The following is an interview with author Jasper Bark regarding the recent release of the paranormal thriller novel, Harmed and Dangerous, with publisher Crystal Lake Publishing. In this interview, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief Barbra Dillon chats with Bark about the creative process of bringing the story and characters to life on the page, how the story’s theme may connect with readers, and more!
Barbra Dillon, Fanbase Press Editor-in-Chief: Congratulations on the recent release of Harmed and Dangerous! How would you describe the premise of this paranormal thriller?
Jasper Bark: Thank you.
Seventeen-year-old Kyra Hughes flees Chicago for the remote town of Yeuxville in Louisiana, in search of her birth parents. A true crime fanatic, Kyra has just learned her birth mother was murdered by her favorite serial killer.
As soon as she arrives in Yeuxville, Kyra starts undergoing strange episodes. Her vision goes and when it returns she finds she’s seeing the world as it was fifteen years ago. Physically she’s in the present, but everything she sees is what happened a decade and a half ago.
Suddenly, she realizes she’s looking through the eyes of the serial killer who murdered her birth mother. He takes control of her, forcing her to watch as he stalks and brutally murders the woman who gave birth to her. And there’s nothing she can do to stop him. Because he died by lethal injection more than a decade ago.
BD: What can you share with us about your creative process in bringing this story and characters to life on the page?
JB: It began life as a graphic novel. After a meeting with DC editor Shelly Bond, I was invited to pitch ideas for a four-issue mini-series for their ground-breaking imprint Vertigo. The idea she liked is what eventually became Harmed and Dangerous. At the time it was called My Bad and, unfortunately, while I was developing it, DC let Shelly Bond go and eventually closed Vertigo.
It bounced around a few other publishers but still failed to materialize as a project and someone else brought out a very well receive series called My Bad. I discussed the idea with my daughters and they encouraged me to write it as a standard novel. So, I began work on the first of many, many drafts converting the idea into prose.
I’d wanted to write a novel about father-daughter relationships for a while. I’d also had an idea, inspired by The Adverts’ song, “Gary Gilmore’s Eyes,” about a character seeing through the eyes of a serial killer into the past. In one of those synchronous moments, it suddenly occurred to me that they were the same story and that was the catalyst that started the novel.
I knew Kyra would be seventeen years old and that she would run away from home to a small southern town in the US. But that’s about all I knew about her. I worked most of the plot out in advance, but Kyra, in all her complexity, revealed herself to me bit by bit as a I wrote and rewrote the novel. Getting to know Kyra was as much a journey of discovery for me as I hope it will be for the reader.
BD: What makes Crystal Lake Publishing the perfect publishing partner for this story?
JB: I’ve had the good fortune to work for some of the largest, international mainstream publishers and some of the best independent ones. But I’ve never been treated with as much respect, support, and consideration as Crystal Lake have shown me. My work tends to push at the boundaries of what’s possible in the horror genre, Crystal Lake have always given me the room to grow and experiment within the subgenres I write, which is why they were the perfect publishing partners to bring out Harmed and Dangerous.
I actually wrote a story for Crystal Lake’s first ever official anthology, For The Night Is Dark, back in 2012. A little while later I was visiting South Africa, where my wife spent her formative years. Her parents were political missionaries who worked for peace and reconciliation in the Apartheid era. So, her family has a lot of connections there.
We were driving from the north of the country to the south and passing near Bloemfontein, where Joe Mynhardt, the CEO of Crystal Lake lives. So, I arranged to meet up with him and his wife Annemie. I was the first (and I think still the only) writer who’s ever made the trek out to visit him and we hit it off right away. Over the years Joe and his family have become close personal friends and I’ve contributed to many Crystal Lake Publications, in addition to the 9 books of mine they’ve released. They even gave me my own imprint BARK BITES HORRORS of which, Harmed and Dangerous is the eighth installment.
BD: At Fanbase Press, our #StoriesMatter initiative endeavors to highlight the impact that stories can have on audiences of various mediums. How do you feel that Kyra’s story may connect with and impact today’s readers?
JB: Harmed and Dangerous is a Southern Gothic, paranormal thriller, if you’re into claustrophobic and creepy small towns, true crime, serial killers, twisted psychological scares and real Voodoo, this novel will certainly connect and resonate with you.
On a deeper level, it addresses LGBTQIA themes, as well as father/daughter relationships, mental health issues, and processing generational trauma. Horror for me is a safe space to explore the darker sides of our nature, the intrusive thoughts and the impulses we may not be proud of. If any of these themes have touched you or had an impact on your life, then I genuinely believe you will identify with the characters in Harmed and Dangerous. Equally, if your father is still in your life, or if you are a parent yourself, I think you will see something of yourself in the characters’ struggles and eventual triumphs.
BD: Are there any projects – past or current – that you would like to highlight for our readers?
JB: I would encourage everyone to check out the whole back catalog for Bark Bites Horror, which you can do by clicking here!
I also have a mind bending trilogy of critically acclaimed novels under the heading Draw You In which you can grab here.
I do a regular show for the House of Shadows and Ink YouTube channel looking at the very best of the latest batch of horror comics as well as highlighting classic runs from the past, it’s called Bark Bites Comics and you can go view it here!
In addition, I do a regular podcast with my fellow author Kit Power called The Ultimate Horror Anthology in which we are slowly compiling the ultimate anthology of short horror fiction. Every episode we choose a classic or contemporary horror story and explore it in depth and argue why it deserves to be in The Ultimate Horror Anthology. You can listen to all the episodes here.
BD: Lastly, what is the best way for our readers to find more information about Harmed and Dangerous and your other work?
JB: You should definitely check out my website for info on all my books, www.jasperbark.com, and if you’d like four totally free eBooks then you can sign up to my mailing list here.
I also post regularly on Facebook, Instagram, Threads, Bluesky and X come and look me up, I always follow back.
Thanks a lot for having me, Barbra, I really appreciate the opportunity to chat with you and all your readers.
