Hello everyone! Welcome to another author spotlight! These will be posts where I discuss and showcase, predominantly women and people of color, their writing talents and published works. So without further ado let’s get on with the Spooky Author Spotlight!
Meet the Author
Jean Nicole Rivers is the author of two psychological horror novels, Black Water Tales: The Unwanted and Black Water Tales: The Secret Keepers.
What and when started your love for writing?
My love for writing started with my love for stories. My grandmother used to make up the most amazing bedtime stories when I was a child. This ritual developed into a love for reading books and eventually I wanted to tell me own stories.
Of all of the book genres, what drew you to write about yours?
Horror is the genre that makes me feel the most. I once heard Tananarive Due say, “Horror is healing.” and I connected with that statement instantly. Horror touches a space within me that is not readily on display and provides me a healthy outlet to share from those same places.
If you could meet your favorite author who would it be and why?
Though impossible now, it would be Toni Morrison without a doubt. Her command of and obvious love the language was unmatched.
What’s your favorite Halloween/Horror/Mystery story or character?
This is the hardest question ever. There are so many, Freddy Krueger, Annie Wilkes, Pennywise the clown, but pretty much any zombie has a special place in my heart.
What is one thing about Halloween or the spooky season that you can’t stand?
It doesn’t come fast enough and it’s over too soon. If every day could be thick
sweaters, witches, falling leaves, killer clowns and pumpkin spice, the world
would be a better place.
What makes your book(s)/writing special?
My books are horror stories that feature black women and horrors that are often culturally unique in some way. I wanted to read something that didn’t exist, so I wrote it.
So…what are you working on now?
My new novel is currently titled To the Moon and Back and due for Spring 2021 release:
Twenty-three years ago, in the white farmhouse at the end of Maple Road, Simone Parker was the sole survivor of a slaughter that took her entire family, their eyes removed from their skulls. Safe in the knowledge that Marcus Sanden, the man responsible for her family’s butchery is locked away, she is eager to move her husband and two daughters to her picturesque hometown of Black Water. The family home offers financial security and the opportunity to break generational curses, but there is still something unsettling within its walls.
Even as her belly swells with baby number three, Simone is determined to rid her house of the ghostly residue of psychiatric patients her father treated in his home office, including Marcus Sanden. Through the years the gruesome details of her family’s case along with the similarity of Sanden’s name mingled with folk fairytale. Inevitably, Black Water’s younger generation created the now infamous town legend that says they were murdered by The Sandman. Traditionally a benevolent creature, but in Black Water he’s a wolf-like beast with razor-sharp sand to remove the eyes of those who lay awake in the night.
The house is alive with subtle signs of unsettled spirits, but the brutal birth of Simone’s son brings the haunting to an undeniable peak that forces her to question whether it was Sanden that killed her family or something much more sinister. Simone will stop at nothing to protect her children and must again face this evil or lose her family to The Sandman’s eternal sleep.
I loved rereading over Jean’s answers and that she is adding diversity to a very typecast genre. If I had the heart for it I’d be picking up one her books to read too! If you want to get in contact or connect with her you can through:
Thank you all for reading and remember:
