The Venn diagram of wrestling fans and horror fans overlaps to a significant degree. If you’re into wrestling, you’re probably a horror fan. So it’s convenient that over on our sister website, we have a series of six (and growing!) books in the horror/ comedy genre. For those who fall into the category of wrestling and horror fan, we present Dead Park 101: a deep dive into the origins and content of the Dead Park series in the hopes that many of you will give it a go.
FYI, the books can be ordered direct from us on Kindle or paperback. See the Dead Park website for options.
With that being said: class is now in session!
The book that started it all was inspired by my father and 20+ years dwelling in cubicles for tech companies and manufacturers. You meet a lot of people working in an office. Some good, some bad. And when you’re a writer with an active imagination, you can conceive quite a bit of horror from those interactions.
Thus Dead Park Plaza was born: a four story office building inhabited by evil companies, evil bosses, and employees ranging from total innocents to total depravity. the first book contains stories about bosses making deals with the devil, employees going tribal when management suddenly drops dead, corporations changing management not by swapping bodies but entities that dwell in the same body, and of course… secretaries seeking revenge against their cannibal cult bosses.
Book 2: The Shops at Dead Park
I wasn’t thinking series when I wrote Dead Park Plaza, but I inadvertently opened the door for one by stating that Dead Park Plaza was build in the grounds of a top secret military base, along with a shopping mall and a very nice suburb. Book 2 takes you shopping in an outdoor strip mall where the Mothman can be seen at the froyo stand. You’ll find some retro anomalies at the mall like a video arcade, a video rental store (that still offers VHS, Betamax, and Laser Disc!), and of course, Radio Shack.
Then there are the unfortunate anomalies: killer clowns, killer puppets, killer prom queens with chainsaws, killer arcade games, killer Amish men, and mannequins that… well, they haven’t killed yet, but they sure love to gossip.
Book 3 is unique for a few reasons. It’s a standalone story, adapted from a screenplay I wrote more than 20 years ago. It’s also the only book that takes place almost entirely outside of Dead Park, even though Dead Park Records is headquartered – where else? – in Dead Park Plaza. It’s also much more of an action thriller than horror.
Dead Park Records can make anyone into a rock star – for the right price. It doesn’t matter if you’re good or not, or if you have any modicum of talent. For some it’s just a matter of selling your soul – or being willing to take the life of someone you never met, no questions asked!
Our journey into the suburbs of Dead Park returns us to the short story format of the first two books. Book 4 takes you to a cryptid poker game and the local indie wrestling show. Because of course, Dead Park has pro wrestling. And of course, Bigfoot is one of the star attractions.
You’ll also meet a killer doll with teeth and visit a yard sale where you may or may not be able to buy the belongings of one D.B. Cooper. One word of warning: do not open the doors during the neighborhood’s annual zombie walk. No, they’re not actually zombies, but they will kill you for other reasons!
Fun side bar: there’s a tie in between Dead Park Estates and our sci-fi novel Die Alan Die. And it won’t be the last connection made between the two. More to come…
In Book 4, Dead Park Estates, I started laying the ground work for the end game of the Dead Park story, thinking book 5 would be the end. You can imagine my surprise when I started writing and discovered I had more Dead Park Plaza stories to tell.
Book 5 has some of my favorite stories, including one that explains what happens if you’re late on your rent payments (hint: blood is required!) and another story based on an old screenplay about an inter-office affair that goes horribly, horribly wrong. It also introduces Charles, but only briefly. You’ll read more about him in…
Book 6 could have been the end, but at the suggestion of a loyal reader, I decided to go back in time to reveal some of the events that took place on the old, top secret military base. Charles, the chupacabra, gets his moment to shine in this book, and Emily, the would-be murder victim from Dead Park Records, returns as a central character.
There are numerous short stories here, but the entire book is framed about Emily’s discovery that her parents were… well, I won’t give it away here. Let’s just say that back during the Cold War, the Russians were well aware of the plot to use cryptids to hunt and kill their spies. Emily’s story comes to a dramatic close here, along with a love story woven into books 1, 3, and 4.
We hope you’ve enjoyed Dead Park 101! There are at least two more books on the way. Book 7 will be called Dead Park Holiday, because after six books, I couldn’t resist throwing a Christmas-themed chapter into the saga. Book 8 may well be the finale. I’m finally starting to see how it all comes together but… I’ve been trying to end this series for 3 books now, and have failed to do so!
The entire series is available in paperback or Kindle as a bundle on our website. To shop all the Dead Park options, click here!