Josh Hancock is a teacher and author. His non-fiction hardcover book, Cabin 28: The Keddie Murders (Adelmore Press), sold out its 500-copy run a few months after publication and has become a rare collector’s item. To accompany the book, Hancock produced and edited two documentary films (Cabin 28: The Keddie Murders Part I and Part II), which have reignited interest in one of Northern California’s most bizarre unsolved homicides.
His love for horror began at a young age, wandering up and down the video store isles admiring all the glorious horror covers. It was films like John Carpenter‘s Halloween and Tobe Hooper‘s The Texas Chainsaw Massacre that really stood out to him. Josh’s parents always kept a good amount of Stephen King books lying around as well, which Carrie in particular, greatly influences Josh’s first novel.
Josh Hancock’s first novel, The Girls of October is an epistolary novel which tells the followng story:
The Girls of October tells the story of a young woman who develops a strange fascination with John Carpenter’s Halloween, believing that somewhere within the 1978 horror classic lays the truth behind an arcane force that has terrorized her since her childhood.
As an escape from a world that has not always been kind, film student Beverly Dreger takes comfort in spooky urban legends, horror movies, and monster magazines. But when a string of bizarre murders draws her closer to the folkloric entity known as “the bogeyman,” Beverly must unravel the mystery of her past and confront an ancient evil.
The Girls of October is an incredibly interesting and enticing experience. At first it is a bit jarring to get used to the document style of story telling. It utilizes multiple different kinds of written media to tell a tale of a troubled girl who is suspected of murder. Through police records, psyche papers, short stories and scripts the whole novel is presented in such a way that makes it feel real. Everything is written in a unique voice and from a different perspective. The style creates an extraordinary and immersive experience that leaves you satisfied and nostalgic in all 70’s horror. Josh Hancock harnesses his influences of Halloween, Texas Chainsaw Massacre, and even digs deep into his Stephen King roots to successfully and entertainingly tell a story that will make your hair on the back of your neck stand up and look over your shoulder.
Josh has been teaching English for the past 20 years, and currently teaches at West Valley College in Saratoga, CA. Working full time and also working as a horror writer is a lot, but Josh Hancock manages time and time again to deliver. Be sure to pick up a copy of The Girls of October.
