Heath Stallcup's Blog

Welcome back to the blog! Pull up a seat and get comfortable because today we have an exciting author to talk to. If you’ve never heard of Scott M Baker, you’re about to!

Me: Tell us a little about yourself. Are you married? Do you have any children?
Scott: I’m a native Bostonian, born and raised in its suburbs. I spent twenty-three years working for the CIA, spending seventeen years in northern Virginia and six in Okinawa and South Korea. I now live in southern New Hampshire with my two cats (Archer and Michonne) and Fred, my Beagle-Bassett mix, who is the biggest distraction to my writing. I teach full-time at a public charter school in Manchester, New Hampshire. I’ve been married twice and divorced twice, which explains my fascination with horror. My only child is my stepdaughter, who loves me more than her biological father.
Me: I can relate to that. Of my seven kids, my ‘step’ son looks the most like me. I should have adopted that kid when he was little.
Scott: I’ve been interested in writing since I was a kid, but I only started doing it professionally in 1989. Back then, I wrote techno-thrillers. My first book sucked so bad that I’ve never allowed anyone to read it. The second was much better but never got published. My third thriller, about North Korea acquiring nuclear weapons and threatening to use them against the United States, was sitting with a big publisher in New York who was drafting a contract when 9/11 occurred. The market for techno-thrillers dried up overnight.
Me: Yeah, I can definitely see that happening. Talk about bad timing. Still, would you be the writer you are today, specifically, the genres you work in, if that hadn’t happened?
Scott: After the Gulf War was over, I wanted to get back to writing, but did not know in what genre. A friend and I went to see Van Helsing with Hugh Jackson. Afterwards, she asked what I thought about the movie. I replied that it was fun, but I could write better than that. She smiled and asked, “Why don’t you?” Six years later, my first novel – The Vampire Hunters – was published, and I have not stopped writing since then.
Me: Isn’t it crazy what can trip that trigger to start things rolling? What do you do for relaxation?
Scott: What is this strange word of which you speak? I’m a writer and a teacher. Relaxation is a rarity. When I do get a few minutes to myself, I enjoy reading, watching bad horror movies (I live on Tubi), and spending time with friends. When I do finally take extended relaxation time for myself (usually when I get writer’s block), I play video games, which lasts until I get into a boss fight I can’t win, then I say screw it and go back to writing. I’m addicted to the Fallout and Metro franchise.
Me: Okay, I can relate. For me it’s Rainbow Six. Who is your favorite author(s) (and is there a reason why)?
Scott: Topping the list is Graham Masterton. When I was a kid, my mother let me read horror, not caring about the genre as long as I was reading. I started with the classics (Shelley, Poe, Wells, Stoker). When I was ten, my mother bought me The Manitou for Christmas. I stayed up all night reading that book and have been hooked on modern horror ever since.
There are so many other great writers I love. Ed Lee, whose books are over-the-top gore (his Infernal series about hell is brilliant). Robert Lumley’s Necroscope saga, which features the most unique vampires. World War Z by Max Brooks, one of the most brilliant and innovative zombie novels I’ve ever read. Also within the zombie realm are Camille Picott’s Zommunist Invasion series (Red Dawn meets Night of the Living Dead), Allen Gamboa’s Dead Island series (zombies with an 80s action movie flair), and Jeff Thomson’s Guardians of the Apocalypse, which has the Coast Guard battling zombies that have taken over Oahu (it’s zombie killing porn).
Me: There are some authors in that list that I haven’t heard of. I’m so glad that Google is my friend! Are there similarities between you and any of the above-mentioned authors?
Scott: Just that we all love writing and enjoy putting different spins on the genre to keep it alive. Allen, Jeff, and I have twisted minds that make drafting bizarre plots so much easier.
Me: And it’s that twisted sense of humor that I think readers love. Why do you write?
Scott: Because I love it. Writing is a major part of my life. No matter how bad my day is (and as a teacher, I have really bad days), an hour in front of my laptop living in a make-believe world sets me right.
Me: Escapism. I get it. I really do. So, what is a typical working day like for you?
Scott: During the school year, I wake up, drag myself to work, try not to murder sixth- and seventh-graders, drive home, reevaluate my decision to teach, then go to bed and dream of becoming a best-selling writer so I can quit.
Me: Yeah, I’m nearly thirteen years into trying to be an overnight success, so I feel you on that one.
Scott: On those days I’m not a teacher, I spend the late morning and early afternoon writing. After dinner, I work on updating my social media and marketing.

Me: I hate that part. I really thought that the hardest part would be writing the book. Pft…boy was I wrong. So, when and where do you write?
Scott: I prefer to write outside. I love the fresh air and, where I live, the neighborhood is full of critters. There are no distractions, so I actually get work done. I bring with me a black iced coffee (as I tell the kids at school, I like my coffee as I like my soul – cold and dark) and two cigars. I write until the cigars are burned out, an average of a thousand words in one sitting. On those days when it’s too wet or cold to be outside, I usually go to the local cigar bar.
Me: Okay. That sounds peaceful. What kind of research do you do for your books?
Scott: A lot. In my latest post-apocalyptic book, A World Gone Dark, I conducted extensive research on EMPs and solar flares, prepper techniques for staying alive, and how to handle a nuclear reactor meltdown. Getting things accurate is vital. I could publish the most extraordinary novel ever written, but if I miscount the number of rounds in a weapon or get a geographic location wrong, I lose my readers.
Me: I know what you mean. I hate reading books where the author didn’t even bother to look at the difference in a revolver and an automatic. Their character ‘throws a new clip’ into his revolver and…yeah. I’m done. How do you conceive your plot ideas? Any tricks I should know about or could steal from you?
Scott: With an overactive and twisted imagination. What makes my books stand out is that I always add an interesting yet believable twist to my plots. In The Vampire Hunters, I make the masters major characters with back stories and histories so they’re not merely monsters. My first zombie series, the Rotter World saga, follows humans and vampires as they overcome their hatred to survive the zombie apocalypse. I’m a World War II history buff, and my second wife made me watch every episode of Ancient Aliens, which prompted me to create Operation Majestic, which has the tagline Raiders of the Lost Ark meets Back to the Future – with aliens. Sometimes I get my ideas from others. When my stepdaughter was fourteen, she responded to every dad joke with an eyeroll, saying, “This is why we can’t have nice things.” A few years later, I wrote This Is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things During the Zombie Apocalypse, a story about a living-dead outbreak told from a teenager’s perspective.
Me: Again, isn’t it crazy where our inspiration can come from? I got the idea for Sinful at a softball game because a high school boy sitting next to me couldn’t stop staring at a girl’s butt. I’m not going to elaborate. So, when naming your characters, do you give any thought to the actual meaning?
Scott: Only on a few occasions. Most of the time, I give my main characters names that fit their profile. My secondary characters are loosely based on people I know. For example, the prepper community one of my MCs stumbles upon in my latest novel is loosely based on my colleagues at school. All the animals in my books are based on my pets or those of my family and friends, which is one reason they seem so realistic.
Me: I base many of my characters on people I know. It’s just easier to give them all a unique voice. So, what are the major themes of your work? How long on average does it take you to write a book?
Scott: Except for The Deadliest Breed of Assassins, my only published techno-thriller, all my books fall into the horror or Sci-Fi genres. I’ve written three zombie series and one paranormal series, plus other stuff in the horror genre.
When I’m able to write full-time, it usually takes me three months to draft a book and another three to edit the manuscript and get it published.
Me: As a writer, you can most surely weave an internal struggle into your storyline, and the reader may not realize it until the end. That’s when your audience has that sudden realization: Oh yeah, I didn’t see that coming. Do you know what I mean? Is that something you do often? Is that a writing style you prefer? Or are your stories an “open book” so to speak?
Scott: My novels are all “open books.” I weave personal struggles and growth into the plot so that when the characters make life-or-death decisions, the reader is on the edge of their seat, wondering what will happen next. I hate books where, at the last minute, you find out the main character is “the chosen one.” That’s poor writing. I also throw in plot twists, but most of the time I foreshadow them so the reader can say, “I should have seen that coming.”
Me: And I don’t think readers truly understand just how hard that is to do. To successfully pull that off, you have to always be thinking of how and where you can drop those little hints for the big reveal to make sense. Who are your target readers?
Scott: Most of the readers for my zombie and paranormal novels are single women aged twenty-five to forty-five. That’s why Nurse Alissa vs. the Zombies and the Tatyana paranormal series are my most popular books because the main characters appeal to that audience.

Me: What do you think readers search for in a book?
Scott: Readers love characters they can relate to. One of the reasons A World Gone Dark is so popular is that I show how ordinary people will cope with a solar flare that wipes out all electronics worldwide.
Me: And I thought seriously of tapping into that very same idea. How do people get their insulin if there’s no power? The struggle to find clean water, safe food, etc. What is your favorite part of a book?
Scott: The action scenes. I hate books where you read through two hundred pages and the climax is only three pages long. When I write my books, I want to fill them with so much action that the readers can’t put them down. However, the hardest part is coming up with action sequences that are realistic yet more action-packed than the books that came before, and that feature unique zombie kills.
Me: It can’t be easy to always try to top the previous fight scene. Eventually you feel like you’ve written yourself into a corner (at least, that’s what it’s like for me). What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Scott: Editing. I know it’s an integral part of being a writer. What frustrates me is that I have two Beta readers pick apart my manuscript, edit it two or three times, and run spell-check and grammar-check. Yet, after it’s published, I still find spelling and grammatical errors.
Me: Oh man, I know what you mean. I’ve got a pretty savvy editor, and she’s really good at what she does. But even still, sometimes afterward, I’ll find some tiny little thing, and I’m left wondering how in the world it was missed. What is the best thing about being an author?
Scott: Being a storyteller. I don’t write about politics, religion, or social issues. I want to entertain my readers and help them escape reality. The best compliment I can get is when someone tells me they read the book in one sitting because they couldn’t put it down.
I also love attending conventions and chatting with horror fans, even if they don’t buy the book. I just love sharing stories about things we both love.
Me: I like that. Do you listen to music while you write?
Scott: No. I prefer no distractions.
Me: I need some kind of music in the background. White noise, if nothing else, but I prefer epic movie scores or Viking battle music. I think it helps to stir the emotions when writing an action scene. What and/or who inspires you?
Scott: Everything. Many times, I’ve turned a news story or an off-the-cuff comment into a story/novel. Years ago, I was challenged by someone to write a tentacle sex short story for an anthology he was publishing as a fundraiser for an oceanographic institute he represented. I didn’t want to write about a young Japanese girl being molested by an octopus, so I drafted a story about a sexually frustrated, middle-aged housewife who had a consensual affair with a giant starfish in the Caribbean. What broke me up was that he rejected my story, telling me I was a pervert.
Me: >bursts out laughing< I had to laugh at that. I’m sorry. People are so weird sometimes. Have you ever collaborated on a book? If so, who was the other author? How did you collaborate with that author? What writing process did you use?
Scott: I did once. The Collector, which is still available on Amazon. It was about a demon who arrives in Haddonfield, Illinois, around the time Michael Myers was born and induces people to commit violent crimes, collecting the souls of the innocents who died. Each of us wrote one chapter and passed it to the writer in the lineup. The best part was that each writer tried to outdo the previous one in terms of violence and gore. I loved that collaboration effort.
Me: That sounds like fun. So, if you wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?
Scott: I don’t think I ever would. The only part of my life that would be interesting is my time with the CIA, but most of that book would be censored by the Agency.
Me: And I wish I had known you when I was penning Bobby Bridger’s first book. It would be the little things that I’d want to pick your brain on to make the story feel more realistic. Maybe another time. So, what question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview, but never have?
Scott: Who would I want to portray me if my life were made into a movie? Chris Pratt has my sense of humor and would play me well, though he’s younger and a lot more handsome than I am.
Me: Yeah, I’d have to have John Candy play me, I think. What have you written? And what are you working on at the moment? What’s it about?
Scott: I’ve written primarily about zombies, but I’ve also created a paranormal series, a young adult series about a scientist whose experiment blows open portals between Earth and Hell and her sixteen-year-old son who goes around the world attempting to close them (the Shattered World saga), a 1950s style big monster novel (It Came From the Desert), time traveling Nazis (Operation Majestic), Allied intelligence officers battling Nazi occultism during World War II (OSS: Office of Supernatural Services), and a dystopian/post-apocalypse novel (Frozen World).
The series I’m working on now, and which I think is one of my best works, is A World Gone Dark. It’s part of the Ravaged Skies saga, in which thirteen writers represent the same event—a massive solar flare that immobilizes all electronics across the globe—from different perspectives. The books are fantastic and recently dominated last month’s Written Apocalypse Book Battle Royale. I’m making the final edits on A World Gone Dark II: Survival and hope to publish it in January 2026.
Me: Sounds like you’ve been busy! Where can we buy or see them?
Scott: All my books are available on Amazon in Kindle/Kindle Unlimited formats, as well as in print. You can find them at https://www.amazon.com/stores/Scott-M.-Baker/author/B003N4U9BK.

M: What advice would you give to your younger self?
Scott: To just hang in there and enjoy yourself. Some great things are heading your way.
Me: What advice would you give to aspiring writers?
Scott: Write. I know so many would-be writers who have filled notebooks with character development and world-building but never put a word of their story on paper. If you write one word a day every day for a year, you will have a full-length novel ready to publish.
Me: Is there anything that you would like to add?
Scott: I want to thank all my readers who follow me and patiently wait for my next book. I hope readers of this interview give my books a try and become fans. As long as you keep on reading my books, I’ll keep writing them.
Me: Last question, what do you consider your best accomplishment?
Scott: That’s hard to say. I’ve lived a good life. I served my country and had the opportunity to travel throughout Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. I’ve been a good stepparent and hopefully a good son. I’ve had a positive impact on several of the students at my school. And I’ve entertained thousands of people over the past sixteen years. I’ve been fortunate with what life has given me, and I hope I can continue to contribute for the next 20 or 30 years.
Thanks to everyone who read this interview. I wish you all the best in life and hope many of you will become fans of my books.
Me: And there you have it, folks. Scott M Baker. Novelist, storyteller, CIA super spy, teacher, purveyor of fine cigars, and an overall awesome guy. With the different stories this guy has shared, there has to be something in his stable that trips your trigger. I invite you all to check out his offerings and let the world know that you enjoyed his writings. Reviews, people. Leave reviews. It’s probably the single biggest make-or-break for authors.
As I close out this interview, here are the links to where you can find more about Scott. I wish we had touched more on his extensive YouTube offerings. There’s a lot there to go through.
Thanks for dropping by!
blog: http://scottmbakerauthor.blogspot.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/397749347486177/
Twitter: https://twitter.com/vampire_hunters
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/scottmbakerwriter/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5AyCVrEAncr2E0N5XoyUdg/playlists

Jeffrey Kosh
Author, Graphic Artist, International Man of Mystery

Doctor Richter Townhouse

To personally meet Jeffrey Kosh one needs to travel to a place that doesn’t exist, as he is currently living at 22 Kronenstrasse, in Goldstadt, the capital of Wissenheim.
This is the home—and office—of Doctor Maximilian von Richter, forensic pathologist and criminologist. The good doctor has provided Jeffrey with a small spare room inside his townhouse in order for him to continue his chronicles of terror.
In fact, after a long hiatus from writing, my old friend and cover artist has decided to leave our time and isolate himself in this fictional city. The current year here is 1922 and it’s charming and refreshing looking at Ford Model T and Duisenberg cars dodging horse-drawn calashes and early delivery vans.
I’m received by Ronny Cicero, Richter’s butler. He is a short, nasal-toned, and mischievous-looking fellow of Italian origins who never ceases babbling. He fills my ears with questions that he then answers himself, and in the short trip that takes from the first floor to Jeffrey’s quarters he’s able to update me on local events of which I don’t frankly care.
“How do you do, my friend?” asks Jeffrey in a that old-fashioned tone typical of 1930s horror flicks. “I hope you like my new home.” He offers me a glass of Marillenschnaps (a type of fruit brandy that is distilled from apricots) and then points to an over decorated and overstuffed armchair, motioning for me to make myself comfortable.
From the large, semicircular window behind him I can see the picturesque peaked roofs of the ancient district of Unterburg rubbing shoulders with the ritzy art deco buildings of Neondorf. And beyond, towering above it all, the spectacular but shabby Wunderturm.
“I’m fine,” I say, “A bit disoriented by the dimensional shift, but I’m okay.”
“Excellent.” He continues with that démodé attitude and I can’t fail to notice of how Jeffrey Kosh, the author alter ego of the real life Massimo Zini, has perfectly adapted to his new workplace. He wears a tailored black suit under an outdated robe of the kind he Basil Rathbone wore in any single one of his movies. His hair is short and parted and he sports weirdly looking mustaches that look like a pair of squashed caterpillars under his nose.
While Massimo Zini lives in the village of Auterive, in southern France, his writer persona has permanently moved to the fictional Grand Duchy of Wissenheim, a tiny country formerly part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire nestled among the Bavarian Alps.
“Let’s get down to business,” he says before finishing his liquor in one gulp.
“First of all,” I clarify, “this interview is about the both of you, so I hope you don’t mind me asking questions that are more related to Massimo’s main personality.”
“No problem at all,” he replies. “I don’t have secrets… for you.” That last bit sounds a bit off; much in the way Bela Lugosi would say that he never drank… wine. I ignore it and start my questions. I know he’s a weird fella.

Okay buddy. Let’s pretend that we’re just meeting. Let’s give the readers a chance to get to know you. Tell us a little about yourself. Are you married? Do you have any children?

JK: I do have a partner that I plan to marry, once I get my divorce finalized. Unfortunately, I wasn’t blessed with any biological children of mine. But I do have a brilliant British stepson that I love as if he were blood of my blood.

Me: Trust me. I can relate to that. What’s weird in my situation is, my stepson looks more like me than my biological sons do. Let’s go to the next question. What do you do for relaxation?

JK: Relax? What’s that? I wasn’t made aware I was entitled to it. Golly, I’m the kind of guy that can’t never relax. I lived two years in Thailand –one of the most relaxing places in the world- and I managed to get stressed even there.

Me: You’re braver than I am. I’ve enjoyed a few Thai dishes and they were way too spicy for me. Still, I understand being stressed even in paradise. Okay, next question: Are there any recent works (books) that you admire?

JK: The Alienist by Caleb Carr. This is the last book that I truly enjoyed, as it’s the closest to the kind of novels I like, such as The Silence of the Lambs and the Special X series by Michael Slade. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same for the sequel, The Angel of Death, but this is mostly due by a stylistic choice of the author.

Me: I’ve not read those. But then, I’ve read very little over the last few years. That’s a long story in itself. Still, who is your favorite author and is there a reason why?

JK: There are many. However, the top spot is—and will ever be—reserved to Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. Frankenstein or the Modern Prometheus is the novel that brought me into English literature. I wish she had written more stories like that. On a more generic note, I admire writers such as you that are able to write whole series with recurring characters. An outstanding feat, if you ask me.

Me: No need to butter me up. But I’ll accept the accolades. Having started your latest creation, I can see why Mary Shelley would be a favorite. To me, your styles seem to go hand in hand. Are there similarities between yours and her work?

JK: I wish. Unfortunately, I’m a paranoid and very neat monster; I spend many hours researching tiny but accurate details about everything that I need inside my novels. Sometimes, like in Feeding the Urge (the main character is an Assistant Medical Examiner) or in my most recent one (Beyond Frankenstein, where one of the characters is a forensic pathologist and another is an undertaker), it’s easier as I can use my own personal experiences as a former mortician, but when it’s about police procedure in German-speaking countries in the Interbellum era…

Me: Oh, I can only imagine. I worked law enforcement for many years and even now, I hesitate to write anything procedural because not only do times change, but it seems that procedures differ from agency to agency. Anyway, how about something a little more basic? Why do you write?

JK: Honestly? I have no idea. My books are quite niche, as I tend to write what comes to my mind not what is trending. How many readers are out there interested in a pulp gothic story set in the fictional world of 1930s horror movies?

Me: Okay, yeah. That’s a pretty specific niche. Still, I understand writing about what you like. If you attempt to write on a subject that doesn’t inspire you…it tends to fall flat and the readers notice. So, what is a typical working day like for you?

JK: I try to write every day, if possible. Nonetheless, because writing is not my main job, I need to balance that with the ‘real’ work, which, as you know, is my graphic art.

Me: Yes, I do know and I’m darn proud to say that you’re my go-to guy! I drop your name to anybody who might be considering a graphic artist. When people ask why I’m so enthusiastic, I point them to my Amazon page and tell them to just check out my covers! I have no doubt that your artwork is a huge reason I have the sales I have. So, when and where do you write?

JK: I prefer to write in the morning, and work on my art in the afternoon, but it’s not always possible. As for where… why, yes, here, in this office.

Me: I remember doing everything at my kitchen table. Even though you wouldn’t think it makes a huge difference, the moment I got my office/man cave, I felt like I was finally validated. Okay, let’s see…what kind of research do you do for your books?

JK: Everything. Even if my book is going to feature an improbable regenerative serum I need to know a bit of the plausible science behind it, the processes that might make it work. Is one of the characters going to use a gun? Well, I need to know the make and model used at the time and sometimes (such as when I was writing The Haunter of the Moor and I needed to know how a breechloader gun worked) I watch videos for technicalities.

Me: So you’re detail oriented. I get it. And I understand why. Readers who know these things tend to let others know if you get something wrong. Getting it right can mean the difference in a one star review and a five star, so I do understand. How do you conceive your plot ideas?

JK: It varies from story to story. My first novel, Feeding the Urge, was born out of something that I often saw in social media and the news at the time: people claiming that they would torture and kill pedophiles and rapists. Since a book (or a movie) is an experience where you are an invisible passenger in the main characters’ minds—you are there, you can see everything, but you can’t interact with the plot—I conceived a story where a nice guy had some kind of spirit inside him that sometimes would take over the steering wheel and have him hunt and kill people. I based my ‘riders’ on Native American spiritualism, something that I was exposed to when I lived in Chinle, Arizona.
The Haunter of the Moor instead grew out of my visit of Bray, the Leprechaun Museum in Dublin, and a terrible nightmare I had about a dog growling around my bed in the dark when we spent a week in Ireland.
Beyond Frankenstein is different.
I made the cover and interior art for Franklin E. Wales’ The Legacy of Frankenstein, a novel set between the Bride of and Son of movies. He asked me to write an introduction for it and I ended up with a silly fictional account of my visit to the Barony of Frankenstein and being trapped there. Lorraine (who edits all my stories) read it and said that I should go back to writing gothic stories, that that was my comfort zone, away from modern politics (that was what had killed my will to write in the last five years) and so I did. My intention was to write a simple novelette set in 1920 and following the events of Legacy. I ended up with this 1000 pages doorstopper that is the longest thing I have ever written.

Maximilian von Richter and Hannibal Buchwald

Me: And let me say that she is right. It’s your niche and you shine in it! Okay, next question. When naming your characters, do you give any thought to the actual meaning?

JK: Yes, I do. It’s up to the readers to discover some of the ‘Easter eggs’ behind my names. Sometimes they are chosen because they help me visualize the character in my mind by association. For example, I imagined one of the baddies in Beyond Frankenstein to look like Boris Karloff’s Morgan, the homicidal butler in The Old Dark House. Being a Croat, I called him Boris Kovacs.

Boris Karloff as Morgan in The Old Dark House (1932)

Me: What are the major themes of your work? How long on average does it take you to write a book?

JK: I usually don’t think about themes, but some stuff keeps reappearing in most of my stories. Things like inhuman spirits coming from another place, artificial vs. natural life, and the strong bonds of love and friendship.

Me: As a writer you can most surely weave an internal struggle into your storyline and the reader may not realize it until the end. That’s when your audience has that sudden realization; Oh yeah, I didn’t see that coming. Do you know what I mean? Is that something you do often? A writing style you prefer? Or are your stories an “open book” so to speak?

JK: I always start with the villain. I need to know who they are, what they do, and why they do it. Then I put myself inside the community that is suffering the villain’s actions. How do they react? Finally, I create the main characters, the story’s heroes.
However, there was one exception to this process, my novelette FIVE. That one was born out of hearing the voice of the main character inside my mind asking the question, “What would you do if you knew when and where you are going to die?” over and over. It was really bothering me, so I let the guy speak and tell his tale.

Me: Okay, that’s not creepy at all. But at the same time, that would be the question, wouldn’t it? What would you do? I’d want to know…even if I didn’t. But then, if you try to avoid it do you inadvertently end up causing it? I had a similar idea where people are given an amount of time before they would die and one guy steals away to the woods to avoid Death only to get mauled by a grizzly. I never actually penned the idea though. Anyway, who are your target readers?

JK: People who like classic horror movies and ‘old voices’ such as Shelley, Stoker, Lovecraft, and Poe. But most of all, readers that like historical settings, as I love writing tales set in the past.

Me: I get the impression you’re what we would call ‘an old soul’. Right or wrong, it seems to fit your writing. What do you think readers search for in a book?

JK: We are all different. There’s plenty of readers that like stuff I wouldn’t touch; things with a lot of gore and sex, monster romance, urban fantasy. I don’t judge. But they don’t do it for me. Personally, I like gritty stories about ‘human’ monsters and those who hunt them.

Me: And that’s mostly what I write. I tend to call it ‘retail fiction’ because, at the moment, it seems to be what a good portion of the public is searching for. I guess I’m lucky that I enjoy writing what they’re looking for. What is your favorite part of a book?

JK: The part where I finally write ‘The End’.

Me: That is a good feeling, isn’t it? If that’s your favorite, then what is the hardest part of writing for you?

JK: Remaining coherent and focused and avoid wandering off into uncharted—and unnecessary—side stories. Trying to have the right human reactions to the unfolding events. Making sure that all storylines are closed before the end of the book. Going back, after you finish, and fix all those elements that don’t add up.

Me: I gotcha. That was a difficult thing for me to get over. Realizing I didn’t have to cover every minute of every day. Accepting that it’s okay to allow the reader to assume the small details so I can carry on to the next ‘point’ in the story. I know that you’re an awesome graphic artist, but what is the best thing about being an author, as well?

JK: Having readers tell you that they read your story. Sometimes readers don’t realize how much it’s important for us writers to receive feedback. Even negative one.

Me: Agreed! But TBH, the positive feedback is much better received than the negative. For me, anyway. Call it a fragile ego. So, do you listen to music while you write?

JK: Absolutely not. I already have enough trouble at focusing with all the noise around me. Both Auterive and Goldstadt are quite busy places.

Me: I get it. I’ve tried listening to music with words and couldn’t concentrate. But movie scores? Heck yeah. Epic movie scores work even better for me. Lately I’ve been listening to a lot of Celtic and Viking music. It seems to help when there’s a battle scene to be written. What and/or who inspires you?

JK: Random things. It can happen that I watch a movie or read a book and then fall in love with a specific character in the story. So I decide to give that ‘personality’ a twin inside the book I’m writing. Or a specific setting. As I said, The Haunter of the Moor was conceived by my short Halloween holiday in Ireland in 2015.

Me: Have you ever collaborated on a book? If so, who was the other author? How did you collaborate with that author? What writing process did you use?

JK: Never. I’d like to, but I have no idea of how to do that. There is surely a process to co-writing, but… I’m a frigging control freak, so I work better alone.

Me: I get it. I’m the same way. But I’ll admit, I did a trilogy with Jack Wallen a while back and it was a bit rocky at first, but then we seemed to find a groove and I’ll admit, when it was over I was ready to do another one. Maybe one day you’ll find the right partner and attempt something like that. It might be a little challenging at first, but I think the experience helped me as a writer. If you wrote a book about your life, what would the title be?

JK: I would never write a book about my life. Not interested. I know, I have had quite an adventurous life, being born in Rome, Italy, having lived in two states in the US, then Thailand, England, and now France and Wissenheim (heck, now that I think about it, I sound like a fugitive). I have wrestled alligators (small ones), driven a herd, ridden elephants, and being close to many dangerous animals. I have been behind the set of the Babylon 5 TV show and I have played a minor character in the Far Cry 3 video game and short movie. I have met a lot of famous people, including two popes and one Italian president. I have been a delivery boy, a waiter, a concierge, a funeral director for many years, and a smalltime actor. I have lived like an ‘international man of mystery’ for most of my life. But I wouldn’t write about myself.

Me: Dude…you NEED to write your story. My life seems boring in comparison. Let me think…what question have you always wanted to be asked in an interview, but never have?

JK: I think I have covered almost anything.

Me: Okay. What have you written? And what are you working on at the moment? What’s it about?

JK: There are four full novels: Feeding the Urge, Dead Men Tell No Tales, The Haunter of the Moor, and Beyond Frankenstein.
Then there are the novelettes and short stories that can be found in personal collections such as Spirits and Thought Forms-Tales from Prosperity Glades and Tales from the Dead. Many of my short stories have been showcased in anthologies. Special mentions should go to Bloody Bones, a Christmas horror tale set in the lovely village of Dunster, Somerset (UK) featured in the A Tree Lighting in Deathlehem (2019) anthology by Grinning Skull Press, and Last Chance, a short psychological thriller that deserves more love, as unfortunately people are barely aware of its existence. You can find this one in the Maximus Shock (2017) anthology by Optimus Maximus Publishing.
I also wrote two short erotic novels (Thrill of the Hunt and Home Invasion), and the screenplay for a slasher comedy horror movie that was never shot called Respawn.
I’m currently writing a sequel to Beyond Frankenstein which expands on the horrible possibilities offered by the Zeigler Serum and its true, dark origins.

Feeding the Urge (2012), Dead Men Tell No Tales (2012), and The Haunter of the Moor (2016)

Me:Nice! Where can we buy or see them?

JK: You can either search my name online or visit my website.
https://jeffreykosh.wixsite.com/jeffreykosh
My stories are all available through the usual channels, except for Beyond Frankenstein; this is a Kindle Unlimited exclusive only available at Amazon. If you are enrolled in their program you can read it for free. Published by JaFra Publishing.
https://www.amazon.com/stores/Jeffrey-Kosh/author/B0074F2VGU

Beyond Frankenstein, Kindle Unlimited

Oh, one last thing. I don’t mind if you pirate my books, as long as you don’t make a profit out of it. Then I get pissed and I come after you. They did this trick once with a completely free novelette called Black Brig (my debut fan fiction based on a comic book) and I reacted accordingly. Also, please, if you read my books for free, at least leave a review.

Me: I hadn’t thought of that way, but I guess that’s a positive way to look at the inevitable. Pirates are gonna pirate, so what can you do? What advice would you give to aspiring writers?

JK: Do as you wish and feel. If you want to write good fiction write what you like. If you want to try and make money out of it… follow the trends and the algorithms. I can’t.

Me: Is that a nice way of calling me a sell-out? Just kidding! I actually like writing what I do. Thankfully, the grand majority of it is what people are looking for. Still, sometimes what seems like a heck of an idea in my head ends up flopping on the retail market. Oh, well. I’ll keep writing what interests me.
Well, I think we’ve about covered everything. Is there anything that you would like add?

JK: Yes, give Beyond Frankenstein a chance. It’s my best book so far.

Beyond Frankenstein (2025)

Me: Last question, what do you consider your best accomplishment?

JK: Keeping on living, adapting every time I needed to. Living in other countries and respecting their cultures and differences, always mindful about me being a guest. And finally, creating a name in art for myself after so many years of doing the most disparate and non-art related jobs.

The Wunderturm in Goldstadt

As we shake hands, I remind Jeff that he has to work on the cover of Genoswka 6, and then I descend the large stairwell to the first floor. Luckily, Ronny Cicero is nowhere to be seen, probably busy chattering with Richter’s housemaid. When I leave the beautiful townhouse at 22 Kronenstrasse I spot a guy in tuxedo that looks exactly like me. Our eyes meet and then he flees. I chase him amidst the hustle and bustle of the university quarter but I soon lose track of the uncanny man.
I think it’s time for me to go back home. Home, before I go crazy and they put me inside a padded cell at Waldenburg Asylum.

I told you that I was shooting for Halloween and we scraped our way in just shy of the buzzer!

Here’s your link for the G5 pre-order!

Have a spooktacular day!

Believe it or not, I’m still breathing. You wouldn’t know that looking at this website. Almost TWO YEARS since I last updated this thing? Nearly TWO YEARS since anything was published?
Yeah, I really suck at this.
No, it’s not the first time I went MIA. Nor is it the first time I’ve tried to come back and beg forgiveness. You can darn well bet that it won’t be the last. Sorry if that doesn’t calm your apprehension.

So, what’s new, you ask?
Well, I am purposely trying to force myself into making writing a habit again. I’m sure you’ve read that I pushed too hard and burned myself out. I do that from time to time. It happened during Monster Squad. It happened again in the middle of Caldera. It happened again here. I mean, seriously, Genoskwa came out on a Halloween. G2 was out for Thanksgiving and G3 missed Christmas by a couple of weeks because, well…people have lives and couldn’t be expected to put everything on hold to push out a book during the holidays. But still, three books in three and a half months is…a recipe for burnout. And I thought it would be done with those first three but the push was on to continue the story. So I tried. And it bit me in the rear.

But all is not lost! I’m setting myself a goal and G5 WILL be out for Halloween this year. Just two tiny years after the first one came out. Okay, for those of you who are new here, that isn’t etched in stone. More like drawn in the sand and I’m praying that the tide doesn’t wash it away. But I think it’s a realistic goal.
I mean, I hope it is.
Look, the point is, I’m back. I’m having to force myself to do something every day and I will continue to do so until it becomes a habit again. I hear that it takes only two weeks to form a bad habit but six weeks to form a good one. I’m looking at at least six weeks to get back into the habit.

My plan is to try to wrap up Genoskwa with Book 6. In all reality, it’s way too difficult to continue a ‘battle’ story from just one point of view. I refuse to try to write from the Sasquatch’s POV because who knows what really goes on in those noggins?! I don’t even like to think of how humans think, or what goes on inside their heads.

Once G6 is out, I’m not even sure which direction I’ll be going. I know I still owe y’all a Bridger story. And there’s been a lot of feedback from folks who want to see another Nick story. And TBH, I’ve toyed with the idea of pulling all of my lead characters and making my own version of The Expendables. Jack Thompson, Daniel Hatcher, Bobby Bridger, Chris Nichols, Josh Forrest, Beans McGee and Dale Archer would make one hell of a force to be reckoned with. Maybe one day.
But I also want to try something new. I’ve got a cheat sheet that I write down what I think would make good stories to tell, but man, there’s a bunch. I honestly have no idea if I want to jump into one of those ideas or maybe try something new. I’ve got time to figure that out.

Okay, enough rambling. You got stuff to do and apparently, I have writing to do.
I just wanted to announce to my readers that even though I really enjoy doing nothing and binge watching Eureka and BSG and the different Stargate series and a ton of really thought provoking television, I’m going to force my nose to the grindstone, er…keyboard and get back to doing what needs doing.

Cross your fingers for me. Meanwhile, here’s wishing you much love, luck and bacon!

Heath

Good grief, I suck at maintaining this page. You’d never believe I was a ‘writer’ based off of what’s available here, would you?

Okay, enough griping, on to the news.

Genoskwa was what I would consider a success (thanks entirely to you, the readers). Genoskwa 2 is hot on its heels. G3 should be out any day now…and I guess I have to announce to the world that Genoskwa will no longer be a trilogy. It is officially a new series.
To be fair, I had no intention of making it a series. Heck, I originally just wanted to write the first one and be done with it, but the beta readers said no, you have to follow it up. Then my beautiful, charming, overly smart, and outrageously HAWT editor told me I needed to follow it up. Then my publisher said I had BETTER follow it up. So I decided I better listen to those who know best. But I can’t just write two…if there’s going to be more than one, then it has to be a trilogy at a minimum. (Yes, Bridger fans, that means there’s at least one more Bridger that I owe you!) And I really thought I did a good job of wrapping up the storyline with number 3.
But, after G3 went through proofing and beta, and after my editor…excuse me, my beautiful, intelligent, charming, and bodaciously hot editor told me that it should be carried on and made into a real series, who am I to argue?
So, to those of you who have followed the story this far, know that there is much more blood to be spilled, more acts of vengeance waiting in the wings, and (hopefully) even more nail-biting tension to be experienced. I just really, really, REALLY hope that I don’t disappoint.

In the meantime, know that G3 should drop just any day now and I hope you like the different spin I put on the story this time.

Here’s wishing you much love, luck, and bacon!

Heath

If you follow me on Facebook, you already know that I was privileged to work with Jack Wallen on a trilogy for DevilDog. Jack came up with the original idea and we ran with it. I’ll be honest, that first volume was rough. It took us a while to get our vibe on but once we did, the next two books flowed like warm honey.

Once we had finished with Congregation, I had the momentum going but nothing else to work on. I came up with another idea. It was just a fleeting idea, but it took root and began to grow.

In my earliest days of trying to become a writer, I was told that all monsters were fair game, EXCEPT, don’t write about Bigfoot. Sasquatch, Mountain Ape, Stone Monkey, Wood Booger, whatever you choose to call him, do not, under any circumstances, write about that particular elusive forest primate.
Ever.
EVER EVER.
Look at me now, being a rebel.
I just hope it doesn’t come back to bite me in the ass.

But I couldn’t help myself. I’ve always been a huge fan of Bigfoot and have planned for years to go camping in areas where they are supposed to be just to test my luck and hope to have an encounter.

For those who don’t know (I didn’t until I looked it up), Genoskwa is an Iroquois legend known as “ot ne yar hed” or “ot ne yar heh”, meaning “Stone Giant Man”. Genoskwa is Sasquatch’s larger, heavier, more aggressive cousin. They are known to twist the heads off people, decapitating them. Yeah, I had fun with that. I also pulled lore from other Sasquatch stories and compiled them together for this story.

Here’s the rough, unedited back blurb:
While tracking a potential terrorist cell, the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force sends a field team to investigate. Traveling deep into the Catskill Mountains, the Albany field office discovers something far more terrifying than a terrorist training camp.
With more questions than answers, the JTTF team gathers their evidence and prepares to leave the forest when all Hell breaks loose. What started as a routine investigation quickly turned into a fight for survival against a foe that knows every inch of the terrain they are fighting on.
Nobody fights harder than when they are defending their home. Add the burning desire for vengeance and the battle becomes a war!

Special thanks go out to Allen Gamboa, Peter Ostini, Sherry Gabaldon, Frank Riley, Jim Chrisco, Monty Smalls, Douglas Fertig, Chris Davis, Alex Montgomery, John Lawson, Ken Oberlin, and Nick Waldron for allowing me to use their names as characters/victims. Even bigger thanks go out to my cousin Terri Stalcup for speed-reading the manuscript and offering her honest feedback. As always, your efforts are very much appreciated! I really don’t know what I’d do without my support team.

Okay, so that catches you up. If you enjoy my stories, then you’ll have a few to chew on shortly. The Congregation is currently on pre-order at Amazon. I believe the trilogy drops on June 27th. Genoskwa is currently in the second round of editing and will be released whenever the preproduction work is concluded and DevilDog can get it set up for retail sales.

Until next time, dear readers here is wishing you much love, luck, and bacon!

Heath

Last blog update I hinted at a project that I was working on and hoped to have finished in time for the holidays. I’m here to announce that I did it. I finished. yay me

So here’s the backstory.
Years ago I saw this picture online and it planted a seed.

An idea for a story started to grow but I never acted on it. I always had an excuse, I was too busy, too lazy, too tied up in other projects…whatever. And every holiday season, the Hallmark Christmas movies would come out and the holiday decor goes up and I’d kick myself for not writing the story.

Fast forward to this year. As I explained in the last blog post, I was sorta kicked out of my office for a few months. But once I got it back, I hammered out Nocturna Six to wrap up the series and I was left with a wee bit of free time on my hands. So, I decided why not? Even if I couldn’t get the story done in time for this holiday season, there’s always NEXT year, right? So I started world building in my mind. It just so happens that my graphic artist, the magnificent Jeffrey Kosh was hitting me for details on the cover for Nocturna Six and I mentioned to him that I wanted to do this story. I outlined the idea for him and he laughed. Said it sounded like a movie script. Then I sent him the picture that planted the seed and he got excited. I believe his reply was, “You have GOT to let me make this cover!”
So I did.
And, like every other cover he’s created for me, it spurred me to action. Now I REALLY wanted to get this project done.
But it was the end of October. Could it be done? I reached out to my editor and my publisher. I asked if I could complete this project by November 15th, could we get it to market in time for Christmas? They both said yes, so, on October 25th I jumped into it with both feet.
Now, I recall writing one of the Hunter stories in a week, but I had already created that universe. My characters were fleshed out and had already been through quite a bit. This was new. I had roughly three weeks to lay the foundation, create the story, flesh out the characters, and…basically everything. In three weeks? I feared I had bit off more than I could chew.
I chewed it.
I chewed the sh!t out of it! I finished ‘Ain’t No Saint Nick’ this morning and emailed it to my editor. That’s roughly TEN days.
And that’s fantastic as long as it doesn’t suck.
So, yeah. There’s that.
Anyway, I just wanted to let the world know that, hopefully in time for Christmas this year, Ain’t No Saint Nick will finally have come to fruition!

Oh, and here’s the cover Jeffrey Kosh made for me. He had to tweak it a couple of times until he found one that we all loved.
Enjoy!

About every six months I remember that I have this webpage and then panic because I haven’t been keeping it updated. Well, in this case, there wasn’t much to update.

We had a tiny bit of family ‘issues’. One of my kids had to move in with his family and the only ‘free’ space was my office. I didn’t realize just how much I depended on this space for everything. I keep all of my important records, bill paying stuff, car keys, etc in my office and when a family of five had to temporarily take it over? I was lost!

I tried moving my writing back to the dining room table but that didn’t work. Moving from a desktop computer with an ergo keyboard and my Lazy Boy office chair to a hard wooden chair, an antiquated laptop with a dead battery that had to be plugged in all the time…yeah, no. So my writing was on hold. However, once the day came that I got my office back? I plunged into Nocturna 6 head first and did my darndest to get it done!

I’m happy to tell you that it survived the first round of edits and is waiting for round two. Jeffrey Kosh stepped up again to create the cover and with any luck it will be out by Thanksgiving.

I wish that was all I had to report. You all know me too well and know that I can’t keep a secret. At all. There may be something else in the works that I’ve tried to keep up my sleeve but the suspense is killing me. I want SO desperately to tell you, but there’s a caveat. I want it released before Christmas so I have to buckle down and put fingers to keyboard to get it hammered out. I have to have it to the editor no later than November 15 and although I was able to pound out one of the Hunter stories in a week, there’s no way I can do that with this one. This is a stand-alone story (though who knows what the future may hold).
I mentioned it to Jeffrey Kosh and at first he laughed and said it sounded like a movie script. Then I sent him the photo that planted the seed in my mind and his tone changed. His words were, “You HAVE to let me do this one!” He then created a series of covers that…well, they were all awesome. But we were able to whittle it down to one and…I REALLY love it.
I really wish I could share it with you, and I will. Eventually. Just not right now. His artwork was enough to spur me into overdrive and I’ve been doing my best to get it hammered out. It’s hard enough to create a story in a world that I’ve already established, but to create a whole new cast of characters in an area that I’m unfamiliar with? Not the easiest thing to do. All of the regular self-doubts are amplified by the fact that I’m treading in unfamiliar waters with all new characters and I start to question if I’m letting the story tell itself or if I’m trying to force it. It’s always seemed that when I let the story tell itself and I just type it, it all goes much more smoothly and it’s better received by the readers. Trying to pen this in such a short amount of time has me stressing over the project a lot more than I normally would.

So, the cat is still in the bag, but at least you know that there IS a cat. In a bag.
Okay, bad metaphor.
Just know that I’m plugging away at a project that I HOPE will be available by Christmas. Once I have it finished and it’s off to the editor, I’ll drop another post on here and share the cover. Hopefully, you won’t laugh at the idea.

Until then, here’s wishing you much love, luck and bacon!

Heath

Guess what I did?
Rather, guess what I didn’t do…I didn’t announce that Nocturna 5: Sacrifice was available for pre-order. I also didn’t announce that it became available last month. Oh, I threw out a weak announcement on Facebook. But I didn’t Twit it. Or Tweeter it. Whatever. I have an Instagram. I know I do because I get notifications from it. I just don’t use it. I’m an old dog that hates new tricks and can barely stand most social media so you’d think I’d take better care of this blog. I mean, there are a handful of you in the same boat as I am. You’d rather get poked in the eye with a sharp stick than hang out online. So you follow my website or subscribe and then…I drop the ball. Hey, you should be used to me letting you down by now so why am I hashing over it now, right?

Okay, so yeah. Nocturna 5 is out!

Also, I am working on Nocturna 6 and the plans are to wrap up this story with it so I can pay more attention to some other projects I have in the fire. I’m actually getting a little excited about Nick’s storyline. It’s the ‘Ain’t No Saint; Nick’ I mentioned in the previous blog post. I’m hoping it becomes sort of a Die Hard meets Hallmark Christmas Movie kind of story, but we know how characters take on a life of their own and take over the whole dadgum thing. Remember when I made Tufo a ‘bit’ character in Monster Squad and he nearly took over the whole thing? Yeah. Well, in all fairness, Mark is kind of like that, so…I had it coming.

Anyway, I felt guilty for not announcing N5 and realized I hadn’t updated my Works page in like…forever. So I got that done as well.

For those who are curious, I actually have a few chapters into Bridger 3. I keep thinking that I got off on the wrong foot with it and I’ve gone back to change it numerous times, but every time I read it, it just FEELS right. So, I guess we’ll just have to see where that story ends up going, too. Who knows? Maybe if Nick takes off, I might put him and Bridger in the same room and they’ll either team up or kill each other.
Now wouldn’t that be something…

So, there ya go. You’re updated now. I know I always say I’ll try to do better in the future, but obviously I totally suck at it, so…cross your fingers and we’ll both HOPE that I can keep this thing updated in the future.

Good luck, God bless, and here’s wishing you all of the love, luck and bacon that you can handle!

Heath

For those of you who enjoy my stories and occasionally slip by here to check on upcoming projects, I owe you an apology. I know as well as anyone that I’ve been AWOL for some time now. It’s not the first time, and knowing me as well as I do, I’m pretty sure it won’t be the last. BUT, I’m back now and doing my best to get back on track.

I realize it’s been a year.
Not my worst, by any stretch. The first time I went AWOL was for over two years. I was convinced that I’d quit. It wasn’t worth the time, effort or heartache. But Tracy reached out to me and asked for something…anything that I could submit for her to publish. I piled together all of my short stories that had been donated to different charity anthologies over the years and let her have them.
Then I felt bad. I knew that most weren’t my best and she was getting the short end of the stick.
We talked. She suggested (rightly so, it turns out) that I turn Caldera into a series. So, with her gentle nudging, I found myself back in the world of trying to put ideas to words and words to paper. Burning the midnight oil became the norm and I was officially back in the game. Along with Caldera, I created other universes with other heroes and villains. I got back on course and stayed there, usually taking the holidays off since they’re so busy around here and…well…this last time I just couldn’t bring myself to sit back down and delve into the worlds I had created. Like anything, the longer you stay away from it, the easier it becomes. Two months turned into four turned into twelve turned into…too long.
Tracy didn’t hound me. She knew how I was and gave me the time she felt I needed. Until she was tired of waiting. I’m quite certain that it was her idea, but Jack Wallen reached out to me during the holidays and asked if I’d be interested in working on a new story idea with him. Like many others before us, two well known writers team up and put their heads together and with a little luck something incredible begins to take shape. And that’s exactly what happened here.
Jack contacted me and I put him off until after the holidays. Once they were done, I knew that he’d be ready to work so I forced myself to sit down and try to wrap up Nocturna 5 so that it would be off my plate and I could concentrate on the task at hand. And it worked. Maybe a bit too well. I decided to go on and work on Nocturna 6 while Jack and I built worlds. But with my return to world building, I stumbled upon a new creative energy that had me diving into other projects as well. While working on Congregation with Jack, and wrapping up the Nocturna series with number 6, I decided to break ground on a new Bobby Bridger story. And another story that I envisioned as kind of a bloodier, grittier version of a Hallmark Christmas movie that I’m calling ‘Ain’t No Saint; Nick’. Depending on the mood I’m in, that dictates which story I work on. Between those and the audible versions of Nocturna that Eric A. Shelman has so brilliantly brought to life, I’ve actually been staying kind of busy these last few days. I’m even trying to keep myself on task by keeping tabs on work with an online writer’s group that I’m a member of. Sort of my version of announcing online that I’ve started a diet and then tracking my goals for the world to see. Except it’s easier to create worlds than it is to lose weight so that may not be the best analogy.

Anyway, for those who care…I’m back. And I hope to stick with it this time.
At least long enough to bring some closure to the stories you’ve been following. And if I’m lucky enough for you to stick around, maybe you’ll enjoy some of the worlds I’m creating.

Thank you for your patience and your kind reviews. Sometimes those words are just the fuel we need to keep on keeping on.

Now, back to work.
As always, I wish you all much love, luck, laughter and most of all, BACON!

Heath