In 2019, Texan Shaun Hamill published “A Cosmology of Monsters,” a horror novel in the vein of H.P. Lovecraft. Garnering a write up with NPR, landing on Goodreads Choice Readers Best Horror of 2019 semifinalist list, and a review from Stephen King who said “If John Irving ever wrote a horror novel, it would be something like this. I loved it”, Hamill’s debut novel set in a small fictional Texas town generated a great bit of buzz. Hamill is back with his second novel, “The Dissonance.”

A deviation from horror, “The Dissonance” ventures into the genre of fantasy. “In the midst of COVID, I was alone in my apartment in Alabama, missing my friends and had this idea of a magic system that combined into this novel – a novel about friends, finding your tribe, and reconnecting.” 

The Plot of “The Dissonance”

In “The Dissonance,” high school friends Hal, Athena and Erin go back to their hometown, Clegg, Texas, when they’re summoned by some mysterious force. Trained in the Dissonance by the eccentric Professor Marsh, the former students must relive and reckon with the choices they made years ago. Connecting with closeted teenager Owen from Alabama, the three must come together to figure out if the decisions they made in their past connect to an apocalyptic event happening over Texas. The former teen friends, now hapless adults, must work through what is real and what may end them. 

Hamill grew up in Arlington, moved to Iowa as part of the Iowa Writers’ Workshop, relocated to Alabama and has since found himself back in DFW. He draws location inspiration in both novels from the place he grew up and places he’s lived along the way. “They’re roughly inspired by real places, but I like to make up locations to have the freedom to wreck them a bit,” he says. “In a weird way, it’s very fertile ground…which has proved very potent for my story toolkit. I can write about that with some authority.”

Hamill felt he “made the mistake” when he sold his first book of not having a second book already in progress. “That really messed with me and the wheels would come off after a few thousand words.” In fact, it wasn’t until 2020 that he narrowed into fantasy rather than horror for his second novel. “That was a big step to decide to not write a straight horror novel. I didn’t feel like I had anything interesting to say about horror. I said everything I had to say about horror.”

Character-Driven Stories

While horror and fantasy aren’t everyone’s genre, they are the stories that interest Hamill. More than anything, he’s drawn to stories with well-written characters. While in Iowa getting his MFA, he realized he could be a writer who wrote horror with well-developed characters. “Cosmology” was a book he felt was very much in his wheelhouse, a non-traditional horror story in his own voice.

As a reader and, possibly more importantly, a fan of Hamill’s writing, the genres he writes in shouldn’t detract you from picking up his work. He says, “I want characters I’m invested in and I’m looking to watch them struggle, grow and change in whatever arc that takes – up against a dragon or a marriage in trouble.” At the heart of his writing are people that are deeply flawed but as he says, “All the set dressing doesn’t matter if you don’t care about the characters.”  

Understanding and developing characters is evident in “The Dissonance” where he portrays believable teenagers full of feelings and angst in the 1990s and bringing them into the twenty-first century as we see them as adults. It’s not a surprise that Hamill easily pulls in characters this way as he has maintained some of his teenage friendships from the 90s to now.

Writing is such a project of passion and Hamill embodies that passion in the worlds he creates and the characters that live in them – monsters and humans alike. He shared one of the best pieces of advice he got from a fellow writer: “Don’t write your books for people who don’t like them. You’re not always trying to please everyone.”

COVID changed the world of publishing and the way authors are able to promote their work. While crowds are a lot harder to come by at stores, fantasy novels and, particularly fantasy writers, have become much more popular in the past several years. Of course, not everyone can be established with fanbases of the likes of Sarah J. Maas or Rebecca Yarros, but Hamill also knows his books are for people that like them and don’t necessarily appeal to all readers. Readers who care about deeply written characters and stories, however, should give “The Dissonance” a read. 

Hamill’s Writing Process

I asked Hamill if he spends most of his reading time in the genres he writes. He said he reads a lot of things to write blurbs on so they’re adjacent to his own writing. “When I’m writing a book, I like to bathe in the genre and I do end up reading a lot of fiction that doesn’t fulfill my criteria,” he says. When writing “The Dissonance,” he read a lot of Robert E. Howard (writer of “Conan the Barbarian”) to ground himself in world building, magic and balancing action and violence.

When he wrote “A Cosmology of Monsters,” he read all H.P. Lovecraft, a writer he “wouldn’t recommend for a lot of reasons – he never wrote an interesting character but there was a lot to learn from his fiction.”. Most of his reading is to put him in the right headspace for what he wants rather than what he’s looking for as a reader.

Interestingly, Hamill prefers to write all his first drafts in longhand on a yellow legal pad with a Sharpie pen. Sharpie pens were recommended to him for signing books and now he just likes writing with them. Like most of us, he can type faster than he can think so it forces him to slow down and think through what he’s trying to say and how best to say it. “By the time I type it up, I’m already in draft two so I’ve done a lot of the work ahead of time. I usually need headphones and white noise or film scores or ambient music to block out the world,” he said.

Looking Ahead

For his next venture, Hamill would love to write a sequel to “The Dissonance.” He’s working on a few intellectual property novels that are coming out in the next year. He’s excited to see what comes next for him and where his writing and his characters may take him.

With spooky season coming around the corner, both books by Hamill would be great additions to your Fall reading plate. Whether you’re into horror or fantasy, Hamill weaves tales that leave you thinking about the people around you, the impact you make on the world, and sometimes questioning what is real and what is not. 

Both novels can be found online and in bookstores. He can be found on Facebook (shaun.hamill.18), Instagram (@shaunhamill) and X (@shaunhamill). 

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Cover photo credit Cedric May