Mythological monsters wreak havoc in the modern world!

Learning about new things is one of the perks of being an author. I was never much on following the rule of “write what you know,” because for one thing I don’t know much, and for another, that’s just boring.

For my latest book I’m doing research on monsters from Greek mythology. I took Greek mythology in grammar school and in college, but those classes didn’t really focus on what I was interested in—those fantastic creatures banished to the underworld by Zeus. And there is a butt-ton of them.

Cerberus is a three-headed, sometimes two-headed, sometimes multi-headed dog (depending on who’s telling the tail...er...I mean tale). In my story he ends up in Egypt, where he literally emerges from inside the Great Sphinx. His day job is to guard the entrance to Hades, keeping the dead in and the living out. He’s big and mean with snapping jaws full of teeth and huge, blood-dripping claws. He’s also known as the Hellhound, so what’s not to like? 

Medusa, one of the three Gorgon sisters, is disturbing to even think about. If you’ve ever seen the movie “Clash of the Titans,” you know what I mean. Her face is one that not even a mother could love, and instead of hair, she has a head full of live, poisonous snakes. What’s cool about her is that any human or beast that gazes into her eyes turns to stone. Well, it’s not cool for the victims, but you know what I mean.

Imagine the Minotaur, with the head of a bull and the body of a man, coming for you in the middle of the night. He didn’t really have a specific job in Greek literature, but hey, he looks cool, so who cares, right? He fits right in with my battalion of havoc-wreaking monsters.

There’s also the Cyclops, who is the first to appear in my new book to a couple of hikers in the Blue Ridge Mountains of all places. He’s got one eye, a giant horn on his head and speaks ancient Greek, but with a loud, booming, animalistic growl. There were supposedly three of these guys, but I’m only using one in my story. He wears a robe, knows how to hunt and build a fire and as I said, how to speak ancient Greek. Oh, and did I mention he’s twenty feet tall?

All the monsters in my story (tentative title: ORACLE OF THE DEAD) also have supernatural powers given to them by...well, you’ll have to read the book, which is still in its early stages, to find out.

I have used mythological monsters in pretty much all of my books to date. The reason for that is I like to draw from actual mythology and add a layer of realism to an otherwise fantastical story. I love reading stories like that myself—Edgar Rice Burroughs, Jules Verne, Ray Bradbury, even Homer—all mixed fantasy with reality and created imaginative stories that still resonate decades or centuries later. Hopefully, my books will do the same.

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Being a cross-genre writer

Categorizing my writing style has always been a somewhat difficult thing. Edgar Rice Burroughs, Edgar Allen Poe, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Ray Bradbury, Robert Heinlein, H.P. Lovecraft, C.S. Lewis, Stephen King—these are all authors that have had a profound impact on my writing.

I also loved reading comic books as a child, everything from Tales from the Crypt and Boris Karloff’s Tales of Mystery to Shazam, The Spirit, Marvel and DC comics and everything in between. I never missed an issue of Famous Monsters of Filmland. If I wasn’t reading, I was either writing or playing music. 

  

I read a lot of classics—To Kill a Mockingbird, Lord of the Flies, Frankenstein, Animal Farm, A Brave New World, Atlas Shrugged—but I always seemed to have a predilection toward the macabre and the unusual. Working in a bookstore eventually brought me in contact with a lot of newer authors and I began to read different genres. But the ones that really kept me glued to the page were the adventure and thriller novels—Clive Cussler, Nelson DeMille, James Patterson, John Grisham, Brad Thor, Vince Flynn—the high-octane stuff.

Around 2003, when I began writing my first complete novel, I decided that I was going to blend all my favorite genres into my writing. Horror, fantasy, science fiction and adventure would all have a place in my book. I loved the life-like characters Stephen King created in his books, but I wanted more action. Clive Cussler’s adventures were captivating, but I wanted something darker, more ominous and creepy. James Rollins’ creatures were frightening, but I wanted a touch of the supernatural, creatures not bound by the laws of physics.

So I created DIABLERO, and brought a demon-possessed Blackbeard the pirate back to life in modern times. It was a character everyone knew, but he wouldn’t be just a pirate—he would have powers to raise an army of the dead and open a gateway to another dimension. The adventure begins in North Carolina, but ends on an island in the Bahamas. Creepy and dark, with lots of action and great characters. It was the kind of book I always wanted to read.

I continued my foray into action/thriller/sci-fi/horror madness with a book called LILITH, another myth that was familiar to people, yet enough of a mystery that I could add some embellishment and still make it believable. It’s my biggest selling book to date.

I figured that the problem with blending all these genres together would be finding an audience. For some readers, a book that incorporates all those styles can be somewhat confusing. “I thought this was supposed to be a thriller? What’s with the supernatural stuff?” “This horror novel sucks—it’s nothing but action!” People who read thrillers don’t necessarily like horror, and people who read horror don’t necessarily like action/thrillers. Some people don’t like the supernatural aspect, while others are offended by the military/black ops aspect of some of my stories. This has been made evident by some not-so-favorable reviews. But the good reviews far outweigh the bad ones on all my books—so far.

I don’t really target audiences, or take polls, or check out the latest trends—I write what I would like to read. I feel like I’m filling a niche, here, because there aren’t many writers that do what I do. Authors who love horror read and write horror books; authors who love adventure/thrillers do the same. I’m not a purist—I happen to get an equal thrill from reading a good sci-fi book, a creepy horror novel or an engaging military adventure. But bringing it all together on the page and making it work is the biggest thrill of all.

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