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Date: 11/7/2023
BELCHERTOWN — Author and Belchertown resident Jordan J. Hall recently released his first book, “Mammoth, Massachusetts” a collective of speculative folk fiction, sci-fi and horror that combines unfortunate histories with the world of folk tales.
“I tell people that you will laugh, cry, gag and shudder.” Hall said, “I think you can get this book and jump into it at any time. You can see yourself in this book. You can see your hometown in this book, but you can also be far away in an ancient place.”
Hall said Mammoth includes 20 stories that investigate virtues of the natural world, the importance of local legends and what it means to be part of a community.
Since moving to the Pioneer Valley and Western Massachusetts, Hall said he gained a lot of inspiration for his stories from the geography and history of the area.
He said, “I was surprised how agrarian it was and then you start to meet the people and the places that were affected. What I learned about the Quabbin I could not stop thinking about it. While I was there, I learned the story about Quabbin Bobbers about a Falcon cam that had been taken down due to a domestic cat and so I could not stop seeing a larger story there.”
Hall also took inspiration for his stories from the Belchertown State School property before it was abandoned.
Hall said, “Readers will learn stuff whether you know it or not. You will get fed important parts of history that you may or may not know about. I think new monsters’ people never heard about will be presented and I think there are new takes on old ideas as well.”
Hall grew up in Wisconsin before moving to New York City for 20 years to pursue film and television.
He is a graduate of the University of Minnesota Duluth where he majored in theater.
Hall was a production manager with CollegeHumor and produced other content and did some marketing work before moving to Massachusetts in 2017 where he met a woman from Amherst who are now married with a child.
Hall said, “I was writing the whole time. Since I moved away from theatre and directing and performing, I was always looking for a way to connect with stories and writing seemed to be that. For the last twenty years or so I have been writing on a daily level.”
Hall currently works at a print shop called Soundscape Merchandise, at 40 Front St.
Although this is Hall’s first published book, he is no stranger to writing.
Hall has a Patreon page where he has written previews of stories featured in Mammoth along with other short stories that have been published in magazines and other places.
He added, “All these stories that are in Mammoth, Massachusetts, most of them started for my Patreon audience over the past two years and I collected them, had them edited by and editor Sara Rauch and pitched it as more of a cohesive collection where all these stories happen in the same place this same weird magical kind of in and out of time Mammoth, Massachusetts.”
He also does book reviews on the page.
“Mammoth, Massachusetts” is currently available at www.tinyurl.com/3ua3a9na and on the shelfs at Collective Copies stores.
Hall added that mammoth will be released on Amazon in December and other stores around the same time.
Hall also said that he hopes to have another book published by next year that continues the stories of some of the characters in the books.
For future updates you can also visit www.jordanjhall.com.