Terror Beneath The Bayou is not my first book written but it has the distinction of being my first published book. The nucleus of the story is based on insect-like creatures featured in ‘The Zanti Misfits’, aired on The Outer Limits TV show in 1963. These extraterrestrial “bugs” are a foot-long with ant bodies and legs, human-like faces and eyes, long antenna and a whir-like sound, all of which made them more comical than scary.

But comical was not what I intended for my story. I wanted my creatures to be bad-ass versions of Zantis. This I managed by giving my bugs the ability to fly, like beetles, and a stinger with a venom that kills victims in seconds. Killing is one thing but I wanted a more visual, more yucky description, and this came as I developed the inciting incident with Mr. Tullis’ body in the factory. I beefed up the bug venom to a super enzyme powerful enough to dissolve a human body in minutes which let the reader see every stage of liquification.

I also considered communication between the sheriff and his deputies which, I felt, needed to be slower and more cumbersome than the technology we enjoy today. This led me to set the story in the mid-1980’s when mobile phones had been developed but were in limited use. Other aspects of the story came relatively easily through research of southern Louisiana geology, chassigny meteorites and standard law enforcement protocol. For the latter, my older brother, a Chattanooga, Tennessee police officer for thirty years, provided useful insights and suggestions.

The description that Dr. Potter gives his ex-student, Jennifer Reynolds, about his graduate field work in the Venezuelan jungle and spiritual beliefs of the local Indian tribes, came from my two years living and working in Venezuela; see Biography. During that time, I made several trips into Venezuela’s jungle interior where I met indigenous people and learned some of their traditional beliefs.

Another area of experience I have is pest control and that worked well with this story. The last year of my employment at the snack food factory in Chattanooga, see Biography, before I transferred into the company’s international division, I worked as supervisor of sanitation and pest control, giving me an understanding of pesticides and their use. Added to that is my bachelor degree in biology which came in handy in creating the bug venom and the creatures’ unique metabolism.

As with most of my books, it is my intent to write tales that are as factually feasible as possible. The exception being Betwixt And Between, a cryptic mystery that veers from reality out of necessity. In addition to facts, I have a pet peeve about swear words in modern literature and I intentionally limit such language at or below a medium threshold in all that I write.

Some readers have asked me about a sequel to Terror Beneath The Bayou but alas, with one book down and a weariness with bugs, I turned my attention to a more personal story, a tale about four boys and an old alligator, Saving Moses. With still other tales holding my attention, that sequel in southern Louisiana will have to wait.