Published October 9, 2020
By GAIL LOWE
MELROSE— Laurel Street resident Kevin A. Lewis’s recently published novella “The Catcreeper” is bound to be a good pick for readers who love horror stories.
Take a look at this excerpt:
“The moan turned into a growl and Bart stopped dead in his tracks. He dropped the bundle of mail he’d carried inside and began backing toward the staircase. The thing that had been moaning came out of the shadows. Bart Tillman screamed.”
Enticed to read more as Halloween approaches? Those who enjoy a frightening tale will have to buy the book to find out who Bart Tillman is and why he screamed.
Lewis, a writer of horror tales, told a Weekly News reporter that his novella is about a group of tourists who become stranded in a blizzard while vacationing in Vermont. The tourists seek refuge in a mansion owned by elderly author Taylor Crane, whose monstrous half human, half cat terrorizes them. The front cover of the paperback version shows the prominent image of a hissing cat while a man in the background walks into a pet cemetery.
In fact, Lewis said that the idea for “The Catcreeper” came to him while reading Stephen King’s “Pet Sema
Melrose author publishes haunting tale in time for Halloween
tary.”
“The cover (on King’s book) was so striking and eerie to me,” Lewis said, “that I came up with an idea for my own story.”
“The Catcreeper” took Lewis about 25 years to write and publish. When he started writing the story in grade 7, the word count was between 9,000 and 10,000 words. But the file was accidentally deleted. When Lewis learned that his story could not be retrieved, he had to start from scratch. Fortunately, he knew every aspect of the book so he was able to rewrite it.
Over the years, he added new elements and scenes and created new characters and plot lines that fleshed out the story.
A few years ago, he sent the novella to various small press publishers, only to be rejected. When he submitted it to Unnerving’s open book call for the Rewind or Die book series, he learned that Editor Eddie Generous was on the hunt for horror books that would remind readers of movies placed on the shelves of video stores in the 1980s and 1990s. Lewis said he was thrilled when he learned his book had been accepted.
Lewis thoroughly enjoys hearing about other authors’ publishing successes, too, and they inspire him to push himself to get another story written and published.
“The horror writing community is very supportive of one another, and I’m proud to be a horror writer,” he said.
Because of the pandemic, Lewis has not been able to hold a physical book launch in a store. Instead, he held a successful virtual book launch via Facebook Live.
“That worked out well because people from all over were able to attend,” he said. He recently engaged in an interview for Curtis Lawson’s podcast Wyrd Transmissions.
“I talked about ‘The Catcreeper,’ as well as my other writing and all things horror,” Lewis said.
Lawson also promoted Lewis’s novella on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and in the New England Horror Writers group.
Asked how horror differs from suspense stories, Lewis said that it boils down to how the two genres are presented and the tone of the story.
“If the story is presented with elements — supernatural or not — in which the violence or terror has the intention of truly horrifying readers, in my opinion it’s horror and not suspense,” he explained.
His first short story, “The Caretaker,” was published in the Halloween issue of Blood Moon Rising magazine. And in 2017, “A Ghostly Tour” appeared in the “FunDead Publications” anthology “One Night in Salem.” All stories take place on Halloween night in what is commonly known around the North Shore and beyond as Witch City.
“As a frequent visitor to Salem and a huge fan of Halloween, it was a privilege to be part of this book,” said Lewis.
He is currently revising two projects. One is a slasher-horror screenplay he has been editing for a long time. He is also revising a horror-science fiction novella for young adults.
“As for upcoming publications, I have a cosmic horror short story called ‘Trapped on the Night Shift’ that will be published in a Lovecraftian Cosmic anthology set to music,” Lewis said.
Also, the Melrose author may soon enter a Halloween ghost story writing contest the town of Saugus sponsors every year. He said he would be sure to let Weekly News readers know if he is named a winner.
“The Catcreeper” is 126 pages in length and is available on Amazon.com and Barnes & Noble. Price: $11.49 paperback.