Now Available: THEY HUNGER!

Look at this! Fellow North Carolinian and horror author Scott Nicholson, has just seen his sixth genre novel published: They Hunger. And - I love this - Publisher's Weekly calls the book "a vampiric Deliverance."

From the press release: What happens when an FBI manhunt, an experimental rafting expedition, a deranged killer and primordial blood-sucking creatures collide in the Southern Appalachian wilderness?

Author Scott Nicholson set his tale in a fictionalized version of the Linville Gorge Wilderness Area in the North Carolina mountains, where he often camps and hikes. The Linville River contains some of the most treacherous whitewater in the eastern United States, and Nicholson wondered what would happen if a group was testing out an experimental raft and ran into some interesting problems.

"Hiking in the gorge, I started picturing these primitive vampire creatures swooping down from the cliffs," Nicholson said. "I don't get scared very easily, but the idea made me walk a little faster."

Nicholson also drew on elements of the hunt for Olympic bomber Eric Rudolph. In "They Hunger," a pair of FBI agents close in on Ace Goodall, an abortion clinic bomber who has been hiding out for weeks and suffers from religious delusions. A trip wire at the bomber's camp sets off an explosion that opens crevices in the ancient mountains, exposing the lair of bloodthirsty creatures that have been dormant for centuries.

"All these different characters meet in the worst possible conditions, and not everybody is interested in mutual survival," the author said. "The river is the only escape from the vampires. But when a freak storm erupts, the natural and supernatural worlds collide and humans seem awfully fragile."

Cool, huh? Someone needs to turn this into a movie, NOW! Scott is also a contributor to my Horror Films of the 1980s, offering his insights on horror cinema from the Reagan era, and he's a terrific non-fiction writer too. I've greedily devoured all of his novels, and I can't wait to read They Hunger. The book is available here.