Thomas, what was your inspiration for writing MONSTROUS?

MONSTROUS is the sequel to my novel from last year, SAVAGE. My inspiration came from a series of novels that I read when I was younger, and first starting to get into reading. All these novels, but all kinds of writers, depicted a scenario where a certain animal (Rats, Cats, Bugs of all kinds, Dogs, Bats, etc.) in a town, or city, suddenly went berserk, attacking and killing anyone that they happened to come across. The novels were usually extremely gruesome, and violent, but there was something incredibly fun about them. I always promised myself while reading them that I would write something like it one day. SAVAGE was that novel, and with MONSTROUS, I got to continue the story making it bigger and hopefully scarier!


What scene was really hard for you to write and why, and is that the one of which you are most proud? Or is there another scene you particularly love?

I don’t want to give too much away, but there are a bunch of scenes that take place in a hospital for the brain injured in Boston. Those scenes were incredibly hard to write due to the fact that I wanted to get all my medical stuff right. Thankfully, my wife is a RN (Registered Nurse) with close to thirty years experience, and she loves to do research.

I’m actually very proud of all the hospital scenes. They were really tough, especially since I had to kind of build this high tech medical facility inside my head and make it totally believable.

Like I said, I hate to give stuff away, but there’s a really cool scene that takes place out on the water and it involves a Great White Shark. That was a blast to write.

What book or books would most resonate with readers who love your book–or visa versa?

Not sure if anybody writing in YA is doing killer animal stuff. HAHAHAHA! If people wanted to track down some of those books that I was talking about, the best of the writers was a guy named James Herbert. He wrote an entire series of books . . . I think there were at least four of them, about killer rats in London. The first book was called THE RATS. Really nasty stuff, but incredibly fun.

Anybody who enjoys a good thriller . . . something that makes their skin crawl, and puts them in a situation where while they’re reading they say, “Hmmm, how would I react in this situation?” That’s the kind of book MONSTROUS, and SAVAGE, are.

How long did you work on MONSTROUS?

MONSTROUS took about four months to write, and then there was the whole editing process after, which forced me to cut the book down to make it move faster.