Horror/Mystery
Date Published: 06-24-2024
Publisher: Shadow Spark Publishing
Surfside City, New Jersey. 1966. Cub reporter Harman Bass is cutting his teeth in the fast world of local journalism and getting out-scooped by the competition. Facetious, cocky, and always quoting Nietzsche, Harman isn’t making any friends both in and out of the newsroom.
All that changes when the daughter of a prominent family is found dead on the beach, handing Harman the juiciest news story of the year. But she wasn’t any old beauty pageant queen; she was his high school girlfriend. Harman’s dogged reporting into the young woman’s death reveals pushback from the authorities and pulls the newshound into the resort’s darkest corners.
After one of his sources is murdered, the routine story becomes dangerous and personal. Something watches Harman from the shadows, something ancient and hungry, worshipped by powerful men who kill to keep their secrets. Harman’s job and life are soon threatened, and the once brash reporter must battle his boss, rival journalists, and his own sanity before filing what could be his last story.
THE OCEAN HUGS HARD is a mystery with the salty whiff of the ocean, a tinge of nostalgia, and a dollop of mind-shattering eldritch horror.
Interview with Eric Avedissian
Have you read anything that made you think differently about fiction?
When I was a teenager, I read Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five. That was my gateway into Vonnegut. His style was so basic, yet under the layers of absurdist humor lurked something profound and beautiful about humanity. Vonnegut did things with prose that hooked me. I spent summer weekends at the Jersey Shore in a town where there wasn’t much to do. The one saving grace was the town had a small bookstore. I’d get a Vonnegut paperback each visit and read it the whole weekend. That’s when I really appreciated Vonnegut; sitting on the beach, reading Cat’s Cradle, or Breakfast of Champions, or Mother Night. When I burned through Vonnegut, then I’d get a Stephen King novel and read that. My appreciation for what you could do with fiction and how powerful stories can be begins with those summertime bookshop visits.
How do you select the names of your characters?
There’s that old writer trick of looking up baby name websites and picking names. Or I use names of people I know from my life. Or I conjure them out of thin air.
Do you hide any secrets in your books that only a few people will find?
There are Easter eggs not every reader will find. I sprinkle a few in each book for a lark. I also use symbolism in my books on occasion. I’d like my novels to be read in literature classes or book discussion clubs and have people pick them apart. “No, the pancakes in Accursed Son represent this” or “Why do the protagonists have complicated relationships with their fathers?” or “What does the tentacled monster really want?”
What was your hardest scene to write?
The emotional scenes, when a character is longing for something, or when they lost someone dear to them. When you kill off beloved characters, you mourn them because they’re intrinsically a part of you. Some things you write give you the feels, and that’s okay. Writers create imaginary people and torture them. It’s brutal, but necessary. A well-adjusted character with zero goals is boring. But burden them with trauma and make them want something they can’t have? Now that’s a story!
Do you want each book to stand on its own, or are you trying to build a body of work with connections between each book?
The Ocean Hugs Hard is a standalone novel. The Martyr’s Vow is a series of books that are linked and consist of Accursed Son, Mr. Penny-Farthing, and the soon-to-be-published Blood Family.
What were your goals and intentions in this book, and how well do you feel you achieved them?
I wanted to write a mystery novel set at the Jersey Shore. The novel went through several drafts before I added the cosmic horror element and the story took on a folk horror aspect. I’m a fan of folk horror like The Wicker Man (the 1973 Christopher Lee version) and The Excavation of Hob’s Barrow. What began as a typical mystery morphed into something sinister when I added those folk horror elements.
What inspired you to write The Ocean Hugs Hard?
The short answer? H.P. Lovecraft’s A Shadow Over Innsmouth. The long answer? I worked for 27 years as a newspaper reporter at the Jersey Shore and know what it’s like reporting the news there. I wanted to write a novel about a reporter in a seashore town embroiled in a mystery, but it never materialized. Fast forward to 2020. I was laid off (Thanks, pandemic!) and battling boredom, so I participated in National Novel Writing Month. NaNoWriMo challenges people to write 50,000 words every November. From that came the first draft of The Ocean Hugs Hard. I set the novel in 1966 because that year was a turning point in American history: the Vietnam War, the Civil Rights movement, the youth counterculture. Add to this a little cosmic horror, murder, and a secret cult and you’ve got an engaging story.
Can you tell us a little bit about your next books or what you have planned for the future?
My next book is called Blood Family and it’s the third book in The Martyr’s Vow series. The protagonist, Armand Tarkanian, visits his estranged family in Watertown, Massachusetts to learn more about the curse plaguing him. Armand can see and hear ghosts, and wants to know how he can stop channeling the dead. Unfortunately, his family has secrets and unraveling those secrets takes him down a rabbit hole of family history. It’s an examination of Armenian culture, family, and an obligation to duty. But the creature in the attic might change Armand’s mind.
Can you tell us a little bit about the characters in The Ocean Hugs Hard?
Harman Bass is a newspaper reporter who was born in the small seashore resort town where he works. He’s 24, single, asexual, and this is his first real job. He’s a decent reporter, but still green. When his former high school girlfriend is found murdered on the beach, Harman is assigned to cover the story, so he’s far from objective. He’s into Nietzsche, writing a novel that doesn’t go anywhere, and hanging out on the beach with his dog. But deep down Harman is a roguish dick: he’s an unrepentant wiseass and flippant to anyone he perceives as abusing their authority.
June Jensen is Harman’s co-worker. She’s a serious journalist, but can’t catch a break. The sexism of the time and the misogyny at the newspaper holds her back. She teams up with Harman to work on a story together. The sarcastic back-and-forth between Harman and June adds a layer of humor to the horror mystery.
Lyle Morris is the newspaper’s photographer. He’s young, but has a keen eye for photos far beyond his age. Lyle wants to study photography, but as a black man in the 1960s, his options are limited. Racism is pervasive in that small town, but he’s determined to get a letter of recommendation from his editor.
Desmond Fisk is the mayor of Surfside City, the novel’s setting. He’s part of the old boys’ club, a network of men whose families have run the town since its founding. He may or may not be involved in recent murders and definitely may or may not be a member of a sinister cult that worships a certain ancient sea god.
What did you enjoy most about writing this book?
I enjoyed writing the mystery. Having the characters put the puzzle together and follow the breadcrumbs to the gore-splattered finale. The payoff with this book is huge, so the characters have to work towards that.
About the Author
ERIC AVEDISSIAN is an adjunct professor and speculative fiction author. His published work includes the novels Accursed Son, Mr. Penny-Farthing, Midnight at Bat Hollow, and the role-playing game Ravaged Earth. His short stories appear in various anthologies, including Across the Universe, Great Wars, and Rituals & Grimoires. Avedissian received a 2024 Fellowship in Prose from the New Jersey State Council on the Arts. He lives in New Jersey with his wife and a ridiculous number of books. Find him online at www.ericavedissian.com if you dare.
Contact Links
Twitter: @angryreporter
Instagram: @ericavedissian
0 comments:
Post a Comment