Out today at Smashwords and Amazon.com - my latest ebook, Crustaceans
"It begins slowly, with a dead whale on a Boston shoreline -- not in itself an
unusual occurrence. But the things that clawed their way out of the blubber were
very unusual indeed. The Crabs are back, bigger and meaner and ever. Soon they
are swarming around Manhattan, hunted and harried by a SWAT team tasked with
ridding the city of the menace... before the menace gets big enough to rid
itself of the city. "
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Smashwords: http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/14452
Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Crustaceans-ebook/dp/B003LBSJGM
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Big beasties fascinate me.
Some of that fascination stems from early film viewing. I remember being taken
to the cinema to see The Blob. I couldn't have been more than seven or eight,
and it scared the crap out of me. The original incarnation of Kong has been with
me since around the same time. Similarly, I remember the BBC showing re-runs of
classic creature features late on Friday nights, and THEM! in particular left a
mark on my psyche. I've also got a Biological Sciences degree, and even while
watching said movies, I'm usually trying to figure out how the creature would
actually work in nature -- what would it eat? How would it procreate? What
effect would it have on the environment around it?
On top of that, I have an interest in cryptozoology, of creatures that live just
out of sight of humankind, and of the myriad possibilities that nature, and
man's dabbling with it, can throw up.
All those things were going round in my head when I first sat down to write the
novella Crustaceans.
As I started I only knew one or two things -- that there would be whales
involved somewhere, and that the Crabs would be in the tunnels and sewers under
the city. After some fascinating research into the history of excavations and
tunneling I made a start.
I worked out a full ecological profile and lifecycle for my "beasts" but most of
that went by the board as the plot took over. It went quickly, and I found
myself enjoying it immensely.
It runs in my head like a movie, and I'd love to see it on the big screen one
day, or as a comic book. That's how I think of it -- big, brash and bloody.
...and there will be a print edition coming in the future