On a remote island in the Canadian Arctic, PJ Colding leads a group of geneticists who have discovered a technology that can provide life-saving transplant organs for a nominal fee. By reverse-engineering thousands of animal genomes, Colding's team has dialed back the evolutionary clock and re-created the progenitor of all mammals. The method? Illegal. The result? A computer-engineered living creature, an animal whose organs can be implanted in any person, with no chance of transplant rejection.
There's just one problem: these ancestors are not the docile herd animals that Colding's team envisioned. Instead, Colding's work has given birth to something big, something evil...something very, very hungry.
As creators become prey in an ultimate battle for survival, Colding and the woman he loves must fight to survive -- even as government agents close in to shut the project down, and the deep-pocketed company backing this research reveals its own cold-blooded agenda.
Scott Sigler's work is a clearly a "thrilling horror" novel, and that's his intention. "I've always been a fan of horror-based thriller novels, but most horror uses a supernatural means to move the story forward. Sometimes, it can leave a bad taste in your mouth to read 300 pages, be sucked in, then have the author conveniently "magic away" the problem he or she has been building for you. Supernatural horror/thrillers are great fun, but they are difficult for me to write because I prefer to root my stories in a realistic, scientific setting. Most of the "rules" for one of my books are already set by the world around us. There aren't talismans of limitless power, no shape shifting that ignores the laws of physics, no ill-defined time travel, no magic spells that conveniently whisk a character out of danger. I provide the reader with all the clues -- if they can see what's coming, great, if they can't, they will know the information was there for them through the whole story. My love for science in general produces more story ideas than I can keep track of. While it is extremely hard work to keep the stories as plausible as possible (and having three biology Ph.Ds proof the manuscripts for accuracy makes for a lot of re-writes), I think the end product is worth it for fans that like a little more "real world" in their horror fiction.
And Scott's love of science has helped him with his promotional activities. Scott actively promotes his work on his website and offers free podcasts - he has clearly embraced the power of the Internet. "I think any author can use my techniques. There are around a half-billion English-speaking Internet users out there. With that many people, whatever genre you write you can bet there are people online that will be interested. Horror and Sci-Fi are currently the predominant genres for online fiction promotion, but I think that's largely because few authors have pursued thrillers, mysteries, romance, and crime. The more authors that get involved from a specific genre, the more fans that discover their favorite genre has a plethora of online goodies waiting to be discovered. Any of those genres could blow up and provide authors with a new and growing fan base -- but it takes a lot of work on the author's part. Some authors come in with a great, built-in hook -- they are tapped to write the next book in a classic series, they use existing characters from our culture's most-famous works, they win a big award, they have parents that make them literary royalty, etc. -- but for the rest of us that have to start from scratch to create our own truly unique success stories, the internet provides many tools to build an audience and make that happen."
Mark Combes is an avid sailor and Scuba diver and travels extensively in the Caribbean pursuing his passions. He works in book publishing and RUNNING WRECKED is his first novel.
