#BadMoonRising: The Hat by C.S. Boyack #paranormal #superheros

On By Teri PolenIn Bad Moon Rising

Happy Friday!  This has been an incredibly busy week, but why don’t you take a few minutes to sit back and enjoy today’s Bad Moon Rising author.  If you’re not familiar with C.S. Boyack’s work, now’s the time to get acquainted.  He’s crafted some wildly imaginative stories, and today’s is one of my personal favorites.  He also might be the guy to hang with during a zombie apocalypse.  Read below to find out why.

Thanks for having me back this year, Teri. I always enjoy this event, and tried to send other authors your way.

In the Halloween spirit, I’m here to talk about my novella, The Hat.  This one is kind of a paranormal/superhero mashup, set to a blues and rockabilly soundtrack.

Lizzie St. Laurent is dealing with many of the struggles of young life. She lost her grandmother, and her living arrangements. Her new roommate abandoned her, and she’s working multiple jobs just to keep her head above water.

She inherits an old hat from her grandmother’s estate, but it belonged to her grandfather. This is no ordinary hat, but a being from an alternate dimension. One with special powers.

Lizzie and the hat don’t exactly hit it off right away, but when her best friend’s newborn is kidnapped by a ring of baby traffickers, Lizzie turns to the hat for help. This leads her deep into her family history and a world she’s never known.

Lizzie gives up everything to rescue the babies. She loses her jobs, and may wind up in jail before it’s over. Along the way, she and the hat may have a new way of making ends meet.

Humorous and fun, The Hat is novella length. Wonderful escapism for an afternoon.

***

Time for me to get on with the interview questions. Here we go:

In a zombie apocalypse, what is your weapon of choice?

Good question. I own this lovely little Remington Coach Gun. It’s a side by side twelve gauge shotgun. It was designed for cowboy action shooters, so it looks authentic to the old west. Has exposed hammers, a short barrel, and everything. A shotgun is hard to miss with, and twelve gauge ammo would be relatively easy to scrounge. (At least in Idaho, where I live.)

What is the hardest part of writing?

This one varies by the day. I’ve been at this a while, and to be honest it’s plots. I’m good at characters, situations, and some of that. It’s the big picture that really strains my mind. To write a novel, we have to have a big issue that drives the story. To that end, a friend recommended a book called The Seven Basic Plots. I’m going to be digging into it in the next few weeks.

If you were paid to spend the night in a haunted house, would you do it?

I mean, how much money are we talking here, Teri? I may have my price. Can I take a notepad for story ideas? Can I take my Remington Coach Gun? You didn’t say I had to stay there alone. Can I take Lizzie St. Laurent and her hat along?

What’s your work schedule like when you’re writing?

I’m a weekend warrior for sure. I hold a full time job, so writing has to fit in the cracks somehow. My problem is different than others, in that I require silence to be productive. Sometimes this means setting an alarm for 4:00 so I can get in a few hours before everyone else wakes up. I’ve also been known to use my vacation time to get in some writing time.

Creepiest thing that’s ever happened while you were alone?

I actually wrote about this on my blog a few months back. We have hard surface floors in the house. There is a breakfast bar against the kitchen with three tall stools. On the day this happened, there was a box on one of the stools.

I turned on the morning news and was dealing with blog comments. My two bulldogs were eating, then they usually go back to sleep that early in the day. The combination of bulldogs and hard flooring is noisy.

There wasn’t a sound made. I went to refill my coffee, and the stool with the box had been slid away from the counter, turned around backward, and placed in the path so that nobody could have gotten by without moving it. It blocked the bedroom door, and access to the kitchen where it was placed. I’m only about fifteen feet away, and would have heard it if the dogs had bumped into it.

What are you working on now?

It just so happens that I’m filling this out the day after I completed the draft of Voyage of the Lanternfish. This one is a pirate fantasy adventure, complete with black magic, monsters, and bad weather.

I’ll be writing blog tour posts, in anticipation of publishing, making my editing passes, then seeking beta readers. I’m also commissioning some posters of my spokes model, Lisa Burton, in various pirate themed settings to promote the story with.

Speaking of Lisa, and trying to bring this full circle. The Hat is permanently priced at 99¢, and since it’s a novella you can read it in a day. It’s my most successful story to date, and it has the most favorable reviews. To whet your appetite, here is one of the posters I commissioned for Lisa to promote The Hat with.

Purchase Link: http://a-fwd.com/asin-com=B078YYCNSF

Author Bio

I was born in a town called Elko, Nevada. I like to tell everyone I was born in a small town in the 1940s. I’m not quite that old, but Elko has always been a little behind the times. This gives me a unique perspective of earlier times, and other ways of getting by. Some of this bleeds through into my fiction.

I moved to Idaho right after the turn of the century, and never looked back. My writing career was born here, with access to other writers and critique groups I jumped in with both feet.

I like to write about things that have something unusual. My works are in the realm of science fiction, paranormal, and fantasy. The goal is to entertain you for a few hours. I hope you enjoy the ride.

Craig

You can catch up with me at the following locations:

Blog My Novels  Twitter Goodreads Facebook Pinterest BookBub

46 thoughts on “#BadMoonRising: The Hat by C.S. Boyack #paranormal #superheros”

  7. Craig, your box story gave me the creeps the first time you talked about it and it has me covered in goosebumps now. I can easily see that as a scene in a movie.

    I loved The Hat. Glad to see it getting some love here. Craig is a great writer and very generous with his time and efforts to help other writers. Hoping he gets a lot of attention today.

    And speaking of generosity… Teri, this is a fabulous feature. So grateful to you for doing this every year. I hope you get a lot of followers for your efforts.

    Liked by 3 people

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  8. Yeah…I would definitely be creeped out by the stool situation. I remember when Craig posted that on his blog. Writers have vivid imaginations and mine would be all over the place.

    Craig, loved your haunted house answer. Equipped like that, and especially with Lizzie and the Hat along, I might actually take up that offer too.

    And speaking of the Hat–excellent story! For anyone who hasn’t read it yet, go forth and one-click. It’s a steal at .99, highly imaginative and fun.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  12. It’s great to learn more about you here, Craig. I’ve read and loved a few of your books and The Hat was such an entertaining read. I’m another one that must have complete silence when I’m writing. I’m looking forward to learning more about Voyage of the Lanternfish (Love the title). As for the stool thing, that would totally creep me out.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  15. Great to learn some more about Craig. What a creepy story about the stool and the box. I think I would have been out of that house straight away, even I was still wearing my pyjamas. If the dogs didn’t notice anything or bark, then it has to be something to do with the paranormal, right?
    ‘The Hat’ is an interesting concept for a story. Wishing you much success with its Craig.
    It’s great to meet another ‘morning’ person, too.

    Liked by 2 people

    Reply

  16. What a great interview and post in general. I enjoyed the questions and answers. Congratulations, Craig for finishing the draft for Lanternfish! That chair/box incident was very spooky. I read The Hat and loved it. That Lisa poster is great too! Amazing job, Craig and Teri! 😊

    Liked by 1 person

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