Acknowledgements
I can’t even…
Ah, but wouldn’t that be the cop-out – to say it’s too difficult to thank everyone who has helped and inspired me on this journey so I won’t.
But I will.
The idea for Experiment in Terror came during a drive through the rural landscape of Ontario. Kind of an odd place for it since I had never been to Ontario before that (LIVE AND DIE ON THE WEST COAST!) but while I was staring outside the window of my ex-boyfriend’s family’s car I started dreaming about Perry Palomino.
Yes, that’s right. My girl Perry, she came first. Ada came second. Dex…he eventually came around. Anyway, I started thinking about the books I used to love reading…Baby-Sitters Club, Nancy Drew, Fear Street. I wanted to take that emotional connection that you feel to certain characters as you follow them through a series but I wanted to put it in a dark and scary setting. Something modern and new that I could keep going for a while, with the same romantic and sexual tension as The X-Files.
I’m not really sure when Dex came into the picture as “Dex” but at some point I stopped thinking about EIT as a series (or let’s face it, a book – Darkhouse) I would one day write and I decided to write it. I needed an enigmatic young man (back then, Dex was totally inspired by my love of musician Mike Patton) as the love interest as so Dex was born. And then I put it all together by committing to writing every single day for a month. Six weeks later, the first draft of Darkhouse was born. See, I was always able to write fast
Of course the first draft totally sucked balls and barely resembles the book you read today (and even that book needs a lot of work but whatever, it was my first book ever and I’m still proud of it). Thankfully, after that learning curve of a book, I really became efficient at the writing process and I never had to do that first draft overhaul ever again.
Red Fox took me about a year to write because I was doing music journalism stuff and only wrote on occasion. I remember at the time voicing my thoughts to someone I knew “what if they call the show Experiment in Terror, after the Fantomas song Experiment in Terror?” and he said, “No, that sucks, don’t bring down Fantomas by doing that” and I did it anyway. Ha! Whatever. The drummer for Fantomas, Dave Lombardo (also was in Slayer, obviously) has read both Darkhouse and Red Fox and he loves the name (and the books!), so fuck you. Also Dave Lombardo is awesome. I have a very distinct memory of giving him a paperback copy of Red Fox and he and his son started singing the damn Tomahawk song that I named the book after. One of the coolest moments ever! I’ll never forget it, it was like the art that I created and the art I admired all came together.
Where was I? Oh yeah. Have you noticed the musical them in the EIT series? Darkhouse’s original name was From Out of Nowhere, a Faith No More song, but I later changed it to a non-song title. But Red Fox is the aforementioned Tomahawk song, Dead Sky Morning was inspired by a Team Sleep song (Kool-Aid Party). Lying Season is a B-side Alice in Chains song. On Demon Wings is from Bohren and Der Club of Gore. Into the Hollow is a Queen of the Stone Age song (and obviously, Josh Homme was the inspiration for our favorite ginger), Come Alive is Foo Fighters and Ashes to Ashes is, finally, Faith No More. Dust to Dust is not named after anything – just like Darkhouse. Full circle and all that.
But enough music talk. I can’t properly explain the publishing journey, from when I first released Darkhouse on May 13th, 2011, to now, releasing Dust to Dust on July 29th, 2014. Hell, it’s not even being released by me in the UK, it’s being done by Piaktus, an imprint of Little Brown. It’s got a freakin’ publisher! It’s been three years of pain and sorrow and happiness and joy. EIT was life-changing to me, it truly was. It still isn’t the most popular series – most readers don’t know who Dex Foray is and I think that should be rectified – but it was the series that put me on the “map” as an author, getting people to appreciate me and my work and gave me the skill that I later translated into other books. To put simply, EIT made me better in every way.
And for that, I have to thank a lot of people. Some were only there in the beginning, some were only there in the end. But they all matter.
In no freaking particular order, each of these people either read and loved the books or helped with the books – Scott MacKenzie, Kelly St-Laurent, my parents Tuuli and Sven, Kara Malinczak, Najla Qamber, Kass Healy, Mollie Caselli, Talar K, Nadia, Alex St-Laurent, Tami McColgan, Megan Caffery, Wendy Kennedy, Amanda Sanderson, Stephanie Brown, Megan Simpson, Jamie Sager Hall, Tressa Sager, Marj, Jen Hall, Amy Harmon, RL Griffin, Megan Ward O’Connell, Brenna Weidner, Rebecca Espinoza, Andrea Thompson, Rhiannon Frater, Dave Lombardo, Marc Paschke, Odette Gauthier, Wendy MacKenzie, Autumn, Laura Helseth, Michelle Duncan, Nina Decker, Sandra Cortez, Bret Taylor, Lindsay Bayne, Robin Stranahan, Maryse Courtier Black, Sundae Colletti, Paula Novack, Kirsten Papi, Sherry Overhost Durst, Joanna Wylde, Carey Heywood, Lori Parker, Carmen Jenner, Brandon Lemmons, Kelli Brown, Andrew Barber, Laura MacKenzie, Ali Hymer, Nadine Colling, all the people on Goodreads with “Dex” in their name, Sarah Chauncy, Mike Shearer, Kayla Veres, Bill Gould, Lucia, Amy Bartol, Scott Waxman, Latoya Smith, Amanda Polito, Rachel Sharp, Kimberly Cheeseman, Janice Pia, Emily Franke, LH Cosway, Taylor Haggerty, Farley Chase, Conner Galway, all them Twitter peeps who embraced me from the start, Jenny Bragdon, Sarah and Scott Trudeau, Robyn Summers, Lea Marika, Paula Roper, Chelcie Holguin, Rachel Hartman, Niki Jefford, Jill McIntosh, Dale De Ruiter, Matt Sardof, Crystal Chapman, Candice Roach, Kira Knappet, Linda Knappet, Tara Sivec, Barbie Fucking Messler, Lisa Chamberlain, Lise, Liis, Barbara Lopez, Madeline Sheehan’s sister, Bonnie, Heidi, Tray Davis, Krystle Zion, Bob Hele, Chelsea M. Cameron
Finally…is this the end of Experiment in Terror? For reals?
Yes. Sorry. The show is done. The series is over.
Does that mean we’ll never see Dex and Perry again?
I have no plans to continue their story – though I will be continuing Ada’s in a shorter series and you will see them there from time to time – but I also “never say never.” If I do choose to revisit Dex and Perry one day, it will probably be a single book, set further in the future for this duo, and for you and I, I’m talking about 2016 and beyond. So nothing to get too excited about because my mind is a fickle beast and who knows if God allows me to still be writing that far ahead. But, just so as you know, the world is full of possibilities.
But for now, this is where you and I and Dex and Perry say goodbye.
May they haunt you in your dreams and everyday life as they do in mine.
If you’ve enjoyed this book, please send me an email, I’d love to hear from you and maybe answer any unanswered questions (please note that I can’t always get back to everyone because I am a scatterbrain, but I do read every email): [email protected]