Best-Selling Author Predicted Latest Loch Ness Discovery; Author to Sell Mass Market Paperback Rights
N.Y. Times best-selling author Steve Alten predicted the latest Loch Ness discovery. Alten will be selling the mass market paperback rights to The LOCH to a new publisher in August, along with his latest novel MEG: Hell's Aquarium.
(PRWEB) June 4, 2007 -- N.Y. Times best-selling author Steve Alten was not surprised when amateur scientist Gordon Holmes filmed what is believed to be the best footage ever taken of the fabled monster, described as a giant 45-foot eel.
"Before I wrote THE LOCH, I spent two years researching the book, speaking with experts and locals to gain insight on the latest findings. Even though its fiction, The LOCH science from myth and details how a giant eel came to be trapped in Loch Ness. My primary researcher (William McDonald) actually documented eel slide tracks frozen in the mud after a sighting in 2004. Then, in April of 2005, we heard a report of two American college students locating a 4-inch tooth in a half-eaten deer carcass on Loch Ness's shoreline. We were never sure if the tooth story was real or a hoax, but we had experts analyze the photos and the description match this latest video footage perfectly."
Following the tooth story, The LOCH's publisher, Tsunami Books, had offered a $10,000 bounty to fishermen in the United Kingdom to find an eel whose teeth matched the one reported by the students. Steve Newton of Plymouth, England was the winner, landing an 83-pound specimen, but it was Captain Tony Allen of Clearwater, Florida, who provided an eel whose barbed teeth that matched the student's photos. Convinced, Tsunami Books then commissioned a museum artist to create a replica eel skull that would precisely match the 4-inch tooth found by the students. The result: a six-foot, six-inch monstrous head, belonging to a creature that would reach 40-50 feet in length.
Tsunami Books is closing its door this summer, and Alten will be selling the mass market paperback rights to The LOCH to a new publisher in August, along with his latest novel MEG: Hell's Aquarium. Meanwhile, it seems the details of his fictional novel are coming true.
"It pays to do the research and get the science right," says Alten. "Readers appreciate the extra mile. The e-mails have been coming in non-stop telling me I got it right. Now all we have to do is capture the thing and the story will be real."
Steve Alten can be contacted at MEG82159 @ aol.com More photos of the skull and the actual video footage taken of the 4-inch tooth can be found at http://www.theloch.com.
###
|
