Frank Vizard's Blog: Screamer

I’ll mention a few scary creatures that appear in Screamer: Never, ever steal from a banshee. The cool thing is I didn’t have to make any of this up. These creatures are well-known in folklore and are more terrifying than the villains of most horror movies. What I’ve done is re-cast them in a modern setting.
First, of course, is the banshee, the Irish messenger of death who appears to Irish families to forewarn them with a terrifying scream of an impending death. She has one treasured possession—a comb. In Screamer, the main hero, Ryan Connor, inadvertently steals her comb and brings it back to New York. The banshee pursues. Mayhem ensues. I should note that my banshee is no Disney figure. She is a lot scarier in the old stories. Mine is based on the account of a 14th century Irish historian. The banshee is very formidable. Her scream is paralyzing and she can burn anything she touches.
Screamer also features a main character called the Cornet of Horse who is a near-immortal, giant fairy hunter who may not be quite right in his mind as he is always hearing Voices in his head that are prone to providing conflicting advice.
You may be familiar with a popular Halloween tale called The Legend of Sleepy Hollow written by Washington Irving in 1820 and made into a Johnny Depp film in 1999. Irving was the Stephen King of his day. The story features a resurrected Hessian soldier from the American Revolution called The Headless Horseman who decapitates his victims during a reign of terror in the New York village of Sleepy Hollow. Many folklorists believe Irving was inspired by the ancient story of the Dullahan told by Irish immigrants to the area. Similarly, the Dullahan carried his head in the crook of his arm and legend says wherever the Dullahan stops, someone’s name will be spoken and that person is due to die.
These headless horseman type stories are more common than you might think. Technically, these types of creatures are called cephalophores. (head carrier from the Greek) Among the better known is Saint Denis but church records name about 120 who went walking around with their heads in their hands after being decapitated. There are no satisfactory or definitive answers regarding these stories.
Washington Irving also wrote about a Dutch goblin king who took up residence in New York’s Hudson River valley. The Dutch were the first to arrive in New York. This creature was called the Heer of Dunderberg or in English, the goblin king of Thunder Mountain, which actually exists. He and his minions terrorized shipping on the Hudson River, allegedly sinking many vessels, especially English ones. I have brought the Heer of Dunderberg forward into the modern day where he is engaged in kidnapping and murder on the Hudson which runs the length of the NY state.
Some other scary creatures include:
Redcaps. I’ve borrowed a class of goblins called redcaps found on the Scottish border and transferred them to New York City where home is a now deserted island in the East River that once housed the insane. Redcaps look like short old men with long grey hair and iron boots but their fingers are like long blades. They get the name redcaps from their nasty habit of soaking their caps in their victim’s blood.
Stone Coats. Also figuring in Screamer is a band of Iroquois living in the Lake Placid region of upstate New York. They encounter what the Iroquois call Stone Coats, beings that morph into man-sized figures out of the granite slabs found in the Adirondack Mountains. Their touch turns their victims into stone.
So Screamer is a mix of some of the scarier aspects of Celtic, Dutch, and Native American folklore.

In my novel Screamer, Ryan Connor imbibes a mysterious green cocktail kept by a giant fairy hunter. The unnamed drink, produced with ingredients from a small, uninhabited Greek island, induces an epigenetic experience that allows Connor to recall the life experiences of previous generations. In modern science, epigenetic research is in its preliminary stages but the basic premise is that memory of traumatic events can be passed on to successive generations through RNA in our cells. In Screamer, the inspiration for the green cocktail came from an encounter with a Bulgarian barmaid who served me a traditional drink called oblak that combines anisette with several other ingredients including a green creme de menthe that gives the drink its brilliant emerald color. She swore I was the only non-Bulgarian male she had ever met to drink more than one! Otherwise, my memory is a hazy.Screamer: Never, Ever Steal from a Banshee.

I'm delighted to announce the debut of my novel Screamer! The novel is an international thriller with magic realism overtones set in Ireland, New York, and Rome. The tagline is: Never, ever steal from a banshee!

So what's the story? Film festival director Ryan Connor is visiting a remote part of Sligo in Ireland when he learns of a disappearing lake. Curious, he investigates and inadvertently pockets an artifact belonging to the banshee. Connor returns to New York. The banshee pursues, Mayhem ensues!

Also in the mix is an ancient Dutch demon who last terrorized New York during the American Revolution. and a mysterious redhead with an otherworldly agenda. Screamer: Never, ever steal from a banshee.