Holland author unleashes “The Beast of Misery” for Halloween readers

A line of people carrying torches heads into a mine, trying to escape a creature. The image came to Myron Kukla in a dream. It became the starting point for his latest novel, The Beast of Misery.

The action thriller follows two generations as they confront a ravenous creature in a West Virginia coal mine. It also marks another chapter for the Holland writer, who is using retirement to explore different genres and finding that self-publishing makes getting his stories into readers’ hands easier than it once was.

“Rather than waiting for years and years and being rejected – you know, I’m in my 70s – I figured I might as well get them out,” Kukla says.

Kukla, a former contributor to The Grand Rapids Press and MLive, has written seven books. They include humor books and the 2025 mystery Murder at Tulip Time. He hopes to publish one book a year, finishing stories he has worked on over the past 10 years.

His newest book arrives in time for Halloween. The story covers 100 years and includes a warning the characters should have followed.

Terror in a coal mine

The Beast of Misery begins in 1908 in the mountains of West Virginia. A creature terrorizes the mining community of Misery Mine. An effort to trap it underground ends with most of the town’s residents sealed inside with it.

A century later, anthropologist Dr. Dawn Dreamer joins a crew sent to assess abandoned mines for coal reserves. At Misery Mine, they find a warning carved in stone:

“This mine is cursed with the blood of 107 dead in the belly of the beast. Do not ever open it again.”

They open it anyway, releasing a creature that hasn’t eaten in 100 years. The crew must find a way to survive and stop it.

“It’s not a horror book. It’s more of an action thriller,” Kukla says.

He built the story by asking questions about his dream. Who were the people carrying torches? What were they running from? How did they get to the mine?

The fictional creature isn’t the only threat in The Beast of Misery. The novel also touches on the environmental damage caused by mountaintop removal mining, which uses explosives to expose buried coal.

“The book actually hits upon an ecological issue that’s ongoing,” Kukla says.

While writing the book, he researched mining practices and the abandoned mines scattered across the region. He also used memories of family trips through the Appalachian Mountains. His son, Matthew, went to college in Lexington, Virginia, and Kukla and his family drove through the mountains to visit him over four years. Those mountains inspired the story’s setting.

This tale is far removed from the Holland setting of Murder at Tulip Time. Kukla says trying different genres gives him a chance to stretch his writing skills. He hopes The Beast of Misery will become a series featuring Dreamer and a team investigating creatures from myth and folklore.

Getting the book to readers

Writing the books is only part of the work. Kukla also has had to figure out how to publish and sell them.

He first published his own humor books in the early 2000s. Back then, he says, writers had to do more of the work themselves. Now, Amazon and Barnes & Noble offer online tools that help him publish paperbacks and e-books.

Writers no longer have to buy and store boxes of books. Instead, print-on-demand services produce and ship copies as readers order them. These services make publishing easier, but authors still need to get their books ready, check for mistakes, and find readers.

Kukla sells his books online and in local stores.

He says Murder at Tulip Time has helped him build a following. Its setting gives him a reason to bring it back to readers’ attention each spring.

“The first book was the perfect book, because I can reissue it every Tulip Time,” he says. He plans to update it and put out a new version next year. 

Now that he is retired, Kukla has more freedom to choose when and where he writes. When he was working, he often wrote at night. Now he sometimes writes in the morning, taking his laptop to Barnes & Noble or a local brewery or working at home.

He often starts his projects by writing the ending. Then he creates the beginning and figures out how to connect the two.

“I kind of created the ending of the book first, and then I know where I’m writing to,” Kukla says. 

His next project takes him into yet another genre: a futuristic story about artificial intelligence, robots, and people losing their jobs. The chance to keep trying something different is part of what holds his interest. So is the everyday pleasure of working with words.

“I like to put words together in sentences,” Kukla says. “That’s why I like to write.”

The Beast of Misery is available in paperback and as an e-book through Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Paperbacks are also available at Reader’s World and Barnes & Noble in Holland, and Kukla hopes to get them in more stores for the holiday shopping season.

Photos courtesy of Myron Kukla