The Hook: A Novel Coming March 7

After a lot of work, my first full length novel is almost here. You can pre-order the eBook now or wait until March 7 to purchase it or the hardcover. The details haven’t fully shown up on different purchase sites yet, but that should change in the next week. It will be some time before I have it available in my own personal store. I’ll send out an announcement once I have my copies. Details and purchase links are located below. Thank you for your continued support and I look forward to hearing everyone’s thoughts about my newest book.

Synopsis

It’s 1976 and Ernest Kemp is looking for his wife and daughter. After leaving the US Navy, he finds his way to Hallowell, Maine. He’s an outsider and the townsfolk don’t trust him. Their suspicions increase when someone starts killing children. After being falsely accused and arrested, Ernest teams up with Samantha Belcher as she investigates the murders for the Kennebec Journal.

They discover the murders are ritualistic sacrifices. Ernest and Samantha’s issues rise as bullfrogs roam all over town and three new outsiders resemble women from a 100-year-old news article. Will they find the killers and Ernest’s family before another child dies?

Praise for The Hook

Pack is deft when it comes to balancing the plot and the characters, and the dynamic between his intriguing, flawed characters is authentic. Fans of gripping supernatural thrillers will be glad to sink their teeth in this one.
~ Prairies Book Review

Pack creates a vivid sense of doom, deftly portraying an intriguing world of brutal slayings, centuries-old curses, deadly rituals, otherworldly beings, and ordinary people who are caught between these anomalies. Readers will be on the edge of their seats until they turn the last page.
~ BookView Review

Penned with a gritty grace that blurs the line between reality and something far stranger than fiction, the surprises build slowly with a deft layering of suspense, weaving together different genres and themes, and fronted by an engrossing protagonist.” 
~ Self-Publishing Review

Book Recommendations and an Interview

I don’t post updates to my blog much anymore and I hope to correct that in the coming year. I wanted to share some cool stuff I have going on, but the first thing I want to say is, the first draft of my novel is finished. I have already begun the editing process and I hope to have it ready and published no later than early March. More details will come your way as I move closer to publishing. I will have a page here on my site dedicated to the new book once all the things are ready to go. And now for the exciting stuff.

I recently learned about a new website called Shepherd. It is another site about books and things. They’ve only been around for a couple years, and they are still very small, but have a big heart. You should check them out just because, but also, you should check them out because I recently posted a book recommendation list to their site. What kind of books would I recommend? Well ones that are similar to my own writing of course. These are my recommendations for The Best Novels Where Real-Life Horror Meets the Supernatural.

This was a lot of fun to do and all I had to do was recommend books I’ve read. Too easy. The books I recommended are the ones on display in the top image of this post. If you want to know more about them, check out the list on Shepherd. They also have lots of other lists (they call them bookshelves) on their sits such as The Best Supernatural Books. Or you can find any other type of list (bookshelf) that suits your reading preferences. Keep an eye on Shepherd because I think they will get pretty big in the next few years.

To keep things more local, since I live in Tucson, AZ, I had the opportunity to get interviewed by Shoutout Arizona back in October. Want to know a little more about me? Check out the interview “Meet James Pack, Writer and Artist.” You can find out what inspires me and what some of my favorite local places are. It was awesome to be interviewed and I look forward to having many more experiences like these. I hope you enjoy and keep a look out for my next book that’s coming soon. Stay spooky and Merry Kramp-mas!

What’s New Wednesday: October

It’s been a while since I’ve posted any updates. I had a great time at YumaCon a couple weeks ago. I sold more books there than at any other convention. My bookmarks also sold very well. I still have two more conventions before the year is over. Later this month, I’ll be part of the vendor section of the Tucson TerrorFest. They tried this vendor convention part of the TerrorFest in 2019 and it was successful so they’re bringing it back. You can learn more details on their website about the film festival and the vendors. It’s happening on Oct 23 and 24 here in Tucson, AZ.

Also happening in Tucson, the TusCon Sci-Fi, Fantasy & Horror Convention is doing it’s 48th year. That’s a long time. I will have a table at that convention as well. I’ll be selling bookmarks and copies of my short horror stories collection The Morbid Museum. I’ll have a couple other items as well. Come by and say hi. I hope to have my first full length novel finished by the middle of next year so I can have it for sale at all the conventions next year. Of course, if you’re unable to make it to either of these events, you can always purchase my works online. I hope you’re all doing well and I hope to see some of you at the next convention.