Monster Mania - A Guest Post by Russell James

This month, Fabulous Florida Writers is pleased to welcome guest blogger Russell James. James is the author of 14 nail-biting thrillers and 8 short story collections. His latest release, Curse of the Viper King, is the third in his Grant Coleman series. James was our featured author on August 1, 2017.
 
My latest release is Curse of the Viper King. Set in the Amazon, it follows the adventure of paleontologist Professor Grant Coleman and environmental activist Janaina Silva as they try to find their way home. They discover an isolated logging camp, and the chance to hitch a ride back to civilization.

But the workers uncover a fossil of a giant snake, almost fifteen meters long. Grant is thrilled, but the superstitious workers believe they have let loose a demon.

That night, the world begins to unravel. A mysterious creature attacks the camp, kills several men, and sinks the only boat that can get them home. Soon Grant and the others are in a battle against colossal spiders and a descendant of that great fossilized snake. The key to survival might lie in the lost pyramid of the Aztec Viper King, hidden deep in the rain forest. But they need to get there alive, and one member of the crew has an agenda that doesn’t include Grant and Janaina ever getting home.

This is Grant Coleman’s third adventure, following his encounters with giant scorpions in a cave sealed for ten thousand years in Cavern of the Damned and his exploration of a dinosaur-infested plateau in Monsters in the Clouds. He doesn’t have the best of luck in making travel arrangements. All the stories are self-contained, like Indiana Jones movies, so you can read any of them without reading the others.

I’ve written a lot of horror novels, some pretty graphic. I attend a lot of horror conventions, and frequently have kids ask their parents if they can buy one of my books. I have to wave them off from some of the hard-R rated stuff. But I can direct them to the Grant Coleman series from Severed Press. They are not written on a kid’s level, but they don’t have any language or sex, and the violence is all Jurassic Park monster stuff. Fun for the whole family!

All the Grant Coleman books have some kind of giant monster in them. All are based on real life animal that are much smaller. The Afterword in each book tells you just how close the fictional one comes to the factual. It’s fun to let people in on how strange some real life animals are.

My next release will be The Playing Card Killer from Flame Tree Press in February 2019. This one is a thriller about a serial killer loose in the Tampa Bay area. Floridians might recognize a lot of locations in that one. Stay tuned for a update as that time draws near.

For more information (and some free short stories), visit his website at http://www.russellrjames.com