Nick Roberts is the current King of Indie Horror. I'm not exaggerating. Did you see the photos from the Books & Brews event in August? There was a crown and a throne... It was legit. When I asked the community about their most anticipated upcoming releases, Nick's newest book was named a few times, and for good reason. Nick has made quite a name for himself in the indie horror community over the past few years. He won the Books of Horror Indie Brawl in 2023 with The Exorcist's House, and his other titles have circulated through review accounts on all platforms, with several of them having ratings numbers in the thousands.
The synopsis of The Exorcist's House: Genesis is as follows:
"In chasing devils, all roads lead to Hell.
1967: A brutal murder occurs at the Weston State Hospital in West Virginia. To amateur exorcist, Merle Blatty, this shocking story rings of the occult. Fueled by a desire to avenge the deaths of his wife and son, Merle investigates the case, unknowingly stepping into a sinister web spanning decades.
1997: It's been three years since the Hill family left the nightmares of the farm behind them. Alice is off to college while Daniel and Nora are closer than ever, living in Ohio and raising their three-year-old daughter, Maren. Their high hopes for the future are quickly extinguished when they receive a call, learning of a plan by Adam, Daniel's brother, to purchase the exorcist's former property and stage an Amityville-inspired haunting to profit from the story.
By alternating past and present narratives, The Exorcist's House: Genesis is a multi-generational odyssey through Hell, giving birth to a new breed of horror."
I asked Nick a few questions about the book and his writing, and he was kind enough to answer them for me. Check those out below:
Q: Genesis is both a prequel and a sequel. What made you decide to do both in one book? Did you know when you were writing The Exorcist's House that you wanted to explore both a sequel and the origin story?
A: The Exorcist's House: Genesis was always going to be a prequel/sequel hybrid, or it wouldn't have happened at all. I had no desire to jump back into that universe. In my mind, the loose connection between Anathema and The Exorcist's House answered all the questions if the readers caught onto the Easter eggs. The divisive reader response is what hooked me. Half the fans wanted a prequel that explored Merle's exploits as an amateur exorcist, while the other half wanted to know what happened to the Hill family after they left the farm. I took the narrative structure of The Godfather II and decided to tell both stories, with each flashback informing what was happening in the "present." I introduced a new villain with the power to play with time, so that was a convenient narrative device that hopefully doesn't feel forced. I'm excited to see if readers go along for the ride because it's a completely different beast than the first book.
Q: The Exorcist's House won the Books of Horror brawl last year, so you were ineligible to enter this year's brawl. Any plans to enter something next year?
A: It was a fun but stressful experience to win the 2023 Books of Horror Indie Author Brawl. It started off as this small, fun competition that had sort of a professional wrestling playfulness. As it grew throughout the year, people tried manipulating voters, the stakes were heightened when Cemetery Dance got involved, and fan bases got nasty at times. That's me focusing on the negative, though. I've said before that I wouldn't enter another Brawl, but I just entered the Short Smack Brawl with my collection, It Haunts the Mind and Other Stories. Next year, I might enter. It depends on what happens with my career up to that point. My ultimate goal is to become a traditionally published author but still do the occasional indie project.
Q: Jump scares can be hard to do in a book, but you've written a notable few. A certain scene in Mean Spirited comes to mind. Can readers expect the same from Genesis? How do you approach writing scenes where you want to catch readers by surprise? Do you have that goal in mind beforehand, or does it happen pretty organically for you?
A: I remember the first time I experienced a jump scare in a book, and it was a revelation. I didn't know books had that same sensory power as films. When I'm writing a "scary" scene, it starts with character and atmosphere. We have to care about the characters and be slightly on edge for a good jump scare to work, otherwise it's just a cheap startle, not a haunting image seared into your brain. I don't have a set routine or formula for achieving it. What works for me is my own barometer. If it doesn't creep me out, it's most likely not going to work on the reader. I see my novels in my head as I write them, so if something scares me, I know I'm on the right track and try not to second-guess myself.
If possession horror is your thing, or if you read The Exorcist's House and enjoyed it as much as I did, make sure you look out for The Exorcist's House: Genesis, published by Crystal Lake Publishing, on September 13th. Better yet, go ahead and preorder! You can order directly from Nick's website here, although it looks like signed physical copy preorders are sold out as of right now! You can also preorder the ebook here.
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