On the blog today, a book that I’m particularly excited to check out! Featured today is Teresa Lo, author of Hell’s Game. If you know me at all, you know I’m a huge fan of horror. There’s something about that shivery feeling you get when you read a particularly good one…oooh.
On Halloween night in Deer Creek, Kansas, Jake Victor, Ashley and Ashton Gemini, and Kristin Grace convince Ronnie Smalls to meet them at the town cemetery, which local folklore has always rumored to be the Gateway to Hell. Their intention was only to scare him, but soon the wicked prank becomes actual horror as the group learns the Gateway is all too real. After demons snatch Ronnie and drag him to Hell, the terrified foursome vow to keep what they had seen a secret.
Two years later, the group receives a mysterious letter, an invite to play a high-stakes game in Hell. If they win, they release Ronnie’s soul as well as their own from eternal damnation. If they lose, they are stuck in Hell forever. Choosing to play, they face nightmare after nightmare as each level escalates in intensity and forces them to face the seven deadly sins.
Inspired by the legends of the Gateway to Hell in Stull, Kansas, Hell’s Game explores the cruelty that teenagers can inflict upon each other as well as the horrors that exist amongst mankind. It is a dark, action-packed young adult novel that will both scare its readers and make them question the true meaning of evil.
Teresa Lo was kind enough to agree to an interview, so without further ado I give you her amazing answers!
1) Since Hell’s Game has a horror aspect to it, let’s talk horror movies! Are you a fan? If so, what are some of your favorites?
I love movies, and I’m a film reviewer for the website, Just Seen It
www.justseenit.com, so I’m really glad you asked me about my favorite horror flicks! I tend to avoid gore and slasher pictures, but I really like psychological horror like
Rosemary’s Baby,
The Silence of the Lambs, or
Frailty. Most recently, I saw and loved
The Grey, and I was surprised that it took a clever twist on the tired trope of slasher movies, which tend to always be the cliché of teens picked off by a random serial killer. Essentially, it was the story of a group of plane survivors who were getting picked off one by one by either the elements or wolves.
The Grey really had a clever twist to an old genre!
2) Hell’s Game is being made into a movie, what does the tagline on the poster say?
I have a background in screenwriting, so the question “What if this were made into a movie?” is always in the back of my mind. I imagine the poster being the group of characters standing in front of the haunted church with the tagline, “Are you ready to play Hell’s Game?”
3) What is your favorite part about being a writer?
I like being inspired by every day things. A magazine article. A day at the park. A song on the radio. Anything can inspire a story, and coming up with ideas and talking about those ideas are always fun. It’s the execution of the idea that’s hard, but even then, it’s cool to see the results.
4) Is there a fun fact about yourself that you’d like to share with us?
Years ago, I went on a meeting with a Hollywood production company to discuss my writing, and it was one of my first meetings like that ever. A few days before, I had bought a Bump-It on clearance from Target, and for some reason, I decided to wear the Bump-It to the meeting. My hair was very Amy Winehouse-style, and I looked ridiculous. The person who I met with acted as if she didn’t notice, but I could tell she thought I was weird!
5) Are there any new books in the works that you’d like to give us a peek at?
At the moment, I’m brewing some ideas, but nothing fleshed out yet. Before Hell’s Game, I published two collections of short stories, Realities and The Other Side, and I’d be really interested in doing something like that again.
Teresa Lo was born and raised in Coffeyville, Kansas, population of 10,000 and home of the Interstate Fair and Rodeo and the legendary Dalton Gang. Her Chinese-American family was one of three Asian families in their conservative, Midwest town, and they ran the popular China Garden restaurant, which Teresa worked at from ages twelve to eighteen.
To learn more about Teresa, visit her website!
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