Because One Chris Blaine Simply Isn't Enough

The "Abbadon Inn" series of horror novels were invented by Ginjer Buchanan, editor at PenguinPutnam. She wrote a lengthy synopsis of the Inn -- a cursed and haunted place -- and presented this synopsis at the best literary horror convention in America, aka Necon. A number of attendees then took these notes and bent them to their own sinister purposes, sending Ginjer proposals for books in the series. Ms. Buchanan picked three -- one each from Elizabeth Massey, Matthew Costello, and myself. We are the next three Chris Blaines.

The final Chris is artist Cortney Skinner, who did the actual blueprints for the inn, along with inventing the various artifacts that appear before the title page in each volume. And while all three books (The others are TWISTED BRANCH by Beth and DROWNED NIGHT by Matt) are mostly solo projects, all five of us collaborated to make sure the Inn always looked the same, and had the same haunted aura.

The decision to have all the books written by "Chris Blaine" was a practical marketing decision. While all three authors have a number of books to their credit, the publisher wanted readers to be able to find the entire series, whether looking on bookstore shelves or scanning through an online retailer. So the three of us share the name, although it's an open secret (mentioned in the acknowledgements of each book) that three different people wrote the separate volumes.

Will there be more Abbadon Inn books? That depends on how well the first three sell. So feel free to pick up multiple copies. All three of them are great ghost stories. And Matt's book has sharks!