Let me start off by saying that my horror novel Forest of Glass is work of uncompromising passion and sincerity.

The story takes place in the year, 1980. The basic premise of the novel is fairly simple, a group of eight college-aged students who head up to a remote summer camp. They have a simple objective, to get the place ready for the kids who are scheduled to arrive the following Monday. All is going well at the camp but on the second night, two of the counselors never return after going on a romantic walk through the woods. The camp’s director sends out his two most experienced counselors and they soon discover the grim fate of the missing counselors. But then everything goes from bad to worse when the main character returns and finds his once peaceful summer camp has been take over by six escaped mental patients. A one-man war is waged against the intruders and a bloody saga ensues.

I wanted to create a horror novel that stood out from all of the others, a horror novel that paid homage to all of the great horror films and books of the 1970’s and 1980’s.

I tend to write like a reader, so naturally I wanted to craft a tale of unrelenting violence where the novel’s characters are pushed to their absolute limits both psychically and mentally – and then are nudged even further. For me as a writer, extreme violence provides a cathartic release and pushes the ideas of convention; I feel it’s the duty of every artist whether he or she is an author, a painter, or sculpture to push the limits of conventionally, to take the reader or viewer out of their comfort zone.

I’ve been strongly influenced by the films of Kubrick, Friedkien (to this day, I still believe The Exorcist is the best horror movie ever made), and Craven. And of course the literary works of King, Barker, and perhaps the greatest horror writer of all, Mr. Jack Ketchum. All of these names mentioned above are responsible for creating some of the most memorable films and novels to date. These are the heroes who I aspire to be like.

I find it somewhat ironical that Forest of Glass actually came to me in my ninth grade English glass. There the teacher was going on about sentence structure and the importance of comma use, and I was running through the woods trying to rescue a summer camp full of escaped mental patients. I would stare up at the teacher feigning interest, meanwhile the violent images played out like a small-budget horror movie. Every so often I would get called upon to fix a sentence on the chalkboard and was rudely plucked from the bloody saga raging in my head. I would oblige the teacher and correct the sentence but then as soon as I took my seat the daydream would resume.

I knew from an early age that I was a little different from the other kids. I really never liked sports, and didn’t care about Michael Jordan. I wanted to talk about the grisly ceiling murder in A Nightmare On Elm Street, and whether or not the Texas Chainsaw Massacre was a real or made up film (even today that film still looks eerily real).

I’m obsessed with everything horror because it takes me out of my comfort zone. However, David Parker is my pen name. I use a pen name because all the great writers have done it. Plus it’s kind of nice having an alter ego. David Parker can write about anything he wants too, he is the mad creator in my head.

I have just completed my second novel, The Perennial Collective, which is the first installment of an extreme horror trilogy. I can honestly say that this book will push the reader even further out of the comfort zone than Forest of Glass. If you like being scared and made to feel a little uncomfortable, then by all means check out Forest of Glass. If not, then this book is definitely not for you, but it would make a great Christmas present for that horror fan you know. Just kidding and thanks for reading.

[Editor’s Note: David Parker was educated at the University of La Crosse in Wisconsin. He lives in Minnesota. You can purchase a copy of Parker’s first novel through Amazon.com here: Forest of Glass]

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