By MICHAEL GINGOLD
It’s a woodlands monster story and a lot more.
DOPEFOOT, the latest novel by Joshua Millican (TELEPORTASM, CHOPPING MALL), is coming from Mad Axe Media June 16. The synopsis: “When a college dropout accepts work on a cannabis farm in the woods of Northern California, he realizes almost immediately the harsh realities of this life won’t match his naïve fantasies. He’ll have to work hard—and watch his back. Dubbed ‘Harmless’ by his cultish cohorts, the young man learns the logistics of cultivation and the dark philosophies dictating conduct in this outlaw wilderness.
“The farm sits on a mountain the locals call Satan’s Tumor, above a valley called The Green Cauldron, where dangerous elements have been brewing beneath the misty canopy. Overstimulated gangs of smugglers and well-funded foreign mobsters vie for control of this fertile territory, threatening to disrupt an elaborate ecosystem that predates history. And beneath it all, in the most dismal corners of The Green Cauldron, even darker forces are stirring…angry, agitated, pushed to the brink. The forest is an explosive tinderbox on the verge of ignition.”
Those dark forces include the region’s legendary bipedal beast. “I’m a California native, and Bigfoot is our state cryptid,” says Millican (pictured), who will support the book’s release with signing events and appearances this summer and fall. “When I relocated to Northern California, I wanted to immerse myself in a creative project inspired by my new environment. When you get above Sacramento, nature closes in, triggering primal fears. Bigfoot is like a wildly popular, free IP, so I knew there would be a built-in fan base. At the same time, I wanted to push the boundaries in order to create something original, or at least innovative. So I avoided the most common elements: camping, hunting, lost in the woods, car breakdowns. And I wanted the characters to be just as interesting as the elusive creature. I tried to build it into an explosive, near-apocalyptic nightmare, and I hope I succeeded!”
DOPEFOOT is currently available for pre-order as both a trade paperback and an e-book at the Mad Axe webstore.
