Imagine a world where Santa Claus, that right jolly old elf who spreads joy and happiness at Christmastime, had a black heart beating under that fuzzy red suit?<\/p>\n
Sure, he still delivers toys to children everywhere, but at what cost?<\/p>\n
That\u2019s the premise behind \u2018Twas the Night, a new horror novel by St. Petersburg author Kevin Johnson. It\u2019s published by William Morrow, an imprint of HarperCollins.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been writing manuscripts for many, many years, and this is the first one that finally broke through and we sold,\u201d relates Johnson, a Pinellas County native who works as Director of Product Management at Global Payments Inc., a payment technology and software company.<\/p>\n
Johnson spent years in the corporate tech industry, handling everything from marketing to client development. He also happens to have a degree in English from Florida State University, and writing has always been his passion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve been a fan of the horror genre my whole life,\u201d he says. \u201cI grew up on Goosebumps by R.L. Stine, and then that led me into Stephen King. So I read all his stuff, like all horror writers.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/10\/Twas-the-Night-Kevin-Johnson-204x300.jpg\")
Indeed, \u2018Twas the Night is set in Maine, King\u2019s backyard. Johnson\u2019s familiar with the state\u2019s brutal winter weather \u2013 his parents retired there \u2013 and it only made sense to set a frosty, freezy Christmas tale in Maine, as opposed to say, Florida.<\/p>\n
Here\u2019s the setup: Investigative reporter Halley Belanger, a card-carrying Christmas hater, is determined to find out what\u2019s become of dozens of missing children, mostly foster kids. The trail leads her to Yule, a tiny, blink-and-you\u2019ll-miss-it town in the center of one of Maine\u2019s darkest and most impenetrable forests.<\/p>\n
\u201cChristmas horror,\u201d Johnson explains, \u201cis a subgenre that I have a lot of fun with in the holiday season. I started thinking, in these horror Christmas movies, it\u2019s always a killer that dressed like Santa Claus, or a snowman or like a whatever. And I was like \u2018What would it look like if Santa was not only real, but actually evil?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Yule is populated by strangely downtrodden townsfolk, most of whom don\u2019t want Halley there, sniffing around. There are secrets everywhere.<\/p>\n
But she\u2019s befriended by Bob and Barry, an eccentric gay couple, who over the course of a few days, and with the aid of supernaturally strong martinis (that\u2019s Bob\u2019s department), tell her the whole, sordid story.<\/p>\n
Or most of it, anyway.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m the kind of writer that once I get an idea, I just go for it,\u201d says Johnson. \u201cI don\u2019t have an outline. I just kind of write. I kind of have an idea of how I\u2019m going to end things, and then I\u2019m off to the races.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have a few scenes in mind I want to get to, but other than that I just write off the cuff. I come up with characters, I put them in crazy situations, and then I see how they react.\u201d<\/p>\n
For example. \u201cI knew I wanted to have a scene where Santa Claus goes berserk and murders a bunch of people in a basement. I was like \u2018That\u2019s going to be kind of fun,\u2019 because I have a sick, twisted brain.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Twas the Night is suspenseful, and quite frightening in places. Johnson was shrewd enough to leaven the darkness with humor here and there, courtesy of Hally\u2019s ongoing inner monologue, and Bob\u2019s decidedly dry wit.<\/p>\n
But that Santa dude? You better watch out, you better not cry \u2026<\/p>\n
He consider Charles Dickens\u2019 A Christmas Carol (subtitled Being a Ghost Story of Christmas) \u201cthe OG Christmas horror novel.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cHe kind of had the idea way back when. It is kind of a spooky time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Johnson believes \u201cthere\u2019s a lot of fun to be had\u201d in taking something wholesome like Christmas and making it ugly.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd when I fell down some Internet rabbit roles, like where the Santa mythos originates, and all the different parts and pieces that now make up what we know as Santa Claus, to my surprise I found it to be pretty gnarly!<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m not saying everything I wrote in the book is one hundred percent accurate, but I didn\u2019t have to make up whole lot. There\u2019s a lot of meat on the bones for tracing Santa\u2019s origins back to these more gruesome pagan rituals.<\/p>\n
\u201cAnd I thought that was really fun, and decided to share it with the world.\u201d<\/p>\n
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