New Book Spotlight
Melinda West and the Gremlin Queen
A mini-interview KC Grifant
Tell us about your new book?
Melinda West and the Gremlin Queen is a supernatural western, blending horror, fantasy and historic elements. It takes place in an alternate Old West where stoic sharpshooter Melinda West and her easygoing partner, Lance, make a living hunting the menagerie of monsters that threaten towns and tribes. Facing everything from soul-stealing demons to nightmarish plagues, the duo takes on high-stakes jobs across a version of the American Southwest, armed with grit, charm and a whole lot of firepower.
When a strange illness leaves a trail of corpses in its wake, the duo realize they’re about to face their greatest challenge yet. As the bodies pile up, a swarm of gremlins—smarter, faster and deadlier than anything they’ve encountered before—are hellbent on destruction. Unless Melinda and Lance can uncover the truth behind these mysterious creatures, everything they know will be torn apart.
This is book two in a standalone interconnected series. With vibes of Supernatural, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Wynonna Earp and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, the book is geared toward readers looking for dark fantastical westerns with a twist.
What aspect of the book was the most fun to write?
I love conceptualizing new monsters, whether it’s taking a typical monster trope and tweaking it in a hopefully unexpected way, or remixing unusual animal attributes found in nature. For this book, I wanted to go with a “gremlin” type of monster. The challenge was that the word immediately evokes the iconic 1984 movie Gremlins and its sequel. So I had to push past that ingrained imagery in myself, while also steering readers away from the pop-culture reference. I set the groundwork for that in two ways: first, by giving the creatures distinct physical descriptions (bone-white flesh with blue fur), and second, by shortening the monster name to “grem.” It turned out to be a fun challenge, especially since I discovered there’s surprisingly little written about gremlins in monster lore. While the term emerged in the early 1900s, it likely draws from older, multicultural representations of goblins—essentially chaotic, disruptive beings that exist just outside human reality.
If there is one emotion or theme that you would hope that the reader connects with, what would that be?
Hope, specifically hope in the face of despair. I think we can all use that right now, and there is something in adventure fantasy/horror stories like Ghostbusters, Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Supernatural, etc. where the odds are truly stacked against the intrepid heroes despite twists and turns and superpowered enemies. Yet somehow, they prevail—often worse for wear—thanks to their empathy, desire to help, and the strength of their relationships.
