Today’s guest post is by Hunter Shea, one of the rising stars in the field of horror fiction. He’s written several great novels and novellas that every horror fan must read. If you like fun stories with scary monsters and creepy ghosts, I highly recommend you check out the books of Hunter Shea. Here, he’s talking about his latest thriller, The Montauk Monster, which just released in time for the summer.
Have
you heard the one about the Everglades skunk apes who got a writer a two-book
thriller deal?
Sounds
insane, right? Even more so because it’s true.
My
debut thriller, The Montauk Monster,
came about as strangely as the cryptids that descend on a Long Island town in
the book. It’s funny how one set of creatures led to a breakneck tale of
another.
Here’s
how it went down and how you just never know where life will take you. A couple
of years ago, I was watching a marathon of the show Bar Rescue. My editor at Samhain, the legendary Don D’Auria,
emailed me around midnight to ask if I had any novellas I’d like to publish. Of
course, I didn’t, but in a flash I had this idea about a Bigfoot novel set in
the Everglades. Yeah, Bar Rescue
marathons and lack of sleep make for great creative inspiration. Don said to go
for it, and I set to writing.
A
month later, I turned in my manuscript, Swamp
Monster Massacre, a love note to the B monster movies I loved and still
adore. SMM is filled with a family of angry skunk apes intent on murdering a
band of hapless humans who crashed their airboat in the deep of the Everglades.
The book is a hell of a lot of twisted fun and has been my most popular to
date.
Flash
forward to the following year. I get an email from a guy who says he’s an
editor. Apparently, he was trolling for ‘new talent’ and had loaded up his
kindle with hundreds of ebooks. When all was said and done, he said SMM was the
one that stood out and he wanted to know if I’d be interested in working with
him.
Now,
at first, I thought this was some kind of scam. So, I checked him and his
company out. Oh, he was legit all right. I replied that I was interested, and
we got to talking. The man made me laugh and we found out we shared the same
love for Roger Corman, Irwin Allen and loads of other stuff. Again, I was asked
if I had any ideas for a thriller.
I
had recently been looking at pictures of supposed Montauk Monsters, strange
animal carcasses that have been washing up on the shores of Long Island, NY. I
quickly hashed a story concept together. To my amazement, he loved it and we
were off to the races. To convince the senior editors in the project, he even
printed pictures of the corpses and articles! And sure enough, I not only got the
deal, but a two-book deal.
Right
away, I started working on the book, powering through it, creating non-stop
action with plausible backstories. It was a challenge and a thrill. Best of
all, the whole thing was an unexpected gift from above.
Now
here it is, already listed as Publisher Weekly’s top reads for summer and in a second
printing before the first copy hit the shelves.
And
it’s all because of those lovable, murderous skunk apes. Who knew? As R.L.
Stine told me (along with the crowd of other writers who paid to hear him),
never say no. That proposal you take on could be the one that changes your
life.
Hunter Shea is the author of the pulse-pounding new thriller, The Montauk Monster, named as one of the Best Reads of Summer by Publishers Weekly.
His
horror novels to date are: The Waiting,
Sinister Entity, Swamp Monster Massacre, Evil Eternal and Forest of Shadows. His obsession with
all things horrific has led him to real life exploration of the paranormal,
interviews with exorcists and other things that would keep most people awake
with the lights on. Hunter is also the proud and slightly demented co-host of
the Monster Men video podcast. A native New Yorker all his life, he waits with
Biblical patience for the Mets to win a World Series. You can read about his
latest travails, preview and purchase his books, watch Monster Men episodes and
communicate with him without the need for a Ouija board at www.huntershea.com.
