It all started with a gathering of magical elves. (No, I wasn’t taking any hallucinogenic substances at the time.) Last year, Amanda had the idea to make a gift for both of our families: a fully illustrated Christmas book, featuring the elves of the North Pole. We finished the project right before Christmas, and showed it to everyone in the form of a slideshow presentation.
The feedback was pretty much unanimous. “Y’all need to publish this!” We looked at each other and shrugged, and decided that maybe, just maybe, we would eventually do just that.
In the meantime, we began working on a novel. It was originally intended to be a short story, but it just kept growing and growing, much like Audrey II in Little Shop of Horrors. It demanded to be fed, so we kept feeding it, much to our delight (and occasional dismay.)
So, it is with some humor that the first thing to actually see publication is a project that was put together in less than a month. Taking a brief respite from the novel, Amanda came up with the idea of writing a couple of short, Halloween-themed ghost stories. She pitched the first two stories, I expanded on her outlines and wrote them, then we edited and revised them as needed.
It was then that I had an idea of my own: If we wrote a third short story, we could potentially publish the collection. Since we wanted to self-publish the Christmas book and the novel anyway, this would be a good opportunity to get a “feel” for the entire process.
“I came up with the first two stories, so you can do the third one,” Amanda said. “You need to write one from a ‘guy’ perspective.”
Well, shit. Okay. I thought we were supposed to be a team, but whatevs! (I’m kidding, Amanda!) With my best friend Caffeine sitting quietly next to my laptop, I went to work.
My initial draft was titled Dave the Wizard and the Halloween of Destiny—but Dave’s adventure just didn’t seem to fit the tone of the other stories. I buried Dave back to the bottom of my idea drawer, told him to stay quiet, while I tried to think of a different idea.
Then it came to me: why not write a self-contained, short story that occurs just prior to the events of our novel? Thus was born The Strange Tale of Top Hat Jack, which introduces a magical town and a mystical creature (who, presumably, has been trained to use a celestial litter box.)
“You clever son of a so-and-so,” I said to myself while cackling maniacally, trying not to cuss around the cats. (I have to be a positive role model for my kids, after all.)
So, it is with some pride that I now present to you the first of several projects. This is a small collection of short stories which all take place around Halloween. The only thing they have in common is that they are stories about people—some of them just happen to be dead. The tales are not intended to be scary, because ghosts aren’t supposed to be scary. (There are horrors elsewhere, but they don't appear in these tales.)
The book, entitled Three Short Ghost Stories, is currently available for the Amazon Kindle e-reader and associated apps. (A print-on-demand paperback version may be available soon, but due to additional printing and shipping costs, it will be a bit more expensive.)
As for the elves? They'll be frolicking in a Kindle near you in a few weeks.
No comments:
Post a Comment