BOOK DEAL: Children of Demeter

RDSP Signs EV Knight for Second Novel, Children of Demeter

Raw Dog Screaming Press (RDSP) is thrilled to announce signing a second novel from Bram Stoker Award nominated author EV Knight. Children of Demeter is a standalone novel from the author who earned the distinction this year for her 2020 debut novel The Fourth Whore, also from RDSP. Children of Demeter is set to be released on August 5, 2021, with a cover by the phenomenal horror artist Lynne Hansen.

“Our first novel with EV was a great success and we couldn’t be more proud of that release, so we’re very excited to be working on a second novel from her,” said editor Jennifer Barnes. “Children of Demeter is a tense and terrifying story that I think horror fans will be more than happy to devour.”

In her books, Knight uses feminism and psychology to explore the darkest recesses of horror. She experiments with history, imagination and metaphor to great success, offering us horror with a twist of crime and dash of mystery.

“I really wanted to write a haunted house book and in my brainstorming sessions, I started thinking about how our environment changes us,” Knight said. “The house and land of my book became a womb where those within would also be changed in some physical way by it. Playing around with that theme of mother and womb brought me to a mythologic mother, Demeter and from there it took off. The book itself evolved in its creative womb from a haunting to something else entirely, something I hadn’t anticipated writing. But there are ghosts in this book, memories that haunt us are like ghosts, unanswered questions about our past can haunt us too. In Children of Demeter, there is no Nature vs Nurture, it’s Nature and Nurture vs Us.”

What is Children of Demeter About?

In 1973 a commune of almost twenty-five people—mostly women and children—disappeared overnight from the small town of West Burma, WI. What happened to the hippie Children of Demeter has remained a mystery until this day, which is what draws Sarah Bisset, a sociologist on sabbatical, to the place.

With her personal life in ruins Sarah is more than happy to lose herself in the secrets of the isolated farmhouse, but soon those revelations have her questioning her own identity, and even her sanity. Is she prepared to navigate the labyrinth of lies and cover ups to expose the truth concealed inside Demeter House despite the consequences?

Working Together

RDSP is pleased to not only have helped launched Knight’s career, but to be able to continue to work with bringing such thought-provoking work to readers and to the genre. We are happy she feels the same about the relationship.

“Everything about the publishing part of being a writer is intimidating,” Knight said. “Working with Raw Dog Screaming Press takes so much of that fear and confusion away. They really are on your team, rooting for you to do well, and helping you figure it all out along the way. I love being a part of the RDSP family. Plus, their books are just gorgeous. They have a knack for finding the perfect cover artist that suits the contents perfectly. I love that.”

EV Knight, Biography

EV Knight is the author of the 2020 Bram Stoker Award nominated debut novel The Fourth Whore. She has also written a novella titled Dead Eyes for Unnerving Press’s Rewind or Die series. Her short stories and poetry appear in a number of anthologies, magazines, and the HWA’s 2019 Poetry Showcase. She received her MFA in Writing Creative Fiction from Seton Hill University in 2019. EV can be found wandering the haunted streets of Savannah, Georgia with her husband Matt, and their four naughty sphynx cats—Feenix, Luna, Bizzabout Fitchett, and Ozymandias Fuzzfoot the First.

Raw Dog Screaming Press

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