I can't believe how quickly November is passing by. Is everyone knee-deep in the hustle and bustle? Let's take a break from it all and have a quick chat with author Robert Herold . Welcome to Supernatural Central, Robert.
SC:
Tell me a little bit about your main character of this book.
RH:
Nigel Pickford is a thirty-nine year-old veteran of the Civil War. He was
cursed by a witch during the war with the ability to foresee events. Nigel is
like Cassandra in Greek mythology: no one believes him and he cannot stop their
occurrence. He is particularly haunted by an 18-year-old vision where he foresaw
his Confederate troops being massacred and another vision predicting the end of
the world. Alcohol quiets these and other visions, but has caused him to become
a derelict. Though a drunk, he has obsessively attacked and exposed fake
mediums, searching for one with legitimate supernatural abilities who could
help him with his own. Now, the Eidola Project offers him a chance to break the
curse and potentially, during the series, save the world—provided his character
flaws do not wreck this one chance at salvation.
SC:
Nigels seems to have some paranormal gifts. Do you believe in the paranormal
and if so, do you have an experience you can share?
RH:
I have never had a paranormal experience, but the history of beliefs around the
world, and the attempts at scientific investigations—particularly in the Nineteenth
Century—are fascinating. An inspiration for my book is Ghost Hunters: William
James and the Search for Scientific Proof of Life After Death, Deborah Blum’s
wonderful non-fiction book. Another good resource was Spook: Science Tackles
the Afterlife by Mary Roach (author of Stiff).
SC:
What titles are you working on now that
you can tell us about?
RH:
The next Eidola Project novel is set in 1885 Virginia. It involves a werewolf
and is entitled, Moonlight Becomes You. I hope to have it out, mid-2020. I am
currently 100 pages into writing the third book, Totem of Terror, set among
Northwest Coastal Indians.
SC:
Thanks for popping in today. Let's take a look at your novel now.
The
Eidola Project
An
Eidola Project Novel
Book
One
Robert
Herold
Genre: Horror
Publisher: Wild Rose Press (Black Rose Imprint)
Date of Publication: November 18,
2019
ISBN: 978-1-5092-2406-7 Paperback
ISBN: 978-1-5092-2407-4 Digital
Number of pages: 290
Word Count: 69870
Cover Artist: Debbie Taylor
Tagline: The Eidola Project is recruiting. Dare to
join them?
Book Description:
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?
Book Trailer: https://youtu.be/SZovJ-MZQ5Y
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…
About
the Author:
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.
