Guest Author: Jason Parent

For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been fascinated by spiders. Where others see hateful, blood-sucking monsters, ugly and disturbing vermin, or fearful and threatening beings, I see wondrous, almost mythical creatures. Their ornate webs rival the artwork of the masters.

With that said, like most people, I don’t exactly want them crawling all over me. Most spiders are harmless despite the silly myths surrounding them. Even most varieties of widow spiders are no threat to humans, though the easily recognizable black widow can certainly kill the elderly or infirm.

But yet, many shriek at the site of a common house spider. Some have phobias that go well beyond irrational fear. Certainly, I had no qualms exploring and exploiting this fear. And maybe, just maybe, people have more reason to fear spiders than they could ever know.

On August 9, 2012, two weeks after What Hides Within was published, the Huffington Post reported the very real-life scenario that my work of “fiction” chronicles. A woman sought treatment at a Chinese hospital for an itchy and irritated ear. The cause of her irritation was enough to make a stalwart man squeamish--a spider had made her ear canal its home.

Disgusting? Yep. Disturbing? Undoubtedly, the stuff good, dark, twisted fiction is made of, albeit all too real. It’s scary enough that this unwanted hitchhiker could make a nest in a most intimate cavern (though we all have others, each of which may be equally as disturbing). But what if the spider had a more malevolent reason for being there? What if it were truly a creature worthy of our contempt? Our fear?

Like I said, maybe they are. We all get that sensation from time-to-time, the feeling of multiple legs working their way up our leg or down our neck. When we look for its source, we find nothing and chalk it up to imagination or the wind. But the next time you get goose bumps thinking some creepy crawler had trespassed upon your body, consider this: perhaps it did, and perhaps you no longer see it because it’s already made its way into your ear. Then again, maybe it was just the wind . . .


What Hides Within 


Paperback: 308 pages
Publisher: Double Dragon Publishing; Large type edition edition (July 30, 2012)
Amazon Link

Kindle Edition

Size: 391 KB

Print Length: 328 pages

Publisher: Double Dragon eBooks (July 25, 2012)

Sold by: Amazon Digital Services, Inc.

Language: English

Amazon Link

About the book:

Inside all of us, there is darkness. Inside Clive, it's tangible, and it's aching to get out.

What Hides Within tells the story of a man held captive by an unknown evil. Clive Menard is a spineless slacker leading an ordinary existence. But when Chester enters his life, it becomes far from ordinary. 

A disheveled Clive stands alone in a hospital waiting room. A series of incidences have led him to undergo unnecessary neurosurgery. A voice inside Clive's head nags him to kill the doctor. 

Weeks prior, a murder investigation and an unrelated kayaking excursion set the story's interlocking events in motion. When a remorseful killer, a bomb-happy psychopath and a mysterious widow spider converge upon Clive, they bring with them destruction and death. Clive must discover who or what is steering his very existence before he, too, is consumed by the carnage around him. 

With a driven detective following his every step and a vicious killer hiding within his circle of friends, Clive must walk a narrow and dangerous path, teetering between salvation and damnation. He must confront Chester and his own demons. But is he powerless to overcome them?

About the author:

Jason spends his days writing, but it's mostly drafting legal memoranda as a civil litigator in New Bedford, MA--not exactly a venue conducive to creativity. But during his lunch breaks and after hours, you can often find him at one of the area's charming coffee shops, huddled over an unadulterated iced coffee with a pen and paper in hand (somewhat old-school in his methods). Hopefully, when you see him, the pen's moving, and he hasn't dozed off.

Either way, be sure to say, "hello." If he's asleep just poke him with a stick. Jason always welcomes the chance to meet readers and to field their questions and comments.

Please visit the author's website for information regarding upcoming events or releases, or if you have any questions or comments for him, http://authorjasonparent.com.