here they tell many tales, and they seldom stay dead. I know. I've seen it with my own eyes.

Darkness pervades this town. Even in the daylight hours when you can't see it...you can feel it. Simmering in the sea air, hiding in the gray mist.

Evil.

Searching for a hold in this world, agitating those behind the veil.

My sister's ghost continues to appear. Despite that I try to keep hope she is still alive...and that I will find her. Anywhere else but here, that hope would be gone. You see, Evil can work both ways. I choose not to give in, look at the darkest side. I'm not looking for closure. I'm looking for answers. And if she is dead, if the forces that have entered my life have taken her...
I won't stop until they pay.

Or until death finds me. I owe her that much.
--Chloe Everson

Welcome to New Salem...Where Hell comes home...
The Chloe Files #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
Limited time Dark December price $2.99 on Kindle & Nook http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK

Weird Things Writers Do?

So over the last week and a half I have drafted three novellas and am 20k into the novel portion of my new paranormal horror YA saga...but I only had a loose, highlight points outline up to about 3/4s because I got stuck on the plot but decided to just start drafting the tale (not uncommon for me, as I work that way quite often.) As usual, I am confident the rest will click in once I start approaching the end of the trail. Sometimes that way of writing has caused me to pull out what's left on my hair. Other times its been almost magical.

Well, this morning I am at the gym on the treadmill and suddenly all the remaining scenes start flashing through my addled brain. Bang, bang, bang, one right after another, complete with my characters spouting off all at the same time.

I start spacing, trying to hear what everybody is saying. I wish some of them would just shut up a minute instead of all talking at once.

I know I am glassy-eyed and some guy on the next treadmill is yapping at me. He is also looking at me like I must be on drugs. He finally gives up and a grumpy look takes up residence on his face.

But I have twenty minutes left on the treadmill and no paper or pen! Then another fifteen stretching and twenty more to drive home. I start panicking that the elusive bits of dialog and incidents are all going to go bye bye. To make things worse, once home I really really have to go to the bathroom.

So I grab legal pad and pen and by the time I get out have the rest of my plot. Now I just gotta hope it's not, um, crap...

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Introducing: Barnabas from The Nightmare Club

Name: Barnabas the Pig

Born: August 1. Aged 2

Hometown: New Salem, Maine

Closest relatives: Unknown.

Barnabas Facts: Barnabas is a Vietnamese potbellied pig, neither black nor white, just a sort of dirty color. He belongs to Moose, who teaches him bad habits to torment Sparks, like throwing up in Sparks' shoes. When he isn't eating, he's sleeping, and not much else.

Occupation: Pig. Nap Engineer.

Starring Role:

The Nightmare Club #1: The Headless Paperboy
The Nightmare Club #2: The Deadly Dragon
The Nightmare Club #3: The Willow Witch

Author Comments: Barnabas is named after the vampire on the show Dark Shadows, has a tendency to bite and find ways to get at Moose's Chips Ahoy cookies. Sparks calls him the ugliest pig he's ever seen.


Where everyday is Halloween!
The Nightmare Club series on Kindle
#1 The Headless Paperboy http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052O5AIQ
#2 The Deadly Dragon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CFEIWY
#3 The Willow Witch http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CK4RVQ
(Also available in Nook and paperback formats)

Grief and Grandma’s Ghost (My First Paranormal Experience)

Folks often ask me how I combine the themes of loss, grief and loneliness with the supernatural, how I put so much emotion into the subject in a genre that can sometimes come across superficially, especially in bad slasher movies nowadays. In my series The Chloe Files, the lead character, Chloe Everson, has experienced a lot of loss and tragedy in her life. Her parents died when she was seven, and her twin sister, Patricia, was taken away. Life is tough on Chloe, and it has been a constant struggle for her to find ways to deal with and survive her loss, for that matter, survive period.

When she encounters her sister’s ghost, she fears that means her sister is dead, which, in The Chloe Files, may or may not be the case. But loss haunts her again, as does the paranormal. And if readers are to feel Chloe’s pain, her loneliness, the emotion has to be honest, heart-felt, before it can be translated into words. And translating such deep painful emotion into words is a challenge. Words, as powerful as they can be, too often fail when we are faced with the death of a loved one. With debilitating grief.

Even so, when asked how I do it, how I make it ring true in phantasmal environment and not come across silly or trite like an afterthought in a B grade horror movie, I have to answer, it comes naturally.

Because I have experienced the blending of loss and the ghostly.

What’s the adage? “Write what you know.” I know loss and I know ghosts. At least, I am pretty sure I have experienced the paranormal.

I was not all that old when my grandma died.

Around 12. She lived with my aunt and uncle in this big old house not far from the sea. She had a room upstairs (and one of those double-seated electric chair lifts that ran on a track at the side of the staircase I used to like to ride up and down with her) and every Sunday my dad and mom would pick her up to go visit my grandpa at the cemetery, then to this little place called Garside’s for ice cream (my grandpa had died a few months before I was born). She’d put flowers on his grave and at that age I really didn’t understand that a lot, but knew it was important to her. Each time we’d pick her up I’d run upstairs to get her. She’d always be sitting in her rocking chair by the window, I think watching for us to arrive. The room always smelled of lavender and what as a kid I ill-manneredly called the “old people” smell.”

Since I was named after an uncle, her son, who’d perished in a plane crash in China during World War II, she probably treated me as her favorite sometimes. She was 81 and lonely. Even at my young age I could tell she was more existing than living, and I could see how she brightened when I visited her. But at the age I am now, I look back and wish I’d spent more time with her.

At Christmastime, she seemed frail, more so than usual. I think she had given up on life at that point, though at the time I didn’t realize it. At New Years—we always got together at my aunt’s for each holiday—she wasn’t able to come down the stairs and be with the rest of the family. I went up to see her, and she was sitting in her chair, a single night light on in the corner. The air had a heavy stuffy quality to it. At 12 I didn’t realize what it was: Death waiting.

Two days later, still on holiday break from school, my mother, younger sister, aunt and I went to a local restaurant for lunch. Hot fudge sundaes, even in winter. The day was bitterly cold, as they often are here in Maine in early January. I remember that distinctly. Spitting snow.

Conversation was guarded between my mother and aunt, but the gist of it was my grandma wasn’t doing well. She had missed getting to the bathroom a number of times and was no longer getting out of bed. My uncle was a doctor, my aunt a nurse, so they were keeping her at home. Nothing was wrong with her, really, at least as far as disease went. She didn’t have cancer or some dread malady such as that. But she was old and she did have a lonely heart. She’d lost her husband and a son. And her reason to go on.

My father worked long hours, eight in the morning until eight each night. But the moment he got home we all went down to my aunt’s house to see her.

I won’t ever forget the first words out of my aunt’s mouth as we walked into the house:

“She just died…”

Those words crashed like a gunshot. A stunning bang that stopped all emotion.

My sister and I were shuttled off to the huge living room, while my folks went upstairs. I’d never experienced death before, except for a small orange canary I had as a pet. I recall not knowing quite how to react, or possibly I didn’t completely grasp that it meant I would never see my grandma again. That we’d never pick her up on Sundays for ice cream or see her in the emerald velvet dress my mother had made her for Christmas (the one she was buried in).

I don’t think I was able to cry, then. I was 12 and perhaps somewhat too much a loner escaping into my fantasy world of comic books, where death was never really permanent.

It hit me much harder the next year when Christmas came around. I’d matured a bit and her absence at the family gathering left a huge hollow spot inside me. I couldn’t go up to her room and see her. And for some reason after she died in that room, I was afraid to go in it.

She was gone—no comic book resurrection would take place. Death was death. She wasn’t coming back. At least that’s what I was telling myself.

I might have been wrong.

When we got home we opened our presents, my sister and I. Since Santa had been unceremoniously demystified by some butt-wipe kid in my class, we’d switched to opening gifts on Christmas Eve.

I got a small cassette tape recorder. I pulled the wrapping off as if in some sort of daze. An odd depression had settled over me. Thick, heavy, heart-burdening. For some reason the recorder wouldn’t record at first. Maybe I was doing something wrong, though it seemed simple enough to operate. A strange kind of hushing sound was all that came out of it. I didn’t know why and didn’t really care at that point. My parents probably wondered what the hell was wrong with me.

I went to bed, depressed for the first time in my life and just feeling…strange. My overweight dachshund, Schnappsie, always slept with me.

But we didn’t sleep for a long time that night.

Because, I think my grandma came back to say goodbye.

I wasn’t really ready for that, either.

The dog sensed it first, I think. She kept staring at a particular corner of the room. Whining a little. I felt suddenly afraid, as well as depressed.

Then I heard a heavy breathing. The exact same way my grandma had breathed over the final weeks of her life. Labored. A touch fluid. The breathing came from the same area of the room the dog was staring at. I seem to recall a scent of lavender, but, to be honest, it was so long ago, my memory might be playing tricks on me on that point.

The rest I remember distinctly. And like I said, as much as I missed my grandma that night, I wasn’t ready.

I reacted with fear. Both myself and the dog bolted from the room. Schnappsie was just as big a chicken as I was.

I slept in the living room on a pull-out couch bed the rest of the night, the Christmas tree on for comfort.

I now think my grandma had come back to say goodbye. I wish I had stayed in the room and seen it through, but I was too young for “real” ghosts, despite my love of Dark Shadows, or maybe because of it.

Sp when folks ask me how I combine the themes of loss, grief and loneliness with the supernatural, I guess I can answer the way Chloe would: It’s not so hard when you’ve experienced it and miss the hell out of someone…

I know I miss my grandma.

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
On Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
Also on Nook: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Chloe-Files-1/Howard-Hopkins/e/2940012513571

Ready, Set, Write!

Ending a writing project is always somewhat of a relief, though a bittersweet one. After all, you've lived with these characters, who become as real--sometimes more so--than some folks around you, only to have to say good-bye to them, at least for a spell, if you are writing a series.

But another drawback to finishing one project is the prewriting jitters, sometimes outright fear, that can set in because you now know you have to start a new book or story.

Upon finishing a novella for an anthology based on the old radio show Nightbeat, I started to feel that writer's anxiety. I knew I was going to be attempting a new paranormal horror YA series that was to start out with three novellas followed by a full novel. In order to make the whole thing work and launch the series, I needed to jump into the heads of at least three very different personalties and live there until it was time to jump to the next.

That prospect was a bit nerve wracking, because all three of these personalties were out of my usual box. And it's a big project with a lot of writing involved.

Since I am a marathon writer who gets the first draft down as fast as I can to catch that elusive muse energy, it is also exhausting.

Writing is a lot like a marathon anyway. I tend to get up around 30,000 words and hit an exhaustion wall. Then it's push, push, push until the second "wind" kicks in. Since I had already written the Nightbeat novella for a publisher, I hit that wall right at the start of novella three in the series. Everything started coming hard, but I pushed through it. Only to be confronted by the fact the novel part was to be started on its heels, maybe with a day or two rest between (rest meaning writing other promotional material, blogs, poems, editing anhtologies and the like...)

Writing is probably one of the most rewarding things I know of. Creating people and situations from nothing, entertaining others make a writer's bells ring. But, unlike what some of my neighbors think (that guy? he sits on his ass and types all day. What a lazy...) it involves a lot of hard work, especially from an emotional standpoint. Trust me, for my type of writer, two hours in the gym is far less exhausting than two hours of rummaging around in a character's head.

But three novellas down, and the novel just started, writing shoes on, it's time to suck it up, start the coffee drip and run, run, run.

That's the challenge of being a writer, right? Always a new mountain to climb. Always new worlds to explore. As Jackie Gleason said, "And awaaaaay we go!"

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Secrets from The Chloe Files: Episode 17

I've spent almost thirty years searching for Patricia. I remember my sister's face that day they drove her away. I don't think I've ever seen anyone ever look so sad...unless it was my own reflection in the mirror after she was taken.

I tried everything--private detectives, psychics, but never found a single lead...until I saw her ghost. But can I trust my own eyes?

Not in New Salem.

At first I thought it might really be her, but there was this...darkness, is the only way I can describe it. Then I talked to someone who gave me a clue, but that someone might well not exist...

It's complicated. Everything is here.The clue led me to an old church, but now all I have is more questions, more doubts, more...fear.

I'll find her. I swear to God I will. Even if I have to dig up every grave in New Salem and kick every demon's ass who gets in my way.

It's what I do. What I was chosen to do...
--Chloe Everson


Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Writer Quirks

Writers can be strange beings. We have odd little habits mainstream folks don't always understand and, it occurred to me, some that might even get us committed.

It dawned on me yesterday--after the fact, unfortunately, not before--while picking up my niece at school. I wait in my car along the side of the big horseshoe shaped driveway where parking spaces are allotted for parents picking up walkers at the middle school.

Now, being in a car gives you a sort of a "nobody can see me through this big glass window" syndrome to begin with. As proved by far too many folks picking their nose at stoplights. Fact is, it's GLASS. Everybody can see you.

Which is why I need to pick better times to argue with the voices in my head. Because yesterday, while I'm waiting, one of the characters in my new paranormal YA series decides to bitch at me about a mood ring. And, yep, that's right, I argued back.

In all fairness it was not all my fault. I mean, she wouldn't shut up. I thought, hey, I'm the author--I should have my way with this. She did not agree. Strenuously.

Now I can only imagine what the rest of the parents waiting for their children must have thought about it. I guess I am lucky it was cold so the window wasn't cranked down and they could not actually hear what I was saying. But there were gestures involved.

And I am fully expecting a sign there tomorrow that says, Please, kids, don't talk to the strange man arguing with his invisible friend.

Sigh.

Oh, who won the argument?

Um, she did. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Writing the Ghosts of December

I always find it easier to write spooky stories at this time of year. In fact, I tend to do a lot of my heaviest writing from just before Halloween until that other frightening holiday in February, Valentine's Day. Something about the days growing shorter and colder inspires ghost stories and paranormal tales.

It's no coincidence my horror novel GRIMM takes place primarily in the days leading up to Christmas. The themes of loss and the rebirth that permeate that tale just seemed a natural fit to the season. Perhaps because where exists the darkest night, also exists the brightest hope. The yin and yang of life and life cycles. The time of year that brings the greatest joy can also bring the deepest depression for some. Evil cannot exist without Good, angels without demons. Snooki without Mother Teresa.

Of course holiday ghost stories have a long literary tradition. "A Christmas Carol" is a story must for each year at this time. And authors love to carry that on. My short story The Elevator in my horror anthology Dark Harbors is an homage to the Dickens classic.

The days of Dark December represent different things to different writers and readers. Perhaps romance writers or those who toil in other genres feel different, but for me the fall and winter seasons will always remain haunted. I had my own paranormal encounter during the season, something I'll relate in an upcoming blog.

Until then, I best get back to writing my new paranormal series...


Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Introducing: Sparks from The Nightmare Club

Name: Ernie "Sparks" Woo

Born: September 5. Aged 12

Hometown: New Salem, Maine

Closest relatives: Parents.

Sparks Facts: Sparks is the electronic expert of the group, though he occasionally has mishaps and things get set on fire. He is always trying to develop the perfect "ghost detector." His "witch detector" in The Willow Witch actually manages to work. He's not sure how. He argues with Moose constantly and Moose's pig drives him nuts. He got his nickname not just because he is into electrical things, but because he blew out half the neighborhood's electricity when he was younger and miswired a lamp.

Occupation: Ghost chaser. Student.

Starring Role:

The Nightmare Club #1: The Headless Paperboy
The Nightmare Club #2: The Deadly Dragon
The Nightmare Club #3: The Willow Witch

Author Comments: Sparks is Chinese and while his parents own a Chinese restaurant he hates Chinese food and loves tacos. Everyone would think by the way he constantly argues with other Nightmare Club member Moose that they hate each other. But they are actually best friends--though neither will admit it.

Where everyday is Halloween!
The Nightmare Club series on Kindle
#1 The Headless Paperboy http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0052O5AIQ
#2 The Deadly Dragon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CFEIWY
#3 The Willow Witch http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CK4RVQ
(Also available in Nook and paperback formats)

Secrets from The Chloe Files: Episode 16

The chilled night of the full moon has given way to a cold gray day on the Ghost Coast of News Salem, Maine. A shiver of evil permeates the damp sea air and warns of impending death.

At the old New Salem Cemetery browned leaves swirl and crackle. The crackling sounds like cartilage crushing as a figure climbs from its 50-year-old grave and shambles towards the rusty iron gate. His head lolls to one side, neck broken, the flesh of his face decayed cellophane stretched over yellowed bone.

Something has brought Billy Ray Danvers back from the sleep of the damned, summoned him from the Hell he so richly deserved. He still carries the rusty clam shucking knife with which he carved out the organs of five unlucky women.

Some foolish soul thought it appropriate to bury the instrument of the victims' demise with the killer, whom they hanged. They should have known better. The dead don't stay buried in New Salem.

And those who perish with hate in their hearts...their evil never dies...
--Chloe Everson


Welcome to New Salem...Where Hell comes home...
The Chloe Files #1: Ashes to Ashes
$2.99 on Kindle & Nook for Dark December
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK

The Story's Over--Not!

One of the constants of being a writer, especially one who deals in series books like The Chloe Files or The Nightmare Club the way I do, is that finishing the writing of a particular project is an ephemeral joy. The sensation is extremely fleeting because completing one work usually just means we are gearing up to start the next. We are a lot like a hamster on a wheel.

Last weekend I completed my novella for the upcoming Nightbeat anthology, and while that was pretty exciting, bubbling to the surface of my mind the entire time were bits and pieces of the next project I had been planning for a while, a YA series that would be consisting of three novellas and a novel--all written back to back.

This weekend I drafted the first in the series, and it did not come particularly easy. The person who stars in the first book, which is also essentially playing set up to the 4th part and the series, turned out to be a much more complicated personality than I expected. Good for her, like giving birth for me. And now that I have finished her story--for the moment--I know I will immediately have to go on to the next girl, who also has a pretty difficult time ahead of her. Which means I have a difficult time, because characters have a habit of never really doing what you want them to.

But that's the lot of the writer. And while exhausting, it's also pretty exciting. Three girls are going on a journey and I get to drive the wordmobile. They'll tell me where to go--in more than one sense of the phrase.

Now where did I put my keys?

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Time for a Threesome...

Moonstone will soon be releasing Threesome, a special edition 32-page comic book written by myself and New York Times best-selling author of Wicked, Nancy Holder. The story involves Nancy's charge the luscious 1930s pulp heroine The Domino Lady teaming up with the first appearance of my revamped pulp heroine The Golden Amazon--the original "Wonder Woman"-- in 70+ years, and my brand new character The Veil as they infiltrate a burlesque house in search of two kidnapped young women. The artwork is by Silvestre, a brilliant artist from Argentina. The book will also come in two special variant covers.

This was a thrilling book to work on. Seeing our words turned into pictures and the whole world of the 1930s and these three heroines come alive...well, for a kid who grew up reading comics there's still a kind of magic to it. Getting to create an actual comic book heroine was certainly a huge thrill, and having the honor to work with Nancy, one of the best writers in the business, and then be given one of the most talented graphic artists to bring words to four-color life is a dream come true.

So here's a sneak at a page from the actual book--the Golden Amazon makes her first new appearance in 70 years. I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did.

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Secrets from The Chloe Files: Episode 15

The full moon rises again over the Ghost Coast of New Salem, Maine. Its glow turns the incoming waves to liquid alabaster.

Its pull is stronger in Autumn, the memories it brings more poignant and soul-wrenching...The Witching Moon. The Ghost Moon. The Demon Moon. All names it goes by, but they have one thing in common--they are a harbinger of Evil.

The ghost of the little girl with the face of my sister stands by the shore, the chilled waves lapping over her bare feet. She's wearing the yellow Easter dress she got for her seventh birthday. A strange smile washes onto her lips, as if she knows I am watching. The smile says she is allowing only a glimpse...And that glimpse foretells the terrifying events about to claim the days and nights of my tomorrows.

Then, she is gone, vanished like a figment of moonlight. But the portent of terror remains...

The dead are restless, the veil fragile, the time...too late...
--Chloe Everson

Will you believe?
Order your copy of the paranormal horror series The Chloe Files on Kindle today!
Limited time Dark December price $2.99
Welcome to New Salem...The Dead are waiting...
THE CHLOE FILES #1: Ashes to Ashes by Howard Hopkins
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
(Also in Nook and paperback)

Dark December Dawns...

With the coming of December the days grow much shorter and a chill sets in. The first week or two usually brings the first significant snowfall to the area and the ocean takes on a funereal gray.

While the Christmas lights come out and the signs of the season glitter in every window and store, a certain darkness lurks beneath the surface. The ghosts of the past, present and future begin to roam. Many folks feel the weight of the winter gloom and a haunting loneliness is embedded in the air scented with cinnamon and spruce.

I believe I have encountered ghosts in December. Been touched by the supernatural, as have many in this area. Many years ago, an uncle of mine whose supernatural claim to fame was an encounter with some mysterious Men in Black while working as a hypnotherapist on alien abduction cases (Dr. Herbert Hopkins, for those who want to look it up in paranormal journals) dealt with many patients in his medical practice suffering from depression during this time of year. And as a psychic minister with people claiming the spirits of their loved ones were trying to communicate with them.

Perhaps that's because this time of year brings with it so much emotion, both good and bad. Perhaps in makes the veil thinner and lost ones use the opportunity to reach out to us. I don't know.

Won't you join me in sharing your paranormal experiences in the comments section? Have you encountered more spirits at this time of year? Does haunting come with Holiday joy?

In honor of Dark December I will be running specials and giveaways on my own books and focusing on the more ghostly aspects of the season.

For Dark December The Chloe Files is at $2.99 on
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B004WLCRYK
Nook: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Chloe-Files-1/Howard-Hopkins/e/2940012513571

You can also save a dollar on my kids/YA book The Nightmare Club #2: The Deadly Dragon on
Kindle:
http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005CFEIWY
Nook: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Nightmare-Club-2/Howard-Hopkins/e/2940012860934

And for a very limited time before my new series launches for the new year, Dark Harbors, Twenty-nine tales of horror, the paranormal and macabre is only .99 cents on
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005BYWAP8
Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/dark-harbors-howard-hopkins/1008499925

Happy Haunting...