Introducing: The Tale of Sawney Bean

This is the second Book Introduction guest post. I’m not a big fan of horror—the genre tends to give me nightmares. But why should my squeamishness keep the rest of you from a good story? Here author Kevin J. Kennedy introduces his new horror novella.

The Tale of Sawney Bean: A Cannibal Horror Story

by Kevin J Kennedy

The legend of Sawney Bean has long been discussed and adapted into other stories. There has been discussion on which parts of the tale are fact and which parts are fiction. This book is the story from the man’s mouth himself, covering Sawney Bean’s journey from a twelve year old lad into the leader of the most notorious cannibal family to ever live. He tells the tale of how he met his wife and how they ended up raising a massive inbred clan in a secluded cave not far from the very people they were killing for food.

Here are Sawney's side of the story and the true facts of what actually happened. Was he a cold blooded cannibal or just another man trying to do his best for his family?

I was drawn to the Sawney Bean legend as a young lad after I watched the original The Hills Have Eyes movie. I absolutely loved it so when I read somewhere that Wes Craven had said he based the movie on a Scottish legend I looked a little further into it. It turned out it was based on Sawney. As I grew up, my love of anything with cannibals, cave dwellers and mountain men grew until I found an outstanding book called Off Season, by Jack Ketchum, and learned this novel was based on the same legend.

After having several stories accepted to various anthologies, I decided to write something a little longer. Having never written anything of any length I decided to write an online serial. That way I could see how many readers followed me onto the next part and I could judge how well the story was received. Due to extremely positive feedback the tale has now been published as a short novella and will soon be available in paperback.

I also wanted to write a different type of story, told from inside of a cannibal clan rather than the usual crowd of teenagers being attacked by savages and that's what I have done here. Who better to tell the tale than Sawney himself?

I hope others feel I have done the legend justice and enjoy Sawney's story.

Kevin J Kennedy is the author of several short stories published in various anthologies and the novella The Tale of Sawney Bean. He lives in a small town in Scotland with his wife, stepdaughter, and two strange little cats. He is currently published by Alucard Press and Indie Authors Press. Find him on his blog, Amazon, Facebook, or Google Plus.

Buy the book at Amazon