You read that correctly. This one’s for the adults. Emmy Award-winning TV Writer and New York Times bestselling author, Joshua Pruett’s Nightmare Burger / Andrews McMeel Publishing releases next month. Be afraid!
About Nightmare Burger:
Bring an appetite and your body armor and prepare yourself for Nightmare Burger, the burger that bites you back! Because losing your best friend can feel a lot like fighting a malevolent fast-food franchise from hell. For fans of Five Nights at Freddy’s and My Best Friend’s Exorcism! Pruett (Mystery Science Theater 3000, Phineas and Ferb) delivers his signature wit, heart, and off-the-wall humor to this out-of-this-world horror-coaster ride! Place your order now for Nightmare Burger, and eat it before it eats you.
About the Author:
Joshua Pruett is an Emmy Award-winning screenwriter, New York Times bestselling author and the only human being on Earth who’s written for both Mystery Science Theater 3000 and Doctor Who.
Best known for his work on Phineas and Ferb, Joshua turned a yautja into a summer camp slasher in his story for the Predator: Eyes of the Demon anthology, wrote the Hawkins gang in an episode of Stranger Things: Tales From ‘85 and contributed storyboards to the Shudder Original, Glorious, directed by Rebekah McKendry.
Many readers in the #kidlit world know his middle grade novels and may recall a previous blog post about GYRO AND THE ARGONAUTS! aka the BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN*
Nightmare Burger is his first adult horror novel.
Let’s ask some questions:
Inspiration
Q 1. Where did the idea for Nightmare Burger come from?
Joshua Pruett: I had been sitting on the title and the concept for years before nailing down a real story. Primarily, I wanted to build something that was the most me thing I could write, straddling comedy, heart, and horror — with plenty of monsters!
Horror!
Q 2. Were you into horror films when you were a kid? Where and when did this genre grab you? (Insert scream sFx)
Joshua Pruett: I was always terrified of scary stuff when I was a kid, but that quickly turned into a fascination with scary things and monsters and why they affected me so much.
I was the kid who was too afraid to actually watch A Nightmare on Elm Street, but would then pester everyone else on the playground for all the lore and backstory and details they would spill; building my own stories based on the previews or the VHS covers I scoped out at the video store; daring myself to turn the most intense cover boxes over and see what horrors lurked inside.
I started off as a real creature feature kid, loving Tremors and Godzilla, before moving to Halloween and Night of the Living Dead.
Characters
Q 3. They say each book is a tiny bit autobiographical. Which character in Nightmare Burger is most like you?
Joshua Pruett: The truth is, they’re all a little bit like me —
- I’ve felt the bite of unrequited love like Matty.
- Have dealt with loss and treasure friends more than I love some family the same way Gary does.
- Been an older sibling like Rachel and struggle with the knowledge and burden that I’m usually right the way that Linda does!
- But Gary sounds like I do, in his sense of humor and his warmth and his outlook on life.
Favorite Scenes
Q 4. Which was your favorite scene to write?
Joshua Pruett: The opening sequence with Matty at the All Night Burger was in my head for years, so getting that out on paper was a genuine thrill. But there are some truly disturbing moments in the back of the restaurant later in the book that were a real blast to write, as well as the strange and unsettling fate of the restaurant’s first owners.
The real joy of writing Nightmare Burger was building a world and a location that could be the ultimate sandbox to play in; it’s part haunted house, part demon possession horror, part inter-dimensional alien invasion, part creature feature all rolled into one.
Process
Q 5. How does your process with Nightmare Burger differ from writing a mg story like Gyro and the Argonauts! aka the BEST BOOK EVER WRITTEN*: *About a Kid Named After a Sandwich (Volume 1)?
Joshua Pruett: The process is very very similar actually, especially structurally. The main difference is the voice of the book — in Gyro, the narrator is nearly a character himself, ushering readers through the story. In Burger, I took a step back, allowing the moments to play in front of the reader as they read, unspooling in front of them so that the scary moments could be scary and the comedy moments could be funny.
Q 6. What, if any, influences came from your experience as a writer on projects such as Dr. Who andMystery Science Theater 3000 ?
Joshua Pruett: As a fan, Doctor Who and Mystery Science Theater 3000 influence virtually anything and everything I do, and having written for both of those worlds/universes continues to be some of the greatest pleasures and honors of my career!
When it comes to MST3k, it’s tapping into that ability to view a moment from the outside, to find comedy where it might not be obviously funny, to riff on something strange or insane and find humor. And to be fearless about it.
For my Doctor Who DNA, it comes down to trying to find a wit, a cleverness, a smarter approach, and always looking for a human way into something, especially when it is, on its face, utterly outrageous. And in both cases, a real love for rubber monsters from other worlds, which, Nightmare Burger absolutely delivers on.
Surprises
Q 7. Were there any surprises that occurred as you wrote the book?
Joshua Pruett: Pam the dog and getting into her head/POV was something that really surprised me that was not in the initial plan for the story, as well as spending so much time with Sheila, voice of the All Night Burger drive-thru – if I’m honest, she really ran away with my heart on this book.
What’s Next
Q 8. What’s next for you – as an author and/or in tv/film?
Joshua Pruett: I am so thrilled to finally have an adult horror book out in the world and I cannot wait to hear what people think about the worlds and characters of Nightmare Burger.
In 2027, I have the sequel to Gyro on its way, plus an original graphic novel STAR WARS: X-WING ACADEMY plus the collected edition of Disney
Tim Burton’s THE NIGHTMARE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: ALL HAIL THE PUMPKIN KING and my third original audio book for DOCTOR WHO. Currently cooking up lots more, and a few more original adult horror books are in the pipe!
WOW! Such cool projects, Josh. Congrats!
Happy (and SCARY) book release to you and Nightmare Burger next month. Psst–You can pre-order it here!
To learn more about Joshua Pruett and his work
Visit https://linktr.ee/JoshuaPruett or
follow him on Instagram @zombietardis
Up next on the blog:
We chat with Suzanne Poulter Harris about her picture book biography,
The Boy Behind the Wardrobe
How C.S. Lewis Grew Up to Create Narnia
Illus. Mira Miroslavova
(Eerdmans BFYR)
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