Seaport, Oregon, 1978 . . . Steve sits in class, half-listening to a boring lecture about Moby Dick, and staring out the window - as a Tyrannosaurus Rex prowls the football field. Sometimes, Steve imagines things. Dinosaurs. B-movie monsters. And sometimes he hears a deep, overly-dramatic voice, like one straight out of a sci-fi movie trailer:
"Can your heart stand the suspense?"
Steve wants to be a special effects artist one day, and he spends many solitary hours in his dad's auto repair shop, animating scaly creatures made of modeling clay. His good friends, Mihn, a Vietnamese refugee, and Ken, a 250 pound wrestler and closeted Abba fan, don't seem to mind.
After a storm hits the Oregon Coast, Steve's biology teacher, Mister Fishback, finds a huge heap of tentacle, fin, fur - and one awful, staring eye - dead on Ono Beach. Is Mister Fishback's Monster a fish? A mammal? A prehistoric throw back? "Or is it some terrible, mutant combination of species?"
Every eccentric character along the coast tries to solve the gruesome mystery - including Tom McCall, running for a third term as governor. Steve brings an 8mm camera, hoping to scrounge footage for one of his monster epics. But when he unknowingly captures an ugly incident on Kodachrome, Steve becomes a target. Someone wants that film. Someone powerful.
"Just how far will they go to get it?"
Steve's life morphs into the kind of weird monster movie you can only see very late at night, or on the warped screen of the last drive in theater. And the special effects are amazing.
About the Author: When Steve Sabatka was five years old, he saw the original, classic King Kong for the first time. He hasn't been the same since. As a kid, Steve started making 8mm movies, animating clay dinosaurs in miniature jungles, and dreaming of becoming the next Ray Harryhausen. But by the time Steve was a senior in high school, stop motion had become a dying art. Steve started writing - and dreaming of being the next Ray Bradbury. When he was in college, Steve met Fay Wray in person at a film festival in Dallas, Texas. So effusive was his praise and appreciation for Ms. Wray, that the aging actress felt it prudent to alert theater security guards. Happily, no charges were preferred. Steve also met his childhood idol, Ray Harryhausen - and actually shook the hand that gave frame-by-frame life to Mighty Joe Young, and Gwangi. Steve lives in Newport, Oregon, just a few blocks from the ocean, and teaches at Newport High School - home of the Cubs. Mister Fishback's Monster is his first published book.
