Imagine taking an evening walk with your son to Insomnia Cookies, only for him to turn the corner ahead of you and disappear without a trace.
Author Craig Shaeffer’s new book “VEIL” follows the story of high school teacher John Calhoun as invisible creatures begin abducting people, including Calhoun’s very own son.
Since the book is based in West Lafayette, places like the Memorial Union tunnels, Neil Armstrong Building, and even Von’s are mentioned.
“Von’s is the refuge that people use to hide from the aliens,” said Shaeffer.
Shaeffer did rename Von’s in his book as “The Constant Reader Cafe” because “Stephen King calls his readers constant readers.”
One of Shaeffer’s biggest inspirations is Stephen King as the first book he ever read was “The Tommy Knockers.”
Shaeffer based Calhoun on himself with them both being teachers. While Shaeffer teaches film literature, creative writing, and English literature, Calhoun is a biology teacher.
Calhoun’s entire family is abducted by the aliens and he becomes desperate to find them. Then one day, he comes across a group of survivors.
“One of the survivors can see the aliens because of a really bad car accident and so their plan is to have experimental surgery to replicate the wound inside this guy’s brain so they can see the creatures,” Shaeffer said. “Then they can find where their loved ones are being taken and can fight the creatures and hopefully get their loved ones back.”
Local author and high school teacher Craig Shaeffer poses with the cover for his upcoming sci-fi novel “VEIL.”
Paige Solon | Staff Reporter
Shaeffer was hit with inspiration for his story when walking into Aldi one day and imagined a guy walking in the parking lot being “pulled into the sky and disappearing.”
“I don’t know why I thought of it but I just did and then everything else kind of grew out from there,” explained Shaeffer.
The process of writing “VEIL” began in late 2022 for Shaeffer and finished in 2023. The book was then purchased in 2024 by Blackstone Publishing and will be published on September 16th.
“Publishing takes forever so it is just now coming out,” said Shaeffer.
“Every morning during the summer I will wake up and start writing by 8 o’clock. I’ll just drink coffee and write for about four and a half hours each day and write 3000-4000 words per day and that eventually turns into a novel,” he said.
Shaeffer also had to do vigorous research to make his story come alive and feel real.
“I talked to a lot of people who were much smarter in science than I am and one of those people was Andy Smith, a science teacher at Westside,” explained Shaeffer, “She helped me with so many facets like how something could be invisible.”
Smith also helped Shaeffer figure out the physiology of the alien creatures featured in “VEIL”.
“She logically talked about the characteristics that most living creatures need to have and so we got to construct a really fearsome creature that is also kind of believable.”
Shaeffer compares the aliens to an existing butterfly that has achieved almost complete invisibility.
Instead of using his usual moniker, Shaeffer writes under the pen name Jonathan Janz.
“My full name is Jonathan Craig Shaeffer and Craig Shaeffer is what I go by in my day to day life. So Jonathan comes from that and then my mother’s maiden name was Janz. My grandparents helped raise me so it was really to honor them since they were so amazing.”
Shaeffer has 18 other published books that fall under the realm of horror with historical gothic horror and creature horror (vampires, werewolves, etc.) being some variations of the genre Shaeffer has written.
Junior-senior high school teacher Craig Shaeffer keeps a bookshelf stocked with hundreds of books for his students to read.
Exponent File Photo
Along with “VEIL”, Shaeffer also has a short story being published in a Stephen King anthology by the publishing company Simon and Schuster.
The short story “Lenora” is based in the world of The Stand by Stephen King.
“There’s a super flu that kills almost everybody on earth,” said Shaeffer. “My main character is one of the survivors and the opening scene is this preacher who’s dying brings a little baby antelope in a wagon to the survivor’s house because he can’t take care of the animal.”
“VEIL” is also being shopped by Shaeffer’s movie team, Lit Entertainment, so it could potentially be turned into a movie in the near future.
“VEIL” will be available in ebook, audiobook, and paperback at places like Von’s, Barnes and Noble, and Amazon. Second Flight Books will be selling signed copies.
Every Exponent article goes through checks for accuracy before publication. If you have a concern or questions about this article, please email editor@purdueexponent.org.