Haunted Computer Books: A Mystery to Me

My guest blogger today is Scott Nicholson whose e-book DISINTEGRATION I reviewed a couple of days ago. Scott has been on a non-stop blog tour since the beginning of September.

It is always interesting to find out what makes an author "tick", where the ideas for their books come from.
Please feel free to leave a comment for Scott, or pose a question for him, or to visit his site at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm
At the foot of this post you will find instructions about how to try to win a free Kindle as part of the tour.

Scott writes
I cut my teeth on Nancy Drew.
I thought she was pretty cool, with her sweaters and her Ned and her fearless attitude. I also liked the Hardee Boys, and Scooby Doo, and though I somehow bypassed Encyclopedia Brown, I probably would have liked him, too.

My teen self read a lot of the Alfred Hitchcock Presents anthologies, which used to mix horror, psychological thriller, and crime stories in a rich blend, something the namesake magazine got away from in the 1980s and 1990s. They seemed a lot milder, along with Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, and I send both of those editors a stack of submissions in the 1990s. Though I never cracked those pages, I did get some stories published in Blue Murder and Crimewave and a few other projects just a notch below in respectability.

I have enjoyed humorous mysteries by the likes of Charlotte McLeod, Janet Evanovich, Lawrence Block, and Donald Westlake, and Agatha Christie was a little too classist for my taste, but I trend toward the edgier psychological suspense instead of the puzzle-building mystery writers. Patricia Highsmith is one of my favorites, and Ira Levin, and William Goldman, who regrettably seems to have traded in his novelist hat for screenwriting. His style in “Magic” and “Marathon Man” leaves me in awe while simultaneously compelling me to turn the pages. Levin’s most famous for “Rosemary’s Baby,” but “A Kiss Before Dying” is a taut personality study, as is his play “Deathtrap.”

These days I read mostly independent writers like Debbi Mack, Vicki Tyley, and Simon Wood, all talents who will become widely known in the next few years. But I’m also likely to come full circle again and head back for the funny stuff. One of the best crime novels I’ve read recently was Jonathan Lethem’s “Motherless Brooklyn,” and the Dexter series is a riot. And though my “serious” novels like Disintegration and The Skull Ring rely on psychological tension, I’m having a blast plotting Albert Shipway’s evolution from insurance negotiator to claims investigator, complete with black magic, in the Cursed!series.

And I would be surprised if I caught up on all those Nancy Drews I’ve missed over the years. I wonder if she ever married Ned. I always thought she was too good for him. Or maybe I was just jealous.

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Scott Nicholson is author of 12 novels, including the thrillers Disintegration, As I Die Lying, Speed Dating with the Dead, Drummer Boy, Forever Never Ends, The Skull Ring, Burial to Follow, and They Hunger. He’s also written the YA paranormal romance October Girls and, with J.R. Rain, the urban fantasy Cursed! His revised novels for the U.K. Kindle are Creative Spirit, Troubled, and Solom. He’s also written four comic series, six screenplays, and more than 60 short stories. His story collections include Ashes, Curtains, The First, Murdermouth: Zombie Bits, and Flowers.


To be eligible for the Kindle DX or Kindle 3, simply post a comment below with contact info. Feel free to debate and discuss the topic, but you will only be entered once per blog. I’m also giving away a Kindle 3 through the tour newsletter and a Pandora’s Box of free e-books to a follower of “hauntedcomputer” on Twitter. Thanks for playing. Complete details at http://www.hauntedcomputer.com/blogtour.htm