Medallion Press publishes my werewolf novel, THE FRENZY WAY, as a trade paperback on June 1st. It's been a long road for this particular tale to reach the public, but I'll get into that later. First I want to discuss werewolves, and why they've had such a big impact on me.

It all started with Dan Curtis, when I was a 4 year old living in Dunkirk, New York, an hour south of Buffalo. This was during the Stone Age, before cable TV, and our rabbit ears only received the big three networks, PBS, Channel 29 from Grand Island (since gobbled up by the FOX TV monster), and occasionally some Canadian stations. My mother, a single parent, was in the process of getting her Master's Degree in English. I'd go to my godmother's house after nursery school, and watch THE COMMANDER TOM SHOW, starring Tom Jolls, until Mom came home.

The Commander and his sock puppet co-host, Dust Mop, read birthday notices on the air and introduced cartoons like DUDLEY DOO RIGHT. Only one day, he started introducing something else... something darker. It was a soap opera, but not like the soap operas Mom watched. There was some guy in a cape, and really creepy music. It was DARK SHADOWS, of course, featuring what became my favorite vampire, Barnabas Collins. The show featured many monsters, including one more than werewolf.

My memory is foggy, but this is how I remember the first time I was terrified by supernatural entertainment: In the episode I watched, artist Sam Evans was painting a man I believe to be Quentin Collins (it's difficult to say without watching the entire series again; Chris Jennings was a werewolf as well) when the full moon rose. Like Dr. Jekyll, the man fell behind a counter or table... and started snarling. The music intensified... and the man's hand came into view... covered with fur! Cut to end credits. I never did see what happened next, because "concerned parents" bombarded the station with complaints and the station's gutless programmer yanked it. Thanks, parents - you uptight fuckers!

I bought Aurora's Wolf Man model kit, but never liked it; it looked more like a hillbilly to me than the pictures I saw of Lon Chaney, Jr. in the monster books and magazines I read. I didn't see THE WOLF MAN until I was much older, so it never had much of an impact on me, though I enjoyed reading an in depth interview on Curt Siodmak, the man who wrote the screenplay and created much of the lore we now take for granted, in an issue of Cinefantastique years later. I did see some of Hammer's CURSE OF THE WEREWOLF, starring Oliver Reed, on late night TV, but always fell asleep during it. I love it now; can't say the same thing for THE WOLF MAN.

I saw a number of werewolf TV movies growing up: MOON OF THE WOLF (1972), starring David Janssen was pretty good until the ending, when we got a good look at the werewolf; SCREAM OF THE WOLF (1974), starring Peter Graves and Clint Walker, only teased us with lycanthropy; it turned out to be a contemporary version of "The Most Dangerous Game." That same year, Darren McGavin went up against a werewolf on a cruise ship on the short lived ABC series, KOLCHAK: THE NIGHT STALKER. Robert Foxforth may have been the only Hawaiian werewolf, in DEATH MOON (1978). All of these werewolf tales had something in common: they were done on the cheap, so the werewolves were generally seen in long shots, at night, so the audience couldn't see how bad they looked.

I enjoyed werewolf comic books as a teenager, most notably Marvel's WEREWOLF BY NIGHT, featuring the adventures of Jack Russel, a young man who inherited a werewolf curse on his 18th birthday; MAN WOLF, a rather silly Spider-Man villain; and Neal Adams's beautifully drawn, but simplistically written, monster mash-up featuring "Dracula! Frankenstein! The Werewolf!" This last one was the first time I saw a woman depicted as a werewolf, but certainly not the last; years later, Alan Moore and Stephen Bissette likened a woman's menstrual cycle to lycanthropy in a single issue of SWAMP THING which predated GINGER SNAPS.

The first werewolf novel I owned was a novelization of Universal's WEREWOLF OF LONDON. The first one I actually read was Gary Brandner's THE HOWLING. Whitley Strieber's WOLFEN, Thomas Tessier's superior THE NIGHTWALKER, and Stephen King's CYCLE OF THE WEREWOLF quickly followed. Brandner wrote a weak sequel, THE HOWLING II, and a good one, THE HOWLING III.

But for me, the werewolf genre was defined by two monumental films released in 1981: the Joe Dante/John Sayles adaptation of THE HOWLING and John Landis's AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF IN LONDON. I think they're both brilliant, though I prefer the werewolves in THE HOWLING and the humor in AN AMERICAN WEREWOLF. THE HOWLING spawned at least five ridiculous sequels, whereas AMERICAN WEREWOLF spawned only one. Michael Wadleigh's WOLFEN adaptation was also very good, very intelligent, but just wasn't geared towards the mass market like its fellows were.

In 1986, after filming my low budget horror film SLIME CITY, I decided to try my hand at writing what I believed could be the screenplay for a big budget werewolf film. I knew I wanted to write something that blended the lone protagonist of the first NIGHT STALKER TV movie - which pitted Darren McGavin against a vampire in Las Vegas - with the urban pathos and humor of HILL STREET BLUES; the werewolves-as-society of THE HOWLING with the gritty procedural of THE FRENCH CONNECTION. The script was titled WEREWOLF until FOX TV aired their weekly TV series of the same name, at which point it became THE GREENWICH VILLAGE MONSTER. (Another weekly werewolf series was SHE WEREWOLF OF LONDON).

Nothing happened with the script, and over the years several worthy werewolf movies came out: THE COMPANY OF WOLVES, DOG SOLDIERS and GINGER SNAPS. Werewolves became popular in adolescent fiction (the Harry Potter novels) and teen abstinence books (the Twilight Saga). As vampires, then zombies, then vampires, then zombies became more popular than ever, authors started whispering that werewolves were going to be the Next Big Thing. We'll see; you really can't predict trends.

After the publication of my first novel, PERSONAL DEMONS, in 2004, I thought my next project should be a novel based on my werewolf screenplay, which I was calling FEEDING GROUND at that point. I did a lot of research on Native American legends and the Spanish Inquisition, and came to realize that the story I really wanted to tell was a lot more ambitious than the one in my 105 page screenplay. So I wrote the much simpler JOHNNY GRUESOME while my werewolf story percolated in my imagination.

As luck would have it, Medallion Press acquired the mass market rights for JOHNNY GRUESOME after Bad Moon Books published it as a limited edition hardcover. I knew Medallion was looking for authors who could write novels on a consistent basis, so they would be worth promoting, and I suggested to Adam Mock that they publish a mass market version of PERSONAL DEMONS as a follow up to JOHNNY GRUESOME, and by the time that came out my werewolf novel would be ready.

I love it when a plan comes together. Medallion published JOHNNY GRUESOME in October, 2008, and PERSONAL DEMONS in October, 2009. It's publishing DESPERATE SOULS, the sequel to PERSONAL DEMONS, in October, 2010. But before that, it's publishing THE FRENZY WAY in June. What's THE FRENZY WAY? That's my werewolf novel! During its long gestation period, another horror author, Sarah Pinborough, used FEEDING GROUND as a title. When I confessed my frustration in coming up with a new title to author Jeff Strand, he suggested THE FRENZY WAY, and Indian ritual mentioned in the novel. It's the best title the story's had.

So what can I tell you about THE FRENZY WAY? For one thing, it features an entirely new mythology for werewolves. For another, it's an action packed police procedural. I think there are plenty of surprises, and room for sequels. We'll see.

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REVIEWS:

Publishers Weekly calls THE FRENZY WAY a "rollicking horror tale...Lamberson's knack for furiously fast-paced action and the building terror of the graphic and increasingly sexualized murders combine in a surprisingly compelling read for horror fans with strong stomachs."

Rue Morgue wrote, "If living in NYC wasn't scary enough, imagine how scary it would be if it were teaming with bloodthirsty werewolves. That's the premise behind the menacing new police procedural that's absolutely thick with character development, intelligent dialogue and a remarkably fresh take on lycanthropes. It will have you double-checking your doors and windows on the next full moon."

Nick Cato of The Horror Fiction Review wrote, Lamberson's monster-mash is an excellent addition to the current rise of werewolf fiction; I'm not a big werewolf fan, but when a story is spun this well, I don't care if the creature-in-question is a mutated guinea pig. THE FRENZY WAY is a rip-roaring, bloody-good time that you'll read in a sitting or two. Don't miss it.

BLURBS:

"The Frenzy Way is an awesome blend of police procedural and bloody werewolf action. It's easily Lamberson's best novel--and I loved his first two!"

--Jeff Strand, Bram Stoker Award nominated author of Pressure and Dweller


"A werewolf serial killer whodunit with real teeth, The Frenzy Way is a razor sharp read from beginning to end. Lamberson's tale is a police procedural, werewolf historical, good old fashioned monster movie mash up, a winning mix to be sure, but what really makes the narrative shine are its deft characterizations. Even the tiniest, bit players seem alive, vital, a crucial part of the puzzle, making this wild-in-the-streets werewolf hunt all the more tense. Highly recommended."

--Michael Louis Calvillo, author of I Will Rise and As Fate Would Have It


"From the opening paragraph, Greg Lamberson's The Frenzy Way sinks its long dark claws into you, refusing to release you until your shaking fingers have turned the very last page. There is a chilling seduction to the intelligent, gritty crime noir style in which this distinctive take on the werewolf myth is delivered that is exsquitely terrifying, breathtakingly harsh and beautifully brutal. The Frenzy Way is horror at its absolute best!"


- Gabrielle S. Faust, Eternal Vigilance
"The Frenzy Way is a grinning, snapping chainsaw of a novel, so grab some heavy gloves and eye protection and hang on for a fast, fun ride."

-Jeff Jacobson, author of Wormfood