Monster Attack Author Interviews: Shakeem Winn

My name is Shakeem  Winn. I was born in 1974 to a single mother in Brooklyn NY. I'm an avid lover of everything horror, science fiction and fantasy. The Star Wars movies sparked my interest in writing and creating stories. In the late eighties and early nineties, I attended the high school of Art & Design. My majors were cartooning and video media. Unfortunately, I didn't graduate due to poor academics. I dropped out in my senior year and, received my equivalency diploma through a trade school called the Job Corps program. I attended Borough Manhattan Community College and majored in writing. I write and illustrate two comics for the web such as Dunkin Skids and Kasnian Star and the Legacy of Kouros. I also write story blogs such as The Killing Tales of the Chameleon, One Clear Voice and I'am Hamzah, the Lion of Al'musta'aan. You can find all of these stories on my website at www.shakwinn.wordpress.com.

The story Dana in the Monster attack Anthology was originally written and performed as a play for the Tribeca Writer and Performance Playhouse. It's a program created by Mario Giacolone. The program is great. It encourages it's participants to write little one act plays and perform them. I love horror and I thought this was the perfect opportunity to create a story that would surprise and scare the shit out of the audience. However, I didn't want to copy or do something redundant. So, I researched folktales, fairytales and the stories of old to find an antagonist that most of us had forgotten about. I found one in this ten-year old book I had called the "Encyclopedia of Things that Never Were." Within it's pages was a short creature that resembled a man. He was a tiny thing but, he was built like a fire plug with crimson eyes and eagle talons for hands. Even more interesting was the fact that, he wore a cap covered in dry blood. I thought to myself. "Wow. What the Hell is this?" Well. It was called a "Red Cap." It was a creature that was related to the goblin family. Red caps haunted old castles in Ireland and Scotland and, they would dip their caps in the blood of the slain in order to survive. However, I gave the legend a twist. In my story. The Red Cap had a daughter named Dana who used her beauty to lure unsuspecting victims into his lair. I also put the tale in an urban setting to make it more original. Oh. I would fare poorly against a Red Cap. They maybe short but, they have superhuman strength and speed. You couldn't out run a Red Cap. At the moment. I'm working on an animated series based off of the Dunkin Skids web comic as well as the other things I told you about.

You can find me at www.shakeem@facebook.com,thielden@twitter.com, www.shakwinn@gmail.com, www.shakwinn.wordpress.com,www.kasnianstar.wordpress.com.