Husk
Authors: Matt Hults
Tags: #Fiction.Horror, #Fiction.Dark Fantasy/Supernatural, #Fiction.Thriller/Suspense
PRAISE FOR
HUSK
“
Matt Hults delivers a crackling, creepy tale. A fast-paced read with a generous body count, ‘
Husk
’ will make your skin crawl.”
—
Scott Nicholson, Bestselling author of
They Hunger
* * *
“
Remember the first time you read Joe Lansdale’s
The Drive-In
, or
Freezer Burn
? Remember how exhilarated you felt as you tore through the pages as Lansdale kept knocking your jaw to the floor with his endless inventiveness, unexpected belly-laughs, and those even more unexpected moments of terror and pathos? Miss that feeling of being completely at the mercy of a writer’s imagination and boundless energy for his subject? Fret no more, friends—you now have Matt Hults’s
Husk
. This sucker is the real thing, an in-your-face, rollicking, scary, funny, and unexpectedly poignant potpourri of a horror story, an unabashed and unapologetic throwback to the early pulps infused with a vindictive modern-day sensibility that will have your head spinning and your mouth hanging open. It doesn’t get any more
fun
than this.”
—
Gary A. Braunbeck, winner of the Bram Stoker Award and International Horror Guild Award, author of
Coffin County
and
Destinations Unknown
* * *
“
Suspenseful and gruesome, with just the right leavening of hopefulness and nod-wink humor.”
—
Dr. Kim Paffenroth, Bram Stoker Award Winner for
Dying to Live
.
* * *
“
Husk
is wild, bloody, scary, action-packed, and entertaining as hell. Matt Hults seems to be having a blast telling his tale, and I had a blast going along for the ride. Great fun!”
—
Jeff Strand,
Bram Stoker Nominated Author of
PRESSURE
* * *
"'Husk' is a chilling and relentless tale that will make you want to check your closets, lock your windows and keep an eye in your review mirror...but don't think that'll save you!"
––
Fran Friel, Bram Stoker Nominated Author of Mama's Boy
* * *
“
Husk
is violent, intense and terrifying. The characters are as real as you and I, and every triumph is rapturous while every death is harrowing. Matt Hults proves himself as a master of the genre with his striking debut novel. It will leave you feeling skinned alive and dying for more.”
—
Joel A. Sutherland,
Bram Stoker Nominated Author of
Frozen Blood
* * *
“
I have come across some pretty mind-blowing demons on paper, on the big screen, and especially in my mind. But the ‘Husk’ Matt Hults created in this his first novel breaks all my thresholds for fear, and believe me I have built some pretty sound barriers in my time.”
—
Giovanna Lagana, author of
With Black & White Comes the Grey
* * *
CONTENTS
:
BOOKS of the DEAD
This book is a work of fiction. All characters, events, dialog, and situations in this book are fictitious and any resemblance to real people or events is purely coincidental. All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner without written permission except in the case of reprinted excerpts for the purpose of reviews.
For more information, contact: [email protected]
Visit us at:
Booksofthedead.blogspot.com
HUSK
Copyright 2011 by Matt Hults
Edited by Matt Hults and James Roy Daley
Photo Credit - Danielle Tunstall
Cover Model - Paige Rohanna Walker
Graphic Design - Cynthia Gould
E-book Design - James Roy Daley
FIRST EDITION
* * *
Great books from:
BOOKS of the DEAD
BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (VOL. 1)
BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (VOL. 2)
BEST NEW ZOMBIE TALES (VOL. 3)
BEST NEW VAMPIRE TALES (VOL. 1)
MATT HULTS - ANYTHING CAN BE DANGEROUS
JAMES ROY DALEY - 13 DROPS OF BLOOD
JAMES ROY DALEY - THE DEAD PARADE
GARY BRANDNER - THE HOWLING II
GARY BRANDNER - THE HOWLING III
* * *
~For my family~
JAMES ROY DALEY
Matt Hults
is one of my favorite writers. Not one of my favorite ‘new’ writers, not one of my favorite ‘up-and-coming’ writers, but one of my favorite writers
period
. A big statement considering this is the man’s first book, I know, but it’s true.
When I started my little
Books of the Dead
publishing company, one of the first things I did was announce a submission call for my
Best New Zombie Tales Anthology Series
, which at the time wasn’t a series at all, but rather a simple idea for a single book. The submissions came flooding in and I was shocked by the amount of stories I received. Some were good, some were bad; many were somewhere in-between. A couple of months into my editing journey I announced a submission call for my
Best New Vampire Series
, and once again I had more stories than I knew what to do with. In all, I waded through over 800 tales within the span of a few months. Of the 800, twenty would find their way into each book. The other 700+ stories would be cast aside. Matt’s stories were accepted––not once, not twice, but three times. He was the only writer to achieve this. Not only that, but in every book I produced I placed his story strategically, in a place of importance.
Why?
Because his stories were
that
good.
And before I started my company I must admit, I’d never heard of the man.
With Best New Zombie Tales, I wanted to put Matt’s
Feeding Frenzy
in first. In fact, I was planning on putting it in first right up until the moment I worked out a deal with WHC Grand Master, Multiple-Award Winning Author Ray Garton, accepting his novella
Zombie Love
.
Here’s something to chew on––if you’re going to put a novella into a book of short stories there are only two places you can put it: first, or last. If you put it anywhere else you’ll end up dividing the stories into sections.
With the decision to include Ray’s story made, Best New Zombie Tales became a series, Matt’s story was pushed into the second slot of the book, and
Feeding Frenzy
became the first “true” short story in the collection.
In Zombie Tales Two I went a different route. I decided to have Matt’s story
The Finger
be the strong piece that ends the show. I thought about putting it first, but I felt as though he had already been given that honor in the first volume, even if I was the only one that realized it. So, with this in mind,
The Finger
became Zombie Two’s closer and the book finished on a high note.
Then came my Vampire Collection, which––as I write this––has been edited and formatted but hasn’t quite made its way out the door.
The vampire book was a whole different story.
I asked Matt if he had any vampire tales he’d like to submit. He said no. Then, after a little bit of harassment, he changed his position and said he had something that
might
fit.
What I received was a story called
Anything Can Be Dangerous.
I’m not exactly sure what Matt was smoking when he wrote that story, nor do I have any idea what he was thinking on the day he tried to sell it to me as a vampire tale, but two things are for certain. ONE: stories that are centered around plastic bags that run across the city eating people are
NOT
vampire stories. And TWO: Matt’s brain travels a creative highway that is unlike any other.
After he gave me his bag story, and I rejected it––I had to reject it, not because I didn’t love it but because the anthology wasn’t called
Best New Plastic Bag Tales
––I learned something. I learned that if you give Matt a little time, and you close your eyes for a while, he’s like magic. He’ll say he doesn’t have something but then suddenly––he does. In spades.
Do have any vampire stories?
No.
Are you sure?
Yes. Well, I don’t know . . . is
this
a vampire story?
No, Matt. That’s a story about a killer garbage bag.
Oh.
What about this?
He hands me
Through the Valley of Death
––one of the best vampire stories I’ve ever read.
Are you kidding me?
Where the hell did this come from?
The story earned the first spot in my vampire series, and haunts my thoughts still.
It was around this time that I started hounding him for a manuscript. My idea was simple enough:
you are an evil genius, Matt Hults; you need your own book.
I said, “Matt . . . lets plunk all of these great stories into a collection!”
And sure enough, in true Matt Hults fashion, he says, “I’m not sure if I have enough stuff for a book. Let me see what I can do. I’ll try to dust off a few stories for you.”
Time passes. Nothing happens. I figure nothing will. Then he says, “Oh yeah. I forgot that I have this 100,000-word novel. It’s completely done and ready to go . . . do you want to see it?”
* * *
I imagine Matt as a child, at home, sitting on the floor in a large empty room with his only friend.
His friend says, “Do you have anything to play with?”
Matt shakes his head. “No.”
“
You don’t have any toys? No robots? No videogames? No Lego?”