Andrew K. Clark is a writer from Western North Carolina where his people settled before the Revolutionary War. His debut novel, Where Dark Things Grow, published by Cowboy Jamboree Press, was a finalist for the Manly Wade Wellman Award, shortlisted for the Sir Walter Raleigh Fiction Award, and winner of an IPPY from the Independent Book Publishers Awards. The sequel, Where Dark Things Rise, was published by Quill & Crow Publishing House. His forthcoming novel, Hollow Folk, will be published by Quill & Crow in September of 2026. His poetry collection, Jesus in the Trailer, was published by Main Street Rag Press and shortlisted for the Able Muse Book Award. His work has appeared in The American Journal of Poetry, UCLA’s Out of Anonymity, Appalachian Review, Rappahannock Review, The Wrath Bearing Tree, and many other journals. He received his MFA from Converse College.

The night shift at the Holloway was supposed to be quiet. When grad student Ethan Ray clocks in as night auditor at the aging Holloway mountain resort, he expects paperwork, silence, and a paycheck. Instead, reddish-brown lights bleed across the Appalachian sky. Hard winds whip through the trees without making a sound, and mysterious owl gargoyles come to life.

At 3 a.m., every clock stops. Trapped inside with his co-workers, Kal and Teresa, Ethan realizes the hotel isn’t just old. It’s a boundary. Something ancient has been waiting and is now awake. To escape, they must uncover the Holloway’s secrets, even as unexpected love blossoms between Ethan and Teresa. The problem is, the visions haunting each of them carry the same warning: someone in the hotel cannot be trusted. Gothic romance meets Appalachian folk horror, where the mountains are watching and the dark leaves marks.

BookSparks is working in conjunction with Quill & Crow Publishing House and Get Red PR.