Horror not horrible

As far as Jae Mazer is concerned, every day is Halloween. The St. Albert-raised author is back with a new novel only months after her first hit the market and it looks like she’s trying to cover all of the bases of science fiction from paranormal to supernatural, with horror right at home.

Whereas Landing in Eden delved into supernatural thriller territory, the writer confirms that Delivery has both feet firmly planted in the same genre that gave her literary heroes Stephen King and Clive Barker their bread and butter. So early in her career, she’s now faced with having to define where she stands and writes in the world of mixed genres. Apparently, there’s quite a lot of debate stirring behind the scenes.

“People who really loved Eden really liked Delivery but some preferred Eden. Then, I’m having some people say, ‘Well, we read Eden and it’s a good book, but Delivery… that’s a really good book!’ I’ve had people say that they can see it as a movie,” she began, breathlessly relating all of the comments from her now divided fan base.

“Then other people are telling me that they can see Eden as a movie and even though Delivery is a good book, it’ll never be a movie.”

She admits that Delivery, just released in the middle of August, is more of a supernatural horror than her first, with more of a “true crime vibe” to draw in more readers who otherwise wouldn’t be caught dead with a horror book. There are strong elements of a psychological thriller as well, so it’s got something for everyone.

In the story, Maya struggles with self-confidence and standing up for herself, and doesn’t really seem to know what she wants out of life. It all stems back to a very traumatic childhood experience. Something really bad happens to her again as an adult, and it forces her to confront her ghosts and her demons, both figuratively and literally.

It’s the kind of self-discovery novel that would make Dean Koontz smile. Well, maybe sneer.

“Delivery is a lot more supernatural. It’s a little more out there. People who like the fantasy horror a little more are liking Delivery.”

Whether it be supernatural or horror, readers can be sure that Mazer will still deliver a solid story. She previously averred that gore for the sake of gore is not her style.

She works hard to put together a story with an actual plot to hold the intelligent reader’s interest instead of simply stringing together one blood-soaked mishap or murder to another over 200 pages.

“I try and steer away from that. There’s got to be a reason. There can’t just be body parts flying around for the sake of shock value. I do use that as well – there is some shock value – but it’s not senseless. It pertains to the story. It has to. I don’t just throw in gratuitous stuff to make people cringe. That’s not my intent. It does serve a purpose to the story and keeps it moving forward.”

With all of these fantastic things and themes running through her writing, one must ask: Where does she get all of her wonderful ideas? She said that I wasn’t the first to ask, nor does she expect that I’ll be the last.

Her answer: her ideas come from her real life.

“They just come to me. I read a lot of horror. I watch a lot of horror. The life of being a toddler’s mom, I suppose, drives me a bit…” she laughed, trailing off. “It’s just after years and years of watching a million movies and reading a million books.”

And perhaps she’ll be writing a million books herself. Two books in the first year of her being published shows that she’s no slouch. She justifies this by suggesting that she has many ideas for novels and they’re all potent.

That, plus she has to strike while the iron is hot.

“I am not Stephen King who can put 20 years between Dark Tower books. I don’t have the star power to do that. I have to pump these out quick to get people hooked. There’s not any playing around at this stage.”

Mazer doesn’t yet have any plans to tour the book through Canada but she is scheduled as a presenter at the Texas Frightmare Weekend, a sort of Comic Con event for horror fans, set for the end of April 2016. She’s hoping to have one-on-one interviews with George Romero, Tony Todd, and Robert Englund, all legends in horror movies.

Once she better establishes herself in American bookstores, she hopes that the Canadian bookstores will follow suit.