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Jeff Strand is an American author from Tampa Florida best known for writing award-winning horror and comedy novels. Strand was born in Baltimore in Maryland but the family moved to Fairbanks, Alaska when he was still an infant and hence he does not remember much about Baltimore. Growing up in the cold reaches of Alaska, all he wanted was to be a cartoonist or make video games. As he grew older, he wanted to write movies. As an adult, he still wants to do a lot of the things he desired to be as a child but for the moment he is contented with writing humorous comedy novels. He is a multiple-time nominee for the Bram Stoker Award and his novel “Pressure” was optioned and is set to be made into a motion picture. While most of his works are classified as horror, he writes in all manner of genres from drama, thriller, comedy and even fairy tales. Having been fed up with the cold of Alaska growing up, he now makes his home in Tampa Florida.
Jeff discovered his passion for writing from a very young age and by the time he was in the fifth grade, one of his stories was featured on the Daily News Miner. He continued writing throughout junior high and even had one of his poems on a Pizza Hut placemat. It was during his senior high school days that he got into acting plays and also got obsessed with horror films. He also wrote several plays and poems during this time that were never published. After graduating from high school Jeff Strand attended Bowling Green State University, where he studied Creative Writing. His first ever sold literary work was “The Private Diary of Leonard Parr” that was a short story he sold to Twisted Magazine. After writing several novels in a range of styles, he published Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) in 2003. It was published in his now-famous comedy-horror style that would come to define his works. He went on to win several awards including the Bram Stoker for “Pressure” and a Splatterpunk Award for “The Tipping Point” that won Best Short Story.
Jeff’s writing which is a combination of horror and comedy is defined by sparse prose and dark humor. He cites the likes of Jack Ketchum, Douglas Adams, Dave Barry, and Richard Laymon among the writers that have inspired his writings. However, his biggest influence was the Horror Writers Association (HWA) that he joined in 1994. At the time he did not have any author friends and hence much of the information on authoring he had he got from Writer’s Market. The Association and especially its newsletter proved a treasure trove of information that he found invaluable. He also had access to a private bulletin board where he got to interact with published authors whose books he had already read. While the newsletters and bulletins did not say what he always wanted to hear, they provided invaluable information and helped shatter his rose-tinted view of a career in writing. While he could have crafted his novels in solitude and sent an unagented script to an editor and by luck made it, he thinks that would have been leaving it to chance. By joining HWA, he made the contacts necessary to help him polish up on his work and get published faster.
Jeff Strand’s novel “Graverobbers Wanted: No Experience Necessary” is the story of Andrew Mayhem a man who finds himself in dire straits. As a desperate man looking for adventure, one can do some of the most irresponsible things. The married father of two is approached to find a key from the most reprehensible of places – a grave. If he successfully digs up the body and retrieves the key from the shallow grave he will be rewarded with $20,000. But things become weird when he digs up the body and finds that the supposedly dead man is still breathing and even worse he is armed and dangerous. Now that he knows how terrible of a job it is he thinks he should have asked for more money. He thought it would be an evening of ethically dubious manual labor but now has to play a weird game of courage and wits with an invisible killer with a wicked sense of humor. It is a game that soon brings him in contact with Ghoulish delights a group of filmmakers that are keeping a dark secret that will take a lot of courage to unearth.
“Single White Psychopath Seeks Sam”e the second novel of the Andrew Mayhem series by Jeff Strand is another compelling read. Andrew Mayhem had woken up and felt that this was going to be one of those days. But this was not just a feeling as he wakes up with his arms behind his back tied to a chair as some lunatics go at him with chainsaws. Given how much trouble he often gets into, he is not surprised but is rather brave given his predicament. For the irresponsible Mayhem, becoming chainsaw fodder is not among his biggest worries as he knows that it is only a matter of time before he gets out of the jam. He had been made to pose as a serial killer named “The Headhunter,” and then infiltrate a cabal of deranged maniacs. The maniacs meet in an Alaskan mansion where they play macabre games of murder. Will he be able to free the victims of their games now imprisoned in the house or will he be made into a participant? It is an outrageous blend of the horrifying and the hilarious that will keep one guessing, gasping and laughing from the start right to the very end.
In “Casket For Sale: Only Used Once” the third novel of the series by Jeff Strand, Andrew Mayhem is trying to turn his life around. He got a real job and is a better husband and father. He has also vowed to never accept money from strangers in coffee shops ever since his two previous experiences went really bad. In this novel, he is taking a trip camping with his best friend and family. He has a full tank of gas and he is not taking any shortcuts as he has taken the warning given by some old man very seriously. Unfortunately, despite all his precautions, he could not have planned for an attack from savage killers. They are intent on killing them but not before inflicting ghastly torture before. They are pursued by a relentless bunch of deranged killers and have to deal with one crisis after another in a booby-trapped forest. It is a great story that shows Andrew in a different light as he faces the darkest hours of his life determined to protect his family. It is still a completely outrageous, twisted, and action-packed story of the series.
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