A Horror Writer’s Life Review

King of the Cryptids! B-Movie Monster Maker! That Pulp Horror Guy!

I’ve been called all of those things and much more (and far worse!). I wear all of those badges with pride and honor. It’s exactly what I set out to do when I started scribbling stories back in the 90s when I Will Always Love You by Whitney Houston was the #1 song in the world, and the first Jurassic Park was lighting up the big screen. Folks always said, “Oh, you want to be the next Stephen King.” In the sense that I wanted to write horror and make some money doing it, yes. King money would be incredible. But really, I was hoping to be more along the lines of Guy N Smith, James Herbert, and Hugh B. Cave.

So, for you, kind reader, who has happened upon this page, I wanted to share a bit of my writing journey and showcase the strange little darlings that seeped from my brain pan onto the printed page. You may be new to Hunter Shea, or a tried and true hellion. Come on, follow me (and keep your hands in the car and no flash photography)…

I may be fully immersed now in all things cryptid and monstrous, but I actually started out writing ghost stories. I lived in a haunted house from 1993 – 2019, and for a great part of that time, we had the spirit of a young boy sharing our living space with our family. I liked him a lot because I didn’t have to pay for any food or clothing, but I do wish I could have claimed him as a dependent on my taxes. Needless to say, I became obsessed with ghosts and the afterlife. My first published novel was Forest of Shadows, with the now defunct Samhain Publishing. I went on to make it a trilogy that is still available today. Numerous short stories have since followed in different anthos, and I feel there are more full-length novels that need to be told.

While churning out novels and novellas for Samhain, I came to the attention of an editor at Kensington Publishing, aka Pinnacle books. That editor and I collaborated first on 3 mass market paperbacks (still my favorite format), with 2 focusing on cryptids – the Montauk Monster and the Jersey Devil – and one a post-apocalyptic nightmare. It was pretty damn cool having books available everywhere, including your local Piggly Wiggly.

Samhain eventually goes kerplooie, and I hitch my wagon to Severed Press, where all things cryptid and monstrous really take center stage. I’ve grappled with the Dover Demon, squatches of all kinds, prehistoric ghost sharks, megalodons, the Goat Man, Loch Ness Monster, dinosaurs and even very pissed off killer whales. I’m still publishing with Severed and working on a new story idea as we speak for 2025.

My editor at Kensington came to me about writing a series of novellas about the things you used to be able to order from old comic books. Since we’re both technically 12 year olds, we were giddy as hell to get to work. Out popped the Mail Order Massacre trilogy over the course of one summer. We delved into the horrors of receiving sea monkeys, x-ray specs, and a submarine made of cardboard in the mail.

For our encore, we created a new trilogy of novellas, One Size Eats All! Easily my favorite book covers, this time we had rats invade NYC, a dinosaur eat a Florida town, and a strange fungus turn a camping trip into a nightmare.

And thank heaven my dream editor at Samhain, the legendary Don D’Auria, brought me along when Flame Tree Press when they started their horror line. This really gave me a chance to stretch my wings. I wrote my first slasher with a killer that would make Jason head for the hills, delved into the Melon Heads, and mined my personal life with a tale of real and unimaginable horror.

There are other books that are now out of print (some of them coming back with a new publisher this year!) and even a new one that will be out in 2025. Mostly these days I’m happily working on ghost writing projects outside the horror genre that give me great joy to write (and I’m spared having to do promotion). Sure, I may not be on the NY Times bestseller list, but I know I’ve given a whole lot of people a distraction from the real world. And really, that’s what matters most. I hope you’ll stick with me as I keep on typing away (a little slower now, but still getting it done). There are plenty more monsters that need to come to life!