Kenyon, Nate

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Kenyon, Nate

(Nathaniel Kenyon)

PERSONAL: Married Nicole Malec (a Web site and multimedia designer); children: Emily, Harrison, Abbey. Education: Trinity College, B.A., 1993.

ADDRESSES: Home—Boston, MA. Office—Boston College Law School, Stuart House M305, 885 Centre St., Newton, MA 02459. E-mail—[email protected]; [email protected].

CAREER: Brookline Public Library, Brookline, MA, former staff member; Boston College Law School, Newton, MA, director of marketing and communications.

MEMBER: International Thriller Writers, Horror Writers Association.

WRITINGS:

Bloodstone (novel), Five Star Press (Waterville, ME), 2006.

Also contributor to Terminal Frights, Volume One (horror anthology), edited by Ken Abner, Terminal Frights Press (Black River, NY), 1997. Contributor of online book reviews to Horror World Book Reviews; contributor of stories to various magazines.

SIDELIGHTS: Nate Kenyon's debut horror novel, Bloodstone, is set in a small town in Maine that is much like the one where the author spent his childhood. The story tells the tale of Billy Smith, an ex-convict who is released from jail after serving ten years for taking the lives of a mother and her two children while driving drunk. Shortly after his release, Billy begins to have dark, disturbing dreams and visions of a beautiful young woman. Menacing, unsettling voices fill his head, persuading him to perform evil actions. When Billy sees the woman from his dreams on a beach, he is compelled to kidnap her and take her to the small town of White Falls, Maine. As it turns out, the woman, a prostitute and junkie named Angel, is afflicted by similar sinister dreams. She relents to being kidnapped and joins Billy in an attempt to discover why they have been brought together. When a local boy falls under the spell of an old amulet, it becomes apparent that an event in White Falls history has drawn them to the town and that evil forces at large will not rest until they have engulfed everyone in the town.

Many critics compared Kenyon to well-known writers who helped to established horror as a mainstream genre. One Publishers Weekly contributor found that "Stephen King's influence is apparent in Kenyon's debut spooker," further commenting on the story's "impressive panoramic sweep." In a review for the Horror World Book Reviews Web site, contributor Mark Justice suggested that Bloodstone is a "dark thrill ride" and reported that the story "will live on in your nightmares long after you've finished it." Justice also wrote that Kenyon's characters are "so three-dimensional that they threaten to step off the page." Offering similar praise, reviewer Harriet Klausner wrote on her Web site that the characters "come across as believable."Klausner termed the book "horrifying," "chilling," and "original and frightening." Finally, she observed that Bloodstone "will make readers want to sleep with all the lights in the neighborhood shining brightly."

In an interview on his Web site, Kenyon revealed, "I never set out to write horror; in fact, most of my writing would be considered more dark suspense, with an emphasis on dark. Whatever I write does tend to get scary in some way, even if there aren't monsters, ghouls, or ghosts wandering around."