Rick McQuiston is a 49-year-old father of two who loves anything horror-related. By day, he works for a family-owned construction and management company. By night, he churns out horror fiction. In 2015, he submitted a novel to Class Act Books, When Only the Nightmare Remains. It was accepted and, with a cover by Preditors & Editors award-winning artist, Beverly Haynes, went on to be earn a Critics Award as #2 in Paranormal Suspense for the year 2015 from the Paranormal Romance Guild.
A good many of Rick's novels are placed in the state of Michigan.
"I love using different locales in Michigan. This is my third novel set there. Fear the Sky was set in Frankenmuth and Where Things Might Walk in Lexington, although fictionalized as Port Bay. I wrote Eat the World because of my love for Mackinac City, Michigan, and Mackinac Island. I felt it was a great setting for a horror story. The island offered a naturally claustrophobic setting, and the mainland enough development to provide plenty of potential victims and carnage."
To date, he now has written seven anthologies, one book of novellas, and edited an anthology of Michigan authors. He's also a welcomed guest author each year at Memphis Junior High School.
"I'm inspired to write about Man's oldest emotion: fear, and how each individual character deals with it," Rick explains about his writing technique. "I like to take everyday situations and twist them into something completely different. However, I do feel it's important to adhere to a sense of realism, thus selling the supernatural aspects that much more easily."
Reality, he stressed, is very important in a novel, especially in horror, as is originality. "Any genre needs at least some sense of originality, otherwise a reader can guess what direction the story is going."
The main theme in his stories? Other than horror? "I utilize the notion that people can accomplish much if they work together. I think this aspect of mankind is one of our strongest abilities. I feel it comes across quite nicely in a life-threatening situation such as the one the protagonists face in my novels."
Rick currently has three novels with Class Act Books: Fear the Sky, Eat the World, and the award-winning When Only the Nightmare Remains.
His novel are listed on Amazon and can be found on the publisher's website.
Class Act Books came under new ownership in 2013. Their goal is to bring the best in novels in all genres to the reading public.
