It’s not  that I’m a lazy blogger. Or maybe it is. Nonetheless, I’m going to reproduce (or recycle) a post I wrote for the horror blog at Samhain Publishing regarding my latest, MALEVOLENT. I think it serves as a pretty good intro to the book, and maybe my state of mind. Now that’s a scary thought.

What If…?

Horror writers have a knack for finding the dark underside of mundane life. For seeing incidents playing out in normal fashion, but thinking, “Okay, but what if…?”

What if that car runs the red light just as I pull into the intersection?

What if the stranger I keep seeing everywhere is stalking me?

What if that noise in the attic isn’t old wood settling?

It’s a matter of inventing an underbelly to everyday life. For making the glass not only half empty, but toxic. For instance, I was once (actually, twice) chased from a girlfriend’s apartment in the middle of the night by my allergic reaction to her cat. My sinuses dripped, throat clenched tight and I wheezed and sneezed so violently that I could barely see out my windshield on the wee-hours drive home.

True story. A real-life occurrence that’s merely semi-interesting unless it’s amped up. So let’s make it more than one cat – much more – in that dander-clogged home. And say that the place is sealed tight against escape and the summer heat. No way out, and no food for the cats or the three frail women trapped with them.

And there you have just one of many plot angles to my new novel, MALEVOLENT. It’s about an entity that probes until it finds the points of weakness in each of us. Like those three women in their house full of cats growing edgier and meaner and more desperate by the day.

And what if…well, what if you bought MALEVOLENT and found out?

You can reach David Searls at his blog, davidsearls.com. Or tweet him at @davidsearls1.