It is very exciting to have eacomiskey with us to feature their book »Wanted: Undead or Alive« as our next book of the month! Underneath you can find the next interview where we talked about the author and their story!

AUTHOR BIO

❝ E.A. Comiskey primarily writes speculative fiction but from time to time she dabbles in other genres. She is published with Scarsdale Publishing and is a Wattpad Creator. She won Watty Awards in 2018 and 2021 and is Southwest Airlines' "Storyteller on the Rise." Her story, Alone in Tombstone, was developed as a short film by Tongal Productions. ❞

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PREMISE

❝ A disillusioned young woman leaves her mundane desk job for a chance to earn big bucks as a bounty hunter for monsters. ❞

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TEASER SCENE

❝ The space behind the desk was slightly larger than the average coat closet. I swallowed a mouthful of cider. Spicy comfort slid down my throat and coiled in my belly. In ten minutes, I had my oldies playlist going, the registration cards were sorted and filed, I'd double checked that all the day's reservations (all four of them) had already checked in, and I'd opened the spreadsheet to start the daily audit. If I could get the numbers right on the first go, I'd have time to watch a couple episodes of The Witcher before I had to set up the crappy continental breakfast.

As I typed the first numbers, the doors rattled open, and a man walked in.

At least, I thought it was a man. I couldn't be sure.

They were over six feet tall. A raggedy old cowboy hat that might have once been beige tilted low, hiding their face. They wore leather work gloves with unsettling dark stains on them and a grubby trench coat, buttoned up tight. An odor rolled off them that reminded me of the kitchen trash can when it had gone too long without a good scrubbing.

Without speaking, they dropped a driver's license and an American Express card on the counter.

"You need a room?" My fingers inched toward the panic button under the counter.

They nodded, wordlessly.

Ok, then. I looked at his ID. It said his name was Randy Hannity. Age forty-one. Height five feet, eleven inches. He seemed taller than that. Maybe he had tall shoes. Impossible to see from behind the counter.

"Would you like a single, then?" God, please don't let him be one of the creepers who occasionally showed up with a prostitute. It was too gross to consider.

He nodded again, so I typed the info from the ID into the computer, swiped the card, programmed the keys, and asked him to sign the registration form.

With stiff, jerking motions, he wrapped his gloved fingers around the pen on the counter and scrawled what amounted to a wavy line in the space marked signature.

Good enough. The manager had made it clear our job was to get heads in the beds and ask as few questions as possible.

I told him his room was at the end of the hall—as far from me as possible—and invited him to join us for a free continental breakfast. Free breakfast meant cheap wrapped pastries and water bottles, but we were instructed to paint things in a positive light.

Wordlessly, he took the keys and drifted off with eerie silence. The stink had almost evaporated when the doors opened again.

I chucked my pen down on top of my pile of paperwork and looked to see who it was.

The largest man I'd ever seen strode to the counter. His shoulders must have been three feet across, and his biceps were as big around as my waist. He had a head like an enormous black bowling ball and a little pencil-thin mustache over his scowling lips. One gargantuan hand dipped into the pocket of his black cargo pants and came out with a badge in a leather case—just like TV cops have.

"Recovery Agent Drew Freeman." His voice brought to mind the distant rumble of stampeding buffalo.

Before I read the details on his ID, he closed the case and tucked it away.

"You recently swiped a credit card registered to Randy Hannity."

I inched closer to the panic button again. We weren't supposed to give out details about our guests without permission.

"Randy Hannity was found dead in the mall parking lot three hours ago." He produced a folded printout of a grainy security camera screenshot. "I'm looking for this."

Cowboy hat. Trench coat. No visible face.

Rules be damned. I had no intention of following in the late Randy Hannity's footsteps. "I checked in a guy dressed like that maybe twenty minutes ago."

"What room is he in?"

Toward the end of the hall, a baby started crying.

In hotels, a person heard things; voices, running water, cheerful noises, angry noises, sexy noises, and babies.

This was different.

This baby wasn't just crying. It was wailing, screaming, wordlessly begging for rescue.

Recovery Agent Drew Freeman took off down the hall at a full sprint. ❞

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INTERVIEW

1. How did you start writing on Wattpad?

❝ I signed my first publishing contract in 2015. At that time, I didn't have any connections at all in "writer world." My publisher suggested that I join Wattpad to build connections with readers and writers. I jumped in by joining a few ambassador-led contests and the rest is history! ❞

2. What was the inspiration for your book »Wanted: Undead or Alive«? If you could describe your story in only three words, what would they be?

❝ I've really enjoyed Janet Evanovich's "Stephanie Plum" books over the years, but there have always been a few things that felt a little problematic to me in the character list. So I took the parts I loved and changed the parts I didn't, I added some things dear to my heart (a past, working in hotels, and all manner of we-don't-call-them-monsters), and came up with an accidentally wonderful bounty hunter of my own. ❞

3. Which details or scenes in »Wanted: Undead or Alive« are most unique and interesting to you?

❝ I have always loved exploring the idea of supernatural creatures blending in to society. What if they're all around us? What would that look like? How would they avoid detection? And why would they avoid detection as opposed to just taking over? My imagination goes wild at the possibilities! ❞

4. If you were a character in your story, which one would you be and why?

❝ I desperately want to say I'd be the strong, witty, lovely protagonist, but the truth is that, with each passing year, I become more like Mindy the hotel clerk or, on really good days, Mx. Landry. They're older, more tired, and they've completely stopped caring about the opinions of others. ❞

5. Do you intend to write another book in the future? What advice would you give to other writers who wish to try writing as well?

❝ Always writing! I've got two works coming in 2024 from my traditional publisher as well as more in the works for Wattpad. I may even dip a toe into the WebToons pool.

I think it's really important for new writers to just keep writing. Be open to input on your work. Only through practice, critique, and more practice can any of us improve. There's an old saying about needing 10,000 hours of practice to become an expert at something. I think too many people get discouraged when they're not instantly masterful. It takes time to grow into your voice and that's okay. Just keep going and it will absolutely happen. ❞

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And we end our amazing interview with  eacomiskey here. Thank you for being with us this December. We all hope you all got to know the author like us and discovered some unique details about the story, »Wanted: Undead or Alive«. We will see you next month with another amazing story.