Tamara Thorne and I just did an interview at Authors on the Air with host, Pam Stack. We talked about THE GHOSTS OF RAVENCREST, THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING, our writing process, and some of our upcoming guests on Haunted Nights LIVE! Click the pic below to listen to the show:
Tomorrow night at 8:00 pm EST, Tamara Thorne and I will on Authors on the Air – on the other side of the mic. Host Pam Stack is turning the tables and will be interviewing us about our upcoming novel, THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING, which will be available soon.
Also, my hometown of Mt. Pleasant, Utah, did a feature in their local newspaper, The Pyramid, about THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING’S release. Give it a read and find out the official title of my upcoming solo novel, which will be available later this year.
It’s a matter of days now until we unleash the beast that is THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING on an unsuspecting public, and we’re very excited to do so. Tune in to Authors on the Air tomorrow night at 8 to hear more about this novel.
“Thorne & Cross are clever. The plot they create reads effortlessly, and they make us laugh and cringe and widen our eyes, looking away from the text at times to say, “Oh, no you didn’t.” But they did.”
Michael Aronovitz – author of Alice Walks, The voices in Our Heads, and The Witch of the Wood
March 24th, 2015
Tamara and I finished the final edits on THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING today. Tomorrow it will go off to the publisher for finishing touches and will make its way to e-readers by the end of this month – assuming nothing goes wrong. It’s been a joy writing this novel with Tamara and I’m very proud of it. Having finished CLIFFHOUSE, we now return full-time to GRANDMA’S RACK, which, too, is in the last stages and will be available within the next few months.
Meanwhile, I’m plugging along on my solo novel, and I’ll be disclosing its official title with the release of THE CLIFFHOUSE HAUNTING. This book has been a long time coming and has undergone many modifications – including name changes – but the final decision has been made. Its title is sound and appropriate, and I am much pleased.
In other writing news, a couple of my horror poems have been featured on Lindsey Beth Goddard’s blog. The two pieces she chose are titled THE BEAUTIFUL GIRL and A BOOK OF MORBID METHODS. Both of them are dear to me. You can check them out at: DIRTY LITTLE HORROR. While you’re there, give her a follow; it’s a great place to be.
Regarding Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE!, a slideshow gallery has been added to the guest page on my website. The new photo gallery features each of the show’s guests – those who have already appeared, and those who are scheduled for appearances. Check it out at: alistaircross.com/Guests
And speaking of websites, Tamara Thorne’s site is just about completed. I have seen it, and I approve. It’s beautiful, truly. And very fitting. Once it goes live, I’ll post about it so everyone can go check it out. It’s fantastic. I’m very excited.
Last but not least, DEAD GIRLS, the 6th installment of THE GHOSTS OF RAVENCREST, is just about ready to be released. I’m particularly fond of this episode because it introduces two characters – “The White Violet” and “The Bride of Ravencrest” – that I’m excited to learn – and write – more about. DEAD GIRLS will be available on April.
It’s been a long and busy past few months, but I’m excited for the material that is about to be released… and the material that is soon to begin.
Happy haunts,
~A
Elizabeth Massie is the author of 11 horror novels, 5 collections, and more than 100 short stories. She has won the Bram Stoker Award twice and the Scribe Award for her novelization of the third season of Showtime’s original television show, The Tudors.
Oh, and she’s going to be our guest this week on Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE! I can’t wait!
Click the link on Thursday at 9 EST to listen:
http://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorsontheairradio2/2015/03/20/elizabeth-massie-joins-thorne-cross-haunted-nights-live
Dare to Cross the Threshold…
Ravencrest Manor is the most beautiful thing new governess, Belinda Moorland, has ever seen, but as she learns more about its tangled past of romance and terror, she realizes that beauty has a dark side. Ravencrest is built on secrets, and its inhabitants seem to be keeping plenty of their own – from the handsome English butler, Grant Phister, to the power-mad administrator, Mrs. Heller, to Eric Manning himself, who watches her with dark, fathomless eyes. But Belinda soon realizes that the living who dwell in Ravencrest have nothing on the other inhabitants – the ones who walk the darkened halls by night… the ones who enter her dreams… the ones who are watching… and waiting…
DEAD GIRLS, the 6th installment of THE GHOSTS OF RAVENCREST, will be available in April. Till then, check out the rest of the series:
DARKER SHADOWS (includes the first 3 installments): http://www.amazon.com/Darker-Shadows-Ghosts-Ravencrest-Book-ebook/dp/B00OZ4C21C/ref=sr_1_1?s=digital-text&ie=UTF8&qid=1414713939&sr=1-1&keywords=darker+shadows+Thorne
CHRISTMAS SPIRITS (4th installment, and standalone historical novella): http://www.amazon.com/Christmas-Spirits-Ghosts-Ravencrest-Book-ebook/dp/B00QN0Q7ZI/ref=pd_sim_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=1MVMK452GWDKEQ8X466T
NIGHT MOVES (5th installment): http://www.amazon.com/Night-Moves-Ghosts-Ravencrest-Book-ebook/dp/B00SXJS40S/ref=pd_sim_sbs_kstore_2?ie=UTF8&refRID=12TW01QM3DVHSZN4H8RM
He’s been on Oprah, The View, Larry King Live, Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Late Night with David Letterman, and A&E – just to name a few – and NOW, he’s on THORNE & CROSS: HAUNTED NIGHTS LIVE! We’re talking to Professor Paranormal himself, and you can listen to it right now! Click the link below to hear what the one and only Loyd Auerbach has to say about ghosts, magic, the hottest haunted places, and life after death.
Be there if you dare: http://www.blogtalkradio.com/authorsontheairradio2/2015/03/09/loyd-auerbach-joins-thorne-cross-haunted-nights-live
March 12, 2015
It’s been a decade since I began concentrating my energy and aiming my efforts at a specific destination – and only in the past year or two have things started to make some sense. The journey from there to here has been a long hard practice in blind faith, and while the distance ahead is just as daunting, it’s hard not to look back from time to time and say, ‘Wow. What a ride.’
People have come; people have gone. Some of them knew me; some saw only their own ideals. But the few who really understood me and where I was trying to go – those who remain at my side today… they have my unending loyalty and love. They are my tribe, and I think that’s what it’s all about: Finding your tribe.
I have found my tribe. For the first time in my life, I feel like I’m in the right place at the right time. I’m doing something that utilizes every detail of who I am. Through writing, I’ve become fulfilled – which is, I believe, as close to any kind of lasting happiness as one can possibly get.
It hasn’t come easy, but on an innate level, I always believed that if I plowed onward, despite adversity and doubt, that by one means or another, I’d acquire the things I’d need to get where I was going. I’m happy to report that, so far, this has proven true for me. Also, I believe in leaps of faith, and understand faith to be a verb and not an idle state of mind. I’m grateful for that understanding because it hasn’t allowed me to be taken in by illusions of fate, privilege, or chance; I knew I’d have to work hard for this, and I that there’s a lot more work ahead of me. But I’m grateful for where I am now. Truly. And there’s much to be grateful for.
As I write this, my co-author, Tamara Thorne, and I are on the brink of releasing our debut novel, The Cliffhouse Haunting. While we’ve had five installments of The Ghosts of Ravencrest published – with the sixth on its way – Cliffhouse is special because it’s the first story line Tamara and I ever discussed together – it is the reason we’re still collaborating on so many projects, including Grandma’s Rack, which is in the final stages of production. Also, I am 60,000 words into my first solo novel, which has been a long time coming, and on top of all this, Tamara and I are happily hosting our own horror-themed internet radio show, Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE!, where, once a week, I get to meet some of the biggest names in the business. It’s all so surreal and I never would have predicted any of it. I don’t take these things for granted, and even if it ended now, I’d say that, yeah… persistence pays off. And then some.
~ A
Our friend, actor, screenwriter, and director, Mark Hein’s show, TV LIVE, will be playing on Friday nights for the next several weeks at Zombie Joe’s Underground Theater. If you’re in the LA area and love off-the-wall horror, this is the place to be…
He’s been on the The View, Larry King Live, The Oprah Winfrey Show, Criss Angel: Mindfreak, Late Night with David Letterman, Travel Channel, The Learning Channel, A&E, the History Channel, the Sci Fi Channel and TechTV.
And NOW, he’s going to be on THORNE & CROSS: HAUNTED NIGHTS LIVE! This week, we’ll be talking to Professor Paranormal himself! Tune in this Thursday at 9:00 pm EST where we’ll talk with Loyd Auerbach about ghosts, magic, the hottest haunted places, and life after death.
DEAD GIRLS, the 6th installment of THE GHOSTS OF RAVENCREST, will be available in April from Thorne & Cross!
For the rest of the series:
The Cliffhouse Haunting
by Tamara Thorne and Alistair Cross
Coming in March
When the Blue Lady walks, death walks with her…
Cliffhouse Lodge has been the center of the little town of Cliffside in the San Bernardino Mountains of southern California since it was built in 1887. Overlooking Blue Lady Lake, Cliffhouse was built by the Bellamy family and has been newly renovated by owners Teddy and Adam Baxter-Bellamy and their daughter, Sara.
In the 1880s, Cliffhouse served as a restaurant, hotel, cathouse, theater and tavern, and during Prohibition became a hangout for rum runners. Later, its hot springs attracted the wealthy; even presidents have stayed there.
Today, the lodge is famous for its luxurious accommodations, spa, fine dining… and its ghosts.
Although the cathouse and rumrunners have been replaced by a miniature golf course and a carousel, Cliffhouse retains its long dark history; darkest during the Roaring Twenties, when a serial killer named the Bodice Ripper terrorized the town and a phantom, the Blue Lady, was said to walk when murder was imminent.
Now, darkness has returned. There’s a serial killer on the loose, and the Blue Lady is again walking the shores of the lake below Cliffhouse.
Police Chief Jackson Ballou has bodies piling up that can’t even be considered murder victims, yet he knows they are. The Bellamys are losing maids and guests who hear their names whispered in their ears and see wet phantom footprints padding across the rooms, but nothing is as terrifying as the shrieking laughter that echoes through the halls in the dead of night.
The town of Cliffside, and Cliffhouse, is dependent on tourism; every weekend there’s something going on, be it a Civil War reenactment, a wine tasting, or Oktoberfest. It’s a perfect hunting ground for a serial killer… and the Blue Lady.
Between the murders, the ghosts, Blue Lady sightings, the histrionics of writer Constance Welling, and the antics of the hapless Dr. Siechert who loves making sausage, things are not going smoothly. Chief Ballou’s hands are so full that he can hardly pursue his romance with diner owner Polly Owen. And poor Sara Bellamy may lose her love, Luke Donovan, before they even have their first kiss.
Excerpt
He heard the Lady’s laughter, delightful and deadly…
“He turned to enter the staff lounge and wake up the napping night clerk when he caught a whiff of something dark and dank, of deep water hiding moldering roots and limbs of pine trees felled a century or more ago. The scent of rotting wood from boats and rafts sunken when Cliffhouse was new. The metallic bite of lost anchors and the dry smell of bones of men long dead. Gooseflesh prickled up his back. How many are lost out there?”
About the Authors
Authors Tamara Thorne and Alistair Cross joined forces in 2012, intending to write a short story together. One thing led to another, and they have since completed two full novels, The Cliffhouse Haunting and Grandma’s Rack (currently in production) and five installments of the successful Gothic serialized novel, The Ghosts of Ravencrest, including the tie-in novella, Christmas Spirits. In November of 2014, their horror-themed internet radio show, Thorne & Cross: Haunted Nights LIVE!, debuted to great acclaim as part of the Authors on the Air Global Radio Network, LLC. They are currently working on their next collaborative novel, due later this year.
Tamara Thorne’s first novel was published in 1991. Since then she has written many more, including international bestsellers Haunted, Bad Things, Moonfall, and The Sorority. Her novel, Thunder Road, hit bookstores in September, 2014. Tamara’s interest in the occult, mythology, and folklore began at an early age, and her interest in the paranormal has been life-long. She’s been a speaker for many paranormal groups and been involved in many investigations. She has appeared on the television show, Ghost Adventures, as well as gone on a five-day investigation to an allegedly haunted cabin in Gold Country with co-author Alistair Cross – an adventure that inspired The Cliffhouse Haunting. She has also been featured in various newspapers on the topics of haunted areas and local lore, and has been a guest on Anything Ghost, and many other syndications. Tamara is also a journalist who writes features for several southern California newspapers. See more at: http://tamarathorne.com. You can also visit Tamara on Twitter, Facebook, or at her blog.
Alistair Cross grew up on horror novels and scary movies, and by the age of eight, began writing his own stories. He is an avid poet who has been published in multiple collections, and his poetry has been featured on several syndications. His first work of fiction was published by Damnation Books in 2012 under the pseudonym Jared S. Anderson. Alistair’s fascination with the supernatural, combined with an affinity for psychological suspense, has shaped his writing and continues to influence his work. He became involved in paranormal investigations with Tamara Thorne, and their adventure, Five Nights in a Haunted Cabin, was the feature for an episode of Tales to Terrify, on the Lights Out podcast with paranormal expert, Sylvia Shults. Together, he and Tamara have also published articles for several publications, including Crystal Lake Publishing’s Beneath the Lake: On Writing Horror. Along with his multiple collaborative projects with Tamara Thorne, Alistair is currently working on a solo novel which he expects to be finished with this summer. See more at: http://alistaircross.com. You can also visit Alistair on Twitter, Facebook, or at his blog, Cross Talk.
