About Hunting Ground
a science fiction novel by Elrod Stanton
Outskirts Press, December 2008
I began writing Hunting Ground while working a temp job, trying to make ends meet. I’d been trying to get a couple of my short stories published with no success when another writer friend suggested I try writing a novel. Writing was all that was keeping me sane, so I figured a novel would keep me going a lot longer than short fiction, whether I got it published or not.
I had the idea for the alien race, what they were all about, and how they came to be interested in our planet. What wasn’t clear to me were the human characters and their interactions with each other–what they was all about.
The person I worked for at the temp job was always talking about his son who was attending the Savannah College of Art and Design in Savannah, Georgia. In my convoluted way of thinking, I snatched a germ of an idea and the character Jacob Orion “Buddy” Brown was born.
And here is the real thing about Hunting Ground. It’s not simply about a race of alien hunters known as the Phoron who are drawn to Earth for their sport. The story is really about Buddy Brown, a pudgy, lackluster professor of videography from Savannah, Georgia, and about Lilongwe, an exotic dancer, part-time prostitute and strong-willed woman from Malawi, East Africa. Lilongwe’s 400 pound aunt is initially there for comic relief. However, by the end of the book, the reader will find out that “Big Mamoo,” as Buddy calls her, has become much more than that.
The main theme of the book is not only about how humans, particularly, Buddy, Lilongwe and Big Mamoo deal with the terrifying events of the Phoron coming to Earth, but also chronicles the strange and tumultuous relationship between Buddy and Lilongwe.
In the beginning of the story, Buddy is a self-indulgent buffoon. Lilongwe, on the other hand, is a tough-minded independent woman who has scratched and fought for everything she owns, and isn’t about to let anyone, particularly Buddy, interfere with her way of life.
The fact is, in any novel, science fiction or otherwise, if you don’t have strong, rich, well-developed, interesting and entertaining characters, you don’t have much of a story. This book chronicles Buddy Brown’ transformation into something greater than he was and, conversely, how Lilongwe’s underlying insecurities take a toll on her life.
Elrod Stanton
Ocracoke Island, NC
January, 2011
Read my review of Hunting Ground here:
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