The blog has been on hiatus while I’ve worked on a billion important things—not that this blog isn’t important! It’s just not as important as taking care of small children with strep throat, grading papers, novel deadlines, and too many other things to count.

Did that sound whiney? Never mind. It did. So ignore it.

But today we have wonderful writer and awesome dude Hunter Shea talking about his latest release SWAMP MONSTER MASSACRE (Doesn’t it sound fun? And bloody?). Which means I’ll let Hunter take it away. Oh, and I’ll be back soon. I promise.

If I survive the Swamp Monster…

Man Vs. Monster

By Hunter Shea

Growing up, I was a pretty lucky kid. We had a movie theater two blocks away – the kind that had a balcony and an all-you-can-eat popcorn machine – and a drive-in just a ten mile stroll up the parkway. I was a movie fanatic. Of course, my favorites were the horror movies. From the Jaws/Grizzly double feature to Dawn of the Dead and An American Werewolf in London, I couldn’t get enough.

If you walked into my room when I was about 14, you’d marvel at the collage of scantily clad women (Victoria Principal, Farrah Fawcett, Loni Anderson, etc) mixed with images of classic Universal monsters and gory stills ripped from the pages of Fangoria. It’s all about sex and scares, right?

Two particular movies entranced me to the point of obsession. I couldn’t get enough of them. First came the flick that taught me in space, no one can hear you scream : Alien. A few years later, John Carpenter gave us the best remake of all time, The Thing. I knew the characters of each of those movies as if they were my neighbors. How could I ever forget Dallas, Ash, Macready, Doc Blair, Nauls and Ripley?

With those movies, I fell in love with the concept of stranding a handful of characters in a strange, remote place and pitting them against a terrifying creature that picked them off like M&Ms. In a short amount of time, The Thing and Alien developed very distinct personalities, people you rooted for. It was man vs. monster and all prejudices were thrown out the window.

As a teen, I dreamed of being a filmmaker and making my own man vs. monster flick. OK, so film school never materialized. But I did become a writer. And I finally made my dream come true with my new novella, Swamp Monster Massacre. Here I put 9 unique people (Rooster the criminal, Mick the swarthy airboat captain, Liz & Maddie, the kick-ass sisters) into the Florida Everglades in the dead of summer. Shipwrecked in the deadly swamp, they discover they are very far from alone. A family of mythic creatures – skunk apes, or Bigfoot to most – are set on making sure they don’t make it out alive.

Man and woman vs. towering monsters. The creatures in Swamp Monster Massacre are filled with a terrifyingly human emotion—a merciless lust for vengeance that will paint the trees red with blood.