Interviews
Interview With "Moonwarriors" Author Rusty Nugent
About His Newest Novel in the Moonwarriors saga
By AL J. Vermette


He is the author of the werewolf series "Moonwarriors" Books One and Two
and now this master of shape shifters has just released the third novel in the
"Moonwarriors" saga.  Rusty's writing is clean and direct as this author is the
next name to watch out for in the horror/ fantasy genres.


AL: Please tell the Blood Moon Rising readers (The Legion) about your
newest "Moonwarriors" novel?
Rusty: The newest book in the Moonwarriors series entitled, "In A Blackened
Dawn" picks up years after the second book.  Several of the characters have
families and are quite content with their lives.  Most of society has accepted them
with the exception of a few.  Their happiness is cut short when a supernatural being
suddenly appears claiming to be the Son of God.  While the rest of the world
worships him, the werewolves suspect that something is not right about him and
suspect his true identity and his motives are in reality, sinister.  Also, Walter and
Mary and several others have a reality show sort of like Cops where they chase
down evil and kill it.

AL: Since the last "Moonwarriors" book from a few years ago and this new
novel, please tell us what you have been up too?
Rusty: Dealing with my ailing health and the doctors that go along with it.  But like
my main character, Walter Volknor, I don't intend to go down without a fight.  A few
months after my first Moonwarriors was released, it was discovered I had a
congenital heart defect called, Trans Postion of the Great Arteries.  It means my
left and right main arteries formed backwards when I was a baby and my heart was
also twisted on the bottom.  It also seems the electrical charge that makes our
hearts beat naturally was dying in mine and I needed a pacemaker.  I got the
pacemaker implanted which lead to me having Congestive Heart Failure.  After
Hurricane Katrina, I moved to Tennessee where I got a new pacemaker and put on
medication for my heart.  So all that has kept me pretty busy.

AL: Will this be the last of your werewolf novels or will there be more to
come after the release of the new book?
Rusty: I plan on writing an origin story about how werewolves and vampires were
created.  It will be entitled, "Moon Sorrow."  It will be the fourth and final book in the
Moonwarriors series.

AL: To remind our readers of your past work, please describe the two
other books in the "Moonwarriors" saga?
Rusty: The first Moonwarriors tells the tale of Walter Volknor, a young werewolf
farmer who witnesses his family being slaughtered by master vampire Avatar and
his underlings in medieval Romania (Dacia).  He vows revenge and travels the
world in his efforts to end the vampires' reign of horror over the population.  He
meets his best friends Bordak, Stytentos, and Golarin as well as the love of his life,
Mary Chambers.  They aid him in his adventures and become a surrogate family of
sorts to one another.

 The second book in the series, entitled, "Guardians of the Night" picks up with a
depressed and disillusioned Stytentos living in a monastery in Nepal.  His people
were nearly exterminated by the humans after a few murders took place, set up by
an evil werewolf and the vampires.  He has dream that Lady Knight Mary asks for
him to return and lead their remaining people out of darkness and rebuild their
numbers to battle the vampires threatening the world.  He does so reluctantly but
eventually it pays off when it is revealed that Walter and Mary have been
reincarnated in the modern day.  They have to save the world from the vampire
threat and gain allies in the most unlikely places.
AL: Other than your werewolf tales, what other things, stories and projects have
you been working on since your last interview from a few years ago?
Rusty: I'm currently writing an erotic horror story entitled, Essence of Evil and a
short story compilation of scary and weird tales entitled, Nether Worlds.

AL: Please tell our readers how the whole story of "Moonwarriors" came to
be?
Rusty: I had been writing on a comic book that my brother, a friend of mine and I
had created a few years before, called, The Executioner.  It was going to be about
a heroic vigilante that took place in the far future on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.  
Kind of a cross between Batman and the Punisher.  Well, it never came to fruition
but my girlfriend had read the scripts for it and loved my writing.  We had been
talking about how when we were kids we had seen The Howling and An American
Werewolf In London and thought they were great films but that the poor werewolf
always seemed to have the same, boring story line.  So, my girlfriend Mary asked
me if I would write her a medieval story about heroic werewolves that fought
vampires and other assorted monsters of varying description.  And I thought, Hmm,
why not?  So I did.  I started writing it in 1996 or ‘97.  Almost 10 years before
Underworld and other films of its like came out.  I was right at the forefront of the
werewolf vs. vampire genre. It may have become popular because of
Moonwarriors.  But who's to say?

AL: Your fiction has such a high adventure mixed with iconic horror
creatures, do you enjoy movies of the same nature like "Underworld" and
"Dawn of The Dead"?
Rusty: I enjoyed both Dawn of The Dead films, the original by George Romero and
the remake.  Terrifying.  Underworld is pretty good but a bit silly.  I still enjoyed it.

AL: Have you written other fiction using the werewolf as your main
protagonist as well?
Rusty: No. Only Moonwarriors so far.

AL: Other than werewolves and vampires, what other creatures to you like
to write about or watch in movies?
Rusty: Oh, goodness.  All kinds.  Supernatural killers, possessed killer autos, sea
monsters, sharks, zombies, you name it.

AL: What would you like to say to all the new writers out there looking to
get their first story in print?
Rusty: Don't give up on your dream. You can do it. Believe in yourself.

AL: ....And lastly, what's next for you and your writing?
Rusty: I have no idea.  But we shall see.
Interview with Rusty
Nugent, author of
Moonwarriors saga,
click here

Interview with Michael
Baliff, director and actor
of 2 Hours, click here