Maelstrom
Quite a few years back, when I was still serving in the US Navy, I started a novel. It was born of several false starts, actually. Chapter two of the novel is a ritual I stole from a short story that never got completed, or sold. Chapter One began as an attempt to capture the experience of attending a live rock concert, from the initial energy, to the dead, littered floor of an almost empty arena, with all the associated chemicals and circumstances. A lot of it is robbed from my life, my friends’ lives, and my imagination at the time, which was fueled by the belief that the words Rock & Roll contained the answer to everything.
Over the years, I’ve played with the book, and it’s grown. I wrote a lot of my childhood into Nick Leatherman, the main protagonist. The problems between his parents, the music…it’s not all fiction, in other words, but then, it never really is.
Eventually, the book matured into a classic horror story, with a group of good guys, a group of bad guys, and a big bad even worse than either of the latter could comprehend. I read a lot of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Robert McCammon novels in the days this story was born, and it shows. It’s not really an homage, because I’ve always striven to make each character and each story uniquely my own, but I know you’ll hear their voices whispering in the background when you read Maelstrom. I hope that you will…hear the voices AND read.
About two years ago I made an editing pass through this novel, though I wasn’t really sure what to do with it. My agent and I tossed around the idea of taking this one and a couple of earlier novels and packaging them under a different name to see what would happen. In the end, I put it away for a little longer.
Then I saw the announcement for Full Moon Press - that they were planning a good number of novels a year, and that they were publishing books by some authors I truly respect - with stunning artwork (lavish, over-the-top artwork) and not just limited editions, but affordable trade editions as well.
I contacted the publisher, and we hit it off immediately. Meanwhile, I picked a group of trusted readers and handed off copies of the most recent version of the book for a quick run-through, opinion, and revision. As it turns out, only one of those revisions got implemented before the publisher told me to go ahead and send it - if it was rough we’d work it out - it was the story that mattered. I sent it - he liked it. All five of the readers liked it. At least two of them found themselves so caught up in the story that for long periods they didn’t make many changes. All of them helped me to improve, modernize, and smooth this book.
The contracts are signed and in the mail, so within twelve months of now…it will be a reality. When details such as artists and ordering dates are decided, you’ll find the details here. In the meantime, feel free to read Chapter One - An Excerpt from MAELSTROM.
-DNW
