The
Eidola Project
An
Eidola Project Novel, #1
by Robert
Herold
Date of Publication: November 18, 2019
Publisher: Wild Rose Press (Black Rose Imprint)
Cover Artist: Debbie Taylor
Genre: Horror
Tagline: The Eidola Project is recruiting. Dare to
join them?
BLURB
It's 1885 and a drunk and rage-filled Nigel Pickford breaks up a phony medium's séance. A strange twist of fate soon finds him part of a team investigating the afterlife.
The Eidola Project is an intrepid
group of explorers dedicated to bringing the light of science to that which has
been feared, misunderstood, and often manipulated by charlatans. They are a
psychology professor, his assistant, an African-American physicist, a sideshow
medium, and now a derelict, each possessing unique strengths and weaknesses.
Called to the brooding Hutchinson
Estate to investigate rumored hauntings, they encounter deadly supernatural
forces and a young woman driven to the brink of madness.
Will any of them survive?
Excerpt:
Sarah retrieved the lamp and twisted the peg. The outhouse door swung open on its own, and she gasped.
“Momma?” Sarah asked as she held out her lantern. No. A ruined version of Molly stood in the doorway.
Before her disappearance, people often commented on the sixteen-year-old’s beauty, but in the last twenty-eight days birds pecked out her pretty blue eyes, and maggots now swam in the sockets. Molly’s head hung to the left at an odd angle. Her skin looked mottled with patches of gray, blue, and black. A beetle crawled out of Molly’s half-opened mouth and darted back in.
Sarah’s heart leaped to her throat, and she jumped back. She lost her footing, fell onto the outhouse seat, and dropped the lantern to the floor. She bent to retrieve it; thankful the glass globe did not break. Sarah looked up and saw an empty doorway.
Impossible, she told herself. Must’ve dozed off, had a nightmare, and woke up when I dropped the lamp. Her heart still pounded in her chest, and Sarah took a deep breath to calm herself.
Holding the lamp before her once more, she crept out…
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/SZovJ-MZQ5Y
Author Info
The supernatural always had the allure of forbidden fruit, ever since Robert Herold’s mother refused to allow him, as a boy, to watch creature features on late night TV. She caved in. (Well, not literally.)
As a child, fresh snow provided him the opportunity to walk out onto neighbors’ lawns halfway and then make paw prints with his fingers as far as he could stretch. He would retrace the paw and boot prints, then fetch the neighbor kids and point out that someone turned into a werewolf on their front lawn. (They were skeptical.)
He has pursued many interests over the years (among them being a history teacher and a musician), but the supernatural always called to him. You could say he was haunted. Finally, following the siren’s call, he wrote The Eidola Project, based on a germ of an idea he had as a teenager.
Ultimately, he hopes the book gives you the creeps, and he means that in the best way possible.
The Book Junkie Reads . . . Interview with Robert Herold . . .
How would you describe your style of writing to someone that has never read your work?
Imagine Stephen King, Caleb Carr, and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle thrown in a blender and whipped up to bloody froth! I love horror, history, and mysteries, and The Eidola Project incorporates all three. The novel began as a prize-winning pilot script. One complement I keep hearing is that this would make a great series. (‘Go figure!)
What are some of your writing/publishing goals for this year?
After launching The Eidola Project on November 18th of this year, I will be polishing the second book, which is currently with the editor. I hope to have that out in 2020, and complete book number three.
Do you feel that writing is an ingrained process or just something that flows naturally for you?
There are many steps to the writing process. My initial drafts flow naturally, but I only show them to my writers’ group to get early feedback. The revising is something that is key and something I’ve been working to ingrain. I began writing again, after a long hiatus, by writing pilot scripts. Larry Brody, a television writing mentor, suggested I try novel-writing as a way of breaking into the industry. I decided to give it a go, and this is the result.
Script writing is visual and auditory. Characters’ motivations and thoughts are revealed through their action, choices, and through dialogue. In novels you can and should go inside the characters. As a result, I needed to learn to use all five senses in writing--how things feel, smell, and taste, in addition to look and sound. And I needed to be able to write clear powerful prose. This is a craft, and one must practice before mastery is achieved. This part is a helluva lot of work, but also very rewarding. The result is product of flow and process, and I’m very pleased with it.
Do you have a character that you have been working on for a long time that still isn't quite ready, but fills you with excitement to work on the story?
Nigel Pickford is undergoing change as an individual and it’s fun to see how he evolves, two steps forward and one step back (sometimes a very big step). He starts off as a real cad and may make you want to toss the book at the wall. DON’T. He has an interesting journey ahead of him, and I hope you’ll find him as fascinating as I do.
If you could spend one-week with 5 fictional characters, who would they be?
‘Most certainly the five main characters of The Eidola Project novels (though one is a fictionalized version of a real person). We have already spent years together, and for those that survive, I hope to spend many more years in each other’s company.
Can you share you next creative project(s)? If yes, can you give a few details?
The next Eidola Project novel involves a werewolf and is entitled, Moonlight Becomes You. I hope to have it out, mid-2020. Stay tuned for further development at robertheroldauthor.com, on Twitter at https://twitter.com/RobertHerold666, or on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/RobertHeroldauthor
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