Get Booked – Mark Anthony 231023

Hello, I'm Hazel and this is Get Booked. Get Booked is all about talking to authors, chatting about anything and everything books related, and all the joy, enlightenment, and escape that good books can provide. Sit back and let us entertain you with a different guest each week, sharing who they are, what they do, and what inspires them. On today's show, we're going to be speaking to the author Mark Anthony about his two books, Lit and Ascent. Evil and merciless Leviathans attach to souls of the damaged among us. They feed off the emotions of these conduits but are always waiting. Anger, can identify a target. Light one for an eternity of pain. Once lit, there is no way out. Three conduits face their ever-present monster that inflicts their life with terror and loss. Friendships can be forged and alliances can be made. The event of the circle is approaching when conduit become the hunted by their own grotesque nightmare. Now, something else is surprising. There are others in the world who hunt their own. Mark Anthony had a nightmare many, many years ago, the type of nightmare that hangs over you for days, rattling around in your mind, and slowly it became a story of Lit and Ascent, the second book. A story that begged to be told. As an avid fan of supernatural and dark fantasy books and contemporary dynamic storytelling in general, it only made sense to bring this nightmare to life as a psychological horror that collides two worlds with raw, eerie, and terrifying consequences. Mark is actually a registered nurse and author who resides in Perth, Western Australia, with his partner and his 6-year-old son. An avid fan of the supernatural and dark fantasy genre, Lit was written during the COVID pandemic of 2020. With a talent for writing strong characters and then creating realities for them to live in, Lit is a psychological horror that collides two worlds with raw, eerie, and terrifying consequences. When your anger literally raises hell, how do you live? Today's books are brought to you by the Leschenault Press and the Book Reality Experience. They publish new authors from across the globe. You can check out their latest titles at bookreality.com. They're always on the lookout for fresh new stories in all genres. And yes, all you budding writers out there, they are open for submissions. Leschenault Press and Book Reality, great stories from great authors. That's bookreality.com. Okay, on to today's guest here on Get Booked. Now, I have been devouring Lit and apprehensively starting Ascent for the intoxicating journey. I know it will provide Tay— today's guest, Mark Anthony, and his book Lit and Ascent are a cacophony of the supernatural meets horror. Add in anxiety coping mechanisms, uh, throw in a good dose of childhood family trauma, constant brutality, and finish off with nightmares coming into fruition. Um, I hope you're all ready for this. Mark, hi, how are you? I am good, and that sounds absolutely terrifying, to be honest. The books are terrifying. I mean, I found— I so can't wait. I love the fact that I, I read books like lit, and I'm like, I actually get to ask the author what was going through his head. Me too, me too. I ask myself that too. Yeah, what was I thinking? Um, no, it's brilliant. I enjoyed it so much. Um, and but it was, it was constant brutality. But just, yeah, I gather that this was like a dream originally. The idea was born and you just went, right, let's get that down on paper. It's, it's funny because I've always, I've always enjoyed storytelling and writing. And, you know, I've always, even as a child, been known to have quite the imagination. And I did. It was many, many, many years ago, I had a nightmare. And it was just this dream, and it was one of those dreams that sort of played on you for a few days. And as usual, I started building up a story around it or building it into something else. And just sort of sat on it for quite a few years, actually. It was, um, it was definitely probably one of the main storylines I had brewing in my mind, but I did sit on it for a very long time. Oh really? Because you started— so you started writing it during the pandemic, so how long were you sitting on it for? Well, well, I would have— it would have been by about 8 to 10 years by that point. And of course, I mean, It probably in a completely different— and it was in quite a different form to what it ended up as being. Um, but we were actually— I was in London when the pandemic hit London. Um, so I, I got COVID in London. Uh, it was actually, um, the real COVID-19 in London just after it left. I think I left It left Tehran at that stage, came back to Australia, quickly got shipped off back home. And of course then we followed into the COVID lockdowns not that long afterwards. And that was when I, I don't know, I thought that, you know, that's when I started writing it. That's when I started thinking, you know, I could really put this together and see how this goes and, um, and building it from there. But yeah, it was, it was a weird time. It was a weird time. I, I find it interesting because there's a lot of people who have a book in them, and then when they all got furloughed, um, or they're in isolation in so many different ways that people, uh, were during the pandemic, and some people like, right, this is the time that I get to write the book, whereas other people were just like, yeah, I just can't put my yourself through that? Because some people maybe wrote something that was a bit more traumatic. So some people could cope with it, and some people were just like, oh, now is not the time to let my head go to this. That's right. Now, now, yeah, when I will write a children's book or something, um, or we'll start, you know. But I mean, fair, cool. A lot of people during that time did multiple different things too. They took on new hobbies, and they took on, you know, they learned, you know, learned another language, or we did whatever we could to, to cope. Um, with such a dramatic change in our life. But I was still actually working, so I was still nursing at that stage, but it was really, really tense. Yeah. So because of course we didn't know what was happening, we didn't know what was to come, and we didn't know what would be expected of us. And, um, so I think maybe that was a way of funneling my attention, um, of funneling those feelings into something creative, if that makes sense. It completely does. I think we all had to find what worked for us, and sometimes we just needed distracting, or we just needed to refocus. Yes, yeah, and just getting that time and that space, albeit not a comfortable space. Nobody was in a comfortable space,. But that space to actually just to think, okay, well, you know, I might as well— I mean, it's quite optimistic— make the most of this time, you know. So, and that's when it started. Yeah, that's when I decided to make a serious effort. So you decided, you know, during a pandemic to start writing a book where evil, brutal Leviathans attach their souls to kind of, um, just the everyday person, and they basically try and wind these everyday people up so that they can kind of— when they get angry, they get this kind of pathway in to steal the person that's near them. And doom them to a life of torture in hell. Yes, their own special little corner of hell. Yes, and I think sounds terrible, but that's— yeah, um, it really was. I think it was— I think there was a lot of, a lot of play with the— first of all, I wanted to, um, the character development was really important to me, and as much as I knew that it had to be quite brutal because just the premise is, I mean, the Leviathans are, are, are, are merciless, vicious, malicious, sinister things that, so, so with them it was then I had to counter them with writing these characters that actually had soul and nuance, because the, the Leviathans, of course, had no nuance. So they were attached to these people, these vessels that I had to— that I, that I really wanted to make as very three-dimensional people, um, trapped in this awful situation coming from these, uh, from these different backgrounds, different diverse backgrounds. Where, yeah, effectively if you get angry with someone, um, then you, you condemn that person to an eternity of, of suffering at the heart, you know, in the hands of your own monster. Well, I was kind of reading this and I was thinking, does this serve as like a kind of metaphor for letting the black dog in? And literally not like monster dog in the case of like Josh, but, but it's a bit like you know, because we all know sometimes that we can't let the anger in because it just takes us off to a different kind of playing field and it can be quite dangerous. And I found it kind of weirdly relatable. Yeah, and that's funny enough that I get that response a lot. Different people seem to relate to different characters within the book for one reason or another. And, and I think that that's right. It's because of that, first of all, you know, making them very three-dimensional characters. So, you know, because that's what we are effectively, you know, we're not, we're not, we're not all good. We're not all bad. We're not, we're not, we're not, we're not all positive or all negative. We have these nuanced personalities, which I— however, that doesn't make you necessarily unlikable. But it does, it does talk to how you would deal with trauma, how you— well, how trauma and how depression and anxiety has, has molded your— very, very subjectively molded your personality. And of course, the damage that, that anger can cause. This probably just takes it one step further to, you know, how would you live if that was the way, if that was something you lived with where your anger could cause that much suffering? How would you live with that? Would you give into it? Would you fight back? Would you let it overcome you? Would you, you know, and in the books and in, you know, I'm currently in the middle of writing the third book. Um, they all deal with it in their own very, very different ways. It's— I mean, I've actually ended relationships before because their behavior, whether it was intentional or not, made me— it made me so angry that I felt unsafe with constantly being on high alert. And it seems really weird, but I just couldn't be in a relationship where I constantly felt like I didn't know when I was going to blow my top because I looked like I was being the weird one. But every week— that's very true. Yeah. And the thing is, we're all kind of trying to stop the anger coming. There are things that wind us all up, and there is a lot more people out there with anxiety, and we, we're constantly living ways where we can't always explain to other people, but we have to do things that we might keep to ourselves to just keep our levels at a safe level. And I just, every week I've got a few friends at work who absolutely love books and like, right, what are you reading this week? And I was like, oh my God, so I'm reading Lit and basically, and I explained the premise, premise, and I turn around and says, can you imagine if you had to live your life avoiding anybody that got you angry? And she, she just went I wouldn't be able to leave my room. I couldn't see my husband. I was like, no, I wouldn't get taken. Absolutely. And that is really— that is in some— it's a presence, or the theme of the story that's always there is that these people, these conduits, have suffered multiple losses. Due to this, due to— I think there was something that I wrote in Sam's narrative of, you know, purely for living a normal life as a normal person. Yeah. So, um, and but you're absolutely right, you know, I, I have a friend who entered a relationship not that long ago as well, and for quite some time she was very, very passive about it. And one of my other friends asked me about it. I said, no, no, I said, she's not, she's not scared of the person of which the relationship ended. She's scared of how angry he makes her feel. That look ridiculous, you know, it says that we, we have to control who we are and how we can be to our children, how we can be at work. We, you know, yeah, yeah, it's, it's, it's mental. I did, as I was reading the book, I was just going, I kept on having to stop to think what would I do in that situation? And it really gets you thinking, especially with, um, Ellie, when somebody got taken because he, he attacked her. Yeah. Now, he did something really wrong. You cannot just grab women. You can't, you can't— no, no— assault women. But because she was taken by surprise and got angry, he got doomed to a life of torture. You know, it's up for debate whether that's proportionate. I'm learning. But you know, you could also, there was, you know, there's multiple different times. You could think like, you know, somebody's, you know, a checkout operator is rude to you in a service station, road rage, how Sam lasted so long at work in the corporate environment, I have no idea. So, so obviously they build these inner boundaries and these inner coping mechanisms, and, um, and they all, they all adapt to them very differently, um, which I explore even more with the, with the second book, and of course introduce even more characters and how they have adapted. And some, of course, you know, adapt by completely embracing it. You know, um, which is kind of— which is— which is— is not beneficial to them because it's not— it's not a happy way out. The story— the story is quite bleak. The lore is quite bleak around Lich. It's not a nice way out because ultimately it will destroy you. I mean, they're not— yeah, you know, they're not your friends. They're actually there to destroy you. But it's exhausting, isn't it? Constantly having to manage your levels as well. And listeners, don't get me wrong, the book is brilliant. It's— I love the concept because I can— you can kind of— it is one of those books that kind of gets you thinking as well. But it is a lot of work. Yeah, it is. I know. I think, um, I think, uh, for a few reasons, I've— with the, um, I wanted it to be I mean, there had to be— I didn't want it to be body horror. I didn't want it to be purely head count, body count. I wanted it to be that the antagonist had to be sinister enough. And it's also, I mean, I remember one statement was it's actually more of a suspense horror. Um, because it's the atmosphere that is created and carrying that atmosphere through the whole book of that, as you were talking about, that uncomfortable place of, of, you know, what, what would I do? How would I respond to this? Would I, would I respond better? Would I respond worse? Would I, would I, you know, um, and I think that that is really kind of the razor's edge I try to keep the readers on. And then of course you have that moment, those moments where the sheer brutality and the brutality of, you do have body brutality. And unfortunately with my background, I know I'm very good at anatomy. However, human anatomy. Well, it helps. However, yeah, it does, it does. But also the, the psychological horror aspect of, you know, having your worst traumas used against you. So always being kept on that, on that trigger, your finger's always pushed on this, just tapped on that trigger. Yeah. And that's exactly where the Leviathan needs to keep you and wants to keep you. So, and the thing is, it's not just a case of people like doing it intentionally, they are doing it in intentionally. And weirdly, the bit that I kind of— I like the little nod to the fact that everyone has different forms for their Leviathan. Yes. You know, whether it's a grizzly monster dog or some cute demented little girl, very kind of Exorcist. Yeah, she sort of gets a lot of the dark child concept. She's everybody's gory favorite. No, no, no, no, no. Yeah. Funny enough, and this is interesting, just the— oh, she was based on my granddaughter. Wow. Yeah, my granddaughter is beautiful, but she's a little juggernaut. And it was, you know, the juxtaposition of having something that's quite small and waify, as horrific looking as she is, But of course, mimicking, mimicking as Leviathan does something that is so supposed to be so innocent and harmless and benign and doing it badly because Leviathans mimic badly. And I think that's the thing is that they take— and I think it's explained in the book and certainly goes into it more in the second book— is that they mimic because they've never actually seen, seen the world through their own eyes. So that's, that's, it's the concept of uncanny valley, if you know that, that horror concept of something is scary if it's not completely— there's something about it that's not right. It's a feeling, it's a, it's a vibe something will give you, it's an atmosphere something creates, that feeling in your guts. Yeah. So, you know, something can sit there looking quite, looking quite benign, and yet you still have that, that unease. That's the kind of things I get when, when my beagle knows that the kids are getting a bacon sandwich and she's not getting any because she's on a diet. It's that kind of look I get where it's like, I'll remember this, I'll remember this. And yeah, yeah, I'm not happy. And, um, and like, you know, it's, um, and you're right with the different forms of it. And you know, it's, and you, you want to be quiet. And that, that actually took quite a lot of of thinking, of reflecting, because of course it had to match the character. And they actually do. So it also carries with it an element of, you know, of just childhood, you know, alienation and discrimination. You know, you've got the little girl because, you know, Sam's past being a gay man and being berated by his father as a child and being called a little girl. Yeah, so though his, his form takes this, you know, which is one little girl you don't want to meet, um, and, uh, you know, um, so it was so that, that sort of— so of course it's not only that presence of that, of that, of them, what they can do, but they're not only, you know, their, their way through the Conduit is to work on that Conduit's inner, inner, inner, um, pain and trauma. And bad memories and rejection and, and, and sorrow and, and feelings of, um, feelings of, uh, worthlessness and hopelessness. Um, and they want to keep them there the whole time. Yeah, I mean, I'm sure there's a lot of people with depression listening right now going, wow, okay, yeah. It's funny, you know, I mean, how old, how old, you know, you can be 20 or you can be, you can be 50 and you still have those, those, some of those demons can stick around for a very, very long time. And, um, you know, it's, it's an interesting, yeah, it's interesting. It is, it is. Um, I did, I, I, it was interesting because it was one of those things where I'd read parts and I just had to put it down every now and again because my brain was going off in a little spiral going, wait a minute, but what about this situation and this situation? Yeah, yeah, yeah. I kept on going off on little mini tangents in my head. Um, well, if you think about it, if you can even live— like, you can either choose to live, you know, as some of the characters do, they live as a recluse, um, with a carefully thought out structure around them to control what they know is there, and they basically mute themselves and become extremely passive, or you can push it all down with humor, um, um, and a brazen attempt at having a normal life, um, presenting, presenting as, as not normal— that's a horror— that's the, for lack of a better word. Yeah, they have a life that would be perceived as being thriving Um, and, and it is about— it's not really even self-perceived because, you know, we don't get to fool ourselves as well as we fool other people. So as long as— a lot of the time we confuse that with, you know, as long as I can project this, this outside image, then all is well. And it's not well. That's not thriving, that's surviving. There's a big difference. Yeah, but I think— and it's totally fine sometimes though when we feel a little bit vulnerable, that we do— we can take a step back sometimes. Sometimes we just know that we're overwhelmed. Yeah, I need to be in for a bit. And your friends are like, oh, but come out, you need your friends around you. And sometimes it's okay to sit there and read a book or to just devour a Netflix series because— yeah, yeah, yeah. Um, I must say, sometimes like kind of the relentless torture of what was going on in hell, you know, it's a nice little reprieve from— from— was it though? Was it really? Um, well, you know, from a story point of view, if you have to have— if you, if you have a villain of the piece, um, the, the, the villain's, um, the, the, the poignancy of the villain really, um, really influences how people see the plight of your protagonist. Yeah. So, you know, the more you've got this, the bigger the threat, then the more gravitas the task of the protagonist have. And so, and I wanted to meet that. So I wanted that to be, you know, a battle in all, in all different areas. Not only, of course, the physical battle, but the psychological battle of showing what these, what these beings are capable of doing. Well, what they want to do and their only drive to do. Um, yeah, so I had to show very, in a very real colorful, visceral way what they were capable of doing. What was that like to write? Because you must have like, I don't know, written a couple of thousand words and then said, hi guys, I'm going to just nip out and get in some fresh air for a bit. I'll be back in an hour once I've kind of Ctrl+Alt+Deleted my brain from skinning somebody alive. Funny enough, it's It's not— how to make this not sound like I'm psychotic. Okay. No, I think writing the— funny enough, writing the actual scenes of the physically violent scenes were more so technically challenging. Because of course, you want it to be— seamless. You want it to be, you want it to be significant, but you don't want it to stray into being, um, into being gratuitous. Yeah. Um, it was more so when the times when I felt that I needed to walk away, um, were when it starts getting more into the, um, the psych— the, the, the emotional psychological gameplay. Right, because that can actually be quite exhausting. And keeping yourself— and because they all have— they all— I mean, they do meet each other, but in the beginning of beginning, um, you get it. I want to try— I want to try and give a very clear, clear independent view of who these characters were. So when I actually brought them together, they could all hold themselves as being as being fully fledged, fully rounded characters. And I think it was, yeah, so it was more of, but that was the emotional aspect of it, diving into the uncomfortable, yeah, the uncomfortable blackness of it, not so much the violence. I know, I don't know how that sounds, but keeping it, the atmosphere in that zone, Yeah, I get that. Can make you— can be, can be quite exhausting. Yeah, it's about everything you write. It's about, it's about telling the story in a way, um, what I try to do is tell the story in a way where the, the reader is kept in that state of, of anxiety, of overgameplay, of, of emotions, and and, you know, anger and, and moments of calm followed by moments of terror followed by moments of doubt and all these. And, and, and that takes a lot of effort emotionally. It kind of— I likened it a bit in my head to coercive control. Yes, yes. Oh, exactly, exactly, that coercive control. Yes. And keeping— and, um, keeping you low, keeping you exhausted, alienating you. And I was just like, whoa, there are so many metaphors in this. It's just— yeah, it's an extremely abusive relationship. And, um, or, you know, um, have you— I mean, I know you haven't read Ascension yet, and I'm not giving any spoilers But how we— and then, you know, as we will, some of us develop a feeling of contentment in that space, almost like a Stockholm syndrome. Yeah, you know, I'm being looked after, I am being, um, I am being protected. Does that make sense? Yeah. Um, and that is, you know, so yes, so yes, these, these, you know, this, these bad things are happening, but I'm quite untouchable because I, I have this amazing, you know, I have this, this awesome— and not in a good way— awesome negative attribute that I can either fight against and make myself vulnerable to not only that attribute, to everybody else around me, or I can embrace it and accept it. Accept it for what it is, or what it is not. It's not your friend. It's not your friend. Acceptance can be powerful in some situations, not necessarily in others. I'm intrigued. Oh yeah. I gather you've got a son, and I'm intrigued. At what age will he be allowed to read your books? Well, funny enough, he doesn't— Spend time. Yeah, I would, I would probably say much later. He's at the moment, he's 9. Yeah. So, and he was my, he's a little adopted boy. Um, he is actually on the COVID of Ascent. That's how— oh right. Um, and, and the character was based around, um, I do a lot of people watching You know, so I, I do a lot of people watching. So messed up. Yeah. So, so Harry was, um, so the character of Josh was based on, on my, my little boy. And, um, and, um, more so the way he spoke and the way he moves and the way he, you know, that type of, um, because I am a people watcher. I'll, I'll watch somebody and have something interesting about them, and all of a sudden I've created a whole backstory for them. I love that. I mean, sometimes I will just sit there with a book and after each chapter in a café somewhere, I'll then just watch people for a bit and then let my mind run wild. And we can all do it. And it's not— I mean, we can all think of, like, for example, you know, we can all think of very grisly things. We can all think of very, you know, very bad, scary things. The only difference is maybe I like to do something productive with that and put that into a into a— I mean, I've been writing sometimes, and I've been sat there at night, and I, I live in a big house, um, you know, and the wind's going through it, and it's 11 o'clock at night, and I'm writing some of those scenes you're talking about, and I'll be like, oh, that's okay, yeah, I'll turn the light on, and I go, oh, that's horrible, well, that's— yeah, okay, I'll keep going with that, uh, you know, um, maybe it's me filtering it out in a way that, um, you know, good versus evil. But, um, but yeah, we all have that. We all have those thoughts. I just built a story around it. Yeah, do you know what, that's, that's productive. That's, um, positive attribution there in action for you. I like it. Well, I've also always— funny enough, I've always, I've always had, um, sleep paralysis as well since I was a child. Oh wow. So, um, I've suffered with sleep paralysis for many, many years. Um, so a lot of, a lot of it is also embedded in that as well. So I, I was pulling from, you know, a lot of the personal experience from that too. Um, and, and yeah, it, and then yeah, after a while, as anybody who tells a story knows, it starts to really build itself. Writing the characters, the characters start to write themselves. You know, you will, you will, you will, you know, one of the best things you'll do, or one of the most, one of the, the most rewarding things you'll do, is you'll sit there and you have two main characters that you've had in two past publications have a conversation and it just flows. Yeah, well, they're part of you and they've already, you know, do you sometimes think, are they having conversations without you? Yeah. And also, on saying that though, you also know, you also know when it's not working. Yeah. So you'll be like, well, actually, no, no, they wouldn't do this. That's not, that's not, it's not, it's too contrived. So you have the, these characters now living in your head and they're all going through these horrendous traumas. With Leviathans. Yes, that must be interesting in your head. Well, you know, you have an endgame. Um, it's, it's, uh, it's because I do like to do, um, I, I know that, you know, working on, like, for example, right now, look, working on the third book, um, I do, um, it's, it's, it's always nice to resort back to what you know well and to go back to the original characters that are, um, that you feel comfortable with. But it's also, there is excitement of building a new one, of embedding a new character into that story, because every new character changes the dynamic of, as in real life, changes the dynamic of the group within the book. But that's the thing, isn't it? That is real life. We meet new people all the time and our life goes off in different journeys, and sometimes it goes excessively well and sometimes a little bit worse. And no, I like that, you know, you follow the journey. I think that's great. Absolutely. And that's something that I really— and that I couldn't write. And when I write, I actually write for— I get inspiration by writing about people that to me are in some way inspiring. And whether it be, whether it be people who have gone through, gone through things or faced things or, you know what, just normal people. Yeah. And that is, that is really, you know, do you want, did you, do you want Ellie to be 100% pure? No. There are sometimes you want Ellie to be unlikable. You want Ellie to make decisions that you wouldn't make. But that's normality. Nobody does. That's normality. That's exactly right. I love that. Unfortunately, we are running out of time. I could keep on talking about this for ages, but I want to point out to all of our listeners to pop on to authormarkanthony.com to go and check out the two books and to make sure they follow you on the socials so that they can find out when the third one is going to be released. I'm doing my best. I'm doing my best. Thank you so much for joining us on Get Booked, the women's and men's radio station. I've had an Absolute riot, and I've just loved chatting to you about the whole kind of element of letting the black dog in. Oh, that's great, and I'm glad you enjoyed it. And just remember, if you get— if you do get too unsettled, it's all pretend, okay? But is it? Yes, but is it? Exactly. Did the idea come to you because some Olivia Finn was like, ah, we need someone to tell our story? Yes, no, it starts with me. Actually, you just give me a new plotline. Thank you. You're very welcome. Thank you so much, Mark, for joining us on the show. Thank you. That was today's guest on Get Booked, Mark Anthony, chatting about Lit and Ascent. The third book is in the works, so please do go and check him out on his website at authormarkanthony.com and follow him on the various socials. We're very lucky now that today's guest has also done an author-read extract of the books we've been discussing today. Enjoy! It was a few hours into her night and Ellie had decided, after the day she had had, to take things a little gentler this evening. The events of the last 2 days were part of her every thought. The work she performed was merely routine, allowing her mind to be engulfed by these thoughts and the many questions with no answers. What happened last night? She now knew she was not the only one. This had also been confirmed by the presence of that man at the old mill. Why was she licked by the boy? If she was licked merely because he saw her just as the process began, This could explain a few things in her past. So she had It, a tall beast-like man, and the boy Josh had a dog-like creature that was terrifying to say the least. She wondered why she had always thought that if there was anyone else like her that their nightmares would be very similar. They were different. It and the dog were very different. But there were also similarities in the way they looked and smelt. Vile, blackened, vicious, and each as terrifying as the other. However, the dog attacked differently, primal and wild. Its world was also different from that of her own monsters. She had seen that place many times before, always slightly different but the theme was always the same. No, last night was very different. Ellie did not like different or surprises. She lived her whole life avoiding surprises. The events of the last 24 hours had made her anxiety levels rise through the roof. Slowly she made her way into the library to the last few tasks, so routine that very little thought had to be applied. She looked up and immediately jumped in surprise, dropping the spray bottle from her hand. There was a figure, standing at the door of the library, very close, peering in through the window behind the desk. They regarded each other for a moment, then slowly, cautiously, the little hooded figure's hand rose and gave a quick shy wave. It walked up beside her, just as it had a few hours ago at the old mill. It was the little boy from last night. "Shit," she muttered to herself. His little hand waved again, this time with more enthusiasm. Elly's first thought was caution. She had to be careful. She in no way wanted to have a night again like last night. This wouldn't happen if he wasn't angry, though any child was a train wreck of poor emotional self-regulation. He probably would be very resilient, children often were, but generally not able to control their emotions as effectively as she could. Last night he had no control, just like she hadn't the first time. The effect was the same, as both their families had gone. Her second thought was, "The dog is with him." She knew this simply by her own monster's response to the presence of Josh. It couldn't see people unless she lit them, so it was obviously seeing something else. It walked to the side of the glass door and, just as it had at the old mill, made its presence known to something beyond the glass. Beyond the boy, who now began to include tapping on the glass with increasingly desperate hand waving. The kid was probably safe enough to be around as long as he wasn't triggered. She would be okay. As she wandered slowly towards the door, she wondered why she was doing this. Why was she going to talk to him? Curiosity on her part, maybe? She wanted to know more about him in order to eliminate any risk of being surprised again like last night. Slowly, with a click of the bolt on the door, she opened it, and the boy she knew as Josh appeared in front of her. "Hi," he said awkwardly. "It's me." "Josh? From last night?" "Hi," Ellie said softly, the door only half open. Josh started to fidget, shifting from one foot to the other. He had hoped that when he saw the girl, she would be happy to see him. She didn't seem happy, and this confused him. Had he done something wrong? "Do you remember? We met last night?" he asked hopefully. As tense as she felt, Ellie still found it humorous that he felt he had to qualify himself. Junkyard, 3 people torn apart, smashed car windows, running through mud and almost getting eaten by a giant dog. Yes, she did remember meeting him last night. "Yes, I remember you, Josh," she replied unemotionally. "Whadda you doing here?" "I came here to look for the junkyard place, you know, the place where my mum was." The loss and desperation in his eyes were unbearable. Ellie looked down as maintaining eye contact with him made her feel vulnerable and weak. "Do you know where we were last night?" he asked hopefully, staring up at her. Multiple answers ran through Ellie's mind, but none seemed suitable for a child and none seemed sufficient for him to accept and leave without finding his mother. There was an awkward silence, then after the briefest of moments, Josh leant forward knowingly and whispered, "It's okay, don't worry. He went away but came back this afternoon, but he hasn't been biting anyone. He hasn't tried to bite me or anything. He just growls a lot, that's all." Ellie realised he had assumed that she could see the massive dog that was with him, In turn, she concluded that he could not see it, standing on the other side of the door, grunting and muttering obscenities. Now she knew why, just like a few hours ago with the stranger on the path, these monsters see each other. "I can't see him, Josh," Ellie replied, choosing not to deliver another statement. She wouldn't tell him that he also could not see the monster man with her. "Why can't you see him?" Josh asked, baffled. "That's not the way it works," Ali quickly replied, and with that she stepped a little closer to him through the door. "Now I can't see it, and it can't see me either." Josh hung on her every word as it became clear that she knew all about this. She knew more than him. She knew about the dog, and she was right. The others could not see the monster dog either, Well, not until everything went bad. On the porch, no one saw him. In the courtyard before they entered the junkyard, no one could see him. But in the junkyard, they saw him very, very clearly. "Why?" Josh asked quietly, intrigued. "Why can't you see it?" "Because I can't see it and it can't see me. Not until you let it see me." "Shut up, Ellie. Shut up." It seemed helpless, trying to hold back. This child was like her, and she felt a weird sense of responsibility to answer his questions. Questions she had never been asked by anyone before. It got my mom last night and it hurt her, remember? She might need help to get home. Do you know where she is? I think she's lost. His eyes were begging for an answer. She didn't come home. Oh God, there it is. The question she had been dreading. What to say, how to say it. His face, his eyes were yearning for an answer so he could get his mom and take her home. This was not possible, but she could not be the one to tell him this. She didn't know where to start. How do you explain that? No, you got angry, and as a result of that, your mother, even as we talk now, is in a special kind of hell. She will stay there for all eternity. She is gone, and hopefully, if you're lucky, you will never see her again. You do not want to ever see her again. Josh, I don't know. With this, she watched his face crumble. I don't know either, he pleaded, but if you knew where that place was, we could go and look. The dog is being good now. The dog was, as she suspected, right there with him. This is what it was looking at. This was crazy, absolutely crazy, and she wondered what she had done to deserve 3 interactions with these people in a mere 24 hours. These people, she considered quickly, my people. Ellies sighed heavily, placed her hand on the doorframe and opened it wider. She noticed his face was so pale. That was probably why his brown eyes seemed to glisten so much. The skin around them was almost bone white. His eye was injured. She could see the bluish tinge of a bruise that formed under his eyelid. She felt pity. If he had the number of bruises on his little body after last night as she had on hers, that he was going to be uncomfortable to say the least. "Are you hungry?" She asked almost without thought and was surprised at the speed of his response. "Yes!" He said with simple honesty as his face lit up with relief and delight, not only from the thought of the food but that someone was with him, speaking to him. Both of these made him happy. "OK," Ellie thought for a moment, a gnawing feeling that was going against her better judgment. "Give me a minute." She closed the door behind her and noticed the boy happily turn around, walk a few steps, and stare back at the door with anticipation. What the hell was she doing? It was okay, she told herself. It was going to be okay. Feed him, talk to him, send him to his grandmother's or something. They will deal with this there and then. She will not exist. She will just fade into the background. "Come on," she directed, walking past Josh, who eagerly walked after into the night. "See, the dog is being good now!" he exclaimed in an attempt at making Ellie feel better. Ellie smiled faintly. "Yes, I'm sure he is." Today's books are brought to you by the Leschenault Press and the Book Reality Experience. They publish new authors from across across the globe. You can check out their latest titles at bookreality.com. They're always on the lookout for fresh new stories in all genres. And yes, all you budding writers out there, they are open for submissions. Leschenot Press and Book Reality—great stories from great authors. That's bookreality.com. I'm Hazel Butterfield, and you've been listening to Get Booked for Women's and Men's Radio Station. Catch me here every day of the week at 5 PM for Women's Radio Station and every Tuesday at 4 PM for Men's Radio Station. And you can catch up on previous shows at womensradiostation.com/shows/getbooked. Playing us out to the end of the show is a recent show. Right, my lovelies, now it is time for today's guest, Maria Lewis, and her book The Graveyard Shift. The killer is out there and they're listening. I love thrillers and I read this in the perfect setting to just kind of holidaying alone while also being a radio presenter who is regularly in the studio solo. It's a good old thriller slasher akin to the kind of Scream franchise, but with far better writing, less cheese, and a great dose of pop culture. Now, just how far will some people go to not have their dreams slashed? Ah, so what I did there— to hold their ground when the world is oversaturated with competition? And egos. Tinsel Monroe has finally worked her way through the ranks to have her own paid radio show, The Graveyard Shift— literally. Although a show focused on cult thrillers is going to attract a certain clientele, what unfolds is beyond most radio presenters' level of comfort. Luckily, Tinsel's sister Pandora is on hand with her investigative expertise to uncover what the hell is going on. Maria, thank you for joining us on Get Booked. How the devil are you? I'm good. What an amazing intro. I don't know if anyone in my— I don't know if I will take any compliment stronger and more seriously than saying the writing in The Graveyard Shift is better than Scream. That has absolutely tickled my pickle. Oh my God. Definitely better than Scream 3 for sure, but I don't know if I'm quite up to the standard of the others, but I'll take it. It's— I mean, because it was kind of a little bit— I mean, you write characters fantastically, um, and I love how you kind of— there was— I was kind of giggling sometimes in a book about someone getting kind of constantly slashed and people getting murdered left, right, and center, but I think it was kind of like how you brought a lot of normalcy to these kick-ass characters who are still in, you know, shitty relationships and still kind of failing in other areas and smashing it in others. But that's normal, right? And I assume that was quite intentional. Yeah, I just think this idea, and it's a very old school idea, I think the narrative on this is changing. But, you know, separate to this being a slasher, right, each character existing and having their own life like this is the thing with stories like this is, I think, the best kind of characters and the best sort of immersive storytelling. It doesn't feel like you're at the beginning. It feels like you've immediately stepped into somebody's life. You've stepped into the middle of their story. And this idea that women can have it all is a fairy tale and maybe impossible. And it's just like, I don't know about you, but I've never really had that thing where it's like my career will be going great and my relationships are going great simultaneously. It's like one thing or the other, or like one thing is up, one thing is down, or like you know, your health might be growing really great and then something else might be not going so great. And just that feeling, like the, you know, the, the narrative is that's abnormal, but the reality is that's normal. That's the human experience, right? Is that your life comes in seasons and there are sometimes that are like career season, sometimes a love season, sometimes a family season, all that kind of stuff. And so I wanted Tinsel and Pandora, both of them specifically, like, obviously Tinsel's our in-character. She's the one who brings the audience into the story, and she's, you know, sort of the driver of narrative. But Pandora is such a big part of her world, and I really wanted those two sisters to feel really real and lived and authentic as they are living through a slasher, you know what I mean? Yeah, it kind of interwoven really, really well and just kind of you kept on getting these surprises of kind of what you would expect a certain character to be or what they would admit to. And then— no, I enjoyed it. I just— it kind of felt a little bit comforting in a weird way of a thriller slash. Well, yeah, I mean, horror movies are my favorite thing in the world. It's like my favorite genre, period, whether that's TV, film, books, whatever. And it is a comfort for me, which I think it is for particularly like women's place in horror, I think it's a comfort for a lot of women, is because you're watching the horror happen to somebody else rather than happen to you. Because, you know, statistically, women are the ones who horror happens to. And so the final girl mechanic has, I think, always been something that's really connected to me because it's like you watch these women who are interesting and complicated and prickly go through stuff and come out the other end. And yes, okay, maybe sometimes that's Michael Myers getting decapitated and somehow he comes back with a head in the next movie. But the, like, central message is, you know, it's there, it's, it's comforting in that way. And I was sort of— I've always been a fan of the literary slasher, but as a genre, it really died off sort of in the '70s and '80s. And like, you know, I Know What You Did Last Summer was a book that I really loved. And sort of like, as slashers were taking over in the film space, they were sort of dipping off in publishing. And it's exciting as somebody who loves to consume them and had a lifelong dream of getting to write one, that we're at this intersection now where there's actually, like, quite a few slashers bubbling up.