The Many For Free
By · Comments
Until the most dreaded day of the year, April 15th, Tax Day, I’ll be making The Many available for free on this website. You can access the novel (broken down by chapters) under the Pages section on the top left, or get started simply by going to: The Many.
As mentioned in a previous post, The Many was first published as a Leisure paperback under the name Child of Darkness. It was a title that I never particularly cared for, because it sounded hokey and was a bit misleading. So when Delirium wanted to do a special, signed limited edition I renamed the book, The Many.
Here’s a little about the book: Something’s wrong with eleven-year-old Justin Reed. His fourteen-year-old brother, Kiel, has begun to notice the changes. Sometimes Justin doesn’t seem like himself. Sometimes he refers to someone called the pretender. Other times he refers to other kids, kids Kiel has never met.
And now he’s starting to do things.
Dangerous things.
This is the original version. It hasn’t been rewritten to reflect my current style. I’m a firm believer that a writer leaves a history in his wake and it doesn’t do justice to the work or the writer to go back and manipulate that history.
If you prefer, you can download an ebook edition here (please note the modest price):
However you choose to access the book, I hope you enjoy it.
Through the Guts of a Beggar
By · Comments
I recently found myself in a conversation with Robert Swartwood about a story he had written for Tooth and Claw, a pulpy monster horror anthology edited by J. F. Gonzalez and Garrett Peck. The response to the anthology was greater than the editors had at first anticipated, and so they decided to split the anthology into two volumes. Robert’s story, “Through the Guts of a Beggar” got bounced to the second volume. Unfortunately, the publisher folded before the second volume was released.
Somewhere in the course of the discussion, I realized that I had a story that was supposed to appear in that second volume as well. I couldn’t recall the title, but Robert found it on the Internet … “New to the Neighborhood.”
Robert was releasing “Through the Guts of a Beggar” as an ebook, with two bonus short stories and an alternate ending. We thought it might be cool if “New to the Neighborhood” could also be included. So that’s what Robert put together.
For a limited time, until April 1st, readers can pick up a copy of the Kindle ebook edition for only 99 cents. This includes Robert’s novelette, plus the alternate ending, his two short stories and my short story, “New to the Neighborhood.”
If this sounds like a package at a price you can’t beat, you can order directly from Amazon here: Through The Guts of a Beggar
The Disappeared Kicks Off New Dark Thriller Line
By · Comments
Dark Regions Press has announced that my novel, The Disappeared (which previously was published by Headline in England) will kick off their latest imprint, Dark Thriller.
Description: Ten years ago: Gabriel Knight, age 11, takes a bike ride to the park and becomes one of the … disappeared.
When Teri Knight answers a knock at the front door, she discovers her son Gabriel standing in the doorway. Only it can’t be her son. Gabe took a bike ride to the park ten years ago, at age 11, and became one of the disappeared. He would be 21 now and this boy … this boy is the same age as Gabe was when he went missing. Except for the color of his eyes, he looks exactly like her son. He’s wearing the same clothes her son wore the day he disappeared. He even refers to her as Mom.
If he is Gabe, how is that possible?
Why hasn’t he aged?
Where has he been for ten years?
And why is he so weak and in apparent ill health?
Teri is struggling with each of these questions and barely getting to know this boy who has arrived so unexpectedly, miraculously at her door, when a team of armed men arrive at the house in search of the boy.
For Gabe and Teri the clock is now ticking – and time is running out.
Who are these men?
What do they want?
Is this boy really Teri’s lost son, Gabe?
A dark thriller with a highly unusual and inventive twist.
Here’s the book trailer:
Readers can order directly from Dark Regions here: The Disappeared
The Many On The Kindle
By · CommentsMy first novel was a Leisure paperback. I don’t remember the original title, but Leisure wasn’t happy with it, so they changed the title to Child of Darkness. I wasn’t terribly thrilled with that one, but that’s the way it went out into the world. Eventually, Delirium did a special, signed limited edition and I renamed the book to The Many.
Now, I’ve added The Many to the Kindle.
Here’s a little about the book: Justin Reed spent the formative years of his young life in a quiet little farming community in Northern California. It wasn’t the idyllic childhood it should have been. Instead, it was a time of unending torment at the hands of his father.
Now, he’s finally free and living (along with his brother Kiel) with his aunt and uncle. It’s a new chapter in his life.
The torment is behind him, though the scars still run deep. Even deeper than Justin’s new family can imagine. It should be a time of healing, but can such unfathomable psychological damage ever be undone?
Maybe The Many will help?
You can pick up a Kindle copy here for only $3.99: The Many
The Good & The Bad When You Screw Up
By · CommentsComputers, computers, computers.
Can’t live with ‘em, can’t live without ‘em.
I wrote The Presence and The Disappeared in the mid-’90s. They were published by Headline House in England. But for some reason I can’t explain, I never offered either book to a U.S. publisher. Well, recently I did. Since I haven’t signed a contract yet, I won’t mention the publisher, but they said, yes, we want them, send us the manuscripts.
So I pulled out The Disappeared and went through it to clean it up. Then I went to pull out The Presence, and …
I couldn’t find the manuscript. It wasn’t on my hard drive. It wasn’t on disk. It wasn’t on my backup hard drive. In fact, I couldn’t even find a folder for it on my computer. I also couldn’t find a hard manuscript copy.
Where it went, I have no idea. How long it’s been missing, I have no idea. Why it didn’t end up on a disk and in my fire safe like all my other work, I have no idea. All I know is that it’s gone.
Fortunately, I did have a copy of the Headline House edition.
All I had to do was type it into the computer.
The novel runs 313 pages. After six days, I’m currently on page 110. I don’t think that’s too bad, considering.
The screw up … not keeping track of my work.
The bad … I’m going to waste three or four weeks getting the manuscript on my computer.
The good … it’s an absolutely fascinating process to go back and read my earlier work.
Now, as many writers do, I tend to put aside a novel or a short story for a short period of time after I finish it. This allows me to put it out of mind, so when I return to it, I’ll have a fresh perspective.
Put a novel aside for 15 years and it can be a real eye-opener when you go back to it.
It wasn’t as bad as I expected it to be. In fact, I found I was pleased with much of it. But I did have some bad habits at the time. I often put unnecessary distance into scenes. This makes it more difficult for readers to connect with the story. And while I enjoy being inside the heads of characters, I think I was excessive in this book.
I won’t be rewriting huge sections of The Presence as I go along. I think a writer’s history is important, even with its flaws. But I will make tiny changes to bring the readers closer to the story, and I’ll cut some of the self-indulgent time spent in the heads of the characters.
What will really be interesting after this process is to see how it affects my current and future writing projects.
For the answer to that, I guess I’ll just have to wait and see.
