Guest Author: Erin Kellison

Erin KellisonI am excited to welcome Erin Kellison to Literary Escapism today.  Erin is getting ready to release her third Shadow novel, Shadowman, on September 6th.

Ghosts
They haunt the halls of the Segue Institute, terrifying the living, refusing to cross over. But one soul is driven by a very different force.

Love
It survives even death. And Kathleen O’Brien swore she would return to those she was forced to leave too soon.

Shadowman
He broke every rule to have her in life; now he will defy the angels to find her in death.

The Gate
Forging it is his single hope of being reunited with his beloved, but through it an abomination enters the world. Leaving a trail of blood and violence, the devil hunts her too. Pursued through realms of bright fantasy and dark reality, Kathleen is about to be taken…

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Shadows

True story. The first time I saw a man made out of shadows was when I was four years old, in bed, awake in the dark. Actually, I saw two men and they were whispering to each other. One was short and fat, with a pocket watch, and the other was tall and skinny, with a hat. They looked like darkened cartoon characters from the Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious song in Mary Poppins. At the time, I shared a room with my big sister. I remember heroically forcing myself to get out of bed to wake her. She was pretending to be asleep and would not be roused. So I bit her finger.

Maybe I’d just seen Mary Poppins and had thought it disturbing. Maybe a shadow on my bedroom wall had the basic drawing lines of one of the characters—that I can’t remember. But watching shadows at night from the vantage of my bed, covers pulled up to my eyeballs, became a favorite way to terrify myself. In the thirty-three years since the Poppins Event, I have made an intense and in-depth study of shadows.

Ever watch the approach of a person in a darkened room? How the shadow head arrives almost instantly, looming, but the feet have to walk up into the stretched shadow body? Something’s not quite right, or real, there.

Or ever notice how when light passes (like a car driving by, headlights skating through a window) the shadows do a maniacal lilt and careen, almost independent of their sources? Maybe the shadows use the sudden, disconcerting light for mayhem. If I were a shadow, that’s what I’d do.

Or have you considered why, even in a semi-lit room, the edges and corners where walls and ceiling meet are darkened by shadow? At a short distance, the observer (me, in bed, trembling) might wonder if the walls and ceiling were connected at all. That they might suddenly skew and the bedroom would become a portal into an Otherworld.

What would the denizens of the Otherworld be like? Some of course, would be nightmares. I white-knuckled that prospect through many a night as I grew up. The shadows were too deep, too malevolent, too suffocating.

But others, however dark and capricious, might just be watching back, silent voyeurs into our equally strange world. I will not divulge here my various fantasies regarding these watchers as I grew up. Suffice to say, I never lusted after the football team captain—not when I’d been feeding my imagination gothic romances like Jane Eyre (Hello, Mr. Rochester) and Wuthering Heights (Heathcliff can damn me to haunt him anytime) and favorites like Stephen King and Dean Koontz.

Enter Shadowman, the hero of book three in my Shadow series, who belongs on the Other side of the veil between our two worlds. He also makes key appearances in Shadow Bound (book one) and Shadow Fall (book two), but finally, he gets his own story. Shadowman is about as dark as a hero can get and as conflicted as one made out of magic should be. Because in my series, shadow and magic are nearly interchangeable terms. And Twilight, the realm of shadow, is likewise a place where all stories, all flights of imagination, are true. And sometimes its inhabitants watch us back. And sometimes the magic bleeds into our world.

And once in a while, very rarely, a dark stranger may cross as well. Read about Shadowman’s first meeting with Kathleen at http://erinkellison.com/books/shadowbound.html.

And for a chance to win a copy of Shadowman, the continuation of their story, I’d love to know what keeps you up at night.

Shadowman hits shelves September 6, 2011.
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Erin Kellison is the author of the Shadow Series, which includes Shadow Bound and Shadow Fall, as well as the upcoming Shadowman (Sept 6, 2011), and the e-novella Shadow Touch. Stories have always been a central part of Erin’s life. She attempted her first book in sixth grade, a dark fantasy adventure, and she still has those early hand-written chapters. She graduated summa cum laude with a degree in English Language and Literature and went on for a masters in Cultural Anthropology, focusing on oral storytelling. When she had children, nothing scared her anymore, so her focus shifted to writing fiction.

Contact Info
Website: www.ErinKellison.com
Blog: Erin Kellison
Social Media: Facebook / Twitter

EKellison-ShadowmanWant to purchase Erin’s novel?
Shadow

  1. Shadow Bound at Amazon or the Book Depository
  2. Shadow Fall at Amazon
  3. Shadow Touch at Amazon
  4. Shadow Man at Amazon or the Book Depository

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Thank you Erin for taking the time to stop by Literary Escapism!

Contest Time! Erin is giving away a copy of her new novel, Shadowman. To enter, all you have to do is answer this one question: What keeps you up at night? Remember, you must answer the question in order to be entered.  Sorry my friends, however this contest is only open to US/Canada residents.

Even though I’m not giving the additional entries any more, you can still help support the author by sharing their article, and this contest, on your blog, Twitter, Facebook, or anywhere you can. After all, the more people who are aware of this fabulous author ensures we get more fabulous stories.

The winner must post a review of the novel someplace. Whether it is on their own blog, Amazon, GoodReads, LibraryThing or wherever, it doesn’t matter. Just help get the word out.

The contest will stay open until September 8th at which time I’ll determine the winner with help from the snazzy new plug-in I have.

I have not been contacting winners, so you will need to check back to see if you’ve won.

About Jackie 3282 Articles
I am a 30-something SAHM with two adorable boys and a supportive husband who is very tolerant of my reading addiction. I love to read and easily go through about a dozen books a month – well I did before I had kids. Now, not so much. After my first son was born, I began to take my hobby of reviewing a little more serious and started Literary Escapism to help with my sanity. I love to discuss the fabulous novels I’ve read and meeting all the wonderful people in the book blogging community has been amazing.

21 Comments

  1. Whatever I am currently reading tends to keep me up at night. Whether its because I’m deeply into it and can’t put the book down or because I’m just laying in bed and can’t quit thinking about it. Never really had anything scary or freaky (besides the occasional storm) that kept me up.
    ~Kayla

  2. What I can’t see terrifies me. Especially what might be under the bed. When my husband isn’t home, I still make huge leaps to access the bed without having my feet come near enough for whatever’s under there to grab them. Silly, I know, but there you have it.

    And now I’ll be watching the shadows, too. Thanks a lot, Erin! ;)

  3. What keeps me up at night? Hmmm…looming deadlines, sick children, snoring spouses. Oh, but you were asking about the fun stuff. Ok, what keeps me up at night that is fun…oh wait a minute, now I am totally off topic. (pulling myself out of the gutter) Geesh. It is thinking about stories, reading good books, which include Erin’s Shadow Fall series. I really loved Shadowman’s book and the cover rocks…very sensual.

    Great job Erin, now I have a question for you. What will we be seeing from you in the future?

  4. Thanks Erin for a great post! I loved Shadow Bound and Shadow Fall, so I can’t wait to read Shadowman. He is such a great character!

    When I was a kid I had a recurring nightmare about Michael Myers from the movie Halloween. Still gives me the creeps to this day. Great movie, though :)

  5. What keeps me up at night: night time is my time. My kids are sleeping for school so: reading, writing, friends.

  6. Yay, so excited that Shadowman and Kathleen get there own book. Can’t wait to read their story :)

    And it’s really cool you took what scared you and turned it into all these wonderful stories. For the longest time I used to imagine an old woman rising out from the floorboards to terrify me…hmm, need to use her in a story I think :)

    Best of luck with your new release!

  7. What keeps me up at night are the same things that keep Erin up, only instead of dashing men, my shadows are demons. My dad once told me that the Devil lived in darkness. To this day, when the lights are out the shadows begin to move and I think it’s the devil coming after my soul.

  8. When I watch something dark before I go to sleep (i.e. True Blood), I tend to wake up from nightmares. Though when I think about what terrified me enough to wake me up after the fact, it’s usually something ridiculous.

    b(dot)cardone(at)hotmail(dot)com

  9. That was kind of a creepy post. Normally, I sleep so heavily that nothing keeps me up at night, but if I’ve watched a scary movie, I have a hard time sleeping. I have a very active imagination so if I watch ax murderers, zombies, evil vamps, etc, that’s it, I’ll be up all night.

  10. What keeps you up at night?

    I work at night and sleep during the day. What really keeps me going at night is our office is really creepy; I’ve heard what sounded like footsteps and door closing. I’ve gotten up to look and no one there. I’m used to it now…mostly.

  11. When I was young my grandmother would sometimes talk (at the dinner table!!) about her peers passing away. One time she was elaborating on how one very lucky woman, a fiend, had passed away in her sleep. That was all it took for me…. I would lie awake night after night hoping that I wasn’t as lucky as her friend. I wanted to actually wake up in the morning!! Even now, many years later, I will think of that and it will keep me awake for a while. I’m just NOT ready to die in my sleep. LOL

    • Betty – I am right there with you on that one. There are many times I wonder if I’ll be waking up in the morning. It’s kind of creepy to think that, when you sleep where you don’t dream, that that’s probably what death is going to be like. Everything is turned off and you don’t even know it. Yes, I have gotten extremely morbid since having kids. *grin*

  12. My never ending strain of thoughts! I want to be a writer–a published one–and every night my mind is bombarded by all these ideas that I want to put to paper. Old characters telling me to revise this story or new characters popping up saying that they have a tale to tell.

    It’s gotten to the point where I have to go to bed early just to give them an hour or so of talking to me. I keep a notebook near by too to write down the more important details as well!

  13. Ok usually It is the current book I’m reading. Or like last night I was tired so I turned on the Tv for some background noise and the movie I out on was one I hadn’t seen before so I ended up watching it instead of falling asleep to it. And sometimes my mortality keeps me awake. That to me is probably the scariest thing that keeps me awake.

  14. random noises, part of the plot of the book im reading, imaginary insects, and/or the cat… tend to keep me up at night..

  15. Normally it’s whatever book I’m reading that keeps me up at night. Especially if it’s a good book! While lying there I will keep thinking about what just happened when I stopped reading and what will happen next!

  16. What keeps me up at night is playing on the computer and reading a good book. I know I should go to bed, but I want to check that one last blog or read those last few pages. I’m usually so tired that I don’t have trouble going to sleep, once I actually go to bed.

    Barbed1951 at aol dot com

  17. What keeps me up at night is reading. Ill get caught up in a book and not be able to put it down.

    bacchus76 at myself dot com

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