Author Teresa Geering: 01/08/2016

Hello my little chickadees

My victim this time is Jacob Rayne, a horror writer and boy did he give me trouble. He completely turned the tables. I've been chained up in my cave and only just managed to get free.

So let me introduce you to JACOB RAYNE and his 'Rayne' of terror!!

A face of mischief if ever I saw one :-)

Hello Jacob it's nice to see the other side of you now that I'm free from those cursed chains. Please tell our readers about the real Jacob Rayne.

Well Hello Tee I'm sorry if you got a bit messed up in the cave but I thought you were in need of a bit of your own medicine for a change.

Hm!! Well you're on my turf now sunshine...

Ok...Repeated viewings of The Shining as a child have left me with a love of the dark and the disturbing that really comes to life in my writing.

I work to a soundtrack of blisteringly heavy music, and, like my beloved metal, my writing is brutal, uncompromising and intense.

My work includes:

Becoming – A blood-drenched horror novel where the survivor of a serial killer's rampage descends into murder, madness and depravity;

Dying Breed – A series of terrifying apocalyptic novels;

Sunshine - A relentless horror novella in which holiday-makers transform into violent psychopaths;

Flesh Harvest - An action-packed horror novella involving a number of grisly deaths in a sleepy town in the North East of England;

Karma Personified - A hitman's confessional; and many others.

Q. Where do you live Jacob?

A. The cold, rainy North East of England. Luckily I’m pretty hairy so I can cope with the cold. Chewbacca has nothing on me! http://hellogiggles.com/woman-chewbacca-mask/http://hellogiggles.com/woman-chewbacca-mask/

Q. Share your hobbies with us

A. Outside of spending time with family and friends my two main loves are heavy metal and horror. I love working on my books and spend as much time as possible doing this. If I’m doing this, I’ll always have something heavy playing in my headphones. I have a decent collection of CDs, cos I love the whole package, the music, the lyric book, the artwork. I can’t ever see myself going over to only buying MP3s as long as CDs are still being made.

As much as I love listening to music at home and in the car, I much prefer seeing live shows. In my eyes (or ears, I suppose!) a good metal show is as close as you can get to a religious experience. You’re sweaty, you’re sore, you’re knackered, your neck is wrecked from headbanging and you’re covered in bruises, you’re sounding like Johnny Vegas cos you’ve been bellowing every word at the top of your lungs, but it’s one of the biggest highs I have ever experienced and I’m hopelessly addicted to it.

I also love reading, playing guitar and watching films and decent series on DVD. I hesitate to say TV cos the vast majority of it is utter shite, but there are some good shows about. Sons of Anarchy has crept up in to my all-time favourite slot through being utterly addictive, but Dexter, 24, Simpsons and King of Queens are all awesome too.

Q. Have you any pets

A. None unless we’re counting guitars…

Q. What you do to chill out Jacob

A. Writing is my main go to. Stick some heavy music on and butcher some imaginary people. Better than any therapy!

Q. Will you tell us about your day job

A. I’d love to say I was doing this fulltime. I’d also love to say I was a private investigator, stealthing around finding missing persons and getting into fights and car chases, but unfortunately neither of these is true. I currently work in retail, but I gotta say, I’ve landed on my feet. It’s no hassle, just roll in, do my thing and go home. I have an awesome team of colleagues, the majority of whom I’m proud to call friends. We mainly just take the piss out of each other and try and outdo each other with terrible puns.

Q. Tell me about your books. When you first started writing. How many completed. Work in progress?

A. I currently have thirteen titles available on Amazon. Of those *furrows brow and counts on fingers* Four are novels, four are novellas, one is a collection of the aforementioned novellas, and the rest are short stories.

I’d like to take a moment to mention my latest release, Cold-Blooded Kin, which is a sequel to The Lazarus Contagion.

If you’re into gory, apocalyptic fiction then check it out here: http://hyperurl.co/s9mq82http://hyperurl.co/s9mq82

I always loved reading when I was a kid and I remember going over my cousin’s house and seeing all these Stephen King books lined up on the shelf. She told me they weren’t for kids, and, as a result, there seemed something forbidden about them. From that moment, I found it the whole thing unbelievably exciting and I needed to know more.

My dad used to let us watch films when we were kids, remember Blockbuster Video? Well I always remember going in there and just standing – like a kid in a sweet shop! – in total awe of the horror section. It always drew me more than any other section for some reason.

Once I saw The Shining that was it. If given the choice of genre it was always horror from that point on.

As works in progress go, I have a few unfinished stories I’m working on. One I’m very excited about as I remember it being a lot of fun at the time but, due to other commitments, I didn’t get the time to finish it properly. I’ve dug it out this week and have some cracking ideas how I can finally do it justice.

There’s also a fourth volume of Terror Unlimited (my series of short stories) in the works. Again, it was an older story that kinda fizzled out. But it’s back on track and, hopefully, should be out next month.

There’s another project that I find my mind being drawn to, but I’m not going to say too much about it. Let’s just say it’s a sequel to another book I’ve written…

Q. If you could have any animal from time immemorial as a pet for long freezing days and nights, what would you choose and why?

A. Gotta be a dragon. Why would anyone want anything else? They can fly, their breath’d keep you warm on a cold night, you’d save a fortune on the bloody gas bill, and they’re badass enough to keep the burglars away…

Q. Do you prefer heat OR cold?

A. Heat every time, but I’m ginger so I have a tendency to turn the colour of a lobster.

Q. What would be your fantasy holiday if someone else was picking up the tab?

A. I’d head back to the Maldives. Our honeymoon was there and it was the best possible destination. I’m pretty sure that place is heaven on earth. Failing that, New York. Awesome, awesome city with such awesome food, people and places to see.

Q. Are you with a traditional publisher or self published?

A. Self-published. I’m loving the adventure of it all, I find it ridiculously exciting. I love being able to work to my own schedule and have control of all the covers etc.

Q. What is your favourite meal (hot and cold)?

A. A toss up between pizza and my wife’s shepherd’s pie. Either of those I can eat till they’re coming out of my ears.

Q. Favourite drink (hot and cold)?

A. Coffee and beer. But the beer’s gotta be really cold. I went to a lot of rock and metal festivals when I was younger and guzzling beer that’s been sat in a hot tent all weekend is definitely not recommended.

Q. How hard do you find book promotion?

A. Pretty damn hard. It’s an incredibly fine line between badgering the shite out of everyone on Facebook with a hyper-aggressive, ‘Buy my book ya complete set of bastards!’ style marketing campaign, and doing absolutely nothing.

Looking back I was probably a bit over keen with this in the past so I try and hold back on it a bit now, but it’s like anything, isn’t it, you learn as you go? No one’s born knowing how to do this, so it’s all a learning curve.

Q. Any tips or hints you’ve found that were successful for you in promotion

A. The most helpful thing I’ve found has been when Iain Rob Wright featured a story of mine in one of his books and featured me in his newsletter. He also has a self-publishing course online at the moment, so I’m exploring that and finding out things I never knew existed.

Check it out here: https://www.azofselfpublishing.com/https://www.azofselfpublishing.com/

Q. Favourite genres to read and write?

A. Horror for both. When writing, I tend to start right in the thick of the action. I like short chapters to keep the pages turning. I like a lot of blood and guts; these books are certainly not for the squeamish. I’ve had seasoned horror fans telling me they’ve slept uneasy after reading some of my books. That is a cool feeling and makes all the blood, sweat and beers worthwhile.

I like to read horror. Favourites are Stephen King, Laymon, James Herbert and Shaun Hutson. I also love true crime, rock star biographies and have a serious soft spot for the Jack Reacher books. Michael Crichton had some brilliant ideas too.

Q. You’ve set up your own publishing house using FB writer friends to help run it. What would you name it? Who would you choose to run the different departments? As the owner, how would you ensure the FB staff achieved success.

I kinda have already, but there’s only me works there.

I like Rayne of Terror as a name. It does what it says on the tin.

I’d have Iain Rob Wright in as my chief advisor. He’s like the Yoda of self-publishing and has helped me out so much with very little in return. He’s an awesome writer and, more importantly in my eyes, a proper nice, down-to-earth guy. He deserves every bit of success that comes his way.

This is his site: www.iainrobwright.comwww.iainrobwright.com

Michael Bray aka Gonzalez would be my choice for cover designer. He has reworked most of my old, self-made covers and has come up with a few new ones for me too. As anyone who has seen his covers will testify, he’s an extremely talented cover designer.

Find out more about his covers here: https://www.facebook.com/mbdcovers/?fref=nfhttps://www.facebook.com/mbdcovers/?fref=nf

As well as that, he is an excellent horror writer. Find out more here: http://www.michaelbrayauthor.com/http://www.michaelbrayauthor.com/

I’d have Reggie (Richard Rhys Jones) in charge of the mood-setting, cos I know he’s a bit of a boozehound as well and is also a metalhead. I know he’d have some good choices for music and beers to enjoy while writing. If I ever got stuck on a story we could always have a couple of beers and shoot the breeze until things worked themselves out.

Here’s Reggie’s site: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Rhys-Jones/e/B00A79BI50https://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Rhys-Jones/e/B00A79BI50

I’d have Monique, Nat, and the mischievous Cross brothers, Wayne and Simon, as beta readers as they have helped me out a lot with this recently. I’m proud to call them friends and am hugely appreciative of their support.