Scott Shoyer grew up in Mt. Laurel, became a doctor of German philosophy and served as an executive chef for a number of years.
Now, Shoyer is writing a fictional zombie trilogy for horror fans everywhere.
Shoyer’s first novel “Outbreak: The Hunger” is now available for sale on Amazon. It is the first book of a planned three-part series.
Shoyer, who now lives in Austin, Texas, grew up in Mt. Laurel and was a graduate in the Lenape High School Class of 1988. It was as a kid when he first fell in love with the horror genre.
“I grew up watching horror movies,” he said. “My mom loved to watch horror movies as well.”
Shoyer’s love for horror continued into adulthood. He has a website, called anythinghorror.com where he writes candid reviews about horror films.
“I started the website toward the end of 2009,” he said. “I always felt like I wasn’t getting a real, honest review of movies. So I started it kind of as a side hobby.”
While he has been writing horror movie reviews for almost six years, Shoyer just got started in novel writing more recently. Shoyer began to write after becoming a stay-at-home father following years of working as an executive chef.
“It ended up being a great creative outlet for me,” he said. “I’ve always been attracted to that creative side with cooking.”
When he was first began brainstorming ideas for a novel, Shoyer wanted to stay away from zombies because of how many books, TV shows and movies had already been released in that sub-genre. However, he came up with an original idea after visiting the Austin Zoo many times with his son.
“My son loves animals, and for at least a year or a year and a half, I was taking my son to the zoo at least once a week,” he said. “There’s this crater there as you walk up this hill. It looks like a meteor landed there. I thought what if a meteor with some kind of virus hit and infected the animals at the zoo? When I started writing it, I thought about zombie animals who infect humans.”
Shoyer used this as the basis for his novel. In the book, a father and his daughter are at the zoo when a pack of animals becomes infected. The main characters have to avoid becoming infected while a group of scientists and soldiers at a nearby research facility try to cure the disease.
While the story for “Outbreak: The Hunger” is fiction, the setting is real. The Austin Zoo served as such an inspiration for Shoyer’s book, he decided to set the story there.
“If you were to use my novel as a map, it would take you through the zoo as described,” he said.
Shoyer had applied to numerous publishing companies to take a look at his novel. He eventually signed a contract with Severed Press, whom he said sent him a contract days after receiving his submission.
“They had open submission so I sent it,” Shoyer said. “Within 24 hours, they said they were interested in it and sent the contracts … days later.”
Despite his varied background, Shoyer said he’s not surprised about becoming a horror novel writer. Even when he was cooking and studying philosophy, a part of him always wanted to get into writing.
“In the back of my head, I always wanted to,” he said. “It was a matter of trying to solidify a good enough idea.”
Work on the sequels to “Outbreak: The Hunger” is well underway. Shoyer has already completed a draft of the second book and is working on the third.
“Part two is completed and I have a couple beta readers going through it,” he said. “It still has to go through the editing process. I’m over halfway done on part three as well. My goal is to finish the first draft by the end of July.”
“Outbreak: The Hunger” can be purchased as a paperback book or e-book on amazon.com. More information on Shoyer and his work is available at anythinghorror.com.
