Conversing with author Hunter Shea: on publishing horror.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview rising-star, horror/thriller author, Hunter Shea. The event took place as part of his virtual book tour for his based-on-true ghost story, The Waiting. The segment of our conversation which focused on that story can be found in the post:

Interview with Hunter Shea: on THE WAITING and the true-life ghost-story that inspired the novella.

In our nearly two-hour long chat, however, we talked about a lot more than The Waiting. In the following five-minute portion of our conversation, we discuss:

* finishing a new novel
* Samhain Horror
* Hunter’s first book
* getting THE call
* writing & publishing pace

As both a fan and a writer of horror, I learned a great deal from the time I spent with Hunter … perhaps most importantly, I came away knowing that it’s crucial to persevere.

horror thrill author Hunter Shea tattoo

I found this pic while searching for images of Hunter Shea with which I could illustrate the video. We never discussed this tattoo, and I don’t think he even knows I have access to the photo. See what an efficient stalker I am? (*See note below.)

 

Hunter Shea: On Publishing Horror

*(This is the “note below.”)  Read: Am I a good social media user, or a creepy stalker?

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Paranormal Research: adapting to intimidating apparatus & grasping a new gizmo.

I’ve been a busy beginner-paranormalist these last couple of days. On Sunday afternoon, I gathered my ghost investigation equipment before heading out to Anoka’s Oakwood Cemetery. There, I practiced using all of my tools … except the digital voice recorder – which I forgot I had with me. The laser thermometer and the EMF meter are simple, seemingly foolproof, tools; I didn’t spend much time fussing with them during this dry run. I concentrated, instead, on overcoming my fear of my husband’s expensive camera. Once I tamed that, learning my son’s cheap digital video camera was a cinch.

Yes, I enjoyed spending the afternoon wandering the graveyard. No, nothing even vaguely paranormal occurred.

On Sunday night, I figured out how to transfer all the digital data I’d collected to the computer … and how to organize it in a way that makes sense to me. I went to bed pondering what I could do with it.

I spent the daylight hours of Monday learning Twitter … well, getting started in Twitter – I’m sure I have much more to learn. Tweet me: @RRudeParanormal, if you are so inclined 🙂

Monday evening, I settled in at the computer with a program called Windows Live Movie Maker. Determined to figure out how to make a slideshow, I took a deep breath and dived in. Seven hours later, I surfaced with this one minute and forty-seven second “movie”.

Yep, it has a typo. I would like to fine-tune the title. And there are a couple of time adjustments I’d like to make. (I don’t know how I failed to notice those problems in any one of the dozens of times I reviewed and tweaked the damn thing before hitting save – but I did.) I am, however, valiantly resisting the urge to go back in to make the fixes. Sometimes it’s best to just let. it. go. I am going to have to be very careful – I can’t afford to spend too many hours playing with this wonderful new toy if I intend to maintain a healthy writing practice.

Still, I can’t wait to go get more footage (maybe even of something interesting) so I can make better, stronger, longer movies.