Welcome to SFFWorld. First of all, can you tell us a bit about your new GhostWriters series?
Glad to be here. Thanks for featuring me! GhostWriters is a series about Jackson Stone, a skeptic who decides to travel to haunted locations and write about his paranormal experiences, fully expecting he’ll have to make everything up. He doesn’t believe in ghosts, but he is desperate to escape his dreary IT job. The experiences he has in City of Ghosts drastically alter his views, and he befriends Kate Carlsson, a gifted medium. In subsequent books, Kate and Jackson work together to help families who are being tormented by the dead. They travel to Poveglia, widely considered to be the most haunted island in the world, in The Girl Who Talks to Ghosts.
You actually traveled to the Chinese ghost city, Fengdu, and the haunted Italian island of Poveglia—how did your experiences there inspire the GhostWriters series?
It was while I was in Fengdu that I got the idea for City of Ghosts. Fengdu is a busy tourist attraction by day, but it was easy to see how eerie it would be once everyone left. I thought, “What if someone got trapped here overnight? What if that person wanted to be trapped here?” And Jackson was born. As for Poveglia, I found that island and its history so disturbing that I had to write about it. Travel always inspires me—my bucket list is a mile long.
Your bio says you are a former journalist who tracked down snipers and canoed through crocodile-infested waters. What kind of journalist were you exactly? How did it influence your career?
I always wanted to be a novelist, but—believing I needed a more “practical” profession to pay the bills—I went into journalism first. I was a freelance journalist, which meant I did a bit of everything, from spending a month in Africa to write about safari tours to tracking down serial killers and arsonists. Journalism taught me to treat writing like a business and to take deadlines seriously. Interviewing hundreds of people gave me a good feel for dialogue, and I’ve seen how people react when faced with horrific situations. Hopefully that gives my stories more realism—it’s certainly left me with quite a few emotional scars.
How do you blend horror, mystery, and supernatural suspense? What genre would you say you fit into best?
Definitely supernatural or psychological suspense. I’m always fascinated by what makes people tick, and I’m not shy about delving beneath the surface. I don’t write cardboard characters—the people in my books are flawed, but that makes them relatable. The blending of genres comes naturally to me. It isn’t something I plan. I just set out to write the best story I can.
How did Jackson and Kate, the protagonists in the GhostWriters series, take shape in your imagination?
Usually what happens is I’ll have an initial idea for a book, and within a few days, a character will show up and start “talking” to me, telling me the story. That’s how it was with Jackson, and Kate was a part of his tour group in City of Ghosts. While I liked Kate, I didn’t originally envision her as such a big part of the narrative, but beta readers loved her and said she deserved her own book. That’s how City of Ghosts became a series, and I loved the chemistry between Kate and Jackson. There’s tons of banter and verbal jousting, especially in the second book, when they know each other better.
What is it about the supernatural that you find appealing?
I love the idea that there’s more to the world than the everyday, that there are still things to be discovered and mysteries to be solved.
What scares you? Do you believe in ghosts?
Well, Poveglia sure scared me! The evil that people are capable of doing to each other, to the environment, and to animals scares me. While it’s difficult for me to say I believe in ghosts, I’ve had too many experiences that can’t be explained otherwise. And I’ve interviewed many sincere, down-to-earth people who’ve had similar experiences. I don’t believe they were dishonest or deluded.
What is the number one thing you hope readers take away from your novels?
The common thread in my work is that the ugly secrets of our past will come back to haunt us. If my books can make readers care about people who come from other cultures and countries, people who are different from themselves, that would be wonderful. But I’d be satisfied if my writing moved them, or made them think.
What’s next for the series? Do you also have more new and exciting projects you are working on at the moment?
The third book in the GhostWriters series will be released in October, just in time for Halloween. I’m also working on a supernatural suspense series set in ancient Egypt, and have several mysteries/psychological suspense manuscripts under consideration with a few different publishers. So you’ll definitely be seeing more from me!
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Interview by Dag Rambraut – SFFWorld.com © 2017
Great interview! Now I want to visit Poveglia. There are so many spooky places in the world you’ll never run out of ideas. I’m going to read your books now! Thanks!
I loved both books and now I’m excited and anticipating the third as well as any new works! =) J.H. writes my favorite type of books!
Great interview J H. Can’t wait to read the books this weekend. ?
Thanks so much for the interview! It was a lot of fun.