A Smugglerific Cover: Hunting Monsters by S. L. Huang

Today! Today, we are most delighted to unveil the cover of Book Smugglers Publishing’s very first short story.

Without further ado, BEHOLD! The smugglerific cover!

About the Story

“Happy birthday, child. Careful not to shoot any grundwirgen.”

Ever since she was a small girl, she has learned to be careful on the hunt, to recognize the signs that separate regular animals from human-cursed grundwirgen. To harm a grundwirgen is a crime punishable by death by the King’s decree – a fatal mistake that her Auntie Rosa and mother have carefully prepared her to avoid.

On her fifteenth birthday, when her mother is arrested and made to stand trial for grundwirgen murder, everything she thought she knew about her family and her past comes crashing down.

Auntie Rosa has always warned her about monsters. Now, she must find and confront them to save her mother, no matter the cost.

A Word From Your Friendly Neighborhood Editors (and Book Smugglers)

Both of us were blown away upon our first read of Hunting Monsters. A story that combines elements of popular fables such as “Beauty and the Beast” and “Red Riding Hood”, S.L. Huang’s version cleverly subverts these classic fairy tales by integrating an unexpected love story, a powerful mother-daughter relationship, and a rich historical fantasy setting.

We eventually chose to publish Hunting Monsters because it’s a powerful coming of age story of a young girl grappling with the fact that her mothers have secret lives and a history of their own. Also, because it’s a story about monsters – the different faces they assume and the complications in dealing with them.

S.L. Huang wrote an incredibly beautiful, raw story that resonates powerfully with us every time we read it. We are honored to publish Hunting Monsters… and we hope you will enjoy it, too.

About the Author

S.L. Huang justifies her MIT degree by using it to write eccentric mathematical superhero fiction. In real life, you can usually find her hanging upside down from the ceiling or stabbing people with swords. She is unhealthily opinionated at www.slhuang.com and on Twitter as @sl_huang.

About the Artist

Kristina Tsenova was born in 1995 in Bulgaria and is currently a student at Glasgow Caledonian University. Her preferred media is watercolor, acrylic and digital painting. She has had two exhibitions in 2014 and has won approx. 50 art competitions. Apart from traditional art, her interests include cinematography, literature and photography. She is also a hobbyist photographer and makes short movie clips and in the future, she would like to work on varied design projects, concept art and special effects for the movie industry. A great source of inspiration are the movies of Hayao Miyazaki and the genuine art of Pascal Campion. You can find her on deviantart and on facebook.

How to Get the Story

Hunting Monsters will be available on October 7, 2014. You’ll be able to read the short story in full for free here on The Book Smugglers, but we’ll also have a DRM-free ebook (EPUB, MOBI, AZK) that contains the story as well as a Q&A and essay from the author, available for purchase on all major ebook retail sites.

Preorder the Ebook Today
Kindle US | Kindle UK | Smashwords

Coming Soon
Google Play | B&N | Kobo | iBooks

Need a copy *right* now? Want to read it *today*? You can buy it directly from us!

Buy eBook

And read Hunting Monsters for free online HERE on October, 7, 2014.