Today’s the 12-year anniversary of my first novel “Zombie Cop.”
It started out as something to do just to do it… and then turned into a 9-part series of novels published over the next 10 years where each one is built around a specific kind of monster with my own “twists” on that monster’s lore, legends, etc.
A lot of people seem to think the books are all about “zombies.”
No.
That is merely the first book.
The rest are about whatever monster is referenced in their respective titles:
* So the 2nd novel (Vampire Apocalypse) is about vampires.
* The 3rd novel (Demon Crossfire) is about demons.
* The 4th novel (Evil’s Child) is about the Tarasque (a monster from French history that’s also prominent in Dungeons & Dragons – and is my version of “The Terminator” basically).
* The 5th novel (Werewolf Bastard) is about werewolves.
* The 6th novel (Hell’s Frankenstein) is my take on Frankenstein.
* The 7th novel (Lucifer’s Favorite) is about the devil.
* The 8th novel (God Blood) is not about monsters, but about various monsters throughout a 2,000 year span of time fighting for control of the Blood of Jesus Christ that was collected at the Crucifixion.
* And the 9th novel (Serpent Seed) is about the devil’s own offspring – literal and spiritual.
Anyway, back to book #1:
In honor of its 12-year anniversary, I want to share a valuable tip from the late, great filmmaker Ray Harryhausen who is the special effects guy whose altar everyone from James Cameron to Steven Spielberg to Peter Jackson bows at to this day.
There is a documentary about him I highly recommend called:
“Ray Harryhausen: Special Effects Titan”
Watch it.
Then watch it again.
Then again, and again, and again… as many times as you can. Do that and I DEFY you not to be a better copywriter, marketer, salesman, business owner – not to mention content creator, too, of course.
There are so many lessons in it I cannot possibly do it justice here.
But, the one lesson I’ll share is related to how I created my own books’ villains.
And that is this:
(A quote from the documentary)
“A good monster has to have personality”
This applies to the “monsters” (i.e. problems) that afflict your market/list, too.
As for my novels:
They are all on Amazon.
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Ben Settle
