A Demon Lies Within

“A Demon Lies Within” (Horror Fiction)

By Tony Hubbard

Two Harbors Press

ISBN #978-1938690358

Price $15.95

403 Pages

Rating 5-Stars

“Well Written and Masterfully Woven Tale of Demonic Possession”

Andrew isn’t a nice husband or father. He commits adultery, physically abuses his wife and son, drinks and uses cocaine. When his wife catches him in their bedroom with another woman, he beats her terribly, and then goes after his son Joshua. Pulling a gun from her purse, given to her by a close friend, Katelyn McMurray puts two bullets into her husband. Entering Hell, Andrew hears screams from tortured souls in the darkness of his mind, then the voice of Satan’s disciple, Sonneillon, who promises him revenge on the world above, and the people he hates.

In this novel of demonic possession, Andrew’s evil being possesses Joshua and sends the family on a rollercoaster of pain and murder, and the punishment of a long trial. I don’t want to give too much away, but will say that readers who liked The Exorcist and other novels of possession will enjoy this book.

Tom Johnson

Author of Cold War Heroes

Tony Hubbard

Author Biography

Tony Hubbard grew up like most boys in Massachusetts during the 1980’s, wanting to emulate basketball star Larry Bird and one day play for the Boston Celtics. Quickly realizing that a future as a professional athlete was something he would not achieve, he did the next best thing – became a sportswriter. As a long-time sportswriter, Tony covered high school, collegiate and professional sports, most notably covering the death of Boston Celtics’ star Reggie Lewis for The Patriot Ledger.

Growing up and reading the works of Edgar Allan Poe and Stephen King, he one day aspired to publish a novel in the horror genre as his ‘writing heroes’ were famous for. After many years away from writing, leaving his professional writing career behind to make a move into the production and advertising side of the publishing business, Tony makes a return with his debut novel. Eighteen years in the making, A Demon Lies Within, releases November 2012 from Two Harbors Press.

A follower of Greek Mythology, he sees himself in the same vein as the Greek God Dionysus, the Greek God of wine, parties/festivals, madness and merriment. Dionysus not only represents the intoxicating power of wine, but also its social and beneficial influences. According to Tony, we should strive to be like Dionysus.

Massachusetts born and bred, Tony has lived all across the state throughout his life. Today he is settled in Dracut with his wife and son.

Q&A with Tony Hubbard, author of

How’d you come to write your debut novel A Demon Lies Within?

Third time’s a charm, I guess, as it was on the third attempt in trying to write the novel that I actually produced a full manuscript. The main reason it came to fruition was the result of a dream I had. After receiving my Master’s degree in Leadership from Northeastern University in August of 2009, I had several friends ask me what I was going to do with all my free time. I didn’t have an answer. One night, I dreamt that I started working on this book, which struck me as strange because I hadn’t worked on the story since my second attempt in 2000. I spent a few months doing research about exorcisms and demons and started to formulate the early chapters of the novel. In February 2010 I started writing and fortunately kept writing until I finished the first draft two years later. While the book came about as the result of a dream, several sections of the book were the result of dreams as well.

I began this novel back in 1994 thinking, “Every one of us has a novel sitting inside of us wanting to come out, ready to be shared with the world.” I still believe in that premise; that we all have a story inside of us waiting to be told, though only a very small percentage of us ever get a chance to share their particular story. I’m glad I am able to now share my story with the world.

Even through the two starts and stops, the original premise of the novel remained the same, while the story around it underwent extensive changes, it would be a story about a possessed nine-year-old boy from Maine named Joshua. With A Demon Lies Within, I think it’s pretty interesting that a father would possess his own son to carry out revenge.

It’s an incredibly shocking and dark premise – how do you get into the mindset to think up such a scenario?

I try to find things that occur in life everyday and try to put an evil twist or spin to them. For example, a person sitting at a bar working on a crossword puzzle, or someone watching a silent movie, can be pretty sinister if you let your imagination take you down that path.

Have you always been a fan of horror fiction?

It’s a genre that I’ve always enjoyed and been fascinated with from an early age. I remember in middle school and high school writing research papers on the works of Edgar Allan Poe. In college I took a Horror Fiction Writing class where we reviewed the works of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, Clive Barker and Edgar Allan Poe.

You had to research a lot about exorcisms to write some scenes. What’s something you learned that you didn’t know before?

Pretty much all of it, to be honest. The idea of an exorcism always seemed cool to me and I was fascinated by it, but I didn’t know anything about it. In doing research for the book, I read all about the different components of the ritual and actually watched a 20/20 news special where they performed an exorcism and showed it during one of the weekly episodes. I guess the biggest surprise was the amount of paperwork and review that goes into getting approval for a priest to perform and exorcism. All the red tape that has to be circumvented first was a little shocking.

Certainly a creepy and suspenseful thriller that appeals to male readers, but A Demon Lies Within also resonates with females because of the lead character Katelyn. How did you shape her personality and story?

Because the exorcism is of a young child, I wanted his mother to have a strong role within the book. While the suspense part of the novel would appeal to male readers, I wanted the female readers to be able to connect with Katelyn and be able to identify to the inner strength that all women have and to see the obstacles that she faced and was able to overcome. As she always had in the past Katelyn was able to emerge a better, stronger person.

What about Sonneillon, the demon of hatred? When you wrote his character, how much of his story was based on mythology vs. your own imagination?

There is a section of the book where Sonneillon tells his new apprentice, Andrew, all about his past and how he became the demon of hatred. The story he tells regarding the possession of Sister Louise Capreau and Father Louis Gaufridi is factual. After researching and reading about that ordeal I knew I had a character for Andrew’s master. The way that he is incorporated into the story and what he teaches Andrew is based in fiction.

Even though A Demon Lies Within features such evil characters, you also include some funny lines in the book. How did you manage to bring humor into such a dark story, and why did you want to?

I didn’t want the book to be “doom and gloom” all the time. I wanted there to be some breaks for the readers to catch their breath after reading some of the scenes or learning about some of the characters. I wanted the story and dialogue to be as real as possible. So as in life, there’s a good amount of humor in there.

A part of me wanted readers to sort of forget they were reading a horror story, to get lost within and wrapped up by the other parts of the story, particularly the relationship with Michael and Katelyn. This way the horror part of the book would sneak up on them and have a greater impact.

You started out writing sports journalism for years – what was it like going from that to fiction? Did it help you?

It did help a great deal, actually. As a sports journalist I had written many feature articles on athletes in a variety of sports: football, baseball, basketball, hockey, tennis, swimming, track and field, and volleyball to name a few. These stories were of athletes of all ages, from those participating in youth sports all the way through the high school, collegiate and professional levels. With each feature article I wanted to tell a story about someone that would resonate with my readers, finding that reason or angle to have their story connect with someone that otherwise may not know them or be interested in that particular sport. I tried to do the same thing with the story of Joshua, getting readers to connect with this young boy, his story and how the battle that is being waged inside of him is having an effect on this around him.

Do you plan to write more books?

I do. My first goal is for it to be done long before the year 2030, that it won’t take 18 years to finish. I’m currently working on my second novel.