Friday, July 29, 2016

Review: Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation by Kathryn Meyer Griffith @KathrynG64


Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation
(Dinosaur Lake #3)
by Kathryn Meyer Griffith
Published December 31st 2014
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Suspense, Fantasy

Blurb:


Chief Park Ranger Henry Shore has dealt with and fought real live dinosaurs at his beloved Crater Lake National Park for over six years. With the help of his rangers, a few brave FBI friends and army soldiers he’d been victorious over a prehistoric lake creature and years later some particularly fiendish, and clever, specimens of the flying variety. He and his newspaper publisher wife, Ann, thought their park was finally rid of the monsters and they could reclaim their tranquil life in a place they cherished. Not so. For suddenly across the park new and even more malevolent mutant species of dinosaur begin to appear and create havoc, attacking the park’s visitors and threatening its peace. And this time the primeval scourge isn’t confined to just their park. The creatures have moved into the nearby towns, across the western United States and up into Canada. They are so much more aggressive, smarter and hungrier than any that have come before and the infestation is spreading further and faster than Henry and Ann can even imagine. This time there’s no easy way to defeat the dinosaurs. There’s too many of them and they’re too devious. This time it’s full out war and the victor will someday claim Earth.

Dinosaur Lake
Goodreads ~ Amazon

Read my review of Dinosaur Lake: HERE!




Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising
Goodreads ~ Amazon

Read my review of Dinosaur Lake: HERE!



Guest Post:

Dinosaur Lake Series Backstory

Of all my 22 novels my Dinosaur Lake series (Dinosaur Lake, Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising, Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation–and coming soon: Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars) has the strangest story attached to its creation, death and rebirth…20 years later…of any of them.

Not so much because, as a few of my books, it took so long to write or publish, but because in 1993 it was contracted, edited and the final galleys had been proofed by me for a 5th paperback book release from Zebra (Kensington Publishing) after 3 earlier novels with Leisure Books. I even had a stack of the full-color, printed and embossed covers; it was only weeks before it was to go to the bookshelves (in those days the brick & mortar stores were still king, no Internet or ebooks). I strongly believed it’d be my breakout book. You know, the book that’d make my career and launch me into the stratosphere with Stephen King and Anne Rice? How wrong I’d be. But, hey, I thought who wouldn’t love a tale of a cunning but malevolent rampaging prehistoric dinosaur living in Crater Lake, Oregon, and the Park Ranger who, along with a ragtag gang of heroes who’d try to stop it? I mean, I’d always loved anything about dinosaurs…dinosaur books, playing with those little plastic figurines and watching old stop-action dinosaur movies of the 1950’s and 60’s…who hadn’t? Apparently someone. My new editor at Zebra.

By 1994, after four novels with them, I’d lost my sweet editor there and a new one took her place…and over the next year he didn’t like anything I wrote for him and later that year Zebra unceremoniously dropped me and my book (Predator…which never came out but still lingers to this very day like some weird ghost book in every computer on the global Internet) only six weeks away from going to the bookstore shelves. When we were editing the book and deciding on the title and the cover, I’d begged the new editor not to call it Predator (his choice as they hadn’t liked my American Loch Ness Monster title), bad title since there was a popular movie out of that name and the movie, with Arnold Schwarzenegger, was nothing about a dinosaur, and the cover was awful, an empty boat on a lake…what!!! Having that book-my first ever-dumped like that was a crushing experience, let me tell you. I had a stack of finished, printed covers and my final edits were done! But nothing my agent or I could say or do would change their minds. They said they were cutting their horror lines and setting adrift a lot of their mid-list horror authors because horror (in 1994) was on the decline. The new editor-that-didn’t-like-my-writing explained: “And no one wants to read a book about a dinosaur.” Yeah, sure. And six months later Jurassic Park the book came out! We all know how that story ended, don’t we? People loved the book, the movies; they loved dinosaurs.

I’ll never know the real reason they cut the book but that male editor never bought another book from me…which was another weird thing because when I’d met him in New York (I went for a Horror Convention) in the summer of 1993 he’d taken my husband and I out to lunch and gushed over me and said how much he’d loved my last release WITCHES. Hmmm.

Anyway, I got to keep my advance but the book was officially dead. It never came out. I grieved. I was so disgusted I stashed it in a drawer somewhere and tried to forget it. Until now. After I’d finished revising and rereleasing all my new/old 15 books (and besides paperbacks they’re in ebooks for the first time ever) from Eternal Press/Damnation Books in June of 2012 I remembered about my American Loch Ness Monster novel, took it out and reread it.

Whoa, like a lot of my older novels now years later I could see what was wrong with it and how to fix it. Back then I hadn’t seen the head-hopping I did or the awkward phrasing, stiff or overly dramatic dialogue, repetitive words and other things I’ve learned since to recognize and stay away from. Of course, computers help make the editing so much easier. I think I’d done the original book on my electric typewriter. Anyway, telling myself the dumping of that book had been a turning point in my writing life-sending me in the wrong direction for a long time apparently…I couldn’t sell a book for eight long years after that-I decided to rewrite and finally release it. In fact, I was going to do something that twenty years ago would have been unheard of and frowned on…self-publish the book myself. With Kindle Direct. For the first time in forty years I was walking away from the traditional publishers and going on my own. Thank you J.A. Konrath’s blog! I figured I could sell the Kindle eBook a lot cheaper and, thus, use it to introduce (as enticement) more readers to my writing and perhaps, if they liked it, they’d buy more of my other novels, novellas and various short stories. It could work, right? So here it is, re-titled, rewritten, updated and with an amazing new cover I love by Dawne Dominque… Dinosaur Lake. I hope my readers will like it.


P.S. July 1, 2016 Update: So far Dinosaur Lake and its two sequels Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising and Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation have outsold ANYTHING I've ever written. Dinosaur Lake has 279 reviews (4.1 star average) at Amazon. Dinosaur Lake IV: Dinosaur Wars is now being written and should be done by Jan. 2017. AND...now I have ALL my 22 novels self-published everywhere. 

Take a look! eBooks here: http://tinyurl.com/ld4jlow

*Audible.com audio books here: http://tinyurl.com/oz7c4or

My Review:

Chief Park Ranger Henry Shore is back and fighting bigger, meaner, and smarter and more dinosaurs. Henry has been a ranger at Crater Lake for thirteen years. He loves his park and hopes to live and work there until he retires. He thought that when he fought dinosaurs six years ago that that would be the end of them but how wrong he was. Yeah six years ago Henry his wife Ann and his rangers fought dinosaurs on land when it was all over they thought their lives would get back to normal but that was not to be the case just ask Ranger Elle Stanton who went over the rim of the crater in a trolley that was pushed by one of the flying variety.

Now just four months later they are back! They were really hoping that their lives would now start getting back to normal but the dinosaurs have other plans for the humans. They are back with a vengeance and they plan on taking over the world. They want to be at the top of the food change and they just might be seeing how they are very smart. They hide from the humans and plan out their attacks. They attack the humans by throwing whatever they can find at the humans.

Henry’s son-in-law Justin a paleontologist who has helped Henry fight dinosaurs on more than one occasion is afraid that Crater Lake may not be the only place that dinosaurs are appearing so he does a little investigating of his own. What he finds out is very scary. What he fears is happening dinosaur sightings are appearing all over the world.

Oh man I have loved reading Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation. I loved reading about all the dinosaurs running around stomping all over the lake and the city planning and attacking the humans not that I want to see anyone get hurt but Kathryn is not of the same mind she sure doesn’t mind killing off any of the characters. While reading Dinosaur Lake you sort of feel as if you have ESP. Why? Well Kathryn paints a picture in your head that makes you forget everything around you and you think you are right there with Henry, Ann, Justin and everyone else fighting dinosaurs and running for your life.

Will their lives ever be back to normal and what is normal exactly? In the end who will win and take over the world? Will the humans prevail or will the dinosaurs rise up and take over and rule the earth once again? I can’t wait to read the next book in the series. I hope I don’t have to wait too long. 


Dinosaur Lake (3 Book Series)



ABOUT THE AUTHOR:


Since childhood I’ve been an artist and worked as a graphic designer in the corporate world and for newspapers for twenty-three years before I quit to write full time. But I’d already begun writing novels at 21, over forty-four years ago now, and have had twenty-two (ten romantic horror, two horror novels, two romantic SF horror, one romantic suspense, one romantic time travel, one historical romance, two thrillers, and four murder mysteries) previous novels, two novellas and twelve short stories published from Zebra Books, Leisure Books, Avalon Books, The Wild Rose Press, Damnation Books/Eternal Press. But I’ve gone into self-publishing in a big way since 2012; and upon getting all my 22 books’ full rights back for the first time in 33 years, have self-published all of them. My Dinosaur Lake novels and Spookie Town Mysteries (Scraps of Paper, All Things Slip Away and Ghosts Beneath Us) are my best-sellers.

I’ve been married to Russell for thirty-eight years; have a son and two grandchildren and I live in a small quaint town in Illinois. We have a quirky cat, Sasha, and the three of us live happily in an old house in the heart of town. Though I’ve been an artist, and a folk/classic rock singer in my youth with my brother Jim, writing has always been my greatest passion, my butterfly stage, and I’ll probably write stories until the day I die…or until my memory goes.

2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS *Finalist* for her horror novel The Last Vampire ~ 2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS * Finalist * for her thriller novel Dinosaur Lake.


Novels and short stories:

Evil Stalks the Night, The Heart of the Rose, Blood Forged, Vampire Blood, The Last Vampire (2012 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS*Finalist* in their Horror category), Witches, The Nameless One erotic horror short story, The Calling, Scraps of Paper (The First Spookie Town Murder Mystery), All Things Slip Away (The Second Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Ghosts Beneath Us (The Third Spookie Town Murder Mystery), Egyptian Heart, Winter’s Journey, The Ice Bridge, Don’t Look Back, Agnes, A Time of Demons and Angels, The Woman in Crimson, Human No Longer, Four Spooky Short Stories Collection, Forever and Always Romantic Novella, Night Carnival Short Story, Dinosaur Lake (2014 EPIC EBOOK AWARDS*Finalist* in their Thriller/Adventure category), Dinosaur Lake II: Dinosaurs Arising and Dinosaur Lake III: Infestation.





1 comments:

Kathryn Meyer Griffith said...

Thank you Avid Reader for reading/reviewing and liking my Dinosaur Lake books! I appreciate your review so much. Warmly, author Kathryn Meyer Griffith rdgriff@htc.net
P.S. Anyone who would like to read/review ANY of my 22 novels, 2 novellas or 5 short stories...just email me for a FREE eBook (specify format, mobi, epub or pdf)or a FREE Audible audio code.