Guest Post by Horror Author Glenn Rolfe

Please give a warm welcome to friend and fellow horror scribe, Glenn Rolfe. You may remember my interview with him a few months back. Today he’s here to talk about the joys of the Halloween season and his brand new werewolf novel, BLOOD AND RAIN.

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This month, Samhain Publishing released my werewolf novel, Blood and Rain. I cannot express how cool it is to have this baby come out in October. I mean, this is the month of all months, right? Halloween? So cool.

For most of us horror guys and gals, we like to delve into the dark side any time of year, but for the majority of the people out there, October is the perfect season for scary reading. It’s when your aunt Mae puts down her Patricia Cromwell or Janet Evanovich novels and reaches for the Dean Koontz book in the dark corner of the bookshelf. It’s when Uncle Eddy sets Robert Parker to the side and dives into Pet Sematary. If Eddy or Mae are feeling especially wicked, and maybe they happened upon a copy of Ketchum’s Off Season or Laymon’s The Cellar at the Goodwill this summer, maybe they brave the unrelenting horror waiting within those yellowed paperback pages. Any way you slice it, they’re in for a treat.

In Blood and Rain, I take a small town sheriff and pit him against one helluva monster. There’s no cute love story. There’s no conflicted beast trying to decide whether or not to give into its primal urges. There are no perfect people. And if you think everyone is coming out of the next full moon alive and well? You will be in for s surprise. This is a mean machine of a novel that decided to treat like a trail of gasoline–open page one, drop the match, and get ready for this story to fucking burn.

What would Mae or Eddy think if they stumbled across my book? Well, that’s the other thing. While it is definitely a horror novel, I want it to be that next book in the dark end of the bookshelf at your aunt and uncles. These characters are real. Their flaws are flaws that we all have. The town could be any small town you’ve lived in or passed through. Gilson Creek, Maine is like a mash-up of Farmingdale, Gardiner, and Augusta, the places I grew up. I hope in writing my people and the places the way that I have it will make them and my story accessible to any fiction fan out there. Even Mae or Eddy. But definitely you and me.

There are a lot of horror books out there today (and a lot of GREAT ones this year in particular). I hope whether you’re a full-time fan of horror fiction or just a once and a while spook-seeker, you’ll give Blood and Rain a chance to scare the hell out of you. Happy October reading!

Cheers!

Glenn’s Amazon Page

Glenn’s Samhain Page

Kin by Kealan Patrick Burke

Kin is one of those novels that works for many reasons. It’s first triumph is that its descriptions are incredibly vivid, the author’s words serving as a Hi-Def video camera that records the imagery in stunning, crisp and gory detail. In some ways, Burke wears his influences on his sleeves, as Kin is an obvious love letter to films like Texas Chain Saw Massacre, Tourist Trap, and The Hills Have Eyes. This is not to say that the author slips into imitation. Rather than tell the same story of teens breaking down in the south to be tortured and killed by rednecks, the novel answers the question that almost none of those films did: what happens to the survivor, the people around them, the maniacal killers who she has escaped? Burke explores these ideas and weaves them into a novel that is at times visceral, touching and complex (far more complex, dare I say, than some of the films that have inspired it).

The plot concerns Claire, who is beaten, wounded, and scared when we meet her. Her friends are dead and their killers are in hot pursuit. These killers are not one-dimensional masked murderers either; they are a family who live by a twisted ideology. They have complex relationships with each other. One of the son’s, Luke, has a backstory that is so tragic, you long for him to be redeemed by the end.

The book has several elements that really stand out. In particular, the scene where Claire lies in the hospital remembering the atrocities committed against her was very well-described. She drifts in and out of memories, dreams, and reality. The prose here is very fluid, making the transitions natural.

Again, credit goes to the author for the character of Luke who belongs to the murderous family. His story is dark and moving, and adds several layers to the already deep story. He is sympathetic because he was raised among violence by a maniacal father who uses fear and corrupted religion to control his offspring.

Kin is a dark novel, and I wouldn’t recommend it to people who don’t like horror. Despite the damn good writing, it is not a crossover book. I could be wrong, but I don’t think the author intended it to be. Kin is a horror novel written for the fans by someone who clearly understands and loves the genre.