My working title for HUSK was 'American Cannibal: A Love Story', and that fit the book perfectly, but as former detective Adrian Monk would say, heres's the thing, nobody would've published the book if I kept that title. The editors who responded to my queries all came back with something along the lines of 'no thanks, I don't do cannibals.' And so I flipped a coin between using HUSK and THE CRAVINGS, and the coin came up heads. It wasn't until I changed the title that I had editors willing to look at it. After selling the book, I suggested that we go back to my original title, and my publisher rightfully decided that as perfect as that title might be, they wouldn't sell many copies with it.
HUSK is certainly a horror novel, albeit a very unusual and different one. A sense of dread permeates the book. It's also in some ways very noirish. As Just A Guy Who Likes To Read writes about it: "There is a simmering danger lurking around every corner; an omnipresent
threat of violence and bloodletting bubbling away through each chapter
as Charlie Husk, a character like no other, struggles with the person he
is and the person he wants to be." Horror is always at the edges until it's front and center. But at the same time at its core is a love story. A very unusual one.
No comments:
Post a Comment