Hunter Shea's Blog - Posts Tagged "thriller"
A Bigfoot You Can Listen To
OK, unless you live down in Florida or Louisiana in the middle of the swamps and you walk around shouting into a bullhorn, odds are, resident skunk apes (that’s an extra pungent, swampy Bigfoot for the uninitiated) aren’t going to pay you any mind.
However, you can now hear them! I am the very proud poppa of a bouncing baby audiobook. Swamp Monster Massacre is now an audiobook, expertly narrated by Michael Ray Davis, a man who nails the tenor and tone of the main character, Rooster Murphy. You can listen to a sample and pick up a copy at the Audio Bookshop (www.theaudiobookshop.com) for only $4.19 (you don’t see them come that inexpensive).
If you’re wondering just what the hell you’re in store for – skunk apes and a dude named Rooster? – I invite you to check out the latest review that was just posted on Horror Novel Reviews. Swampy earned a cool 4.5 out of 5. Not too shabby for creatures so shaggy. Here’s a quick excerpt from the review:
Hunter Shea’s novella is a great read that can be devoured in one sitting. It’s phenomenally paced, has great characters, and even better villains. The Skunk Apes (Bigfoot’s swampy cousin) are vicious creatures, hellbent on destroying the swamp’s intruders (or are they?). The way Shea introduces them to an unsuspecting audience is utterly fantastic. I tore through the story with the same anticipation as the eight-year old version of myself used to rip through R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. — Tim Meyer for HNR
Happy squatchin’!
However, you can now hear them! I am the very proud poppa of a bouncing baby audiobook. Swamp Monster Massacre is now an audiobook, expertly narrated by Michael Ray Davis, a man who nails the tenor and tone of the main character, Rooster Murphy. You can listen to a sample and pick up a copy at the Audio Bookshop (www.theaudiobookshop.com) for only $4.19 (you don’t see them come that inexpensive).
If you’re wondering just what the hell you’re in store for – skunk apes and a dude named Rooster? – I invite you to check out the latest review that was just posted on Horror Novel Reviews. Swampy earned a cool 4.5 out of 5. Not too shabby for creatures so shaggy. Here’s a quick excerpt from the review:
Hunter Shea’s novella is a great read that can be devoured in one sitting. It’s phenomenally paced, has great characters, and even better villains. The Skunk Apes (Bigfoot’s swampy cousin) are vicious creatures, hellbent on destroying the swamp’s intruders (or are they?). The way Shea introduces them to an unsuspecting audience is utterly fantastic. I tore through the story with the same anticipation as the eight-year old version of myself used to rip through R.L. Stine’s Goosebumps. — Tim Meyer for HNR
Happy squatchin’!
The Montauk Monster – Publishers Weekly Best of Summer Reads
I was a little numb when my editor recently sent me a link to Publisher’s Weekly. They named my upcoming thriller, THE MONTAUK MONSTER, one of the best summer books of 2014! Not only that, they gave it a hell of a review. Here’s a snippet :
The urban mythologies of the Montauk Monster and the government labs on Plum Island unite to cause staggering levels of mayhem when mutant animals with toxic blood descend on a Long Island town. This wholly enthralling hulk of a summer beach read is redolent of sunscreen and nostalgia, recalling mass market horror tales of yore by John Saul, Dean Koontz, and Peter Benchley. — PW
Saul, Koontz and Benchley? That’s crazy. I’m just a guy who likes writing about monsters. :)
The buzz on the book has been fantastic. The Horror Bookshelf also named it one of the most anticipated reads of the summer, right next to Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes. Here’s what they had to say :
In The Montauk Monster, Shea utilizes the failed genetic experiment angle to craft a story that seems absolutely terrifying. I mean, this book has it all! Creepy monsters? Check. Shadowy, top-secret projects from the government? Check. One thing is for certain after reading the synopsis of this book. Seeing how there is not just one but MANY of these creatures terrorizing the residents of Montauk, I will probably be afraid to ever step foot in the water again, fictitious story or not!
THE MONTAUK MONSTER hits shelves as a Pinnacle paperback on June 3rd. For those of you who have been following me these past 3 years, I promise you, this is the one you’ve all been waiting for.
The urban mythologies of the Montauk Monster and the government labs on Plum Island unite to cause staggering levels of mayhem when mutant animals with toxic blood descend on a Long Island town. This wholly enthralling hulk of a summer beach read is redolent of sunscreen and nostalgia, recalling mass market horror tales of yore by John Saul, Dean Koontz, and Peter Benchley. — PW
Saul, Koontz and Benchley? That’s crazy. I’m just a guy who likes writing about monsters. :)
The buzz on the book has been fantastic. The Horror Bookshelf also named it one of the most anticipated reads of the summer, right next to Stephen King’s Mr. Mercedes. Here’s what they had to say :
In The Montauk Monster, Shea utilizes the failed genetic experiment angle to craft a story that seems absolutely terrifying. I mean, this book has it all! Creepy monsters? Check. Shadowy, top-secret projects from the government? Check. One thing is for certain after reading the synopsis of this book. Seeing how there is not just one but MANY of these creatures terrorizing the residents of Montauk, I will probably be afraid to ever step foot in the water again, fictitious story or not!
THE MONTAUK MONSTER hits shelves as a Pinnacle paperback on June 3rd. For those of you who have been following me these past 3 years, I promise you, this is the one you’ve all been waiting for.
Happy Apocalypse! TORTURES OF THE DAMNED Drops Today
When I was a kid, I used to fantasize about what I would do in a post-apocalyptic world, thanks in large part to the movie, DAWN OF THE DEAD. I’m talking the original, not the remake that was kinda cool, but still can’t hold a candle to Ken Foree kicking undead ass. Everywhere I went, I would check out my surroundings and look for escape routes or places where I could burrow inside to ride out the worst. And the end of the world didn’t need to have zombies (like everyone thinks today). I wanted to be Charlton Heston in THE OMEGA MAN (version #2 of Richard Matheson’s classic, I AM LEGEND), tooling around in a sports car, watching movies in a theater all by myself, having all kinds of guns at my disposal and knocking back scotch like a real man.
All those years of wondering, what if, have finally come to fruition with my latest paperback out with Pinnacle books today, TORTURES OF THE DAMNED.
The more I read about the various weapons floating around on the black market for any crackpot with a grudge to buy and unleash on innocent people, the more I want to slip away to some out of the way place, honing my doomsday prepping skills. In TORTURES OF THE DAMNED, I was able to live out my darkest fears, pitting an average family against impossible odds. Imagine going about your day only to see the sky erupt with strange explosions. First, everything electronic stops working. Communications are lost, planes fall out of the sky, cars careen headlong into one another. Then come dark clouds roiling with chemicals that can kill on contact. What do you do? Where do you run? And what depths would you sink to in order to survive?
The world the Padilla family finds themselves in is stark, bewildering and terrifying. It’s amazing to think how little it would take to throw civilization into the stone age.
So take my hand and let’s face the apocalypse together. I promise I won’t let go.
Some very early reviews :
“Everybody ought to read TORTURES OF THE DAMNED. It’s all too realistic, and far too plausible. 5 stars” – Mallory Heart Reviews
“Resoundingly exciting, punchy, and more than a little brutal. 4 stars” – Michael Patrick Hicks
“I couldn’t turn the pages of TORTURES OF THE DAMNED fast enough! 4 stars” – ck2s Kwips and Kritiques
All those years of wondering, what if, have finally come to fruition with my latest paperback out with Pinnacle books today, TORTURES OF THE DAMNED.
The more I read about the various weapons floating around on the black market for any crackpot with a grudge to buy and unleash on innocent people, the more I want to slip away to some out of the way place, honing my doomsday prepping skills. In TORTURES OF THE DAMNED, I was able to live out my darkest fears, pitting an average family against impossible odds. Imagine going about your day only to see the sky erupt with strange explosions. First, everything electronic stops working. Communications are lost, planes fall out of the sky, cars careen headlong into one another. Then come dark clouds roiling with chemicals that can kill on contact. What do you do? Where do you run? And what depths would you sink to in order to survive?
The world the Padilla family finds themselves in is stark, bewildering and terrifying. It’s amazing to think how little it would take to throw civilization into the stone age.
So take my hand and let’s face the apocalypse together. I promise I won’t let go.
Some very early reviews :
“Everybody ought to read TORTURES OF THE DAMNED. It’s all too realistic, and far too plausible. 5 stars” – Mallory Heart Reviews
“Resoundingly exciting, punchy, and more than a little brutal. 4 stars” – Michael Patrick Hicks
“I couldn’t turn the pages of TORTURES OF THE DAMNED fast enough! 4 stars” – ck2s Kwips and Kritiques
Book Release Day – THEY RISE!
It’s a new year, which means it’s time for some new books for all you horror monster fans! First up for 2016 is my sea monster novella, THEY RISE.
The monster fish in They Rise are real, though not as large as I make them out to be. When I was searching for a sea monster to terrorize the ocean, I wanted to find something old and ugly. I knew I found my beastie when I came upon a photo of a chimaera fish.
Talk about a face only a mother could love. Turns out, chimaera fish are an offshoot of the shark family tree. They’re even nicknamed ghost sharks. They’ve been around for hundreds of millions of years. These bottom dwellers have spiny protrusions laced with venom for protection. I know if I pulled one up on a hook, I might throw the pole back into the ocean.
Now, in reality, they’re only a couple of feet long. I had to make my chimaera fish in They Rise much, much larger, so the sea creatures in the book are prehistoric chimaera fish that have been trapped in methane ice for millions of years. Once they get out, they’re mean and ugly and hungry. Kinda like me in the morning.
The book opens with a pair of older brothers out on a fishing party boat off the coast of Miami. The 70+ year-old men, Richie and Eddie, were based on my grandfather and his brother. I used to go fishing with them every summer when I was a kid down at Sheepshead Bay. They’ve been gone 20 years now, but the beauty of being a writer is the power to resurrect the ones you loved and lost, even if only for a chapter or two.
In the book, Eddie’s hooked something awful powerful on his line. His days of fighting big ocean fish are well behind him…at least that’s what he thought. Things are about to get a wee tad intense, as long as Eddie and the ship’s mate can haul in the catch of the day.
Of all the things I’ve written over the past several years, that opening chapter is the one that has meant the most to me. It gave me a chance to fish with Grandpa and Uncle Eddie, or as everyone called him, Okie Dokie, one more time. I’m glad that we only caught fluke and occasional sea robins back in the day. Hell, if I was going to write a fish tale, I had to start it with the men who taught me all about fish tales.They Rise : A Deep Sea Thriller
The monster fish in They Rise are real, though not as large as I make them out to be. When I was searching for a sea monster to terrorize the ocean, I wanted to find something old and ugly. I knew I found my beastie when I came upon a photo of a chimaera fish.
Talk about a face only a mother could love. Turns out, chimaera fish are an offshoot of the shark family tree. They’re even nicknamed ghost sharks. They’ve been around for hundreds of millions of years. These bottom dwellers have spiny protrusions laced with venom for protection. I know if I pulled one up on a hook, I might throw the pole back into the ocean.
Now, in reality, they’re only a couple of feet long. I had to make my chimaera fish in They Rise much, much larger, so the sea creatures in the book are prehistoric chimaera fish that have been trapped in methane ice for millions of years. Once they get out, they’re mean and ugly and hungry. Kinda like me in the morning.
The book opens with a pair of older brothers out on a fishing party boat off the coast of Miami. The 70+ year-old men, Richie and Eddie, were based on my grandfather and his brother. I used to go fishing with them every summer when I was a kid down at Sheepshead Bay. They’ve been gone 20 years now, but the beauty of being a writer is the power to resurrect the ones you loved and lost, even if only for a chapter or two.
In the book, Eddie’s hooked something awful powerful on his line. His days of fighting big ocean fish are well behind him…at least that’s what he thought. Things are about to get a wee tad intense, as long as Eddie and the ship’s mate can haul in the catch of the day.
Of all the things I’ve written over the past several years, that opening chapter is the one that has meant the most to me. It gave me a chance to fish with Grandpa and Uncle Eddie, or as everyone called him, Okie Dokie, one more time. I’m glad that we only caught fluke and occasional sea robins back in the day. Hell, if I was going to write a fish tale, I had to start it with the men who taught me all about fish tales.They Rise : A Deep Sea Thriller
