Writerly Wednesday Welcomes Ross S. Simon

Writerly Wednesday Presents Ross S. Simon.  

Buy Link for “The Snow” 

Bio

Ross S. Simon was born Sam Ridings in La Crosse, WI, in 1979. He spent the bulk of his childhood in the town of Winona, Minnesota (and enduring the apparently horrid winters therein) until moving at age nine to Santa Cruz, California, where he still resides. He graduated from Soquel High School in 1997, and from Aptos, CA’s Cabrillo College in 2005, the latter with an Associated Arts degree in Basic Liberal Arts. His hobbies include pinball gaming, collecting pop memorabilia, and reading very entertaining novels of many genres, including horror. The Snow is Mr. Simon’s debut novel.

Blurb

It’s a bloody cold winter.

Throughout history, he has secretly visited this world again and again. The Prankster, the mischief-maker, of Norse mythology…Loki.

Now, one Donald Holly—an ordinary, lonely man living in northern Minnesota—comes to be possessed bodily by the Asgardian deity of evil, robbed of his will…and of his very humanity, as horrific death and bizarre destruction blossom from the Trickster’s power, in the town of Eau Froid in the dead of freezing winter. Even Federal experts cannot separate Holly from this parapsychological parasite which manifests in him, as Loki is just too powerful. Yet, Holly himself might just find the will to overcome the evil magic of the demon who would be a god, even if it means the destruction of all that he is.

Excerpt

“Let’s start…er, Mister Loki…with why you came to possess Donald Holly.”
“‘Mister Loki,’” the deity echoed. “Quite cute. Seriously…that is Lord Loki to you. However, ‘My Lord’ will simply suffice.”
“All right, then, My Lord. So you wish to be addressed as is a king by his subjects.”
“I am a king.” He seemed cocky indeed. “King of all Asgard. All Odin is doing is simply taking up space in my court.”
“Asgard, you say. That would be the realm of the gods?”
“Of the Aesir, whichever,” Loki elaborated. “That was the word in Nordic tongue for those who had so much of the kind of power and grace that men of Midgard—or this Earth—usually had, they were often classified as gods. Look it up!”
“Later, My Lord. Right now, there are questions remaining to be answered. Also, though this is fascinating stuff, you still haven’t yet answered the question with which we started. Why Donald Holly, of all people?”
“He seemed the modern epitome of the struggle of the white man. I’ll elaborate: I believe that the descendants of the original Norsemen—the Aryan, or Nordic race, or whites, call them whatever—exist only to be taken advantage of. I have been doing that for centuries and centuries…millennia, in fact.
“You see, I wreak my chaos in that manner by first taking a place in the mind of a common white lowlife. I decided upon that for Midgard—or again, Earth—a long time ago. Sort of one-up the great ones of men—as I one-upped the Aesir—by quote-befriending-unquote one of the small ones. Give him a break. I first try that by contact with the flesh. Oftentimes mere touch doesn’t do it. So I use bloods’ contact, gay kisses, gay sex or rape, things such as that.”
“Not unlike AIDS, then, is it,” Doctor Edgersen offered.
“Quite similar. Only thing is: I believe Donald Holly owes me. They all have owed me, greatly. I did all that they, themselves, could never do.”
“Really.” Edgersen stared hard at him. Secretly, he was hatching an idea to use.
“Indeed. I work in what you might call quite mysterious ways. This Donald Holly seemed, I don’t know,special to me. He inspires me to alter my ways a little bit. Oh, granted, I still have my fun with all the mortal beings have created around me…not to mention with their flesh. I just think…I want to respect the soul of Dondi a tad more than I have those of the others I’ve taken over whenever I felt like it. He seems like a goodfriend. Just a little weak in spirit…nothing I can’t fix.”
Doctor Edgersen kept staring at Loki. He was trying to digest what he’d just been told. This Loki was purporting quite a few things that labeled him, to the Doctor, as a truly dark and hateful force.

Interview

1. In three days, all power will go off, everywhere for a very long time. What will you include in your author survival kit?

1. My survival kit will include a small, yet powerful electrical generator, with about 20 gallons of can gasoline for fuel, as its most important item. Powered by the generator will be an American-made hibachi grill for food, and a laptop computer’s recharging, on which to write accounts of the ensuing mayhem of total power loss indefinitely.
I will also have a .42 Winchester rifle for shooting food, plus 50 rounds of ammo. To slaughter and cook the animals (and perhaps the homicidally insane people) I shoot, I will have a Ginsu knife set, and about ten disposable surgical masks and sets of rubber gloves.

2. Where did the idea for the work you are promoting arise?

2. I was inspired to do The Snow by the style of mainstream horror authors such as Stephen King, to which I wanted to apply some kind of malevolent mythic monster; and I chose Loki from his mention in the comedy film The Mask.

3. What do you like to read?

3. I like to read most any paperback (sometimes hardcover) novel genres, including classics, epics, horror, and one guilty pleasure I have been indulging in for years now: macho series adventure novels (e.g. Mack Bolan, The Executioner).

4. Tell us about the most exciting place you have ever visited?

4. The most exciting place I’ve ever visited could be any of a number of places, but if you pardon the cornball patriotism, I’d say Mount Rushmore, South Dakota.

5. What is the most mundane, day to day, thing you can share about yourself?

5. My most mundane, daily habit is anything I do that identifies me as chronically lazy…which would most clearly be oversleeping and shunning regular exercise.

6. What scares you the most?

6. Sadly, my worst fear of all—on many levels—is people. Once you get to know me intimately, you’d be able to understand this.

7. Tell us anything but keep it G rated.

7. I sincerely hope this will be the launch of a great career in horror writing for me. “Boo.” 🙂

Thank you Ross for being my guest this week. A quick link to all of the Writerly Wednesday Guests is at http://writerlywednesday.com .

Buy Link for “The Snow” 

KEYWORDS:
The Snow, Ross S. Simon, debut horror novel, Damnation Books, Loki, Donald Holly, Eau Froid