Guest Post: The Hunted with Kristy Berridge

Like most kids, I didn’t know what I wanted to be when I grew up. I had grand plans of course, never expecting that my life would evolve so much that I would one day become a supernatural fiction writer.

But now that I am, I get to live in a world of make believe, fulfill fantasies, and kill off perfectly despicable characters.

I’ve always been intrigued by the horror genre, peeking between my fingers at an early age, fascinated by the characters played out on film and television. Natural progression and a love of reading saw me picking up supernatural books, enjoying the whimsy and downright gritty context within. I started to wonder if this was something I could do, to pen a book filled with characters and plots that have long since captured my attention.

So one day I did.

The Hunted started out as a bit of fun. I sat down thinking that surely someone will laugh at me. Surely everyone will think I’m mad for believing I could be a writer. But I guess sometimes the ‘what if’ wins out and you do something completely outside of the box, something that fulfills you and pushes you in a way that nothing else has.

Words started to flow, my ideas thick and fast. Certainly not all of them good, but nevertheless, my fingers got a work out, flying over my keyboard, barely able to keep up. I was like a woman possessed. I couldn’t seem to get enough of this make believe world I’d created.

I started to feel like the characters were real, that their thoughts and actions were based entirely on the events surrounding them. I laughed with them, I cried with them. I even pulled funny faces when someone said something offensive. I think I left a little piece of myself within the pages.

The Hunted was created from an idea, but its success lies in the reader’s interpretation. I wrote the book hoping to achieve something beyond the ordinary. I wanted people to join me in this world of relatable characters and often confronting imagery. I’ve always been drawn to strong female leads and the need to not silence the violence, so hopefully to those that take this journey with me understand why I leave no detail unexplored.

To those that say the vampire genre has been overdone, please take a closer look. Nothing in Elena Manory’s world is what it seems. She may be destined to become a vampire on her eighteenth birthday, but what if fate had changed everything? What if those she loved and trusted were to betray her?

Follow her on a journey that’s often gritty and emotionally jarring. Meet vampires that aren’t afraid to use their fangs and werewolves that shape-shift at will and destroy human life at a whim. Discover magic and the mysteries of the human condition—learn that the greatest enemy of all can be the one person you put your faith in.

I invite you all inside my head, to unravel the mystery and yearn for more—be afraid of nothing and accomplish everything. Happy reading!
 
Learn more about Kristy Berridge at www.kristyberridge.com.