Like many of the authors who’ve penned installments of eSpec Book’s Systema Paradoxa series, Bjorn Hasseler chose to tell the story of a cryptid near and dear to his heart…er, home.
Though as he explains in the following email interview about his contribution, Hidden Fury (paperback, Kindle), it was also strongly influenced by something else he sees at home…on his TV.
To start, what cryptid are you writing about in Hidden Fury?
I’m writing about Goatman. He has the head of a goat but walks upright. There are a number of locations across the U.S. with Goatman urban legends, but I’m writing about the sightings in Prince George’s County, Maryland. Goatman is said to range from Bowie through the National Agricultural Research Center. The specifics vary; I’ve heard a version with a “Goatman triangle,” and DuVal High School in Lanham as one of the corners. Goatman carries an ax and allegedly attacks couples in cars.
And what then is Hidden Fury about, and when and where does it take place?
Hidden Fury is about a murder investigation. The circumstances warrant the local police calling the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit right away. It takes place in the Bowie, Maryland area, modern day.
So, did you start out wanting to write about Goatman and Hidden Fury is what you came up with, or did you have the idea for Hidden Fury and then pick your cryptid?
When Danielle [Ackley-McPhail; co-founder, publisher, and senior editor of eSpec Books] told me I could write a Systema Paradoxa book, I chose the cryptid local to me. I’ve eaten in most of the restaurants mentioned and bought books in the bookstore. If you write about Bigfoot out in the wilderness, you can point out there are places out west where years can pass between visits by a human. But the places where Goatman has been reported have steadily turned into suburbia. Working out an explanation for how there could be a sustainable population was a challenge.
The Systema Paradoxa novellas tend to be horror stories, or at least supernatural ones, though they sometimes incorporate other genres as well. How would you describe Hidden Fury? You mention…murder…
Hidden Fury is more urban fantasy than horror. I’m using the definition that in urban fantasy, the characters are able and willing to do something about it. I think that cryptid stories tend toward being mysteries just by being cryptid stories, but Hidden Fury is also a murder mystery, and its mystery subtype is police procedural. I had profilers on the brain already. It was fun to ask if an agent could profile a cryptid.
Hidden Fury is your fifth novel, though you’ve also written a number of stories for different 1632 / Ring Of Fire anthologies. Are there any writers, or stories, that had a big influence on Hidden Fury but not on anything else you’ve written?
I think the writers who influence me [have] influenced all my stories, but it’s possible some of it is easier to see in Hidden Fury. For example, both J.K. Rowling and Larry Correia subvert the usual (Tolkienian) approach to elves, goblins, and so on. When I’m writing a 1632 story, there aren’t any mythical beings, except for a story within the story, told to some kids. There’s no room to show that particular bit of influence. But in Hidden Fury, there is.
What about non-literary influences; was Hidden Fury influenced by any movies, TV shows, or games?
I’m a huge fan of the television show Criminal Minds. I wrote a couple profiler stories in the 1632 universe because I needed a profiler for my fourth novel there. That made it an easy approach to use for Hidden Fury.
Besides the TV show, I’ve read the real-life memoirs Mind Hunter (John Douglas) and Whoever Fights Monsters (Robert Ressler) and the FBI’s Crime Classification Manual. I wasn’t trying to be influenced by The X-Files, but given the subject matter that’s impossible to avoid. The podcasts Small Town Dicks (true crime) and WriterDojo (writing) helped me with some technical matters.
And then, to flip things around, do you think Hidden Fury could itself work as a movie, show, or game?
Any of those would be wonderful. I don’t know if it could be stretched out for a TV season, but maybe an episode of an anthology-like show or the format where a season is a handful of episodes.
I also think it would work well as a role-playing adventure game, either as a one-off or a short campaign.
Cool. So, first, if someone wanted to adapt Hidden Fury into a show, or an episode of a show, who would you want them to cast as Tiffany?
Fair warning: I have limited knowledge of actors and actresses.
But for Tiffany, Nicole Beharie. She played Officer Abbie Mills on Sleepy Hollow.
And if someone wanted to adapt Hidden Fury as a game, what kind of game should it be?
A role-playing game or scenario. Because it’s an investigation, I think it would work better in something like the White Wolf Storyteller system rather than the D&D system.
So, is there anything else you think people should know about Hidden Fury?
Most of the locations are real. I drove around the Bowie area on a day off and found places that worked out well.
Finally, if someone enjoys Hidden Fury, and it’s the first book of yours they’ve read, which of your others would you suggest they read next?
Everything else of mine that’s been published has been in the 1632 series. The four novels are a sequence, so either A Matter Of Security or, if you want a profiler’s origin stories, “The Observer” in Grantville Gazette 78 and “Clique, Clique, Boom!” in Grantville Gazette 82, which are available from 1632magazine.com.
