The Next Big Thing Blop Hop: Bliss House

Oh, good! I've been tagged.

Welcome to the latest stop on The Next Big Thing Blog Hop. This particular blog tour invites writers to answer ten questions about their current Work in Progress, or forthcoming project. Each tagged writer answers the questions, then tags five or more writers to answer the questions on their blog, then they tag five more, and so on...It's a great way for readers and writers to find each other, don't you think?

First off, you'll want to get to know the amazing writer who tagged me. RT Book Reviews named J.T. Ellison's latest thriller, Edge of Black, a Top Pick, and called it her "best book yet." J.T. is a master (mistress!) of psychological suspense and her beautifully crafted stories are rich with emotional intensity. She's also incredibly prolific, having published nine books, several novellas and many, many short stories in the past five years. Thanks, J.T.!

Now, Bliss House. I've been working on it for quite a while, so I've posted about it, before. But here's an update:

1) What is the working title of your book(s)?

Bliss House

2) Where did the idea come from for the book?

I was working on an idea for another book, a thriller based on the folk tale, Hansel and Gretl. As I was working on the plot, I found myself deeply fascinated by the house in which the children were being held. I realized that the house was the source of many, many dark stories, and the haunting of Rainey Adams and her daughter, Jillian, is just the first.

3) What genre does your book fall under?

Supernatural suspense.

4) Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie version?

Ali Larter and Elle Fanning as Rainey and Jillian (mother and daughter); Eddie Cibrian, with Amy Adams as his wife. John Malkovich as The Judge.

5) What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Mother and daughter, burn victim, mourning, guilt, new home, old mansion, troubled past, mystery, sudden death, ghost dad, secret rooms, suspicion, murder, skeletons, secret passages, betrayal, redemption and forgiveness, the end.

(Okay, I know. That's technically a fragment.)

6) Is your book self-published, published by an independent publisher, or represented by an agency?

My wonderful agent, Susan Raihofer, of the David Black Literary Agency will represent the book. I'm in the final pre-submission editing stage now.

7) How long did it take to write the first draft of your manuscript?

The draft of Bliss House has taken me over two years to write. While working on it, I also published Devil's Oven, re-issued Isabella Moon, and Calling Mr. Lonely Hearts as ebooks, published a few short stories, and edited Surreal South '11, and Feeding Kate, two fiction anthologies.

8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

Anyone who has read my other supernatural books will find much to like in Bliss House. Susan Hill, F.G. Cottam, Alexandra Sokoloff (my favorite!) and Joe Hill also write about fictional hauntings. And just when I thought I had a perfectly brilliant, original idea to do a series of novels set in a single, demented house, I found that uber-horror writer Douglas Clegg did it, first! I haven't read his Harrow House series, but I admire his other work.

9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?

I've long wanted to write a haunted house story in the tradition of Shirley Jackson's classic novel, The Haunting of Hill House. There's more, but if I write about it now, I fear I'll give away the whole story.

10) What else about your book might pique a reader's interest?

Bliss House is not just the story of a house, but of a woman and her daughter trying to rediscover their love for one another against a background of life-changing tragedy. And, it's set in Virginia. Virginia has a place in my heart, and I hope to impart some of my love for it to every reader.

The next writers on the hop are...

Amanda Stevens
Maggie Caldwell
Terri Kirby Erickson

Next Wednesday, January 15th, these writers will post about their own Next Big Things.

Oops, I only have three writers to link to. I'm supposed to have five, but I asked many writers who had either already participated, or were on a blogging hiatus. When I have more to link to, I'll come back and post their names.

Thanks for dropping by!

Octoberguest! Amanda Stevens

If you chance to meet Amanda Stevens, don't be fooled by her sweet, southern smile. She's one scary thriller writer-chick. After you read her very timely post here at the Handbasket, you'll want to check out her novels: the ultra-creepy The Dollmaker (where's the film? that's what I want to know!), The Devil's Footprints and her March 09 release, The Whispering Room. You'll want to read her blog, too. I cruise by regularly and not just because she sometimes has Clive Owen Wednesdays....

Plus, Amanda may be the only other person here who knows who Echo and the Bunnymen are!

Welcome, Amanda!



By Amanda Stevens
The protagonist in my WIP is a taphophile, a person who loves cemeteries and funerals (not to be confused with a necrophiliac, which would be a whole nuther story). I wouldn’t say I’m a full-blown taphophile, but I do share my character’s fascination for old cemeteries, gravestone symbolism and burial rituals.

My character is also a corpse cosmetician (a dying art form), which gives her an insider’s view of the trappings of death. So without further ado, here is Lucy November’s List of Top Ten Taphophile Tidbits:

• In Germany, a cemetery plot is ‘leased’ for only a certain amount of time--ten, fifteen, twenty years. If you don’t renew your lot fee, they dig you up and remove the headstone.

• Corpses are no longer decaying in many German cemeteries. Instead, the deceased become waxen, an uncanny process that has disturbed the natural cycle of decay.


• The bone cathedrals in Rome use human remains for decorations, including bones fashioned into chandeliers.

• In New Orleans, family members can share the same vault as long as the previously deceased family member has been dead for at least two years. If a family member dies within that two-year restriction, local cemeteries are equipped with temporary ‘holding’ vaults.

• Washington Square served as a potter's field where the indigent of New York City were buried for several decades. A lawsuit was recently filed to halt any changes to the square, claiming that it would be disrespectful to the 20,000 or so dead souls that lie beneath. The argument was justifiably overruled, seeing as how the city turned the graveyard into a public park in 1827 and ran Fifth Avenue straight through it.


• Graveyard tourism is a growing phenomenon around the world.

• After scratch marks were found inside several dug up coffins, the ‘bell’ custom was instituted in England. A string tied around the corpse’s wrist was also attached to a bell on the surface to eliminate the possibility of being buried alive. Graveyards sometimes hired workers to sit all night listening for these bells (the graveyard shift).

• Hollywood Forever Cemetery (once known as Hollywood Memorial Park) offers biographies of the deceased in video kiosks, GPS disks to easily locate gravesites, and Cinespia, a summer film series where classic films are projected onto the side of a mausoleum for Saturday night audiences.

• Traditional visitation is still prevalent in the South, mostly at funeral homes, but in the olden days, these viewings took place in the family home where the men folk would sit up all night with the body. (Personal note: My grandfather’s wake was held at our home when I was a kid. The house was later redesigned so that the living room where the casket had been placed became my bedroom.)

• Old cemeteries are what some theologians have called “thin” places, where the veil separating our world and the next is translucent.

Lucy and I have visited some beautiful cemeteries throughout the South, but our aspiration is to one day tour Highgate Cemetery in London. We would be in good company because authors Tracy Chevalier (Girl with a Pearl Earring) and Audrey Niffenegger (The Time Traveler's Wife) have been known to volunteer as guides there. Not to mention that Highgate is where George Eliot, Karl Marx and Douglas Adams (The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) enjoy their perpetual slumber. But as the London Times puts it, the biggest attraction is the all-pervading gothic gloom.

Isolation, desolation and eerie atmosphere--what more could a thriller writer--or a taphophile--ask for?


Thanks so much, Amanda! I used to be so afraid of exploring cemeteries--not because I thought they were haunted, but because I thought I'd get in trouble. I think we should revive that quaint Victorian habit of picnicking in cemeteries.

[Remember--Everyone who comments is entered to win $100 Godiva Chocolatier and Harry & David giftbaskets, plus books from several Octoberguest! authors! Drawing held November 2nd.]

Tomorrow: Blogger and essayist Jody Reale