A January of Monsters and Mystery
January can be one long, boring month, even for a guy like me who loves the winter. Hopefully I’ll get to enjoy watching my Seahawks right through to the first Sunday of February. Other than that, it’s huddling in the house while the wind rattles our windows most nights.
The up side is that means I get to catch up on my reading. To inject a little oomph into January, I’ve laid out my reading list with enough monster and thrills to keep me warm and feeling like a little kid reading deep into the night by flashlight.
So, here’s my reading list. I hope yours includes my latest, ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDEN. When you’ve gotten your chills with the ghosts from that one, feel free to pluck one of these from my TBR pile…
IT WAITS BELOW By Eric Red (Alien sea monster! Hell yeah!)
It waits no more!
In the 1800s, an asteroid carrying an extraterrestrial life form crashed to earth and sunk a Spanish treasure ship. Now, a trio of salvage experts dives a three-man sub to the deepest part of the ocean to recover the sunken gold. There, they confront a nightmarish alien organism beyond comprehension, which has waited for over a century to get to the surface. It finally has its chance.
As their support ship on the surface is ambushed by deadly modern-day pirates, the crew of the stranded sub battles for their very lives against a monster no one on Earth has seen before.
BIGFOOT TRACKS – A CREEPSQUAD COLLECTION By Steve Vernon (Gettin’ squatchy!)
Everything that you have read about Bigfoot is a lie.
Everything that you have HEARD about Bigfoot is the truth!
Enjoy three stories from the files of The Creep Squad – that pack of cryptids, legends, and nondescript rumors who fight crime and misjustice anywhere that you aren’t looking.
What if ALL the stories were true?
What if Bigfoot really did exist? What if he depended upon people’s belief in him for his very existence?
TOXIC BEHEMOTH By David Bernstein (Freakin’ kaiju by one of my favorite writers!)
A creature born of flesh and toxic waste stalks the ocean depths, devouring every living thing in its path as it grows to a colossal size.
Weeks after its inception, the monster rises from the deep and attacks a cruise ship, alerting humanity to its presence.
The United States armed forces are called in to stop it, but with its human like intellect, mammoth size and organic, alien-like weaponry, the toxic behemoth will prove the most formidable enemy humanity has ever seen.
ABRAM’S BRIDGE By Glenn Rolfe (New Samhain blood with some serious writing chops!)
There is a darkness in this town, and it’s buried beneath Abram’s Bridge.
When Lil Ron meets Sweet Kate under Abram’s Bridge he is mesmerized. And when he realizes this beautiful girl is a ghost, it frightens him, but also draws him to her. Curiosity and a drive to make things right lead Lil Ron into a tangle of small-town secrets involving his own father and other members of this otherwise quiet community. Bit by bit, he will uncover the truth about Sweet Kate, a story of heartbreak, violence…and fear.
DEVOURED, THE HUNGER BOOK 1 By Jason Brant (Honorary Monster Man. I have been dying to dive into his series)
Life isn’t kind to Lance York. A full-time job has eluded him for years, his wife loathes the sight of him, his bank accounts are empty, and his wealthy father-in-law revels in his failures.
After he lunges in front of a car to save a sick and disoriented woman, Lance awakens in a quarantined hospital. A devastating plague is spreading worldwide, driving those infected with it insane. Their bodies begin to mutate into horrors that have haunted mankind’s nightmares for centuries.
The world descends into chaos as the infected flee to the shadows, emerging at night to devour the remnants of civilization.
With the help of an unlikely ally, Lance must navigate through the collapsing city of Pittsburgh, striving to escape the madness of the apocalypse that unfolds around them.
What’s on your reading list? Convince me to add your fave to my February list, when the days seem even longer!
Island of the Forbidden is Here – Come for the Three Hour Tour!
It’s been almost 2 years since Jessica Backman’s last foray into the world of the unknown, but she’s finally back. ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDEN has been officially released. Jessica is in her early twenties now and completely disenfranchised with the entire concept of ghost hunting. Knowing that she draws the dead to her, empowering those with less than noble intentions, she’s distanced herself from her family, friends and uber psychic, Eddie Home. Instead of running to the dead, she’s now running from them.
Eddie is now a shell of his former self. The power surge he had to employ to save Jessica and the family they were helping in SINISTER ENTITY has left him drained. He’s plagued by the cries of the dead, unable to help them.
Despite their weakness, Eddie and Jessica are both drawn to haunted Ormsby Island off the South Carolina coast. There’s an old mansion there and a secret so taboo, so terrifying, the world has done its best to wipe it from its collective memory. To save the living, they must face their deepest fears.
Early reviews have been great!
“When I’m ready to reconsider my views of the afterlife, of the nature and motivations of individuals, of the meanings of life and purpose, I look to Hunter Shea. He brings to the early 21st century the kind of thought-provoking literary horror that Ambrose Bierce gave to the 19th century.” Mallory Heart Reviews
“Island of the Forbidden” is the ultimate haunted house story. There are all of the elements for an explosive story in which everything goes wrong. And in “Island of the Forbidden,” everything goes wrong.” Examiner.com
“The story is a non-stop rush from the first chapter to the satisfying, terrifying end. This is 2015’s first must-read for the horror fan.” Russell James, author of Dark Vengeance and Dreamwalker
“Island of the Forbidden has it all, ghosts, an evil presence, psychics, creepy dead children, an old haunted house, the list goes on. I couldn’t put it down!” – Scarlet’s Web reviews
If ghost stories are you thing, I wrote this book just for you. This isn’t your momma’s ghost tale. Oh no.
You can order a copy of ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDEN (ebook or trade paperback) at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Samhain Publishing and wherever books are sold. If you get it, give me a shout and let me know what you think of it.
We’re also kicking off a HUGE blog tour, thanks to Hook of a Book Media. Click on the graphic below to see all the stops. Special thanks to Tim Busbey for his graphics expertise. I’ll be giving away lots o books along the way!
Author Q&A this Tuesday
Just a quickie post today. To celebrate the release of my book, ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDDEN, I’m hosting a Q&A session at my Facebook fan page. Pour your favorite cocktail and join the fun. Here are the deets :
When : Tuesday, January 6th
Time : 8 – 9pm EST
Where : Facebook
As the Fonz would say, be there or be square. Or did he say up your nose with a rubber hose? Hmmmm.
Okay, I’m off to steam clean the carpet and take the kids to the mall. Ah, the glamorous life of the horror writer.
The Real People Behind The Character – Jessica Backman Revealed
With only 5 days until the release of my next book, ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDEN, I thought it was time to talk a little about my brave ghost warrior, Jessica Backman. This is her third book and it’s strange how life is starting to imitate art, years after art was created to imitate life.
It all started with my very first book, FOREST OF SHADOWS. When I wrote FOS, my two girls were toddlers. My oldest was just about the same age as Jessica in the book, 6. Naturally, characteristic traits of both girls were woven into the fiber of Jessica – curious, precocious, at times braves, other times unsure and afraid. My wife and I back then talked about having 4 kids, all girls if possible. Jessica had long been a frontrunner on our list of baby names. When my wife’s sister had a baby and named her Jessica, even before she knew I was writing about a little girl with the same name, well, it kind of seemed as if this little character had come to life and joined the family. I ended FOS on a pretty definitive note and thought, that’s that. Ain’t it cool that we now have an actual little Jessica in the family?
The book was done, years later it was published and I suddenly couldn’t stop thinking about Jessica. What would become of a little girl who’d seen so much? Where was she now? How would she look? How does she hide her scars? (and I was quietly happy that my niece Jessica had led a normal, uneventful life) When my editor asked me for my next project, I said I was going to write one where Jessica was the main character. I moved the story ahead 13 years so she was now 19, smart, witty, foul mouthed and following in her deceased father’s ghost (or as she says, EB) hunting footsteps. A person could go two ways after experiencing what she had in Alaska. They could never think or speak of the supernatural again, or they could press on, armed with the feeling that lightning never strikes twice. In SINISTER ENTITY, Jessica is pretty much a know-it-all badass with proof that there’s a whole new life after death and she isn’t afraid to chase down its secrets. And like all teens, she doesn’t know as much as she thinks she does. Staring into the abyss without hesitation, something glares right back and it rocks her.
When I wrote SE, I had one girl in her teens and the other right behind her. My youngest was starting to gain an interest in the paranormal, just like Jessica. Both were unafraid of ghosts, mainly because we live with one. I don’t presume to know what it behind the unofficial fifth member of our family, but he’s here, just the same. As Jessica grew, so did they, and their personalities had started to meld.
With more tales to tell, I’ve brought Jessica back in ISLAND OF THE FORBIDDEN. Now in her early 20’s, she’s scared of herself and for the first time is afraid of both the worlds of the living and the dead. A grown woman now, she can’t just plow forward without thinking of the consequences. Once youth is lost, there is no getting it back. With that loss comes the flowering of fear.
And with age comes the complications of relationships with family, friends and for Jessica, a man. I see those girl-boy complications all the times with my girls. It makes me glad I’m not single!
In a strange way, Jessica has become a third daughter to us – albeit one who doesn’t need new clothes every season or leaves dirty dishes all around the house. She’s growing right along with my kids, though a little faster. I may have to slow her down so they call catch up. The best and most complicated parts of Jessica come from my own girls. And I do see them adopting some of her traits, even though they haven’t read the books (saving that for a couple of years from now). It’s fascinating to witness, and an honor to write. These 3 particular books have been the most personal to me. Art always intersects with life in some fashion. I’m excited to see where the family goes next.
Top 13 Horror Movies of 2014
This is the second go around with this post for me. You see, I spent 2 hours this weekend putting together a comprehensive list of my 13 favorite horror flix for 2014. The kicker is that WordPress lost the post entirely. To my credit, I didn’t cry or curse or break anything.
So, here I am again, once bitten, twice shy. My reviews are short and sweet this time around, but you’ll all get the point.
I was very worried that I wouldn’t be able to find 13 horror movies worth noting this year. As of July, Oculus was my top pick. Egads! Thankfully, things picked up in the second half and I had a good group to choose from.
So, before WordPress deletes this post and me in the process, on with the show!
#13 – ALL CHEERLEADERS DIE
Funny, dark, twisted and downright strange at times. Come for the pretty cheerleaders, stay for the ultra strange story. Undead cheerleaders and magic go together like PB&J.
#12 – NURSE 3D
Sexy, gory and deliciously decadent. Paz de la Huerta oozes sex as a nurse by day who kills wayward men by night. A lesbian attachment to a new nurse is the catalyst for a nuclear explosion of a third act with enough blood to feed a colony of vampires.
#11 – ANNABELLE
Another solid horror flick from the James Wan gang. It has some genuinely creepy jump scares and a demon that’ll turn your bowels to water. The Annabelle doll is nothing like the actual possessed doll now under glass in the Lorraine Warren museum. Worth the watch while you wait for The Conjuring 2.
#10 – DEAD SNOW 2 : DEAD VS. RED
How do you top a movie about Nazi zombies? Pit them against Russian zombies! The comedy in this is as sharp as Dead Alive and the gore is goregeous. I think it’s even better than the first.
#9 – ALIEN ABDUCTION
I LOVE alien movies. I picked this over Extraterrestrial by the Vicious Brothers because I felt this one was actually more frightening. The scene in the tunnel is worth the price of admission.
#8 – AS ABOVE, SO BELOW
If you’re claustrophobic, this movie may land you in the nuthouse. Think Indiana Jones running around the Paris catacombs, that are terrifying in their own right. This is a very, very strange movie with tons of scary imagery. I compared it to the big daddy of funhouse rides.
#7 – WILLOW CREEK
I scoured the planet to find this Bobcat Goldthwait Bigfoot flick. A squatchman like myself couldn’t resist. The movie starts funny and gets downright eerie. The protracted scene of the couple in their tent makes for the tensest moment in horror cinema of the year.
#6 – THE TAKING OF DEBORAH LOGAN
This came out of nowhere and shocked the hell out of me. A ‘found footage’ possession movie that works! The actors look like real people and the mystery and scares are genuine. A great find on Netflix.
#5 – THE BABADOOK
The Aussies know how to do horror. Mr. Babadook is a Dr. Caligari-esque children’s book that goes on to possess a 7 year old boy’s mother. Or is she? Turns out, she blames the boy for the death of his daddy on the day he was born. Great performances and a nuanced story with some super creepy moments.
#4 – THE SACRAMENT
I’m a Ti West fan, and I think this is his strongest movie yet. Set in a Jonestown-type compound, what makes this chilling is knowing that something like this can and has happened. The performance by Gene Jones as Father, the head of the cult, is the best of the year.
#3 – HONEYMOON
Another alien movie, this one centers on a young couple on their honeymoon at a family cabin during off season. Starring Rose Leslie (Ygritte on Game of Thrones), this one is sexy, scary and at turns, gut churning. A must watch.
#2 – CHEAP THRILLS
Demented. That’s all I can say about this one. Oh, and funny, desperate, tragic, sick. Two down on their luck old friends get pulled into the orbit of a couple who make them do dumb shit for money. How far would you go to make easy cash, especially when you’re in desperate need of some greenbacks? Love this movie.
#1 – EXISTS
I know this won’t top anyone else’s list except maybe Bobo from Finding Bigfoot. What I loved is that this is a squatch movie where you actually see Bigfoot – and he’s pissed! Bigfoot has never been more terrifying. Fans of my book Swamp Monster Massacre will know exactly why this is my top flick of the year. Give me angry squatches and I’m yours.
Looking Back – And Forward – At Christmas
I’m sure a lot of you are thinking the same thing I am today – ‘We made it!’
The month of December seems both a marathon and a sprint, days and nights spent planning, shopping, arranging travel, sending out cards, decorating, more shopping and then just a tad more shopping. The stores and malls this year have been more crowded than ever, which for economists is a good sign. For those caught in those crowds, it was a nightmare.
Usually at this time of year, churches would have a little less pew space. Not so this year. I guess there were too many sales at Target and Walmart luring folks away. It’s funny, we watched the Charlie Brown Christmas special and the very things Chuck was lamenting 50 years ago still hold true today, on a scale I’m sure he could never have imagined. (On a side note, I met the voice of Charlie Brown a couple of months ago. Funny guy. He was just sentenced to prison a week ago)
Today, with all of the Christmas cookies baked and nothing to do but wait for the big man to come down our imaginary chimney, I have time to reflect on all of the Christmases I’ve experienced – the good and the sad.
When I was a kid, Christmas Eve was spent at my grandparent’s house. I loved Christmas Eve there. For me, it was even better than Christmas. They had a small ceramic Christmas tree and little village on Grandpa’s work desk. He had the 8 track player softly playing Christmas songs. We opened presents in the living room, ate and then my sister and I would rush into the TV room to watch the first Christmas cartoon ever made, Mr. Magoo’s Christmas Carol. My aunts and uncles would come over and for one night, the family was aligned in perfection. Everyone but my mother and sister is gone now. It’s easy to get maudlin, but I choose to remember the good times we all had and to be grateful for them.
I remember Christmas Eve’s in the 90s (and just over the past 2 years again) when we weren’t sure my wife would be with us because she was so sick. Christmas is her holiday. I swear she was a North Pole elf in another life. The best present I received each of those Christmases was my wife, smiling by the tree.
Seventeen years ago we spent our first Christmas with someone we were told we would never have – our daughter. She was so tiny, the little stuffed Santa we all took pictures of her sitting next to was almost bigger than her. I think that day was the happiest I’ve ever seen my family.
Now my girls are teens and, believe it or not, just plain awesome. They’re smart and witty and sarcastic, just like dear old dad. This Christmas Eve, the 4 of us will hunker together. I’m taking them in the car to tour the Christmas lights. Then we’ll come home, make dinner and watch Christmas specials until it’s time to head off to bed. Christmas day will be spent with family, me the pack mule carting presents and food from one house to the next. There will be much merriment, and I’m sure some heated words about whatever topic sets off our booze addled brains. If you can’t yell at family about things that concern no one, what’s the point?
We once played bocce in the snow after dinner, in the dark. That was a blast. It’s going to rain this year, so it’ll be the guys chomping on stogies under and umbrella, the kids running around in the mud. The key is, we’ll all be together.
Because that’s what Christmas is really about. Family. And love.
Here’s wishing you and your family a very Merry Christmas!
New Cover Reveal – TORTURES OF THE DAMNED
Ho-ho-ho and all that claptrap. I haven’t been posting much this month because I’ve been doing rounds of edits on my latest book for Samhain and working on a brand new novella. Because of this, I’m seriously behind with Christmas shopping, but I still have a week. Looks like I’ll be hanging out at the gift card rack at Walgreens.
I went out to dinner last night with my editor at Kensington, Gary Goldstein. Time spent with Gary is time spent well. The first thing he presented me with was the cover of my next thriller, TORTURES OF THE DAMNED. It comes out July 28, 2015. I know that seems like a long way off, but it’ll be here before you know it. This one is a unique look on a post-apocalyptic world. No zombies in this one. Nope. I opted for something much, much more terrifying. Gary and I channeled our inner Roger Corman for this one. What do you think of the cover? Subtle, right? 🙂
Here’s the back cover copy in case you can’t read it on the pic I took of it :
Shock. . .
First, the electricity goes–plunging the east coast in darkness after a devastating nuclear attack. Millions panic. Millions die. They are the lucky ones.
After Shock. . .
Next, the chemical weapons take effect–killing or contaminating everything alive. Except a handful of survivors in a bomb shelter. They are the damned.
Hell Is For Humans
Then, the real nightmare begins. Hordes of rats force two terrified families out of their shelter–and into the savage streets of an apocalytic wasteland. They are not alone. Vicious, chemical-crazed animals hunt in packs. Dogs tear flesh, cats draw blood, horses crush bone. Roaming gangs of the sick and dying are barely recognizable as human. These are the times that try men’s souls. These are the tortures that tear families apart. This is hell on earth. The rules are simple: Kill or die.
The novels of Hunter Shea are:
“A lot of splattery fun.”–Publishers Weekly
“Harrowing, bloodsoaked.” –Jonathan Janz
“Frightening, gripping.”–Night Owl Reviews
Horror Flix Gone Bad
I’ve often been overheard saying I prefer a bad horror movie to a good non-horror movie. I won’t go so far as to say I’d rather sit down and watch THE COLLECTION over THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UGLY, but you get the point. On a side note, I saw an extended version of my favorite spaghetti western, introduced by the late Eli Wallach, about 8 years ago. I even got to meet him before the show. Talk about the most magical night you can have at the movies!
Anyway, if you dig horror, you regularly sift through a lot of stinkers, panning for terror gold. We here at Monster Men Central invited author Jason Brant to wax unpoetic about some of the worst the genre has had to offer. Some are so bad, they must be seen, sometimes enjoyed again and again. And others, well, we’ve warned you.
Matt Manochio on Blurbs (and THE DARK SERVANT)
This is a great post about something a lot of writers either overlook or dread. Huge thanks to Matt for putting this together.
Black Friday Book Sale!
Once again, Thanksgiving ruled. Great company, tons of food and my Seahawks won. Now, today is a day of rest for the Shea clan. I plan to do a lot of reading and work a tad on my novella.
For all you readers out there, today is a very special day for you. Samhain Publishing is having a huge Black Friday weekend sale, starting right now. Every single book in the store, print and ebook, is 30% off until Monday night.
So, if you’ve been on the fence about diving into the deep end of the horror pool, now’s your chance to take that leap.
You can catch up on any of my books you’ve missed for less than a cup of coffee. Here are the sweet deals waiting for you. Happy reading!
Hell Hole – ebook now $3.85, print $11.20
The Waiting – ebook now $2.45
Sinister Entity – ebook now $3.85, print $10.50
Swamp Monster Massacre – ebook now $2.45
Evil Eternal – ebook now $3.85, print $9.80
Forest of Shadows – ebook now $3.85, print $10.50
Hunter Shea 