Thomas S. Flowers delivers terror and scares in his third book of a trilogy, Conceiving. With well-written characters, great pacing, and perfect storytelling this novel had no issues acting as a standalone, allowing me to jump in without reading the previous two in the trilogy. The main source of enjoyment that I received from this read were voodoo references that had that “southern” feel. Voodoo and horror really go hand in hand, just like Jack Daniel and Coke! A formality exists with Flower’s descriptive characters that truly cannot be ignored, I was well vested in their journey and I found it difficult to say goodbye at the conclusion of this story, but what a hell of an ending.

I now cannot wait to seek out the other works of Thomas S. Flowers, in hopes of experiencing the same terror and gratification that Conceiving has given to me, and I believe I am going to start with the previous two books in this trilogy first.

Continue to read below to check out more information and Thomas S. Flowers and our interview below.

Conceiving, Synopsis

• Print Length: 356 pages
• Publisher: Limitless Publishing

Dark things are dwelling in Jotham, Texas. Malicious forces are seen emerging from the sinister house on Oak Lee Road…

With little memory of the events that took the lives of his friends, Bobby Weeks tries to move on with his life, and finds a job at a warehouse on Galveston Island. The evil in Jotham won’t leave him behind, though. Strangers from the cursed town find him, offering information about what happened to his friends. It all leads back to Baelo University…back to Jotham.

Luna Blanche has always been gifted, but now she must use those gifts to save Bobby…

Luna goes to the Mississippi Delta to take care of her dying grandmother. She misses Bobby, and when she attempts to see Bobby through her mind, all she finds is a deadly future. Fearing his life is in danger, she leaves the Delta and searches for him in Jotham.

Neville and Boris Petry want nothing more than the picturesque American Dream…

After Boris accepts a new job teaching at Baelo University, the Petrys move to Jotham to finally live out their dream. Following a drunken faculty party, Neville discovers she is pregnant. She should be ecstatic, but dreadful dreams lead her to feel as if something is wrong with the baby, her husband…and the school.

Four destinies bound on a collision course, a plot conceived in the shadows of Jotham…and an evil biding its time…waiting for them all.

Praise for Thomas S. Flowers III

“Thomas S Flowers is a fantastic writer. There is no other way of putting it. He writes a single book but has so many different writing styles within that single book that all come together beautifully to present you with a story that totally engrosses you.” – Confessions of a Reviewer

“Thomas S. Flowers has allowed this story to brew slowly, allowing the mystery and horror of the house on Oak Lee Road to reveal itself bit by bit. The author is a master of taking an everyday, normal object and twisting it into a horrific monstrosity—Greg at 2 Book Lovers Reviews

“A page-turning, emotional book with shades of Stephen King’s IT and the best parts of Peter Straub’s KOKO. Thomas Flowers has written an extremely personal book of friendship, loss, and trauma that deserves praise not just for its sharp characterization but also its brutal honesty.” – Duncan Ralston, author of Salvage, on Dwelling

About The Author 

Thomas S. Flowers is the published author of several character driven stories of dark fiction. He resides in Houston, Texas, with his wife and daughter.

He is published with The Sinister Horror Company’s horror anthology The Black Room Manuscripts. His debut novel, Reinheit, is published with Shadow Work Publishing, along with The Incredible Zilch Von Whitstein and Apocalypse Meow. His military/paranormal thriller series, The Subdue Books, Dwelling, Emerging and Conceiving, are published with Limitless Publishing, LLC.

In 2008, he was honorably discharged from the U.S. Army where he served for seven years, with three tours serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 2014, Thomas graduated from University of Houston Clear Lake with a BA in History.

He blogs at machinemean.org, where he does author interviews and reviews on a wide range of strange yet oddly related topics. You can learn more about Thomas and all his strange writings by joining his mailing list at https://goo.gl/2CozdE.

 

 

iHorror Interview With Author Thomas S. Flowers

 

Ryan T. Cusick: Hi Thomas. Can you tell our readers a little bit about yourself?

Thomas S. Flowers: Well, for starters, I’m a father and a husband, which are by far two of the most important things about me, or at least something I consider to be really important. I’m also a veteran, I deployed to Iraq during OIF (Operation Iraqi Freedom) on three separate occasions while in the service of the U.S. Army. And since my older sister let me watch “Night of the Living Dead’ when we were younger, I’ve been somewhat obsessed with horror. “Night of the Living Dead” wasn’t my first horror movie, I’d seen “Child’s Play,” which in retrospect was probably not a good thing. My sister found out I’d watched it without our parent’s permission and then commenced to torturing me by moving around a My Buddy doll my parents got me and leaving little notes, “You wanna play?” The doll has disappeared since. I’m told by reliable sources that it’s buried somewhere in my parents’ yard. The thing that struck me most about “Night of the Living Dead” is that this wasn’t just a “horror movie,” there was something else going on too, a deeper message I thought, in this case about that great silent majority. Now, I didn’t get this “deeper meaning” when I was younger, I was watching a zombie movie while munching on some pizza. But it got me into that kind of thinking, that horror doesn’t just have to be about the guts, there can be some human drama too. There can be metaphor.

RTC: What aspects of writing do you find the most difficult?

TSF: Discipline. At least, this is what I scold myself for the most, especially since a majority of what I do write first starts out on pen and paper before moving on to MS Word, thus a twice as long process than most writers. Did you know, there are authors that publish almost once a month? Can you imagine??? I’ll be lucky to get out two novels a year and a dozen or so short stories for anthologies. Hence my scolding. I know I’m still new to this world. I’ve only been publishing since 2014. But I’m eager to prove my worth, as it were, to show the horror community my take on monsters and the things we love that go bump in the night. But I also want to ensure I’m putting out the best quality too. In the end, it all boils down to discipline. If I’ve got time to chat on Facebook, I’ve got time to work on that next story. This year, I’ve started working with a calendar to help me keep on a schedule. So far it’s been working great. Helping me keep momentum and not letting me forget certain projects, from anthologies I’ve agreed to, to my own published books, and even to keeping my blog, machinemean.org, moving smoothly with various horror movie and book reviews. I still stray from time to time, and taking breaks is essential to my sanity, but discipline (at this stage in my writing career) will be that thing I struggle most with.

RTC: What piece of your own work are you most proud of?

TSF: For some reason, I’m always the proudest of my latest work, mostly because I feel it shows me at my most developed. Each book, each story told, is time spent honing my craft. In that respect, Feast is my latest and a book I feel most proud, which I’m not sure what that says about me considering the book’s content. Anyway, Feast is currently being shopped around, but I’m crossing my fingers for a summer 2017 release. If I had to pick something that was out and available for readers, I’d go with Reinheit, my debut novel. Reinheit isn’t a very long novel, but it deals with some heavy taboo subjects, like xenophobia and school shootings and even the Holocaust. This should have back fired horribly. I’ve seen stories like this come off as being overtly preachy, but from what I’ve been hearing from readers, the book was well received.

RTC: Is there anything that you collect?

TSF: I’m not a collector per say. I do have an assortment of horror figures and TMNT figures that I keep in my office. Currently, my wife is helping me collect Stephen King books in hardback to go in our study. For Christmas, she found me a first edition copy of Dolores Claiborne, which I have kept in plastic wrapping at the moment.

RTC: Thomas, you are a great storyteller and you clearly have a love for your characters even though awful things happen to them. At any time did you face any challenges in developing your characters in this story?

TSF: That is very nice of you to say. I’m more than glad that readers are able to pick up on the characters, as they’ve always been my focal point. Bobby has been one of the characters I’ve written the most on and I often feel bad for the guy, everything he’s been through. In Conceiving, there was some difficulty watching him cope with the loss of his childhood friends, especially since he didn’t have much recollection from that night considering his transformation at the end of Emerging. I feel like he struggled with a lot in Conceiving. In writing him there was a lot of tug and pull between moving on with his life and gaining some measure of closure, at any cost. And then, in the end, he’s asked to do something truly horrible by the last person he’d ever expect, to do something he’d never would do unless that person asked. Luna was also another character that was oddly difficult. I loved exploring her rich history and spending more time with her Memaw, a character that was first introduced in a novella called Lanmò. Luna underneath it all is at core a good person who wants to do the right thing, even at personal risk or loss.

RTC: What do you love about being an author?

TSF: I love the craft, being able to take concepts and characters and making them come alive. And I really love the genre, exploring horror, even when it’s uncomfortable. Most of all, I really dig the community. I’m not sure what romance authors are like or YA or the others, I don’t know what they have going for them, but for horror, the community feels large and a fun crowd to hang with. And horror readers are some of the most interesting people you’ll meet. I remember doing my first signing at a B&N, expecting to talk with…I don’t know, like horror t-shirt wearing, metal folks, but in actuality, the horror readers I spoke with were quite ordinary. Horror is a tribe with a great many different people. And in the end, I really enjoy seeing the final product, the culmination of countless hours of work made manifest on print and eBook.

RTC: Who is your favorite author and do you prefer a particular genre?

TSF: I don’t really have a “favorite” author. I’d be amiss if I didn’t say Stephen King, because I certainly read a lot of his work, especially his older stuff. Salem’s Lot is my favorite book. I like exploring Clive Barker too. I’ve recently got into Brian Lumley. H.P. Lovecraft is another fav. I guess it really just depends on my mood. But I also read a lot of history books that are outside of my normal genre. I just finished reading The Harlem Hellfighters: The African-American 369th Infantry in World War I by Stephen L. Harris. But as far as history books go, I’m catch between Ordinary Men: Reserve Police Battalion 101 and the Final Solution in Poland and I’ve Got the Light of Freedom: The Organizing Tradition of the Mississippi Freedom Struggle as being my favorite. So, as you can see, I typically bounce around between horror and history.

RTC: Is there any subject matter that you would not even think about writing about?

TSF: No. I feel as an artist, there should be no boundaries to what is used in storytelling, as much so that the boundless subject is done tastefully and not gratuitous. I’ve written about PTSD, the Holocaust, school shootings, rape, violence, murder, cannibalism, transgenderism, homosexuality, xenophobia, racism, lynching, fear of childbirth, suicide, etc. etc., but I feel I’ve written on these subjects in a tasteful way without giving anything a “Hollywood” glamor. Horror is a genre in which there shouldn’t be boundaries, or things you refuse to talk about. What other genre can tackle hard issues and force us to ask difficult questions?

RTC: What can fans expect in the future? Are you currently working on any new novels?

TSF: I’ve got a lot planned for this year. What readers can expect to see first is the long waited release of my first collection, The Hobbsburg Horror, a collection of 9 tales of dark fiction, including “They Came to Gordium,” where an elderly man is haunted by the crimes of his past. “Immolate,” where a widower detective struggles to solve the connection between a series of eerily similar suicides. “Sunnydale Wolves,” in which a romantic stop at a popular overlook turns deadly. “The Hobbsburg Horror” is the center piece of the collection, a Lovecraftian tale of a weary reporter pulled into an otherworldly story of murder and a lodge with reports of strange colors at night. “Hobo,” a well-to-do housewife’s picture-perfect life is shattered by a home invasion. “Are you hungry, dear?” tells the story about a down on his luck divorcee named Jacob Miller, after being given a free pizza, he is possessed by an internal parasite. “From the Sea,” an amateur sailor and his wife are besieged by creatures that come from the sea during a storm. “Neon Fortune Teller”…Madam Drabardi reads the future of paranoid businessman Ronald Murray who wants proof his wife is cheating on him, but infidelity is not all Drabardi sees. And finally, “Nostos,” Katherine Adonis journeyed light years to escape the nightmares of her past, but some ghosts can never be escaped.

The Hobbsburg Horror is currently on track to release in early March 2017.

RTC: Any writing advice that you can offer our future authors?

TSF: I’d say, it takes a village. Don’t put countless hours into a book and then release it as a self-pub, or even small press, and then walk away thinking the thing will sell itself. It won’t. Trust me, those few family and friend sells will eventually run out. Now, I’m not going to tell you I know the secret formula. I don’t even think there is one, to be honest. I think it just takes time and hard work, but it also takes a community, the more active you are in that community, the better off you’ll be. In whatever genre you’re writing, you need to become a content provider. Some genres sell themselves. Horror isn’t one of those genres. Sorry. And there’s a lot out there. You have to show why readers should buy/read/review your book. Consider running a blog and posting reviews once or twice a week. It’s not just about providing free content, it’s about providing content people want to read. Geniality is a big factor, I feel. And honesty. Don’t be fake. If you really love this genre, and are not out just to make a buck, it’ll show. And readers, especially horror readers, will pick up on that. I’d also consider finding a small trusted circle that you can run ideas by, or show your work too, folks who will share your stuff on social media, people that will encourage you just as much as you encourage them. And lastly, do not cheapen your work. Don’t give away your stuff. Small strategic giveaways, sure, but you need to limit that shit. You worked hard, so don’t sell yourself short. With that in mind, don’t be timid to “donate” your short stories to charity anthologies. Anthologies are still one of the best ways to get noticed by readers.

RTC: Thank you so much, Thomas! You gave some great advice that I am sure future writers will use to aid them through their venture!

 

Important Links!

Oh, For The Hook Of A Book!

Conceiving – Book Three

Amazon

Dwelling – Book One

Amazon

Emerging – Book Two

Amazon

Limitless Publishing offers all three books in one digital boxed set for a low price as well or read with Kindle Unlimited!

Get it here!