Horrorfind Bound!
I’m packing up the Shea-mobile tonight so I can head out first thing tomorrow to the Horrorfind Weekend in Gettysburg, PA. I’ve been going there for years as a fan. This is the first time I get to go as a guest, and I’m thrilled. I’ll be joined by six other Samhain Horror authors and will be signing books, doing readings and causing mayhem all weekend long. There will also be a film festival, costume contest, supernatural seminars, a horror themed car show and lots more. The cast of Pet Sematary will even be there, along with a ton of horror screen legends. To learn more, click here. Trust me when I say, Horrorfind is the most fun a horror fan will have all year. Come on down and have a drink with me. I promise, I’ll buy a pitcher or two, or three, or four.
Live Radio Show Tonight!
For those of you interested in my ramblings, I’ll be co-hosting the Working Things Out radio show tonight with Tony Ventarola, one of my oldest friends in this scary world. The show goes from 6-7pm ET. You can listen live by clicking the Listen Live link or come back another day and check out the archive. Lord knows what we’ll talk about, but knowing us, UFOs, ghosts, baseball and politics will probably rear their heads.
If you missed it live, you can access the archive here on YouTube. A big thank you to Diana Navarro for lending us her air time.
Big Saturday (and no Bay City Rollers)
Just a quickie this time around after hitting you all with the heavy stuff last post. This Saturday, I’ll be at the Books Without Borders event in Yonkers, NY. The weather is going to be wonderful and they’re expecting well over 1,00o attendees. I’ll be there to meet folks and sign and sell my books, of course, but you can also meet with agents, editors and publishers. Plus, there will be tons of entertainment for the kids. Really great stuff. Click here to learn more.
Also on Saturday, at 11am ET, I’ll be interviewed on A Book and a Chat radio show. Barry, the host, is one of my favorite interviewers. We had a great time last go around when Forest of Shadows came out.
So, if you can’t make it to the event (and I hope many of you do so we can meet!), you can still hear me on the radio show.
Have a bitchin’ weekend and thank you all for your support and kind words.
P.S. : For a teaser, I just went to the famed Whaley House in San Diego. Very interesting. Lots of pics to share next time!
Rethinking Book Signings : One Writerly Dude’s Approach
I’ve always wanted to build a better book signing, and with the launch of my book tour this past weekend I think I may have done it (cue Dr. Frankenstein’s laughter of the demented). There are valid reasons why I wanted to change things up this time around.
When I published a very small book years ago, I went on a mini-tour that included about 7 signings, most at mom and pop bookstores, and a few large chain stores. I had mixed results. The majority involved me sitting behind a table, hoping someone would look my way and take a peek at the book. I’ve noticed that a lot of people are wary of approaching authors. Trust me, we’re happy to talk to you, and almost all of us don’t bite! I was usually able to sell a handful of books at the mom and pops.
I had two nightmare signings, both at major outlets. One was on the 4th of July. Naturally, no one was in the store! To make things worse, they put me under a sky light so the 95 degree sun could melt me to the chair. The only thing I succeeded in doing was convincing the lone customer not to buy Hilary Clinton’s book that was on display behind me.
The next one was even worse. I’m not a public speaker. Well, when I got there, they had set up a podium and about forty chairs and expected me to read from my book. Lucky for stammering me, the only people in those chairs were my wife, her friend and a support group for people with hepatitis-C, who were busy holding their own meeting and not paying attention to me. I sold 1 whole book that night, which was an improvement over the zero sold on Independence Day.
I’ve attended my fair share of author signings and have come to the conclusion that I hate author readings. Unless they are classically trained in the art of acting and public speaking, their voice interferes with the voice I then bring to the book when I read it. Very few enhance the experience.
So as I geared up to promote Forest of Shadows, I feverishly tried to come up with a unique way of making a book signing a bigger, better experience for those who come to see me. Heck, they’re going out of their way to attend, I better give them a show to justify their precious time.
To erase my bad experiences of the past, I made sure I got a signing at a Barnes & Noble. Big time, big pressure. 🙂
What I did next was examine my genre, the topic of my book, and other things I have done to promote it all along and combined them into what I felt was a fun, informative evening. Here’s the game plan:
- My book is a fictional story about a ghost hunter. So, I decided to focus on ghosts in general, not just the ones in my book.
- I do a video podcast called The Monster Men where my buddy and I talk about all things horror and scary. We went back to look at episodes where we talked about ghosts and created a 10 minute video. It centered on my ghost trips to The Queen Mary, The Manhattan Bistro and my own experience in a haunted hotel room in Spain.
- I created a slide show that showed all kinds of ghost pictures, as well as intermittent slides showing my website and logo. I added some sinister music to it as well. As people filtered in, I had the slideshow and music going to get and hold their attention.
- I started by asking what people believed in (Bigfoot, UFOs, Ghosts) and handed out candy prizes for those brave enough to raise their hands. This got them involved and gave them sugar rushes! I also kept a bowl of cookies on the table.
- I talked a little about the book and wove humor with the horror throughout. I showed the video, stopping every now and then to add a funny anecdote or two.I also made sure I was on my feet and walking around, making eye contact with everyone. As an added benefit, it helped me burn off nervous energy.
- After the video, I talked a little more about the book, just for a couple of minutes, and asked people to share their own paranormal stories.
- Then it was time to sign! I also created a posterboard of the cover of my book at Staples for $10 and asked them to sign it for me as I signed their book. Now I have a great keepsake and they had a blast signing it. How many authors ask their readers for their autograph?
- Lastly, I created postcards that promote my next book, website and Monster Men podcast and put them in each book.
The key to everything was to have fun and make it a great night. I keep thinking I’ll bring a smoke machine to the next one, but my kids roll their eyes on that suggestion.
Best of all, I started with a table loaded with books and came a hair from a total sellout. There were only a couple left by the end of the night, which I signed so they can display them prominently in the store.
Now, I’m not saying this is the definitive way to do your own signing. You have to do what you’re comfortable with. Be creative. Make ‘em laugh. Be interactive. If you can do all three, you’re in for a hell of a night.
The Book Tour Has Begun!
I’ve been gearing up over the past week for the launch of my book tour. It was tough waiting for winter to vacate the premises so I could get started. Big thanks to Monster Man Jack Campisi who worked his tail off creating a special Monster Men episode just for the tour. It’s a ‘best of ghost stories’ that will spark some interesting conversations with those who come down for the fun. I’ll also talk about some of my own experiences with the unknown and how they inspired Forest of Shadows. 
So, if you’re in the Yonkers, NY area on Saturday, March 24th, come on over to the Barnes and Noble at 2614 Central Park Avenue at 7pm.
I’ll be adding more dates in more states very soon, so stay tuned. If you have a bookstore in mind, let me know and I’ll see what I can do about getting there!
Good news is always elusive, but I have 2 things to be happy about today. My story, ‘Commandment Eleven’ is in issue #7 of Dark Moon Digest. You can get a copy for under $8 at Amazon. There are a lot of great writers in this issue. You won’t be disappointed.
Here’s a little snippet to get your horror engine running:
Commandment Eleven
A sparrow sang just outside the basement window and it almost made Norm’s heart break. He could still smell the sharp, sulphuric odor of burnt matches riding hard over the musty pall of the cramped underground room.
He strained to catch the tune of a song as it warbled from the transistor radio he’d left on upstairs. Was it Frank Sinatra or Tony Bennett? What he wouldn’t give to be up there with that radio. Man, that voice sounded like heaven.
Since the incident, he loved just about any sound: kids fighting, garbage trucks rumbling, the buzzing of a curious bee. The thought of losing all of those delicious, everyday melodies sickened him with dread. Acidic rivulets of bile hit the back of his teeth and seeped from the corners of his mouth. Instinctively, he went to wipe it away but his hands were held fast by duct tape.
There was a shuffling of slipper-clad feet on the unfinished cellar floor and a stack of old wood boxes went clattering to the ground.
“Son of a biscuit eater!” his wife Chastity yelled.
God, even her infantile cusses (because good Christians don’t cuss) were glorious to hear.
“Didn’t I tell you to move these somewhere else? You do have working legs and arms, don’t you? Just because I’ve made you right with Jesus doesn’t mean you’re right with me.”
Ready for more? Click the cover to get your copy today!
Winner, Winner, Free Book Dinner & Radio Interviews
A big thank you to everyone who entered this weekend’s contest (and so many of the nice things y’all said). Well, I pulled out the little post-it pad, wrote all the names and put them in a basket. My daughters each drew a name and we have our 2 winners. Congratulations to Ahsley Applebee and Cate Gardner! You each win a signed copy of Forest of Shadows.
For those who didn’t win, I’d like to send you a signed promo card for the book. There aren’t many left and who knows, if the book ever becomes a classic, you’ll have something valuable to pawn off on eBay! Please send your mailing address to me at huntershea1@gmail.com and I’ll send them all out ASAP. And don’t despair. I plan to give away more books and other fun stuff over the next few months.
On another note, I’ll be interviewed on a couple of radio shows this week. Hopefully, I can censor myself. If you’d like to hear me ramble on about whatever flies into my head, please stop by.
Tuesday, 1/17/12 @ 6:30pm ET : A Book and a Chat
Thursday, 1/19/12 @ 9:00pm ET : Live Paranormal
The Haunted Well at the Manhattan Bistro : Affirming the Eternity of the Soul
Sometimes, writing has its perks. A couple of months ago, I was asked to be on a radio show (Working Things Out hosted by the lovely Diana Navarro) that usually broadcasts out of a midtown Manhattan restaurant. For my interview, the venue was moved to Soho in a place called The Manhattan Bistro. What’s so special about the Manhattan Bistro? The small restaurant houses a well that dates back to the 1700’s and has been reportedly haunted since 1800. My perk? The owner gave us rare permission to go down after the show to see the well and do a little paranormal investigation! 
Right from the get-go, the Manhattan Bistro looked like a place out of time. The structure is far older and smaller than all the other surrounding buildings and stores. You can tell that the entire neighborhood has grown up around it. When I first stood across the street, it made me think of the Little Red Lighthouse living under the shadow of the George Washington Bridge.
A little on the background of the well: The unhappy ghost of Elma Sands has been seen and heard in and around the old, deteriorating well ever since her murder in 1800. It’s believed the 21 year old was killed by her well-to-do fiancé and stuffed in the well and was the scene of the city’s first murder trial. The fiancé was defended by Aaron Burr and Alexander Hamilton and the prosecution never had a chance.
So now we have the perfect locale for a haunting. A woman violently slaughtered and a crime without a punishment. People have been seeing her ghost rising from the well, ala The Ring, for centuries.
Three of us walked into the cramped basement to see the well. I’m not a tall guy, and my head almost touched the ceiling as we shuffled down the tight corridor that was straight out of The Amityville Horror. 
I was shocked to see that the well itself rose well over six feet out of the ground. The sandy stone has crumbled in some spots but carries the weight of history. We turned out all the lights. It was as dark as a tomb. After asking a few questions, we just let the silence take over. Pictures were flashing and my audio recorder was placed on the lip of the well. I didn’t feel anything supernatural around the well. Not even one tiny goosebump.
I asked, “Do you want us down here? Would you like us to stay or leave?”
We waited expectantly, the darkness covering us like a burial shroud. There was a knock on the ceiling, but I quickly realized someone had dropped something upstairs.
All and all, we left feeling that the well, this night, was benign. Poor Elma Sands was elsewhere, hopefully with her family or maybe out enjoying the sights.
Later in the night, I slipped back down to the well. This time, I didn’t feel alone, though whether it was due to the paranormal or just human nature when one finds oneself in a dark room standing next to a well that everyone has said is haunted is highly debatable. No matter the cause for my discomfort, it was worth it for the chill that danced down my spine. 
And that is why I write about ghosts, and why I run to the things that go bump in the night. Ghost hunting is an extreme sport, with one difference; the payoff is beyond comprehension. Affirming there are ghosts in our midst is proving the eternal nature of the soul, thus eradicating the fear of death. There aren’t many other human endeavors greater than that.
Hungry for more? Check out this video of the most haunted buildings in New York City.
New Book Cover Preview and Other Bits and Bobs
Despite the title of this post, I am not a resident of the UK. I just like to pretend I am from time to time, like when I call people punters and say things are brilliant.
My own national identity issues aside, I was bowled over when my editor sent me the cover for my next book, Evil Eternal, which will be out in May, 2012. It has demons, damsels in distress, blood and guts galore and even a touch of humor from time to time. Here’s the cover:
Pretty freakin’ cool, right?
In other news, the reviews for Forest of Shadows have been glowing, which brings a tear to this writer dude’s eye. I just saw this review posted on Dreadful Tales and really feel my wife and I must have a baby so we can name it after the reviewer. I swear, I never met the guy and no money exchanged hands. Here are some excerpts. To read the whole review, go to Dreadful Tales.
“Hunter Shea is absolutely ruthless. The man writes with a passion and aggression that will leave you helpless in its grasp. Shea keeps his eyes on the prize and everything else is secondary. He wants you to cringe. He wants your skin to crawl. He wants to positively scare you out of your god-given wits. Above anything else, Forest of Shadows is a genuinely scary book. It took a few restless nights and one incredibly vivid nightmare about whispering shadows and the floating visage of a young boy, before I realized how successful this book was at scaring the living daylights out of me. It had worked its way into my brain and nestled in there, coiled to spring at any given moment. This book scared me in a way I haven’t been scared in a very long time.
I can respect an author who takes the ghost story and completely disregards its well worn conventions to create something truly original. He preaches from the Altar of Pulp- spewing a sermon filled with his own merciless interpretation of what this genre should be. I love seeing a newcomer just completely rip it and own the living daylights out his writing. “
And for those of you who aren’t hip to my Facebook fan page, you have to come over and like the page, if only to take part in the super simple weekend giveaways that I do every week. You can win signed copies of stories, gift cards, or even have your name used in a book! Stop by every Saturday to catch the latest giveaway.
I’ve been very busy working on the sequel to Forest of Shadows and will soon post a little something I wrote about every writer’s fear : putting your work out there for the whole world to critique. Yikes! So far, I’ve been lucky, but it ain’t always pretty. I’ll also be filming some new Monster Men podcast episodes and we’re going to launch our brand new author interviews. We’re lining up authors this month and should have them live in a few weeks.
Thank you to everyone who has read this blog or gotten in touch with me on Facebook, Twitter, the Samhain Cafe, and all the other places I pop in and out of from time to time. You’ve been simply amazing and recharge my battery every day so I can sit my ass down and get to writing!
Happy Halloween! Spooky Excerpt from Forest of Shadows
I think it goes without saying that Halloween is my favorite holiday. I mean, what’s not to like? Thanks to the Walking Dead, I expect to see a lot of zombies, big and small, shambling through the streets tonight. Since many of you will be prowling around in the dark, I thought it would be nice to give you a little excerpt from my novel, Forest of Shadows, to help send you on your way. Remember, be wary of the shadows! ———–
A strong breeze gusted outside and whistled through a partially open window in one of the upstairs rooms. Judas suddenly realized he was alone in the inky blackness of a house that, despite their little test, had something very wrong with it. He sprinted into action and clambered down the steps. He cast a backwards glance, sure that something was just behind him, an inch away from grazing the back of his neck. Tiny needles of terror started a parade that originated at his lower back and danced up his spine. His breath was knocked out of him for the second time in the house when he walked smack into Teddy’s immobile figure in the front doorway.
“What the hell, man?” he said when he regained his footing.
Teddy motioned for him to come closer with one hand without turning his head or body. Something was happening outside that had him spellbound. Judas’s heart sank as a vision of the sheriff’s car parked next to his flashed across his brain.
All of the saliva in his mouth dried up as he reluctantly edged around Teddy to face his fate. He could almost feel the harsh pinch of the handcuffs, hear the monotone of his rights being read to him.
Except there was no sheriff’s car.
Judas’s old Ford was right where they had left it, alone in the night.
“What’s the deal?” he asked.
“Look at the truck.”
Click the cover to learn more or order your copy.
“I did. Was there a bear near it or something?”
“Look again.”
Teddy was breathing in quick, syrupy gulps. Judas moved his gaze back to the truck and squinted hard.
And then he saw them.
Moving shadows, some flitting across the hood, others oozing up from the ground and undulating around it. They swirled, formed a single mass, then broke apart into dozens of pulsating black globs, a sentient dance of darkness.
Judas gasped and the shadows froze.
Radio Interview With Samhain Horror Authors
A few days ago, I took part in a radio interview for Diabolical Radio with several other Samhain Horror authors. We talked about our roads to getting published, why we love and write horror and of course, our current releases and upcoming books. I believe we were all sober and no one can be heard cheering or cursing in the background, since Game 1 of the World Series was on at the time. 
If you’ve ever wondered what makes a horror writer tick, you definitely want to check this out. Click here to listen to the interview.
Roll call of those who were part of the interview:
Kristopher Rufty, author of Angel Board.
Ronald Malfi, author of Borealis.
Brian Moreland, author of Dead of Winter.
Jonathan Janz, author of The Sorrows.
And of course, me, The Forest of Shadows guy.
Don’t forget to check out my fan page on FB where I run a new contest every Saturday with lots of cool giveaways. OK, have to get ready to go see Paranormal Activity 3 so us Monster Men can post a new review. Remember, if a vampire knocks on your door, DO NOT let him in. The bastard will think he owns the place.
Hunter Shea 