Red Web
Page 34
Author’s Note
If Red Web totally spider-creeped you out, (and if it didn't, you weren't paying attention) you might have trouble believing what I'm about to tell you.
I am arachnophobic.
Arachnophobia is the fear of spiders. No, it's more than just fear. It's not merely somebody who's spooked by spiders or who gets the creeps when they see one crawling up the wall or who hates those gigantic spiders in people's yards at Halloween.
Arachnophobia is a phobia, which Webster's defines as "an extreme or irrational fear." Two key words to note here: extreme and irrational. That'd be me — extremely, irrationally afraid of spiders. I had a close encounter with a huge tarantula when I was five years old and I have been arachnophobic ever since.
I once ran through a plate glass door when a kid put a rubber spider on my shoulder. (I have the scar of 23 stitches to prove it.)
If I see a spider in a room, and nobody kills it, I will never set foot in that room again. Extreme? You betcha. Irrational? Busted.
This is the point in the narrative where you're wondering: If you're arachnophobic, whatever possessed you to write a book like Red Web?
Actually, my arachnophobia is the main reason I decided to write the book in the first place. I can't think of anything on the planet more horrifying that a spider. My favorite author, Stephen King, has said on multiple occasions that a spider is the true embodiment of evil.
I couldn't agree more.
I go all out to give my readers the best I've got. (My husband says there's a sports phrase for that: I never leave anything on the field.) When I decided to make the second book in the Through the Canvas series reeeeeally horrifying, I wanted it to launch my readers into another whole dimension of goosebumps.
And there's nothing more horrifying than a spider. Decision made.
But between deciding to write a story with hundreds of spiders in it and actually writing a story with hundreds of spiders in it there's this little thing that has to happen called "research."
You can't write about spiders unless you know a whole lot about them.
I knew nothing.
But Google is your friend, right?
Want to know the ten most poisonous spiders in the world?
Want to know which spider has the deadliest venom?
Want to know how the human body reacts to a bite from a tarantula?
… a black widow? … a wolf spider?
Just Google it.
Let's back up to that arachnophobic thing. Remember the extreme and irrational part.
That's me! I cannot look at a spider!
I can't even look at a picture of a spider.
And therein lies the problem with "Google is your friend." Every time you Google spiders, they post a picture beside the information!
And sometimes there's even a video that starts automatically — suddenly you see the thing crawling across a rock or engaging in some charming and endearing behavior like eating its young.
My effort to research spiders left me in tears — literally.
My husband walked in on the tears and offered to help.
And so began the strangest research experience of my whole writing career. (Yes, even stranger than crawling through a coal mine on my hands and knees.)
My husband sat in front of the computer monitor. I sat where I couldn't see it. He’d look up a spider, like Australian wandering spider or Brazilian jumping spider, read the blurb and then describe the picture to me while I took notes.
The system quickly degenerated into conversations like:
"What color is it?"
"Black. Well, mostly black. The stuff sticking out of its body is brown."
"So black spider, brown hair?"
"I'm not sure the brown stuff is hair."
"If it's not hair, what is it?"
"Fur maybe?"
"Spiders don't have fur.
"How would you know? You've never looked at a spider for more than a second before you start making that sound."
"What sound?"
"You know what sound. That squeak you make."
"I do not squeak."
"Yes, you do. You sound like a baby rabbit that got run over by a hay baler."
"Fine, black spider, brown fur. What does its face look like?"
"I might not be looking at the face. I might be looking at the butt. It's hard to tell."
"It looks the same coming and going?"
“No, this side's got black dangly things hanging down with bristly hair. ”
“Fangs?”
“Maybe. But the jumping spider didn’t have hairy fangs. Maybe these are antennae.”
“What do the eyes look like?”
“I don’t think this one has eyes. I can’t find them.”
“It has to have eyes or it’d bump into trees and rocks and other spiders.”
“Maybe it sees with those dangly things.”
"How can you see with dangly things?"
"I don't know. I'm not a spider."
After several enlightening conversations like that, I started writing, figured I'd just have to wing the descriptions. And I quickly realized I didn't have to describe the spiders. Nobody cares what spiders look like. A spider's a spider. Readers can picture them looking any way they want.
Besides, if I described the spiders reeeeally well, my readers might start making that squeaky sound …
Ninie Hammon
February, 2020
Also By Ninie Hammon
Through The Canvas Series
Black Water
Red Web
The Unexplainable Collection
Five Days in May
Black Sunshine
The Based on True Stories Collection
Home Grown
Sudan
When Butterflies Cry
The Knowing Series
The Knowing
The Deceiving
The Reckoning
Stand-alone Psychological Thrillers
The Memory Closet
The Last Safe Place
Nonfiction/Memoir
Typin’ ‘Bout My Generation
About the Author
Ninie Hammon (rhymes with shiny, not skinny) grew up in Muleshoe, Texas, got a BA in English and theatre from Texas Tech University and snagged a job as a newspaper reporter. She didn't know a thing about journalism, but her editor said if she could write he could teach her the rest of it and if she couldn't write the rest of it didn't matter. She hung in there for a 25-year career as a journalist. As soon as she figured out that making up the facts was a whole lot more fun than reporting them, she turned to fiction and never looked back.
Ninie now writes suspense--every flavor except pistachio: psychological suspense, inspirational suspense, suspense thrillers, paranormal suspense, suspense mysteries.
In every book she keeps this promise to her Loyal Reader: "I will tell you a story in a distinctive voice you'll always recognize, about people as ordinary as you are--people who have been slammed by something they didn’t sign on for, and now they must fight for their lives. Then smack in the middle of their everyday worlds, those people encounter the unexplainable--and it's always the game-changer."