Come See Me At The Mahoning Drive-In
**UPDATE** Due to what looks like some pretty inclement weather and other extenuating circumstances, I unfortunately won’t be able to make it to this event. I’m pretty bummed, but hope to be a part of their next vendor event.
Howdy hellions far and wide! Just wanted to let you know that I’ll be signing books at the world famous Mahoning Drive-In on Sunday, April 30th as part of their Halfway to Halloween fair. It also coincides with the start of the Mahoning’s 2023 season.
If you’ve never been to the Mahoning, you’re missing out on a ton of fun. With one of the largest drive-in screens in the world, it’s become both a landmark and a treasure. People come from all over the country, if not the world, to experience it. Best part is, you can even sleep in the drive-in and make it a multi-day event.
So, for a damn good time, come on over to Lehighton, PA. I’ll be signing copies of To The Devil, A Cryptid, Bigfoot in the Bronx, Mail Order Massacres, Slash and so many more. And I just might don my Bigfoot costume and cause some mayhem.
Just Some Halloween Fun
I can’t help but have the Silver Shamrock theme run through my head every time I look at the calendar in October. As of this moment, there are 9 more days until Halloween. I’m fine with putting on my pumpkin mask now while I sit in front of the TV. But since I don’t want worms and bugs coming out of my head on the big day, I think I’ll wear my bigfoot costume instead.
I know everyone’s looking for fun things to do during the spooky season. Me and my gang of horror idiots have been busy filming new shows and promoting the horrortober season like busy, twisted elves. So, for those of you who can’t make it to a haunted attraction, spooky hayride or pumpkin maze, here are some things to get you in the proper mood.
Are you a fan of the Halloween series? Have you seen Halloween Ends yet? The Final Guys (5 of us this time around!) give our picks of what to watch and read and then dive into the final chapter of Michael Myers…or is it? It’s making money so let’s face it, he’ll be back.
Speaking of Final Guys, we also just dropped a special episode where we interview producer Peter Phok, the man behind such horror greats as Pearl, X, Stakeland, The House of the Devil, The Innkeepers and more. He was a blast to talk to and is living the horror and Hollywood dream.
My Halloween Video Visions column is dedicated this year to all things Bigfoot. This time around, I’ll be your video store curator as I walk you through the Video Visions squatch section, offering you 32 Bigfoot Movies That Scratch That Squatchy Itch! And here I am last year chilling out while watching Elvira between trick or treaters.
Need a great book to read with creepy tales from some of the best horror writers in the game? And it just happens to have the best cover of the year? Check out Human Monsters! This one’s a can’t miss and it features my buds, Tim Meyer and Chad Lutzke.
And with all of this Halloween goodness, you know you have to have a great pumpkin ale by your side. Luckily, the Monster Men conducted our annual pumpkin ale tasting while talking about the horror heart throbs that get our motors running. The dat after filming this, I was sick as a dog with Covid, so I had it in this video. I think I did pretty, pretty good for a guy who was hours away from being laid low for 2 weeks!
A Simple Thank You
Hello and happy almost Halloween season, Hellions! As I’ve been gathering all of the things to fill up my Horrortober, I wanted to pause for a moment and thank you all for everything you’ve done for me.
The process of writing is a lonely endeavor. You miss out on time spent with family and friends, hoping the words you’re putting down will entertain basic strangers out there in the insane world.
Over the past decade plus, so many of you have stepped out of the shadows of stranger and become friends, colleagues and supporters that are invaluable to me. I truly love horror, and am proud to share that love with all of you. In the end, we’re all just fans, jawing about the things that give us chills and make us sleep with the lights on.
So, thank you to everyone who has ever purchased one of my books, dropped a rating, left a review, connected with me on social media, promoted my work on said social media, watched or listened to my podcasts (Monster Men and Final Guys), appeared on my podcasts, signed up for Patreon, read my Video Visions column at Cemetery Dance, shared your ghost stories, made me aware of awesome new movies or UFO documentaries, alerted me to the latest cryptid news, came to a book signing or appearance at a convention or brewery, lent me a hand with things like marketing and design, gave me encouraging words to keep me going, and overall, just made me feel welcome. I know there can be a lot of drama in this genre, and I thank you for sticking with me in keeping that horse crap in the basement where it belongs.
Every single one of you is special to me, and I appreciate this community we’ve built. The future is known to no one, but I will always know that I have rock star Hellions in my life. We have a month and a half to go hog wild with this thing we love. I’m looking forward to sharing it all with you, like we do every year.
Stay scary, keep looking to the skies, and call me if you see a Bigfoot!
New Book Release – To The Devil, A Cryptid Pits The Goat Man Against Satan!
Releasing my latest foray into cryptid mania on Friday the 13th was no mere coincidence. What better time to give birth to a book that is chock full of Goat Man carnage, devil worshipping, revenge, and, well, love? Oh yeah, this has it all.
The ebook is available now and paperback will be quick to follow.
If that doesn’t have your horror motor running, here’s a quick preview of Chapter One!
SOMEWHERE IN TEXAS
The bleating of the terrified goat rode under the constant barrage of thunder. Lightning crackled against the starless sky, throwing up strange and twisted shadows in the woods. The first patters of rain plinked off the leaves. It sounded like a monsoon was barreling their way…fast.
“What about the fire?” one of the black-robed figures asked.
“It will burn for as long as it needs to burn,” replied the nude woman covered in blood and holding a heavy, leatherbound book. Her name was Lupita Saenz and she was the leader of their cult. Lupita had used a metal file to whittle her eye teeth into fangs the night before, and with the way the wind was whipping her jet-black hair, she was a vision of absolute terror.
Perhaps not for Chuck Bugna, who had had enough of an unrelenting crush on Lupita to willfully join the group of weekend Satanists on the night of their big sacrifice. He couldn’t stop staring at her crimson breasts. There had been promises of a wild bacchanal when they were done. Chuck had been in charge of procuring all of the alcohol and the suite at the Hampton Inn a few towns away. The word orgy had been bandied about and that was not something Chuck was going to miss, even if he had to watch a goat get its throat cut. Normally an animal lover, he clung to the memory of being chased by a goat at the petting zoo when he was eight. It had traumatized him.
Yeah, well fuck that goat. Chuck looked at the goat to his left as it strained against the rope, its eyes wide and terrified with each clap of thunder and flicker of lightning. Sorry you gotta take the fall for it, but at least you’ll be serving a higher purpose.
That higher purpose, Chuck was sure, was not the incarnation of the devil or satisfied Goat Man or some lesser demon. It would be him getting laid. With Lupita, if the fantasies in his head managed to play out.
He just wanted this whole part to be over and done with. With his luck, he’d get struck by lightning. A whole year of chanting HAIL SATAN for naught.
Think positive. And stop looking at the goat.
Lupita motioned for Sandra on her right to hand her the chalice. She took a huge gulp and promptly spat the cheap wine into the large campfire it had taken Chuck and Dan the better part of an hour to build.
Chuck thought the wine would make the flames roar. Instead, the bitter liquid sizzled and was quickly evaporated.
She threw her head back and looked into the roiling sky.
“It’s time!”
Dylan took the book from her, dropped to his knees and held it open so she could read from it. Chuck had wanted that job, if only to get closer to a naked Lupita. She had insisted Dylan be the book bearer. For that, Chuck hated Dylan just a little bit.
“Bow your heads and repeat after me,” Lupita commanded. “Amen. Everlasting life and body the of resurrection the sins of forgiveness.”
The group of six Satanists around the fire intoned as one. “Amen. Everlasting life and body the of resurrection the sins of forgiveness.”
When they finished, the rain started to fall in earnest. So many jagged spires of lightning sprang to life, it turned night into day for several seconds. Chuck felt his arm hairs start to rise.
The rain washed the blood (pig’s blood they got from the butcher) off of Lupita’s tan, taut body. Chuck licked his lips.
She continued. “The saints of communion the Church Catholic holy the Spirit Holy the in believe I!”
They responded. “The saints of communion the Church Catholic holy the Spirit Holy the in believe I!”
Saying the Apostle’s Creed backwards was no easy task. They had been rehearsing it for the better part of a month. Chuck couldn’t count how many times he’d said it forward in church growing up. The priests used to stop random students in the school halls to make them say it until they knew it like the backs of their dirty hands. If they could only see Chuck now.
When they finished the Apostle’s Creed, Lupita began chanting in a weird language that was so guttural, Chuck worried she might choke on her own tongue. His worry didn’t prevent him from ogling her.
“Get the sacrifice!” she wailed. Chuck forced his eyes to lock on Lupita’s face. Her eyes showed too much white. Crazy eyes. He quickly and happily went back to looking at her chest and below.
Rosie and Harold pulled the stake the goat was tied to out of the ground and led the skittish animal closer to the fire. Sandra passed the ceremonial dagger she had ordered from some seller on Etsy to Lupita. The fire hissed as the rain pounded down. Chuck could feel the thunder in his bones. This had better be quick.
Start Spreading the News…MANRATTAN is Here!
One thing the pandemic did was lower the visible rat population. With so few people out and about littering and going to restaurants and stores, there was less and less for the furry bastards to eat. Gone were the days of rustling mounds of trash bags on city curbs.
You ever wonder what the rats were doing all that time?
Wonder no more! For those who enjoyed my ‘rats take Manhattan’ novella, RATTUS NEW YORKUS, comes a continuing saga of furry terror with…MANRATTAN!
If you dig the title, all credit goes to my daughter who came up with it when she was editing Rattus New Yorkus. It was too good a title to go to waste.
Manrattan finds exterminators Chris and Benny Jackson back in the big city battling it out with a new breed of vermin that might just be too much for the city to survive.
If you want to join the twitching, chittering carnage, you’ll need to head on over to my Patreon account at http://www.patreon.com/huntershea and become a patron.
And while you’re there, you’ll have access to the massive novel, Clash of the Cryptids, lost novella, I Kill In Peace, new Jessica Backman stories and so much more. Plus, you can join me with monthly live movie watch parties where the beer flows as freely as the comments on the horror turkeys and lost gems that we cultivate through careful thought and consideration. Sorta.
Let’s just hope you don’t end up like poor Charlie after reading Manrattan.
Anticipated Reads for Women In Horror Month #WIHM
February is Women in Horror Month and I’ve already got my TBR stack locked and loaded. I’m really looking forward to tucking into these tales of the strange and unusual. Some are brand new to me, and others are staples that never disappoint. What’s on your list?
New York City, 1990:
When you slip through the cracks, no one is there to catch you. Monique learns that the hard way after her girlfriend Donna vanishes without a trace.
Only after the disappearances of several other impoverished women does Monique hear the rumors. A taloned monster stalks the city’s underground and snatches victims into the dark.
Donna isn’t missing. She was taken.
To save the woman she loves, Monique must descend deeper than the known underground, into a subterranean world of enigmatic cultists and shadowy creatures. But what she finds looms beyond her wildest fears—a darkness that stretches from the dawn of time and across the stars.
You’re next…
Carol and Nessa are strangers but not for much longer.
In a luxury apartment and in the walls of a modern hospital, the evil that was done continues to thrive. They are in the hands of an entity that knows no boundaries and crosses dimensions – bending and twisting time itself – and where danger waits in every shadow. The battle is on for their bodies and souls and the line between reality and nightmare is hard to define.
Through it all, the words of Lydia Warren Carmody haunt them. But who was she? And why have Carol and Nessa been chosen?
The answer lies deep in the darkness…
Maria is a wanted woman. She’s wanted by and Aztec trafficker, a cartel boss, the people she fights for, and now the Devil she can’t resist.
Her journey begins as a would-be immigrant turned vampire in Juarez, Mexico until the injustices of the world turn her into somehting else. She’s not just out for blood, she wants answers.
Maria spends twenty-two years in motel cleaning purgatory trying to keep her faith and sanity intact. When she feels all hope is lost she meets an ex-boxer that offers her a new job and teaches her to fight. During this time, she becomes an unlikely bad ass enforcer of justice for the community that has embraced her. Is she a saint or an old God from a forgotten past?
Not only does she evolve into the woman she always hoped to be, but she finds her creator – Adam- he is nothing like she imagined. He invites Maria to travel with him to England to join The Keepers, a vampire organization led by the ancient Mordecai and Dr. Elizabeth Appleton.
Learning that the true vampire way isn’t destruction but the safety of humanity, Maria joins The Keepers as they uncover a plot set into motion by Lucifer himself. The Keepers must end his corruption through political manipulation or watch as the world hurtles towards self-destruction.
Korede’s sister Ayoola is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola’s third boyfriend in a row is dead, stabbed through the heart with Ayoola’s knife. Korede’s practicality is the sisters’ saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood (bleach, bleach, and more bleach), the best way to move a body (wrap it in sheets like a mummy), and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures to Instagram when she should be mourning her “missing” boyfriend. Not that she gets any credit.
Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she’s exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola’s phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she’s willing to go to protect her.
Once upon a time, there was a woman, and she was tired. Tired of pushing. Tired of being pushed. Tired of feeling alone. Tired of so much.
So she gathered together a pack of wolves, a band of mothers, sisters, wives, daughters, partners, friends, lovers, survivors, victors and brilliant, shining things, and she told them to sing.
And sing they did.
The result is WE ARE WOLVES, a chorus of of terrifying, moving and heart-breaking stories from some of horror’s finest contemporary writers including Gemma Amor, Laurel Hightower, Cina Pelayo, Sarah Read, Hailey Piper, V Castro, Sara Tantlinger, Sonora Taylor and many more.
All proceeds from the sale of this charity anthology will go towards helping the survivors of abuse and assault.
Reader Appreciation Day!
I have to say, I have the greatest readers in the world. So many of you have been posting pictures of my books (or yourselves with my books) that I just had to share. This is just a small sample of what’s happened in the past week or so. Please keep ’em coming. I may have to make this a monthly blog post going forward.
@JoshuaMarsella holding a copy of The Jersey Devil before he disappeared into the Pine Barrens, never to be seen again.
@kimberlyyerina6466 created a hellish display for her copy of Ghost Mine. I hear she’s heading out to Hecla, WY with a pick axe, shovel, and holy water.
You better not call @disneynine a Misfit. Though she does know how to rock the grunge look.
@wellwortharead knows how to set the mood. I wonder what a haunted mansion candle smells like. Cobwebs and fear?
@LouciferSpeaks went old school with this one. Looks like the tips of her fingers are about to be bitten off by one of those nasty beasts.
I just love this pic by @spookymermaids. Makes me want to head up to our place in Maine and…wait, maybe not!
Monster Men For Your Ears
AAAARRRRGGGHHHHH!!!
First, thank you to everyone who has watched and supported the Monster Men video podcast for the past 10 years. It’s a true labor of love and we’re honored that folks tune into our insanity.
Well, after being video-only for all this time, we’re finally adding audio to the mix! Right now, you can catch interviews with authors Chad Lutzke and Laurel Hightower. More back episodes to come. Click here to get the full list of places to find our audio podcast. We’ll be adding more in the coming weeks. We hope you dig it and maybe this can open things up to longer form interviews just for audio. Let me know what you think.
Flame Tree Friday presents – an interview with Executive Editor, Don D’Auria.
It’s not often we get an interview with horror’s premier editor, so this is one not to miss. The wizard behind the curtain tells all. Well, maybe not all.
I am honoured to feature an absolute LEGEND on the blog today. This is the man who said yes to my own three most favourite writers – Glenn, Hunter and Mr Janz.
Welcome, Don D’Auria.
Thank you so very much for agreeing to be interviewed for my blog.
First off, please could you tell me a little bit about yourself.
I’m always proud to say I was the classic example of a Monster Kid when I was growing up in the suburbs of New Jersey. I read Famous Monsters and watched Creature Features religiously. I still have the copies of Frankenstein and Dracula that I got from the Scholastic Book Club in grammar school, as well as my favourite Aurora monster models. So you can imagine what it’s like for me to work in the genre that I’ve been a fan of since childhood. It was a huge thrill for…
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GHOST MINE on Sale for Just 99 Cents!
That’s right my hellion pardners, you can get your hands on Ghost Mine from now until July 9th for only 99 cents.
If you dig cowboys, ghost towns, abandoned places, cryptids, black eyed kids, ghosts and pure evil, you’re my kind of person! Take a trip into GHOST MINE today.
Hunter Shea 