Today I am so pleased to welcome W.M. Fawkes to Joyfully Jay. W.M. has come as part of the Coastal Magic Blog Tour to talk to us about her latest release, Hollow Oath. She has also brought along a great giveaway. Please join me in giving her a big welcome!

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Hot & Heavy Horror: Why Spooky Romances Make Us Scream

What two genres are more diametrically opposed than romance and horror? One gets your heart pounding, makes you cry out, has your skin crawling. And the other…

Well, crap.

Replace crawling with tingling, and you get my point. Despite seeming so different on the surface, the romance and horror genres share a lot of common ground. When authors write in either, we’re trying to put you on the edge of your seat and take you on a wild ride that surprises you at every turn. Sure, adrenaline, fear, joy, hope, despair—all these feelings have a part to play in any good story, but it’s more than that, isn’t it?

WM Fawkes Coastal Magic badgeThe one thing that makes horror romances work so well for me is trust. When a character’s life is on the line, they might look around at their friends and neighbors and realize that pretty boy—you know, the one who’d leave you in two seconds flat to the tender mercies of the psychopath with the chainsaw—isn’t the best choice of a romantic partner after all. They could see the person who’s been driving them absolutely bonkers for the past decade in an entirely new light when they realize that’s the one who’ll help them survive the nightmares they’re facing. Escaping fear, suffering, and violence together allows a deep relationship to form around an experience that few people outside those bonds can really understand.

That’s some real ride-or-die shit right there. Literally.

At the end of the day, I think the reason so many romance readers have also enjoyed thrillers is that we love to fall into a story and feel our hearts race in sync with our favorite characters’. Horror romance just takes horror to the next level—the main character and love interest both make it all the way to the end, sparing us a bittersweet survival in favor of a real (and hard-earned) HEA.

If you enjoy horror romances with a bite, check out the new Monsters & Mayhem series of MM retellings of horror classics (https://www.amazon.com/dp/B0B9XT3HLC), and come visit Sam Burns and me next February at Coastal Magic. Hope to see you there!

Coastal Magic Convention is a casual reader weekend in Daytona Beach and takes place February 23-26, 2023. You can check out the website at http://CoastalMagicConvention.com if you want to learn a little more about the event. And if you are interested in signing up and joining us a the beach, you can register here


Blurb

Ichabod’s head is on the chopping block…

And it isn’t the first time. The only son of a notorious pirate, Ichabod spent his youth scrambling to survive on the edges of society. Now, he’s shed his shame and his past to assume the position of schoolmaster in a small village on the coast of the Carolina colony. All he wants is one thing—security—but the ghosts of Queensfort have their eyes fixed on him, and if they can’t rest, neither can the living.

No one gets under Ichabod’s skin like Brom…

Brom Van Brunt has everything Ichabod wants—wealth, ease, and a face like a golden Adonis. If Ichabod resents his many advantages, who can blame him? While he fights to build a place of his own in Queensfort, Ichabod recognizes in Brom his greatest adversary. He vows to undo the rogue, but every move he makes against Brom brings him closer to understanding that Brom’s interest in him is anything but adversarial.

A headless horseman, starving for vengeance…<

A prank gone wrong pits these enemies together against a fearsome specter out for blood, and if Ichabod and Brom can’t overcome their differences, heads will roll.

Hollow Oath is an MM horror retelling of The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, as part of the collaboration Monsters & Mayhem: An MM Horror Collection, adapting some of your favorite classic horror stories with an MM romance twist.

Buy Link: Amazon


Bio

W.M. Fawkes is an author of LGBTQ+ urban fantasy and paranormal romance. She lives with her partner in a house owned by three halloween-hued felines that dabble regularly in shadow walking.

For more information: www.fawkeswrites.com