Hi, Maureen! Can you tell our readers a bit about yourself?

I graduated from Miami University in Oxford, Ohio and live in the Chicago suburbs with my husband, three kids, and various ill-behaved pets. My horror comedy debut, Suburban Hell, was released in 2022. When I’m not writing or reading, all of my free time is spent driving one of my kids to practice.

When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?

I’ve wanted to be a writer since before I can remember. I always had a stack of library books next to my bed, and still do! My greatest joy came from trips to the bookstore, where my mom would buy me the latest installment of the Baby-Sitters Club or Sweet Valley High books. I started writing my own stories in grade school, although none of them ever made it past the first chapter and spent far too much time on describing the characters’ outfits.

Quick lightning round! Tell us:

• The first book you ever remember reading: Kristy’s Great Idea by Ann M. Martin, book one of the Baby-Sitters Club
• The one that made you want to become an author: The Secret of the Old Clock by Carolyn Keene–I was obsessed with Nancy Drew.
• The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Come Closer by Sara Gran. That book gave me nightmares!

Your latest novel, Nightmare of a Trip, is out now! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?

Haunted family road trip

What can readers expect?

Leigh Somerset and her family decide to spend their summer vacation road tripping from their home in suburban Milwaukee down to Florida to visit the theme park MagicLand. While in Indiana, they come across an abandoned farmhouse and inadvertently unleash the attention of some spirits who follow them along the way. In addition to questionable motel rooms and frightening rest stop bathrooms, Leigh and her family encounter a haunted Cracker Barrel, a creepy indoor water park, and increasingly threatening messages from the spirits. Stay tuned to find out if the great American road trip becomes the highway to hell…

Where did the inspiration for Nightmare of a Trip come from?

A few years ago, my husband and I decided to take our kids on an 18 hour road trip in the name of family bonding. After a few hours in the car together, the only thing that bonded us was our desire to fly next time. There were a lot of laughs, but it wasn’t something we all wanted to experience again.

The idea for Nightmare of a Trip came to me during those long hours on the road, imagining how we would handle actual horrors instead of tire problems and endless requests for snacks. The book is a love letter to 80’s vacation comedies like National Lampoon’s Vacation with a little Poltergeist sprinkled in.

Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?

The haunted Cracker Barrel scene was my favorite to write! Growing up, stopping at a Cracker Barrel was always the pinnacle of any road trip so it was loads of fun to add some mischievous ghosts and let them loose in the gift shop. No vengeful spirits could keep me from an Old Timer’s Breakfast, though.

With this being your third published novel, what are some of the key lessons you’ve learned since your debut in 2022?

Hearing from readers who have enjoyed my books is the greatest joy in a career that can be fraught with challenges. A bad review or negative comment sometimes does overshadow all of the nice words, but it gets easier to tune them out the longer you stay in this business. No book is going to be a hit for all readers, so that makes it even more special when someone connects with your work. So I like to think that I’m slightly better at focusing on who I’m writing for, and why, and ignoring the rest. This career isn’t for the faint of heart!

What’s next for you?

I hope to keep writing more horror comedies that highlight the ridiculousness of suburban life. I love to take things that might already be scary–PTA moms, making school lunches, vacationing with kids–and then add in the supernatural. I have a few ideas for what I can tackle next, as I see horror potential all around me, every day.

Lastly, what books have you enjoyed so far this year and are there any that you can’t wait to get your hands on?

Some of my favorites this year have been:

• Bless Your Heart by Lindy Ryan (which I was thrilled to blurb!)
• The Devil and Mrs. Davenport by Paulette Kennedy
• Diavola by Jennifer Thorne
• The Children on the Hill by Jennifer McMahon

I can’t wait to read So Thirsty by Rachel Harrison, who is a master at feminist horror. I also had the chance to read an early copy of The Greatest Lie of All by Jillian Cantor, which is phenomenal.

Will you be picking up Nightmare of a Trip? Tell us in the comments below!

The post Q&A: Maureen Kilmer, Author of ‘Nightmare of a Trip’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Releasing on September 19th, Hex Education is Bewitched meets Yellowjackets where a former coven reunites to stop their lives from going up in flames.

Halloween has always been my favorite time of the year. From the decorations to the scented candles, cozy blankets, and the feeling of possibilities and magic in the air—I love it all. But my favorite aspect of spooky season has always been scary movies and television shows. As a child with a deep, innate love for all things horror—I hosted a sleepover in seventh grade to watch the original Halloween. I was shocked when some friends opted out—I naturally gravitated toward movies about witches. There is something about wish fulfillment, about claiming power that comes from within, about a group of women coming together to make things happen, that resonates with me even today. Who wouldn’t want a magic arsenal of supports and tools to make their life easier, better? Even now, as an adult, I find witches and witchcraft fascinating.

Thus, when I sat down to write HEX EDUCATION, I thought about the witchy movies and television shows that resonated with me in my younger years. Here is a list of my favorite “vintage” witch portrayals that I used as inspiration as I wrote the book:

1. Charmed

This show first aired while I was in college. My roommate, who did not share my love for all things witchy, would hide under her comforter or run to the room next door when the show came on. Three sisters, imbued with genetic magic powers, fighting to save innocent lives with a touch of romance on the side—what’s not to love? I recently discovered that it’s still aired in morning reruns. After rewatching, I can confidently say it holds up.

2. The Craft

The seminal witch movie of my teen years. The witches in the movie enact revenge on the mean girls and terrible guys in their high school. Did I mention witchcraft as wish fulfillment?

3. Hocus Pocus

As soon as my daughter was old enough, I had her watch this movie. She now fires it up annually just after Labor Day, assuring me I did something correct as a parent. My evergreen thought on the movie is that I really, really want to go to a Halloween party like the one all the parents attend. Minus the enchantment and danger to my kids.

4. The Worst Witch

Fairuza Balk’s first witch movie, prior to The Craft, also starring Tim Curry. I recently rewatched this, and I had many questions. One of which was why there was a trippy, hallucinogenic music video in the middle of the movie.

5. Sabrina the Teenage Witch

Salem the talking cat was definitely an inspiration for Katy Furry, a sassy orange tabby cat who gains the ability to speak after some magic goes awry in my book.

6. Teen Witch

Where to begin with this one? Random musical numbers, Madame Serena, high 80s fashion, the dreams of becoming the most popular girl in school. Truly nothing else can ‘Top That.’

7. The Blair Witch Project

The last scene of the movie is etched into my brain. I remember when the credits rolled in the theater, everyone sat in stunned silence. Not to mention the fantastic marketing campaign that preceded the release. I watched the faux documentary before I saw the movie, unaware that it was all a stunt. It made the ending that much scarier.

8. The Witches

Apologies to my younger brother, but I still chuckle when I remember his panicked reaction to the scene when the witches reveal themselves. They peel back their regular human skin (if Angelica Houston can be called ‘regular’ anything), and emerge in their witch form. Their terrifying appearances are somewhat similar to how I look when I’m on deadline for a book.

9. Halloweentown

This is another movie I’ve required my children to watch. Released long before the days of HD, it’s grainy, blurry, and fantastic. Disney Channel in the 90s and 2000s had quite a plethora of fantastic original movies (Smart House, anyone?), but Halloweentown will always be at the top. If anyone has found the secret portal to Halloweentown, please send it my way.

10. The Wizard of Oz

The classic witch movie. Although evil, the Wicked Witch really got dealt a bad hand. Dorothy dropped an actual house on her sister, and then stole her shoes. Sorry Dorothy, but I get it.

I hope some of these movies or shows make it into your yearly Halloween viewing! I will be snuggled up with a cup of tea as I watch the witches right the world’s wrongs, from the comfort of my couch.

The post Maureen Kilmer’s Top “Vintage” Witch Movies and Shows appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

The Fragile Threads of Power by V. E. Schwab
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V. E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, opens another door to a new fantasy series set in the dazzling world of Shades of Magic.

Dreambound by Dan Frey
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In this thrilling contemporary fantasy novel, a father must uncover the secret magical underbelly of Los Angeles to find his daughter, who has seemingly disappeared into the fictional universe of her favorite fantasy series.

The Salvation Gambit by Emily Skrutskie
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A hotheaded hacker must outwit the AI at the heart of a rogue warship–turned–penal colony if she and her crew of con women want to escape with their lives in this electrifying sci-fi thriller from the acclaimed author of Bonds of Brass.

The Hexologists by Josiah Bancroft
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The first book in a wildly inventive and mesmerizing new fantasy series from acclaimed author Josiah Bancroft where magical mysteries abound and only one team can solve them: The Hexologists. 

Godkiller by Hannah Kaner
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Enter a land of gods and monsters, soldiers and mercenaries, secrets and wishes—the explosive #1 internationally bestselling fantasy debut in a new trilogy for fans of The Witcher and Gideon the Ninth.

The Undetectables by Courtney Smyth
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Be gay, solve crime, take naps—A witty and quirky fantasy murder mystery in a folkloric world of witches, faeires, vampires, trolls and ghosts, for fans of Magic for Liars by Sarah Gailey and T. J. Klune’s Under the Whispering Door.

Black River Orchard by Chuck Wendig
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A small town is transformed by dark magic when a strange tree begins bearing magical apples in this new masterpiece of horror from the bestselling author of Wanderers and The Book of Accidents.

Herc by Phoenicia Rogerson
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A queer revisionist retelling of the story of Hercules, for fans of The Song of Achilles, A Thousand Ships and Ariadne.

Starter Villain by John Scalzi
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Inheriting your uncle’s supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who’s running the place.

Mammoths at the Gates by Nghi Vo
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The wandering Cleric Chih returns home to the Singing Hills Abbey for the first time in almost three years, to be met with both joy and sorrow. Their mentor, Cleric Thien, has died, and rests among the archivists and storytellers of the storied abbey. But not everyone is prepared to leave them to their rest.

A Market of Dreams and Destiny by Trip Galey
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Enter the bazaar of the bizarre—where fate and fortunes are for sale just beneath Covent Garden—in this high-stakes historical fantasy debut set in 19th-century London, perfect for fans of Neverwhere and The Night Circus.

The Pomegranate Gate by Ariel Kaplan
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The first adventure in the Mirror Realm Cycle, a Spanish Inquisition-era fantasy trilogy inspired by Jewish folklore, with echoes of Naomi Novik and Katherine Arden.

Hex Education by Maureen Kilmer
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A guilt-ridden former coven is forced to tap into the magic of their past . . . if they want to stop their lives from going up in flames again.

The Death I Gave Him by Em X. Liu
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A lyrical, queer sci-fi retelling of Shakespeare’s Hamlet as a locked-room thriller.

The Sky Vault by Benjamin Percy
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The third book in Percy’s innovative and acclaimed Comet Cycle, The Sky Vault, follows an investigation of a mysterious weather phenomena in Fairbanks, Alaska, and a government secret buried since WWII.

The Art of Destiny by Wesley Chu
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A hero once believed to be the chosen one must find a new path with the help of a band of unlikely allies in the sequel to The Art of Prophecy, an epic fantasy ode to martial arts and magic from the #1 New York Times bestselling author Wesley Chu.

The Circumference of the World by Lavie Tidhar
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In a story that is cosmic, inventive, and sly, multi-award-winning author Lavie Tidhar (Central Station) travels from the emergence of life to the very ends of the universe.

The Free People’s Village by Sim Kern
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From environmental journalist and founder of the #TransRightsReadathon Sim Kern, comes the eat-the-rich climate fiction you won’t want to put down.

The Never Wars by David Pedreira
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In The Never Wars–a mind-bending mix of Interstellar and The Expanse–a group of disgraced Special Forces are given one chance to redeem themselves. The question is whether they’ll survive long enough for it to matter.

The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic by Breanne Randall
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For fans of Practical Magic and Gilmore Girls, The Unfortunate Side Effects of Heartbreak and Magic is a debut novel that explores the shields we build around our hearts to retain our own magic.

What fantasy and sci-fi books will you be picking up this month? Tell us in the comments below!

The post September 2023 Fantasy & Sci-Fi Book Releases appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

Amy Foster considers herself lucky. After she left the city and moved to the suburbs, she found her place quickly with neighbors Liz, Jess, and Melissa, snarking together from the outskirts of the PTA crowd. One night during their monthly wine get-together, the crew concoct a plan for a clubhouse She Shed in Liz’s backyard–a space for just them, no spouses or kids allowed.

But the night after they christen the She Shed, things start to feel . . . off. They didn’t expect Liz’s little home-improvement project to release a demonic force that turns their quiet enclave into something out of a nightmare. And that’s before the homeowners’ association gets wind of it.

Even the calmest moms can’t justify the strange burn marks, self-moving dolls, and horrible smells surrounding their possessed friend, Liz. Together, Amy, Jess, and Melissa must fight the evil spirit to save Liz and the neighborhood . . . before the suburbs go completely to hell.

Rocky and I started down the darkened street, the only lights the few gas lamps left over from the sixties. We had one in our yard when we moved in but noticed a faint gas smell in the air periodically from the driveway. We had the gas company come out, and they told us it was leaking and had to be shut off. After that we had a nonfunctional gas light at the end of our driveway, but when I heard the cost to remove it, I decided it could stay even though it felt a little like having a broken-down car on cinder blocks sitting there. At least the HOA hadn’t yelled at us about that…yet.

A few blocks over, I could hear a group of neighbors on someone’s front porch, having drinks. Whispering Farms was the kind of subdivision where you’d find porch beers in the summer and hot toddies around a firepit in the winter. It was socially engineered to keep people in the bubble, for it had everything you could want.

Rocky and I walked in the direction of Jess’s house first, preparing to round the block toward Liz’s. I had grabbed a bottle of Pedialyte from my fridge before I left and planned to leave it on her doorstep to help with her hangover or flu or whatever it was. The smell from her backyard lingered in the air, like clothes that had been left in the washer for too long. A rotting, old, cloying smell that made it hard to inhale.

“Looks like we picked the wrong night to walk down Maple Leaf Drive,” I said to Rocky, who wagged his tail. We moved past Jess’s house; she was strolling around her first floor without a bra on. Again. She grew up on what was essentially a hippie commune made up of former groupies of the band Wavy Gravy in the north woods of Wisconsin. Some habits were apparently hard to break.

As we got closer to Liz’s house, I saw that Tim had set their W flag on the front porch. He put it outside whenever the Chicago Cubs won a baseball game, but it was more to remind the neighbors that he had season tickets than team pride.

The smell intensified, and Rocky started whining and pulling at the leash, wanting to go home. Finally, he stopped on the sidewalk and sat, refusing to move, his eyes shifting back toward our house.

“Really? It’s not that bad. Let me just drop this off for Liz.” But even as I said the words, the smell filled my nose, swirling into my mouth, and I gagged, bending down toward the sidewalk. “Nevermind.” I started to turn around to head the other way, back toward my house, when a flash of light from Liz’s made me turn back.

It was a quick blaze of light coming from her bedroom window, and it happened so fast, I thought it might be lightning. I looked up at the sky and saw a spray of stars above me. Not lightning. I watched the house, waiting to see if another flash would come, and saw a dark figure move across the bedroom window. It was too big to be Liz or Tim, and was angular, like it had sharp edges. From her house, I heard Bucky begin to bark, before he stopped with a yelp.

“What’s going on in there?” I lifted my foot to take a step toward the house, to make sure everything was okay, but Rocky whined and pulled in the other direction again, an immobile statue. I thought about tying him to the street sign on the corner to go over and check on Liz, but he started shaking in fear. So I pulled out my phone and texted her instead.

I waited for a moment, the night air seeming to pause, and my pulse quickened as I stared at her house, hoping for a sign of my friend.

Rocky started frantically pulling at his leash, snarling in the effort. I bent down to soothe him, and he maneuvered away, desperately trying to go home.

“OK, you win,” I said. I gave one final glance toward Liz’s house, which was dark again. Darker than I had ever seen it. “The exterior lights must be out,” I muttered as I let Rocky steer me.

Liz didn’t respond until Rocky and I were inside the front door and I was unclipping his leash.

I didn’t see anything, was the text back.

I shook my head as I put my phone in my back pocket. Maybe I had imagined it. Maybe a car had pulled into a driveway down the street. A thousand things were possible. I didn’t want to press the issue and become one of the paranoid moms  I saw on the Winchester Facebook Moms group,  regularly posting about neighbors who didn’t clean up after their dogs, teenagers speeding down the street, or people who had cut them off in traffic. It was the worst kind of policing, and one that didn’t do any good, just started fights on social media.

Years ago, I would have never imagined that I would live in a town that became embroiled in such petty drama so often. Mark and I had vowed we weren’t going to become those suburbanites who talked about mowing their lawn and tree trimming services. No, we were much better than that—we were city people. Who took our kids to fancy restaurants and walked everywhere. Who shared one car that we barely drove, and always knew where to get the best Indian takeout.

I was deeply aware of how uncool and boring the suburbs were. And yet I would soon come to find that our suburb was anything but mundane.

Excerpted From SUBURBAN HELL by Maureen Kilmer, published by G.P. Putnam’s Sons, an imprint of the Penguin Publishing Group, a division of Penguin Random House, LLC.  Copyright © 2022 by Bear One Holdings, LLC.

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