My Broken River brother Grant Wamack recently dropped a new folk horror joint about violently horny feline cryptids and haunted farmland. You can cop THE SCARECROWS WILL WATCH OVER US on Amazon or snag a signed copy HERE. If you know Grant’s work, you can expect an ensemble of interesting characters, buckets of gore, and erotic thrills. If you’re still sleeping on my boy, this book is the perfect introduction. Check out what the man himself has to say about his latest page-turner below:
Kelby Losack: Why this book? What first compelled you to tell this story?
Grant Wamack: I’ve been on a strange folk horror kick when it comes to writing. I feel like Midsommar left a strange imprint on me. I thought maybe writing The Frolicking got it out my system, but I still had more creative energy to exhaust in this subgenre. Also, being from Chicago and the midwest, I saw so many damn cornfields when I’d drive outside of the city and play sports in different towns.
I wanted to return to my horror roots of my first horror novella God’s Leftovers since I’ve grown a lot since then. I felt like my readers deserved a serving of something new in a similar vein, but giving them that fast-paced, unhinged feeling of that book.
Also, I’ve always been fascinated with cryptids and I wanted to write something that incorporated a cryptid of my own. This is also the first book I’ve written that includes any military influence/knowledge since I served in the Navy for eight years. I combined my love for cryptids with some military-flavored action.
KL: Is there a particular character you feel especially attached to, and is there a character who surprised you during the writing process?
GW: This sounds like a cop out, but I feel equally attached to everyone in this particular book. Other ones, I’d probably have much easier answers for you.
In terms of surprises… Clara, a woman touring the property, acted much differently than I expected her to when shit started hitting the fan. I didn’t expect her husband to act the way he did when their daughter went missing in the woods. Both of these characters took on a life of their own and had a sense of agency. Jaylen, the real estate agent, has an interesting evolution over the course of the book that was largely unplanned too.
KL: If The Scarecrows Will Watch Over Us were to be turned into a film, who would be your dream cast and director?
GW: Dream director would probably be John Gulager who did The Feast franchise. I think he’d capture the intensity of the book well, but also make it fun and bloody. If not him, Eli Roth would do the film justice as a director.
Jaylen: Tristan Wilds
Tobias Hollis: Treat Williams
Barbara Hollis: Jessica Lange
Ebony Chambers: Nafessa Williams
Oliver Swanson: Shia LaBeouf
Clara Swanson: Amanda Seyfried
Lily Swanson: Brighton Sarbino
KL: What—or who—would you cite as this book’s biggest influences?
GW: Midsommar, the Midwest, Bryan Smith’s horror novels, Richard Laymon’s horror novels, Horror in the High Desert, Brian Keene, Laurel Hightower’s fantastic Mothman novel Below, David Simmons’ affinity for deep research, and J. David Osborne‘s influence in terms of architectural/setting research.
KL: In what ways do you feel you may have grown as a writer with this one? What challenges were unique to this story that you might not have faced before?
GW: I feel like I pushed myself by putting more energy and focus into setting descriptions, architectural descriptions, and fleshing out the “boring parts.” I worked with a new editor named Xavier Garcia who helped me elevate the high strangeness and get the pacing just right.
I have a tendency to write diverse casts and have them cross paths, but this one had a bit of a bigger one. So I had to do more work to make sure everything made sense in terms of connective tissue and ligaments. Also, the cryptid hunter Ebony Chambers didn’t snugly fit into the narrative at first. I had to do some maneuvering and shuffling of chapters to make it make sense. Military horror seems to be under a magnifying glass when it comes to the details. Veterans and active duty members lose their shit over anything that seems out of place so I had to do some research and rely on my personal experiences to get things to feel right. And lastly, making sure the kills were creative enough. Extreme horror/splatterpunk readers have been exposed to almost everything under the sun so I had to up the ante several times or change things up before I was satisfied.
KL: Several of your books have earned a reputation for featuring some spicy NSFW scenes. Would you say Scarecrows abandons, continues, or elevates the eroticism your readers have come to expect?
GW: Scarecrows continues the eroticism readers have come to expect from me, for sure. It’s spicy and seductive, but anxiety-inducing because you have these cat women who operate kind of like sirens in the wilderness. There’s a clear danger associated with giving into the temptation of these cryptids.
KL: The cover art for Scarecrows is killer. How important do you believe the aesthetics of books as tactile, visual objects are? Do you plan on dropping any merch inspired by the book?
GW: Thanks, man! Don Noble is dope. I believe the aesthetics of books as tactile visual objects is highly important. I hate hearing people say book covers don’t matter. They do. I care about art so much and a book should be seen as a full package. The cover, book content, prose, formatting should all be judged. I welcome it.
I’ve been thinking about possibly dropping some limited edition shirts for the people. We’ll see what I end up cooking.
KL: What do you hope to incite in readers after they’ve turned the final page?
GW: A demand for a sequel, an adrenaline rush, and the feeling of coming down from a rollercoaster.