In Brandon Massey's latest thriller, Cornered, Corey Webb is living the American dream--successful business, beautiful wife, gifted daughter--but the dream he worked so hard to achieve is about to become a nightmare. When a chance encounter brings him face to face with the dark past he'd long since left behind, Corey knows the threat to his life and family could be deadly.
Unpredictable, intelligent, and terrifyingly ruthless, Corey's stalker will settle for nothing less than complete submission. He'll stop at nothing, and sacrifice anyone, to get what he wants. There's no point in running, no chance of hiding, and no hope for Corey and his family to escape unscathed...
Massey, a resident of Atlanta, Georgia, has written numerous previous novels--Thunderland, The Other Brother and Don't Ever Tell among them--and has also worn an editor's hat on numerous occasions. The acclaimed Dark Dreams series was his baby. "Dark Dreams was an effort to help under-represented writers of color gain some exposure in the horror/suspense genre." The demand was strong enough to generate more work than Mr. Massey had anticipated. "I thought it would be just one anthology, but we ended up doing three. We published many, many writers who had never seen their work in print, and many of these stories were simply brilliant and were eventually nominated for industry awards."
Which brought up the question as to whether or not he has any plans for more series."I've been working on developing a series character. Some of my favorite thriller novels follow series characters, and I've decided to try my hand at one." And are there plans to revisit any of his previous characters? So far, all of the novels have been stand alones. The only book I've ever considered writing a sequel for is Dark Corner, my second novel. It happens to be a story about vampires, and that mythological-type universe holds a lot of potential for future tales.
Because it's a subject that always interests me, and because his path to publishing success is very different than mine, I asked Mr. Massey if he had any suggestions for starting writers.
"Don't quit your day job! Believe in your work, but be receptive to useful feedback. And don't be afraid to be yourself in your writing--all you really have to offer readers is your original voice.
"I self-published my first novel about a decade ago, before it became this huge trend that's swept through the industry in the past few years. The good part? I had to do everything myself, which taught me a great deal about the publishing business. The bad part? Again, I had to do everything myself! Wearing a dozen different hats gets old after a while.
"I think self-publishing is okay if you're content with assuming all of the responsibilities, and don't have any illusions about how many copies you'll sell. But I encourage most writers to seek traditional publishers first, in spite of the high likelihood of rejection. Traditional publishers can distribute and promote a book at a level that very few self-pubbers can match. Why not start at the top?"
Cornered is available August 4th, from Kensington Books.
James A. Moore is the award winning author of the Serenity Falls trilogy and Deeper. He lives in the suburbs of Atlanta and writes thrillers and young adult thrillers. His latest release is the short story collection Slices.
