Jennifer McMahon's Blog

My next book, The Children on the Hill, hits the shelves in six weeks! You can pre-order today at bit.ly/ChildrenontheHill — there's also a Goodreads giveaway that you can enter through March 28, click here to enter!

I'm so excited to share this book with you!

Happy New Year! I’ve got a lot of great stuff in store for 2022, and first off is today’s release of The Drowning Kind in paperback! The Drowning Kind was a Goodreads Choice Awards finalist, a New York Times pick as one of the best thrillers of 2021, and an Amazon Editor’s pick. I’m super excited that you can now find it in paperback at a store near you! I am loving all the great feedback I’ve been getting and am absolutely thrilled by the enthusiasm and support – it means the world to me. Wishing all of you a healthy new year full of many wonderful books!

Today’s the day! My new novel, The Drowning Kind, is officially on sale! I’m so excited to share this story with you.

Here’s a fun fact about me: Despite writing creepy books, I’m a big scaredy cat. I’m the person who screams loudest during horror movies and has the sleep with all the lights on when I’m reading a scary book. I even scare myself when I’m writing. The truth is, when I get that little chill of fear, that feeling that someone (or something) is standing right behind me watching while I sit at my desk – that’s when I know I’m onto something good. I had a lot of these moments while I was writing The Drowning Kind, starting with the very opening scene, where Jax and Lex are in the pool as kids:

“So when we play the Dead Game, we keep our eyes open, no matter what.” Her face was as serious as serious got. “Swear it? Swear you’ll keep them open?”
I nodded.
“Even if you see Rita?” she asked.
“Shut up, Lex.”
“She’s down there, you know. She’s waiting for us.”

I get chills even now. I hope you do, too.

Happy reading!

The Drowning Kind hit stores three weeks from today! Who’s ready to dive in?

Here’s what the amazing Wendy Webb and Alma Katsu had to say:

"In The Drowning Kind, Jennifer McMahon weaves a blisteringly suspenseful tale that will keep you up at night wondering what is real, what is otherworldly, and most of all, what in the name of all that’s unholy is in the water."—Wendy Webb, #1 bestselling author of Daughters of the Lake

"Past and present, the real and the imaginary intertwine like ribbons on a maypole in this beautifully haunting story of familial love and loss. For those who crave magic in their everyday lives, Jennifer McMahon will make you believe."—Alma Katsu, author of The Deep

I'm so excited to share this book with the world!

A fan here on Goodreads recently asked me a great question: “What subject have you always wanted to write about, but were too scared to explore?” I didn’t have to think hard at all about this one. Demons. Demons scare the bejesus out of me. I actually have an idea (and I think it’s a good idea!) for a demonic possession book, but every time I sit down to start work on it, or do any research, I get scared. Like really scared. I think, ‘Not opening that door, no way!’ then put away my notes and start working on something else, something a little less frightening. But here’s the thing, my motto, which I believe so strongly in I had tattooed on my wrist as a constant reminder to stay true to my purpose, is: Write what scares you – so shouldn’t I be exploring my biggest fears rather than running away from them? I think when we write from our biggest fears, we tap into something truly powerful.

Maybe it’s time to sit down and see where that demon story might take me. Wish me luck!

We are well into fall here in Vermont. The foliage is past peak and we’ve had our first hard frosts. The garden is all cleaned out and it’s time to get the snow tires on the cars, the firewood stacked and ready, the storm windows on. And for me, it’s time to hunker down and really get to work.

I think we definitely all have times of day when we’re most productive (for me it’s mornings and early in the day – I’m useless at any creative thinking by dinnertime), but lately I’ve been thinking about seasonal productivity. Winter is my most productive writing time. Despite living in Vermont, I’m not a big fan of the cold and snow -- I tend to hunker down inside with coffee by the woodstove and write. I don’t have all the distractions I have when it’s nice out – I’m not tempted to go camping, kayaking, work in the garden, do big outdoor projects, or go for long wanders in the woods. I stay inside and work like crazy. I’m writing at other times of the year, too, but I tend to get the most done during the winter – I work longer hours and it’s easier for me to get deeper into the work – I have more days where I’m truly in the flow. In the late spring and summer, I give myself permission to not get as much done – to spend more time with my family and friends, to go adventuring – because I know that when the cold weather sets in, I’m going to hunker down and kick butt.

There's a Goodreads giveaway going on now through October 12th! Head over to the page for The Drowning Kind and enter for a chance to win an early copy!

On this day, back in 1797, Mary Shelley, creator of FRANKENSTEIN, was born.

Her visionary, cautionary, terrifying and heartbreaking tale of a monster and his creator continues to inspire new generations and spark conversations that ask big questions. The book is one of my very favorites, and one I reread from time to time, always taking something new away from it.

The idea that Mary Shelley wrote it when she eighteen, not long after losing her first child is astounding to me. And I simply love the story behind the story: the house in Switzerland, the group trapped inside because rainy summer, Lord Byron’s challenge for each person to write a ghost story and Mary’s inability to think one up. At last, the idea came to her from a waking dream, as she writes about in her introduction:

“When I placed my head on the pillow, I did not sleep, nor could I be said to think. My imagination, unbidden, possessed and guided me, gifting the successive images that arose in my mind with a vividness far beyond the bounds of reverie. I saw – with shut eyes, but acute mental vision – I saw a pale student of unhallowed arts kneeling beside the thing he had put together. I saw the hideous phantasm of a man stretched out, and then, on the working of some powerful engine, show signs of life, and uneasy, half-vital motion.”

She had the vision, and opened her eyes, terrified, then, soon realized she had her idea for a ghost story: “Swift as light and as cheering was the idea that broke upon me. ’I have found it! What terrified me will terrify others; and I need only describe the spectre which had haunted my midnight pillow.’ On the morrow, I announced that I had thought of a story. I began that day with the words, ‘It was on a dreary night of November,’ making only a transcript of the grim terrors of my waking dream.”

I am thrilled to announce that my next book, The Drowning Kind, will be published by Gallery/Scout Books on April 6, 2021! It’s about a woman who returns to the old family home in Vermont after her sister mysteriously drowns in its swimming pool. When Jax arrives at the house to go through her sister’s things, she learns that Lexie was researching the history of their family and the property. And as she dives deeper into the research herself, she discovers that the land holds a far darker past than she could have ever imagined.

There will be a Goodreads giveaway beginning on August 10th -- be sure to add The Drowning Kind to your shelf to stay in the loop!

Happy National Paperback Book Day! I started my career writing trade paperback originals (meaning they were not published in hardcover first). My first was Promise Not To Tell. Though it was my first published book, it was actually the fourth I wrote and one that taught me so many important lessons. My first three unpublished novels were kind of all over the place – they were me trying to find myself as a fiction writer. But if I were to be honest, I’d have to admit that they were also about me trying to write what I thought other people might expect from me. When I sat down to write book four, I began by asking myself the question that would change everything; the question I recommend every aspiring writer ask themselves before beginning any project. What’s the book I most want to read? I remember the night I asked myself that question. I was sitting in front of a campfire deep in the Vermont woods. The answer came to me immediately. I knew the book I’d most want to read: a ghost story, set in those same woods. I got excited. It made such perfect sense: me, who loved ghosts and creepy stories and had always loved scaring people and being scared – of course that’s what I’d want to read. So that’s the book I vowed to write that night by the fire. Little by little, over the next few days and weeks, a story began to take shape. A ghost story. The story of Del Griswold, the Potato Girl. My little girl ghost who whispered, “I’ve got a secret.” And I sat still and listened carefully, writing it all down. In April, my tenth novel will be published – which feels just crazy to me. I’m so grateful for the journey my writing has taken me on; a journey that began with that very first paperback.