Eric S Brown: Letting the Dogs Out (2024)

Introduction

Bigfoot War author Eric S Brown is letting the dogs out in his latest action-packed horror novella titled Snarl. Boasting way more bite than bark, Snarl is a throwback inspired by the classic animals-run-amok novels of the 1970s and 1980s like Stephen King’s Cujo and David Fisher’s The Pack. The fast-paced tale reads like a pre-apocalyptic 28 Days Later but with canines instead of zombies.

Released in December, Snarl received a rave review from 2023 Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Mort Castle.

“From first to last, Snarl is bloody action that is every dog lover’s worst nightmare,” Castle writes. “This is unforgettable shock horror to the max. You will howl!”

Snarl is set in the small American town of Clyde. However, when a military van hauling dangerous biological cargo crashes along a nearby highway, the accident unleashes an airborne virus that quickly transforms the town’s dog population into rabid killing machines hungry for human flesh.

The 85-page novella introduces a familiar ensemble cast of characters. It includes a small-town sheriff who finds himself in over his head. There’s a government operative trying to contain the disaster at all costs. An assortment of Clyde residents play the clueless prey. They are unable to fathom the betrayal of their beloved pets.

Brown is mostly known for his cryptid creature features like Bigfoot War, which was loosely adapted into a 2014 film. With Snarl, he relished the opportunity to take his brand of vintage violence and action into the doghouse.

Brown agreed to an exclusive interview with Lionel Ray Green for Ginger Nuts of Horror to discuss Snarl, dogs in general, and why this book was “a passion project” for the North Carolina author.

Eric S Brown: Letting the Dogs Out An interview By Lionel Ray Green

Green: Have you had any scary encounters with actual dogs?

Eric S Brown: No, though dogs have always scared me. There’s a very predator nature about them to me at least. Books like Cujo terrified me as a child and certainly didn’t help my view of them.

Green: You mention many dog breeds in Snarl. Do you have any dogs yourself?

Eric S Brown : For most of my life I hated dogs. Couldn’t stand them. A bit over two years ago, though, my daughter talked me into getting a Chiweenie, which we named Hope. I utterly fell in love with the little dog, and it’s more mine than hers now.

Green: What is your favorite dog breed?

Eric S Brown: In terms of horror, the Doberman Pinscher! They’re smart, fast, and great attack dogs! I love the look of them too! Douglas Borton’s Manstopper even has a scene in it where a Pinscher kills someone in the ocean. Now that’s an awesome dog. When I was writing Snarl, I knew right from the start a Pinscher had to be the main dog. Snarl is a love letter to all the old “Paperback from Hell” dog horror books of the 70s and 80s, and lots of them featured a Pinscher as the main dog character, so I had to have one too.

Green: Bram Stoker Lifetime Achievement Award recipient Mort Castle called Snarl an “unforgettable shock horror to the max.” What’s it like to receive such high praise from a horror icon like Castle?

Eric S Brown: I won’t lie. It’s pretty awesome. Mort is a writer who has had such an amazing career and wrote the HWA handbook on how to write horror. When someone like that tells you that “your action scenes are a model of doing it right,” it’s not something to take lightly. Snarl was a deeply personal project for me. I really put my heart and everything I had into it, and according to Mr. Castle, it shows. Of course, David Robbins, who wrote the Endworld series blurbed it too. I grew up reading Endworld novels, and it was super cool for David to praise the book too.

Green: Snarl is an old-fashioned canine creature feature in the vein of films like The Breed (2006), The Dogs (1979), and The Pack (1977). What inspirations did you specifically draw from for your version of dogs versus humanity?

Eric S Brown: I just discovered Grady Hendrix’s Paperbacks from Hell this year. Chapter 3 – “When Animals Attack” – was by far my favorite in the book. It set me on a new path as a collector. I began to pick up every book of that subgenre I could get my hands on. The first I read was Nightwing (killer bats), and it was such a great and fun book, my fate was sealed.

I became addicted to vintage horror. During that time, I read a ton of dog attack books as there were a lot of them out there and having been scared of dogs for most of my life, I knew that was the type of attack book I just had to write. The ending of The Pack blew me away, Manstopper left me in awe, and Rabid had an awesome outbreak feel to it.

They were the big three that got the ball rolling in my mind. That said, it was actually the zombie genre that I drew from in writing Snarl. Richard Lewis’s Rabid sparked the idea of this outbreak, and I thought how about a modern, bioweapon virus that only affected dogs. I didn’t want to do just a single dog type of tale, or even a pack of dogs. I wanted a full-out dog apocalypse! Bigger is always better right? Why have one monster when you can have an army of them? So, I came up with the idea of a virus that would turn man’s best friend into snarling monsters determined to tear us all apart.

Green: In Snarl’s intro, you say this is “a passion project” for you. How was this project different from writing your other books?

Eric S Brown: Snarl was a labor of love just like my book Bigfoot War was long ago. I wanted to channel my own fears into an established genre, to try to see if I could do something new in it while also contributing to the legacy of great stories within it. Snarl is a special book for me in that it’s written by a fan of animal attack books for fans of animal attack books.

It was not a book that I wrote just to keep the lights on and pay the bills like almost everything I write. It was, in some ways, the realization of a dream as an author and a push to see just what I could be capable of. As to its release, yes, it was much more of a big deal to me! I was nervous and excited about it. Normally I don’t really feel anything about releases anymore. They’re just another day on the job, but with Snarl, I was sweating bullets wondering if folks would like it or not. And I hope they do.

Green: Do you plan to write a sequel to Snarl?

Eric S Brown: Funny you should ask that. There are a lot of factors that would have to play out in order for it to happen, but yes, I do have an idea bouncing around in my head for a sequel. Only time will tell if I get to write it or not though. Aside from dogs, I will tell you that I already have a contract for another type of animal attack book which I will be writing in 2025.

Green: Do you have any other projects that you’d like to mention?

Eric S Brown Severed Press just released my latest Bigfoot horror book, Sasquatch Nightmare. It too has an 80s vibe like Snarl. I pitched it as “Nightmare on Elm Street meets Bigfoot War,” and Severed Press liked the concept, so I ran with it. Folks tell me that Severed really did a fantastic job with the style and tone of its cover.

Sasquatch Nightmare by Eric S. Brown

Robbie has been having nightmares. . . terrible, bloody dreams of a monster in the woods. That monster kills every night. Its bloodthirst never satiated. As bodies began to turn up in the real world, Robbie realizes his nightmares are more than they seem. Can Robbie and the local sheriff find and stop the monster or will the killings continue to grow in scope and number?

Snarl by Eric S Brown

In the bloodcurdling tradition of Cujo and The Pack comes Snarl!

Clyde was a picturesque, quiet, little town until the night of the accident. A virus, unleashed into the air, would soon fill the streets with blood as man’s best friend turned on him. Adorable pets and loving companions would become snarling, bloodthirsty beasts hungry for human flesh. Will anyone survive this brutal betrayal?

“Does that dog bite? Yeah. And mangles, dissects, chomps, chaws, mutilates, dismembers, messes you up and leaves you one hundred and ten percent D-E-A-D! Lassie ain’t coming home. She and Rin-Tin-Tin and Bullet and Eddie Crane are invading the town of Clyde and they and their pack are super-killers and not even the whispers of 50 caliber machine guns can control their ferocious appetite for human flesh. From first to last, SNARL is bloody action that is every dog lover’s worst nightmare. This is unforgettable shock horror to the max. You will howl!” —Mort Castle, Lifetime Achievement Award of the Horror Writers Association 2023

“Right from page one the teeth start snapping and the dog reveals its true colors with human flesh on the menu and blood the drink of choice. The bodies get torn, the mind gets worn, and only one thing is for sure: Dogs are not man’s best friend.” —A.P Fuchs, Author of Giganti-gator Death Machine: Triple Feature

“Canine carnage on a catastrophic scale! Horror most excellent! After reading this story, if your dog should come up to you unseen and nuzzle you affectionately, you might well jump out of your chair.” —David Robbins, Author of the Endworld series

Eric S Brown

Eric S. Brown is a prolific American novelist who is celebrated for his contributions to the science fiction and horror genres. Residing in North Carolina, he has authored nearly one hundred and twenty novels, with a significant portion published through Severed Press. Brown’s journey as a writer began with short horror stories centred on zombies, showcasing his fascination with the macabre.

In 2003, he released his debut full-length novel, “Dying Days,” which marked the commencement of his extensive literary career. Following this initial success, he expanded his repertoire with the “Queen” series and “Cowboys vs. Zombies,” further establishing his distinct voice in the genre. Presently, Brown explores themes of creature fiction, post-apocalyptic narratives, cryptid stories, and space-marines, illustrating his versatility and creativity as a storyteller.