Why Does It Have To Be Snakes? With Russell James

I am delighted to welcome Russell James as my guest today. He writes brilliant horror stories, fast-paced and edge of your seat reading. I really love his series of novellas featuring paleontologist Grant Coleman and environmentalist Janaina Silva. Their latest adventure is out now - Curse of the Viper King. Here's Russell to talk about it:

 Why does it have to be snakes?

 So Indiana Jones laments in Raiders of the Lost Ark, and the audience gets it. People generally do not like snakes. Maybe it’s the slit eyes. Maybe it’s the scales. Maybe it’s the creepy legless locomotion. Even the writers of the Bible, in Act One, human being Scene One, make the snake in the Garden of Eden Villain #1. It’s like we’re carrying a grudge or something.

My new novel from Severed Press is Curse of the Viper King. And, spoiler alert, it has a giant snake in it, but the cover might have given that away.

 In Curse of the Viper King, Professor Grant Coleman and activist Janaina Silva are lost in the Amazon. They come across a logging team and hope they can hitch a ride home through them. But workers discover the remains of a giant snake that send them into a superstitious panic. Then that night, giant spiders arrive. The survivors of the attack find that their only hope for salvation lies in the lost Aztec temple of the infamous Viper King. But they have to get there and back alive.

The snake’s universal ability to induce chills puts it at the top of my fictional monster list. But my giant snake isn’t completely fictional.

Titanoboa was an actual snake from about 60 million years ago. Fossils of it have been found in South America. It grew to an estimated 13 meters long (42 feet) and weighed about 1,135 kilograms or 2,500 pounds. It could coil around your car with a lot of snake left over. That’s a major snake. In my story it has survived in a lost pyramid in the depths of the Amazon jungle.

But this bruiser of a serpent likely killed by constriction, which is way too slow for an action story. Imagine three pages of “It squeezed him again.” So my snake is a cross with a venomous pit viper. These things are lethal as hell. How about being injected with a gallon of poison venom from a giant one? Definitely a mood killer.

But you say “How could a snake survive so long in the pyramid?” There’s an answer there in science as well. Snakes do go into periods of hibernation, called brumation, like the giant viper in the story. Garter, queen, and corn snakes specifically do it, just not for hundreds of years.

Sometimes it doesn’t take a lot of creativity to bring a monster into the fictional world. Mother Nature has already laid the ground work. Snakes are a great example.

You can find Curse of the Viper King here:

Amazon US

 Amazon UK

 Russell James grew up on Long Island, New York and spent too much time watching late night horror. He graduated from Cornell University and the University of Central Florida. After flying helicopters with the U.S. Army, he now spins twisted tales, including paranormal thrillers Dark Inspiration, Sacrifice, Black Magic, Dark Vengeance, Dreamwalker, and Q Island. His Grant Coleman adventure series covers Cavern of the Damned, Monsters in the Clouds, and Curse of the Viper King. His wife reads his work, rolls her eyes, and says "There is something seriously wrong with you."

Visit his website at http://www.russellrjames.com, follow on Twitter @RRJames14, or say hi at rrj@russellrjames.com.

Monsters All Around Us - with Russell James

Horror author Russell James and I have shared a number of publishers and I love his work. His latest - Monsters in the Clouds - is no exception. Thrilling horror, with some truly terrifying creatures. He is my guest today and he's brught some of his friends with him...

I’ve written some sci-fi horror stories about giant monsters. Enormous scorpions, killer fish, giant bats, dinosaurs. I try to make these creatures as scary as possible. But in doing my research, I keep finding that I can’t touch Mother Nature and her passion for the macabre.

My latest release, Monsters in the Clouds from Severed Press has giant ants, pterosaurs, and an Ankylosaurus. In my research I found some creepies that put dinosaurs to shame.

The mind-controlling larvae I created in the book are based several real examples.

The emerald cockroach wasp is exceptionally creepy. It stings a cockroach into submission with venom, then steers it with the cockroach’s own antennae into its burrow. Then it bites a hole in the roach, inserts an egg, and buries them both. Junior munches on living roach for a few weeks, goes larval, and emerges as a wasp. Ah, circle of life.

Then there’s the Costa Rican wasp. The adult female wasp temporarily paralyzes a spider and lays an egg on its abdomen. The hatched larva sucks the spider's blood for the next two weeks. Then the larva injects a chemical into the spider which compels it to first build a unique web, and then to sit still in its center. The wasp larva then molts, kills the spider with a poison, and spins a cocoon in the middle of the web. Eventually a new wasp emerges and a new spider starts saying its prayers.

And don’t miss hairworms. They infect dry land crickets when the cricket swallows a larva. The larva then grows and lives inside the cricket. When it is time to emerge, the hairworm drives the cricket into water, where the cricket drowns. But the hairworm can emerge and live on to find a wife, raise a larva, and find a cricket the kid can call home.

Given all that real-life grossness, some fictional horror is just what you need to cleanse the mental pallet. I recommend Monsters in the Clouds, a fun B-movie romp through the Amazon jungle.

Paleontologist Grant Coleman and activist Janaina Silva are recruited by Thana Katsoros for a top secret expedition, one in search of a live Apatosaurus on a plateau deep in the Amazonian rain forest. But their plane crashes short of their destination, and the entire group faces a terrifying fight for survival. This isolated area hosts unknown animals more fearsome than they’d expected, including giant ants and flesh-eating pterosaurs. Even worse, Katsoros’ agenda has more to it than meets the eye, and Grant soon fears that it doesn’t include all of them getting back alive. Will any expedition members survive to be rescued, or will they be devoured by the creatures indigenous peoples call the monsters in the clouds?

Amazon.com 

 Amazon.co.uk

 Russell James grew up on Long Island, New York and spent too much time watching Chiller, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and The Twilight Zone, despite his parents' warnings. Bookshelves full of Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe didn't make things better. He graduated from Cornell University and the University of Central Florida.

After a tour flying helicopters with the U.S. Army, he now spins twisted tales best read in daylight. He has written the paranormal thrillers Dark Inspiration, Sacrifice, Black Magic, Dark Vengeance, Dreamwalker, Q Island, and Cavern of the Damned. He has four short story collections, Tales from Beyond, Outer Rim, Forever Out of Time, and Deeper into Darkness.

His wife reads what he writes, rolls her eyes, and says "There is something seriously wrong with you." They live in Florida with two untrainable cats.

Visit his website at Russell James and read some free short stories.

Follow on Twitter @RRJames14, Facebook as Russell R. James, or drop a line complaining about his writing to rrj@russellrjames.com.

Christmas on Q Island - with Russell James

Q Island, is Russell James's latest horror novel and it received a starred review from Publishers Weekly - praise indeed! The reviewer said (in short): 

“The horrors are not created by the virus itself, but by what it allows people to do to one another. This is a seriously creepy page-turner that will keep readers up at night.” *

Having read Q Island myself, I would have to agree, so I'm delighted that Russell has made a return visit to my blog today to talk about an important part of the writing-publishing process. The role of - and need for - a copy editor. He also gives us a sneak peek at a couple of aspects of his brilliant new book AND a fabulous giveaway! Over to you, Russell:

Copy editors are excellent. They have the detail-oriented personality to read through a text, catch every typo, flag every incorrect reference, and erase any continuity errors. Their value cannot be underestimated and no book should EVER be sent out to the world without one.

Copy editors are also on the lookout for the publisher, keeping them from being legally entangled in some mess, especially a copyright issue. Q Island raised that red flag a number of times, all about the same thing.

The lead character, Melanie Bailey, has an autistic son, Aiden. His autism brings on terrible panic attacks, and Melanie can calm him by singing to him. 

When he was still just two years old, before his diagnosis, Melanie and her husband didn’t know what to do to calm this poor, sleepless child who seemed in constant distress. Then a song came on the radio and Aiden just relaxed, relaxed enough to finally go to sleep after an exhausting day. Their prayer was answered. Since then, Melanie used that song to calm Aiden in the most stressful circumstances. The first time he heard it was in December. It was a Christmas carol. So Melanie sometimes sings a Christmas carol year round.

Well, every time she sings the song in the book, the copy editor comments stain the margins like spilled wine, reviewing all the dire consequences possible when this copyright violation comes to light after publication. The good news was that I already had permission to use the song. Because I wrote it. The lyrics for it anyway. They are:

Angels in heaven, look down on the child,
Perfect and lovely, tender and mild.
Shepherds that evening, tending their flocks,
Kneel without pain on nettles and rocks.

The rams and the ewes, surround him in awe.
First to acknowledge our Savior and Lord.

First to acknowledge our Savior and Lord.
Wise men who travel, came from afar,
Guided by faith and the light of a star.

Okay, “awe” and “Lord” is a stretch for a rhyme.

I’m thrilled when someone reads a book I’ve written and says the characters ring true, or the locations are vivid and real.But I was stunned that I might have written something that could pass as real song lyrics.

So if anyone wants to volunteer the melody, I’m willing to bang out a chorus and two more verses. Let’s get it done by December.

About Q Island

It’s an epidemic. An ancient virus is loose on Long Island, NY. Its black-veined victims become sociopathic killers, infecting others through body fluids or a post mortem release of spores. Chaos rules. The island is quarantined.

Melanie Bailey and her autistic son Aiden are trapped. Aiden is bitten, but survives. He might be the key to a cure, if she can escape what the world now calls Q Island. Further east, gang leader Jimmy Wade has also survived infection, and become telepathic with a taste for human flesh. 

Wade sets his followers on a search for the immune boy who can make him a god, if only Wade can consume him. A scrappy, one-eyed nurse and a retired pipeline technician agree to help Melanie escape, but it’s a long shot that they can avoid the infected, Wade’s tightening grip and a military ordered to keep everyone on Q Island.

Praise for Russell R. James—

“James has a talent for combining action-packed vignettes into a powerful, fast-paced whole.”—Library Journal on Black Magic

(Five Stars, A Night Owl Top Pick) “I loved the story so much that I’m eagerly waiting to read more from him. He carefully and very intricately wove his storyline to have elements of mystery and suspense throughout. I now have a new favorite book I’ll read over and over again.” —Night Owl Reviews on Dark Inspiration

“The book had me at the edge of my seat. The writing is so vivid I even jumped a few times. If you're a fan of the genre, love ghosts and are drawn to the supernatural, then do yourself a favor and pick up a copy of this book!” —Long and Short Reviews on Dark Inspiration

“James fills the novel with compete characters that are easy to care about and cheer for (or against) when appropriate. There is a very strong human element to the novel that allows the reader to sink into the story and become involved in its events.”--The Examiner

“Dreamwalker is the first Russell James novel that I have had the pleasure to read and it was an absolute blast! I am definitely looking forward to exploring his previous and upcoming works. There is something for everyone in this novel - action, horror, fantasy and a hint of romance. Highly recommended!” --The Horror Bookshelf

“This could very well be the best horror novel of the year.”--Examiner on Q Island

 *"This is a seriously creepy page-turner that will keep readers up at night.” * - (full review can be found by clicking here: Publisher's Weekly)

You can find Q Island here:

Amazon 

 Barnes and Noble

 Samhain Horror

Goodreads 

About the author

Russell James grew up on Long Island, New York and spent too much time watching Chiller, Kolchak: The Night Stalker, and The Twilight Zone, despite his parents' warnings. Bookshelves full of Stephen King and Edgar Allan Poe didn't make things better. He graduated from Cornell University and the University of Central Florida.

After a tour flying helicopters with the U.S. Army, he now spins twisted tales best read in daylight. He has written the paranormal thrillers Dark Inspiration, Sacrifice, Black Magic, Dark Vengeance, and Dreamwalker. He has several horror short story collections, including Tales from Beyond and Deeper into Darkness, as well as some science fiction collections. Now, Q Island, released July 7, 2015 and he’s already under contract for his next book for 2016.

His wife reads what he writes, rolls her eyes, and says "There is something seriously wrong with you." He and his wife share their home in sunny Florida with two cats.

To find out more about Russell R. James, please visit his Website or follow him on Facebook! Join him on Twitter. Also, feel free to drop him at a line at rrj@russellrjames.com.

Your chance to win!

Rafflecoper giveaway for two audiobook copies of Dreamwalker. Two winners will each win one code for a free audio book, open everywhere. Must use a valid email that you can be reached by. By entering the giveaway, you consent to allow Russell to have your email for very infrequent newsletter updates. Contest ends August 31, 2015. 

a Rafflecopter giveaway

(Other contest questions can be referred to Erin Al-Mehairi, publicist, Hook of a Book Media at hookofabook@hotmail.com.)

Good Luck!