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Broke the 20K mark for new novel Lost in the Woods last week, which is pretty good considering the week began writing-less. Hate that, makes me crazy.

Remember the Kill Jack Haringa on your Blog Day earlier this year (click the link of not)? Well, there was quite a spread of stories killing off writer Jack Haringa, and quite a few have been collected into a small anthology - not yet released, so I'll keep the details to myself until Nick Kaufmann says it's OK. Stay tuned.

Fellow writer Michelle Pendergrass, who is co-editing a follow-up to the successful anthology Coach's Midnight Diner, and invited me to write a story. CMD is an interesting mix of Christian themes with horror, not soft or sanitized, no rules, hard horror but which deals in some way with faith. I did some free writing, word association, came up with the image of someone living in a box, and went from there. The result, a story called "Box". It's been officially accepted and may appear in a related magazine Relief 2.2 beforehand. Though the subject is rather grim and serious, I have to admit this had been one of the most enjoyable writing sessions I had with a piece. And, all humility aside, I think it's one of my best stories in a long, long time. Special thanks to Holly Chen, who works with my wife Janet, for getting phonetic translations of selected lines of dialogue from English to Mandarin Chinese. This dialogue adds a lot to the story, on many levels. Looking forward to seeing the final TOC for this collection.

Lost in the Woods, 17,400 words and moving forward

Hi, everyone. Been quiet for a while. But I'm back from a few hundred mile driving vacation, looking at colleges for my son. It was fun, and imformative. Janet did most of the driving, for as long as my laptop's battery lasted, and because of this I was able to get some good progress once again on the new novel, Lost in the Woods. 17,000+ words. Not bad. Revised a few things as well, and had to work out some plot changes. I have it outlined, roughly, through about 3/4 of the plot and some ideas on the ending (but not exactly how it'll end, need to decide this by word 50,000 I think), but as I write the characters begin to behave differently than I expect, some things I expected to write didn't pan out, etc, so constant revisions have to be done.

In the meantime, Doomsday Key, Plague of Darkness and Margaret's Ark are out there in the world of submission again withmy US agent. Solomon's Grave seems to be still slated for 2009 with Edge/Dragon Moon, and my European agent continues to peddle it throughout the old country. The German edition, Das Grab des Salomon seems to be holding its own, and picking up the paces a bit. Got some good (and, admittedly some less flattering) reviews. Hopefully it'll do well, so the German edition of Plague of Darkness will have some leverage when it comes out.

I've gotten word that my short story, "Box", will be published in Coach's Midnight Diner 2, and may appear earlier in Relief Journal as a way to publicize the coming Diner anthology. That's nice. I really like this story, and hopefully others will also.

OK, that's about it. I'll try to keep this blog back to a weekly updating mode going forward. It'll keep me honest with my writing progress.

Dan

Roger Blain

Roger Blain, 89 of Blain Road died Friday March 21, 2008 at home. He was the beloved husband of Fleurette L. (Gendreau) Blain. Born in New Bedford, MA, he was the son of the late Joseph and Elise (Goyette) Blain.Mr. Blain was the Valedictorian, Class of 1937 at Tourtellotte Memorial High School. He owned and operated of R. Blain Oil Company and later worked in the accounting department at American Optical until he retired. He was communicant and volunteer of St. Joseph's Church. He was a member of St. Bernard Council 2087 Knights of Columbus in North Grosvenordale and the Franco American Genealogical Society. He was a volunteer fire fighter with Community Fire Company for many years and served on the Board as Treasurer. He enjoyed playing cards especially cribbage, gardening and socializing.He is survived by three sons, Joseph Maurice Blain and his wife Cynthia of Taunton, MA, Michael Blain of Palmetto, FL and Paul Blain of Grosvenordale; a daughter, Janet Keohane and her husband Daniel of Princeton, MA; a brother, Roland Blain of Worcester; 8 grandchildren and 5 great-grandchildren. He was predeceased by a brother, Romeo Blain.

Relatives and friends are invited to visit with Roger's family from 5:00 to 8:00pm Tuesday March 25, 2008 in the Valade Funeral Home, 23 Main St., N. Grosvenordale CT. A gathering will begin at 9:00 am on Wednesday March 26, 2008 at the funeral home, followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 10:00 am in St. Joseph Church, 20 Main St., N. Grosvenordale. Burial will follow in St. Joseph Cemetery. In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to Community Fire Company, P.O. Box 874, N. Grosvenordale, CT 06255.

I've known few people as kind, big-hearted, gentle and God-loving as Roger Blain. It was a rough time, watching this strong man who taught me how to chop wood without losing my foot in the process, who can beat anyone at cribbage with such a wry smile that you just don’t care if you’re double-skunked, who one day had misunderstood what one of his sons meant when he asked his father to ‘take care of the dogs’ while he was on a trip with his family and subsequently had a neighbor shoot them (well, they were pretty old dogs, you can’t blame him for the confusion), who held his family together within an iron embrace through storms and sun, take his slow trip away from us. But it is so good to know that now, he’s in so, so better a place. He'll be smiling forever and kicking Saint Peter’s butt at cribbage.

I hope you know how much I love you, Roger, though it’s a love that might pale next to how much Janet and her brothers adore you. I just wanted you to know how much you’ve meant to me over the last twenty-two years, even though I’ve never said it. Now that you've left us and this broken world behind, I hope some day I’ll see you again and tell you in person. By then, of course, you’ll probably already know.

Solomon's English Language Debut, Lost in the Woods, 8000 words and counting

Before I start, if you can send up some prayers and good thoughts for my father-in-law Roger Blain, and for my wife and her family as they care for this wonderful, wonderful man as he slips away from us, it would be very much appreciated. If my two daughters grow up to adore me a fraction of how much Janet does her Dad, I'd consider myself a lucky, lucky man. Also, for my friend Fran who is caring for her brother at home as he is terminally ill with cancer. Life sometimes can feel so hard, knowing there are others thinking about you goes a long way.

Breaking News: Solomon's Grave has finally reached our shores. It will be published in 2009, in trade paperback by the Canadian publisher Dragon Moon Press. They cover both Canada and the US so the book has finally come home to roost, starting in Russia, getting lost, resurfacing in Italy, then Germany, now rising over the northern horizon via Canada. No specific publication date yet. More as I know it.

Before the final update, you need to re-read a post I made last year, on April 1st. Click the link below, read, then click your BACK button on the browswer and continue....
http://dankeohane.blogspot.com/2007/04/0-or-square-one.html

So, I found this, and it reminded me of my commitment to more mainstream work, along with the fact that I found myself doing other things at lunch than returning to Plague of Locusts, much as I like the story, and how I couldn't write fast enough last year for Doomsday Key (the new title my agent & I came up with for Destroyer of Worlds, a title which felt wrong, along with other reasons it no longer worked as a title in my mind). So poor Locusts has been put aside for now (again), and I went back to Lost in the Woods, which I am enjoying and have written only 8,000 words so far, but that'll climb quickly, if I behave. I'll post weekly updates on the progress as I did last year for DK.

Thanks
Dan

In honor of Kill Jack Haringa On Your Blog Day, here’s a little something....

Jack stood for a moment at the entrance to Booth’s Specialty Menswear and breathed in the familiar tang of formality and dust. Mostly dust. Sometimes he wondered if he’d become their only customer in this era of business-casual dress codes, policies adopted by weak employers to coddle lazy employees, policies which had become the death knell to the last vestiges of decent attire. He fancied himself, at times like this, that final refuge, the Last Well-Dressed Man Alive, as it was.

Today, all he needed was a tie so he stepped inside the store. Its once vast chamber of shirts and slacks, shoe polish and black socks for all occasions had been compressed to half its former size at the far end of the mall, elbowed aside to make room for a much-needed (in everyone’s opinion but his own) expansion of The Gap next door. Society may have made Booth’s Specialty Menswear nothing more than a musty antique shop, but they could never kill its pride. Its necessity.

“Hey, Mister H, how’s it hanging?” The pierced kid behind the half-counter looked up from his Wolverine comic. “What can I do you for?”

Jack rapped his knuckles on the counter, pretended not to hear the soft echo drifting through the store. “I’m all set, just a necktie or two. Going to the movies tonight, need something appropriate.”

“Ties?” Benny put the comic down and looked behind him. The tie racks had been pushed together, weeds choking themselves into extinction. “Mister Booth told me to stay clear of them. Getting restless.”

Jack had gone only a few steps in the direction in which the kid was looking, but now stopped. “Restless?”

Benny shrugged. “Dunno. That’s what he said. Or maybe he said lonely.” He looked back to the counter a moment, considering. “He was talking all funny. Said something about dogs craving attention, not being fed.” He twirled his index finger around his temple. “Think the store’s dying and it’s making him looney, you know?”

The store’s not dying! Jack wanted to scream. They’ll come back! The world will realize what they’ve lost, the respectability they all secretly crave, and they’ll come back! But all he said was, “Thanks, I’ll be careful,” and moved away.

The racks, which once held thin-striped shirts as proudly as a pin-lipped tailor, were full, but dust lines were visible along their shoulders from the hangers beneath. The smell of dust and disregard was stronger here. At the back, three racks of ties huddled like frightened children. These, too, had the beginning of dust lines, though each week when he came Jack tried to shift them a little, level out their abandonment, buy them some time.

A blue one, gentle swirl of gold woven throughout, caught his attention. He lifted it from the rod.

Me, pick me....

Silent voice, barely a whisper. The voice was weak, but with a texture he could almost feel. He looked back. Benny was hunkered over the comic, mouth slightly agape, lost in his color-paneled world. Hadn’t been his voice anyway –

No, pick me... another voice, just as weak, but a different inflection, more playful. Coming from beyond the far rack of novelty ties.

“Hello?”

Behind him Benny shouted, “You need something, Mister H?”

“No,” Jack called, not turning around. Still holding the blue woven tie he pressed himself to the center of the display, the three racks surrounding him in a triangle of presentable attire.

No one there.

A bright red power tie slipped loose and draped about his ankle. I’m the one you want, it said sternly, as if in his mind alone.

What was he thinking? He shook his head, feeling like a fool and knelt down. The tie hadn’t –

Three ties fell over his shoulders. Me, me, me....

He flung them off. They intertwined about his arms, working themselves under the sleeves of his tweed coat. The red one by his foot tightened around his calf. He’s mine! Get away!

Jack froze for a moment, trying to ground his thoughts. He misunderstood something simple, something basic. A radio, perhaps, playing overhead.

Four, then five more ties, green felt, black silk, one with Iron Man racing up to the neckline, more of them he couldn’t see leapt from the rack above his head. Buy me, wear me, I’m perfect, I can make you proud to be clothed, I can show what a man is meant to be! Dozens of voices, small, weak, dying, desperate. Jack tried to stand but Iron Man wrapped around his throat, the red tie wriggled towards his crotch inside his pressed pant leg.

Wear me! Buy me!

So many voices, crowding out thought. Panic set in, Jack unable to think or breathe. Something pulled his left foot out from under him and he was suddenly on the floor, looking up at the remaining ties as they dropped like pythons. He was gagged, blinded, feeling only the texture of such perfect compliments to a man’s wardrobe across his face and arms, squeezing, pressing in like lepers to the Lord, demanding attention, demanding love, respect, wanting to live and be more than a tool for lovemaking, wanting their glory to be restored, before it was too late.

He tried to take in air, could not. Me, me, me, me, me.....

Jack died on the floor, buried in true fashion.

* * *

Click here for more KJHOYB Day celebrations!

From The Ashes....

Well, back from vacation. Nice to just get away, sleep late, use the strangely-chlorinated pool and relax. Anyway, while away I checked on the status of the Amazon contest. Margaret's Ark, even with the positive PW review and a glowing one from Amazon's top reviewer, didn't make the cut for the final 100. Ah, well. This was the tape I was sticking my chest out to reach. Thought it would be too narrow a scope for much past that, but I was really hoping for that one last nod or attaboy. Still, I was pleased with how the contest was run, and best of luck to the final 100 entries. Some of the exerpts I read were quite amazing.

Now, with a PW review, and some nice things said about the exerpt from nice people, we move on to the marketing end of things. Let's see what walls it might stick to, once flung.

The contract negotiations for the English language rights to Solomon's Grave with a small Canadian press are hopefully winding down so I can give the news offiically. And as I mentioned before, Plague of Darkness is hitting the German/Austrian shelves via Otherworld Verlag late 2008 / early 2009. Can't complain here, I guess. Things are moving on the international front. :-)

No other news to report. Of course, after a big letdown like the Amazon contest thing, I always second-guess my choice of direction - stay with Plague of Locusts or move back to the mainstream path. Wish I knew what to do, but at least now I recognize this for what it is and know to ignore the instinct to bounce like a pinball all over the place. I'll write whatever I want, and see where things fall. Obviously, one genre or another isn't really going to be any easier, so best enjoy whatever it is I'm writing and have fun with it. The rest will work itself out, or not. I may remain an obscure entry in some 21st Century in Horror tome in 2099, maybe not. Time will tell. As long as I enjoy doing it, am happy in the process (at least as I write), and do right in the eyes of God and my family, whatever that might be, I guess I'm doing OK overall, eh?

And a story I wrote... gasp... twenty years ago, about an evil clown in the basement and a boy named Billy, kept alive in spirit for years by my friend Fran Bellerive, may actually grow from a lost weed into a tree of sorts, along with fellow writer L.L.Soares. We're looking at it, and seeing if a phoenix might rise out of the neglected ashes of the old story, lost for decades (literally) in a file drawer. Time will tell....

Plagues of Locusts and Darkness, Oh My.

"Lavish", my short story which inspired Margaret's Ark, has now appeared in the Hungarian science fiction magazine Galaktika (the January 2008 issue). Click on the link to see the cover. I'm sharing the magazine with the likes of Harlan Ellison, which is very cool indeed. Hopefully I'll get my author's copy in the mail soon (mail time between countries can be tricky).

Well, Plague of Locusts is the lucky winner. After re-reading up through where I'd put it aside (to write Destroyer), 25K+ words and I really like this book, especially the characters who had become very real and fleshed out for me. I've been running through what I had written thus far, revising and mostly just getting my writer-head back into the story so I can become obsessive and keep the momentum once I hit the end of the paved road and start writing new words. This book is outlined only to a point, not all the way, so I am still not sure how it's going to end. But I've decided I like how it's gone so far and will wait and see where it brings me. A different tactic from the last book, but as long as it doesn't slow me down I'll let the characters and events dictate the outcome. Again, this one's more science fiction than horror, but there are horror elements in it. A cross-genre novel if you will. Why not? Not like I'm pigeon-holed at this point into any one style.

Back on the international front: Das Grab des Salomone (Solomon's Grave) has recieved a couple of glowing reviews in Germany/Austria from some very big reviewers, as well as a couple of good ones on Amazon.de. My editor is going to translate these into English for me when he has a moment, and I'll pass them along.

And some Dan's Blog exclusive news: Solomon's Grave's German publisher, Otherworld Verlag, has just bought the German language rights to another of my books: Plague of Darkness. Looks like Plague of Darkness will be premiering in Germany later this year or early 2009.

I finished my short story, "Box". I really like how it came out. Waiting on a couple of edits and we'll see where it stands with the anthology.

The fate of Margaret's Ark with the Amazon Breakthrough Novel contest will be known next week, on February 19th, when Penguin Books announces the 100 Finalists (out of the current 826 Semi-Finalists). I still only have 8 customer reviews as of this morning (thanks to those who left them, and to folks like Michelle Pendergrass who rallied on their own blogs for my cause), but that's OK. The more the merrier, but we'll see what the Finalist decisions are after Tuesday.