Today, I’m welcoming Tony Hubbard, author of The Demon Lies Within about his thoughts on the horror genre.
Grab a bean bag chair and get a beverage from the bar and enjoy Tony’s guest post.
The powers of hell that lie within are very real…
Following his murder, Andrew McMurray finds himself transported to the depths of hell. There he is indoctrinated as an apprentice to a demon master, Sonneillon. Exposing Andrew to the dark reaches of his evil powers, Sonneillon demonstrates a demons’ ability to posses, torment and control the thoughts and actions of the living. Andrew’s ultimate goal following his apprenticeship? Revenge on his wife, Katelyn and young son, Joshua, both of whom he holds responsible for his murder.
As Katelyn rebuilds her life, following her husbands’ death, she meets Michael Gordon, a recent escapee from Corporate America, who has his own troubled, tragic past. As their relationship grows, they realize they share something more than their burgeoning love for one another — the powers of hell have deeply impacted their pasts. Evil continues to insinuate itself into the pair's lives, bringing with it haunting and unspeakable horrors.
Andrew's plan of revenge begins to materialize once he inhabits Joshua, having him act out in often violent and disturbing ways. With possession of Joshua’s mind and body complete, will hell's ultimate evil goals come to pass, or can the local priest of a small Maine town exorcize Father from Son? At stake, doom-laden repercussions for all involved…and perhaps the world as a whole.
BUY THE BOOK HERE
GUEST POST BY TONY HUBBARD
A Demon Lies Within tells the story of a nine-year-old boy named Joshua McMurray who is possessed by the demon spirit of his deceased father, Andrew, who uses his powers of possession to extract his revenge on the world he left behind.
Now that my debut novel is officially released, one of the questions I get most frequently from readers is ‘How did you come up with such a shocking and dark premise?’
Horror fiction is a genre that I’ve always enjoyed and been fascinated with from an early age. I remember in middle school and high school writing research papers on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. In college I took a Horror Fiction Writing class where we reviewed the works of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker and Edgar Allan Poe.
As a result, I try to find things that occur in life everyday and try to put an evil twist or spin to them. For example, a person sitting at a bar working on a crossword puzzle, or someone watching a silent movie, can be pretty sinister if you let your imagination take you down that path.
When the idea of writing a novel entered my mind of all of the different topics I could write about, especially having a novel focused on sports or athletes as I was a sports writer at the time, the premise I came up with was that the story would center on a possessed, pre-teen boy named Joshua.
While the details of the story went through several different iterations through the years, the original premise of having the story center around a pre-teen boy named Joshua who would become possessed never changed.
The added bonus of such a ‘dark premise’ of human possession was that I had a built in struggle/conflict between good and evil with Heaven and Hell.
The dark element is something that I’ve enjoyed researching. When getting ready to write the first draft I spent time reading Dante’s Inferno, learning about the stories of all the different levels of Hell, which played a role later on in my story. I also spent a lot of time learning about demons and the real existence of Sonneillon, the demon of hatred.
There is a section of the book where Sonneillon tells his new apprentice, Andrew, all about his past and how he became the demon of hatred. The story he tells regarding the possession of Sister Louise Capreau and Father Louis Gaufridi is factual. After researching and reading about that ordeal I knew I had a character for Andrew’s master. The way that he is incorporated into the story and what he teaches Andrew is based in fiction.
The dark premise isn’t limited to only the pages between the front and back cover. I strongly believe that the image of a Demon face on the book cover has gone a long way in contributing the image of a ‘dark’ novel.
Through incorporating my own personal interest in the Horror genre with all of these various ‘dark’ elements my hope is that the shocking and dark premise I’ve based my novel around makes for a book that readers will enjoy.
Tony Hubbard grew up like most boys in Massachusetts during the 1980’s, wanting to emulate basketball star Larry Bird and one day play for the Boston Celtics. Quickly realizing that a future as a professional athlete was something he would not achieve, he did the next best thing – became a sportswriter. As a long-time sportswriter, Tony covered high school, collegiate and professional sports, most notably covering the death of Boston Celtics’ star Reggie Lewis for The Patriot Ledger.
Growing up and reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, he one day aspired to publish a novel in the horror genre as his ‘writing heroes’ were famous for. After many years away from writing, leaving his professional writing career behind to make a move into the production and advertising side of the publishing business, Tony makes a return with his debut novel. Eighteen years in the making, A Demon Lies Within, releases November 2012 from Two Harbors Press.
A follower of Greek Mythology, he sees himself in the same vein as the Greek God Dionysus, the Greek God of wine, parties/festivals, madness and merriment. Dionysus not only represents the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. According to Tony, we should strive to be like Dionysus.
Massachusetts born and bred, Tony has lived all across the state throughout his life. Today he is settled in Dracut with his wife and son.
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