Behind The Writing

Hello. If you're interested in my books, you might like to know a little bit about what's behind them...

Wyatt Earp, From The Storm

This is a story unlike any I have written before. The idea came to me like a spark during a very turbulent time in my life, three years ago. It was while working very long hours doing a job which I hated, dealing with some very difficult individuals, and a noisy neighbour who caused me to develop insomnia. You see, I could have gone to college or pursued a career. But no, I chose to be a working class artist and endure a challenging life. Why? Because I love art and culture. It has always been my dream to publish my own books, and to be recognized for my talent. But I suffered for it. At my darkest hour, inspiration found me. While mopping dirty floors late at night, and dealing with rude staff members, I began day dreaming about Wyatt Earp hunting down Cowboys (not cowboys, but Arizona Cowboys (a criminal organization of the Wild West.) This was no doubt born of my frustration at the time.

I hardly knew anything about Wyatt Earp, but the more I read about him the more fascinated I became. After a great deal of research, I felt that I'd known the man personally. I got him. I sympathized with him. I felt bad that his true story was never told. Not just in terms of the facts, but also for the horrors he faced, and the immense force of will power and remarkable character which the man had. He played a small yet significant role in taming the West from those who sought to corrupt and rule over it. Wyatt Earp died long before I was born, yet I still feel like I somehow knew the man. This story has affected me emotionally unlike anything I've ever written. Writing it saved my sanity, and telling it shares the true story of a remarkable man whom we must never forget.

Vendetta Ride was conceptualized as a movie. I worked out a trailer, seeing Wyatt Earp riding against a red sun in a dust storm, and even the title--cut out of rawhide with traces of smoke and flame.

After plotting the story from a timeline of historical events, the screenplay was written. But that was it. I had no connections to Hollywood, and I wasn't much of a salesman, so I knew from the start that it would never be made into a film. Yet, the story meant a lot to me, and I wanted to share it with the world.

As I was already self-published on Amazon, and I had a talent for drawing, I eventually decided to illustrate the story into a graphic novel. It would have been released in twelve comic books, totaling the full story as worked out in the screenplay. It would have been done in B&W, hand-drawn. I usually draw with a pen, as that was how I'd originally learned to draw. Tracing always felt like cheating to me, for whatever reason. This way, I could draw it in ink, and then edit and shade it with software afterwards.

The problem was that I was working full-time, so I only had so much time to work on the project each week. After illustrating half of the first comic book, I felt overwhelmed, so I stepped away a second time.

The main reason why I'd resisted writing it into a novelization was that it would mean fleshing out even more detail, and it would therefore require all the more fact-checking. But I'd already done a lot of research between the screenplay and the graphic novel (which required research for visual specifics.) I was an experienced author, so I decided to trust my gut. To my surprise, it came out pretty easily. Though I was initially worried it wouldn't reach the word count for a proper novel length, it actually far succeeded a length I would have been comfortable with. As I wrote the book, I just kept seeing more sub-plots that needed room to breathe, and more details that needed to be better explored. For a screenplay, it's necessary to cut out a lot of details which aren't key to the main plot line. After all, you don't want a two-or-three-hour film becoming five or six hours. Also, a cinematic production is expensive. So, you trim. For a novel however, this excuse doesn't apply. If the story begs to be better explained in some ways, then you must reveal more of the story. Due to its length, my free time was then gobbled up for months, editing and revising, and re-fact-checking. It was grueling work, but necessary for the best possible result.

Writing the novel affected me in ways a story never had before. The death scenes were difficult to write, one in particular making me feel like I was describing the departure of a dear friend. Wyatt and his story somehow existed inside me, inspiring me to write this book, and to make it as good as I possibly could. My heart and soul truly went into it. I felt an almost religious duty to express Wyatt's story, as if I knew him somehow, and owed it to him for some reason. You could say that it's just my imagination, but this is how writing this book felt for me. It was a spiritual journey, in which I found a voice for my own frustrations, and an opportunity to do justice by one of history's most remarkable men.

Vendetta Ride is a love story, a friendship story, a gritty historical drama, and an adventure novel. But to me, it's really a horror story decorated like a Western. But at its heart, it's about humanity—the desire to live, to explore, to grow, to love and to be loved. And to protect those whom we love. But it's also about the passion which life demands of us to bear through the challenges of the world, especially in such a difficult time in American history.

Wishing to be respectful to American culture, as Vendetta Ride tells a part of America's own story, I decided to abandon Canadian English, and to write the book in American English. When I'd normally write colour, for this book it was color. Where I normally write defence, here I wrote defense. To further bolster the book, several illustrations which I'd done previously were added. I even did a few new ones (such as Wyatt and Josephine embracing, above.) Although I always hated marketing, I had no choice but to promote my book, developing some paid advertisements (as seen below.)

And the slogan: He didn't fear the mob, they feared him.

Vendetta Ride was released November 2'nd, 2019, and I am most proud of this accomplishment.

After the World Ends

Scribe came from a relatively simple idea. I'd just finished rereading Dracula by Bram Stoker, a personal favourite of mine. I loved revisiting the dark, Gothic backdrop, haunting atmosphere, and the way it was written entirely in letters and news articles. Once done, I craved more of it. I tried reading Stoker's The Lair of the White Worm. But frankly, it's a poor successor to his horror masterpiece. So, if there was no more of Dracula to read, why not write more myself? Wanting to avoid the clique of vampire characters, I decided to take the Gothic backdrop and atmosphere of a vampire novel and turn it on its head: the good guys would be the freakish loners moping about abandoned castles, and the monsters would dominate the world instead. It was a fun idea, and rather fun to write.

From Radio Gods To Restaurateurs

I began working on Jimmy’s Fat Flamingo a long time ago. Around 1995, when I was about fifteen years old, I started imagining goofy adventures with this funny, romantic guy chasing the girl of his dreams through a restaurant. While listening to early-to-mid-90’s rock and pop songs, vivid scenes for an awesome comedy film just started flooding into my mind. As I thought on it more, I conceived an idea for a TV show. Jimmy would be the main character, but his group of oddball friends would be important characters too. I thought, ‘Wouldn’t it be cool if a bunch of kids got to run amok in their own radio station?’ They could play whatever music they wanted to, do whatever weird talk radio shows they conceived of, or even leave the station with ‘dead air’ for a couple days if they felt like it. They’d live in the station and make their meagre living off whatever profit they acquired from ad revenue, after the expense of maintaining the place.

The title I conceived for the show was Bluedrop Radio Gods. It would have had hour-long episodes, and maybe just 10 or 12 episodes a season. Each episode would have felt like a movie, with no canned laughter, and more sets and higher energy than seen on most shows. It could have featured guest-star musicians and celebrities that they’d interview and treat badly (unintentionally.)

I loved the idea, but the problem was, I had no connections to TV, and I wasn't much of a salesman. I’d never really planned it to be a real show in the first place. I was dreaming and I knew it. As time went on, and I drifted more towards writing novels, I left this creative property behind. Radio comedy worked best for a TV show format anyway. Besides, these days anyone can have a podcast. The idea of a bunch of kids, just out of high school, with their own radio station, that was a cool idea in the mid-90’s. It just wouldn’t be today.

Once in a while, I returned to Bluedrop and expanded a little upon what I’d written. I never intended to pitch the idea to a network. It was something I worked on for fun, just for myself. Recently, I returned to it and it suddenly dawned on me what a great novel series this would make. The first half of the pilot script was pretty funny. The second half, involving the radio station itself, always fell short for me. The sequence with Jimmy chasing Jessica in the restaurant was hilarious, so why not have Jimmy run the restaurant instead?

It felt more organic this way. It clicked. Suddenly, the story really came to life in a way it hadn’t before. Now there was so much potential for hilarious situations. It almost wrote itself. And so, Jimmy’s Fat Flamingo was born.

My Earlier Books

My first novel published to the Kindle was Sector Storm. I was thirty-five years old when it was finally available to the public, yet its origin began to take root when I was twelve. It shouldn't surprise anyone that I was inspired by Star Trek, and what was later to become Sector Storm was conceived as an idea for a new Star Trek television series. My family only had two or three channels in our household at this time, and so I mostly knew about The Next Generation series through comic books and magazines. My imagination quickly envisioned a large, bizarre-looking space station, capable of movement, lost in another galaxy. There was some kind of 'portal' to excuse this, although the correct word would be “wormhole.” I drew pictures, daydreamed and took notes of a somewhat more exotic cast of alien races than Star Trek had known before. The captain was an alcoholic who believed there was no hope in ever returning home, and he was surrounded by aliens picked up in this foreign galaxy—as they teamed together to fight the evil empires who hunted them!

At some point I'd drawn what were to become Jason O'Connor, Swim Doxis, Sharise Noxiel, Po and Nie Pairix, Nosha Fee'o and Crich of the Raidian Empire (so it was spelled then.) Their names were mostly different, their backgrounds a blank, but I did have the heart of each character: Jason was a self-destructing, once-great captain, Po a reoccurring sneaky con, Crich the egoistic main villain, and so forth. My idea took a dive however when I heard about a new series called Deep Space Nine. It was set on a space station, next to a wormhole! Oh well. I figured that my concept for the series would still hold up, even if I had to switch it to a spaceship instead of a base. However, years later, another Star Trek series would come along with a very familiar concept: Voyager. In hindsight, it seems as if this idea was the next logical step in the franchise. It wasn't as if I was actually planning to pitch the concept; it was just one of those silly dreams we all get in our youth.

I put the drawings and conceptual ideas away.
I kept them for sentimental reasons; not expecting
it could serve a purpose anymore.

As I grew through my teens, I found myself writing darker and more thrilling stories. Among my horrors, psychological thrillers and fantasy adventures, developed a concept for a series of science fiction novels. The name popped in my head: Sector Storm. I loved the title instantly, and many novels, short stories and even screenplays based on it bore the same name. The universe of Sector Storm was more akin to Star Wars than Star Trek, as it was far more exciting, violent and fun. It focused on a central hero who seemed impossibly good-natured for someone so rugged, commanding a mighty Alliance exploration ship deep into space. He got into so much trouble and back out again that it kept falling apart for me. My hero seemed too perfect. As did his crew. As did their adventures. Saddened by my disinterest in what seemed an interesting universe, I eventually gave up on it.

Years later, in my twenties, I returned again to the original cast of characters. I realized that this concept was not bound to Star Trek, as all the races—besides Terrans—were original, like the galaxy they were lost in. The only real difference for them was that they’d be redrawn without the Federation uniforms. And so, I had my troubled captain back, along with his ragtag crew of criminal misfits. I took my time, imagining the political and religious differences between the different races, the ideological conflicts between crewmen, as well as all the technologies they fought with. But when I finally began writing it, I quickly lost interest. You see, despite all its depth and grit, it lacked fun. This new universe I’d developed felt so grim and hopeless that it became dreary instead of riveting. And so, I once again put this cast of characters away.

Sometime in my late twenties or early thirties, between working on various writing projects and struggling to make ends meet, it somehow occurred to me to put the two universes together. In hindsight, that old 20/20 vision makes it pretty clear why it worked, but at the time it seemed more like an experiment. The universe that Jason O’Connor and his friends occupied was far too dreary, but the fun and excitement of the Sector Storm universe would bring it life. Likewise, the latter was missing grit and realism, and so the formal would solve that. The result was a story that, as it took shape, I realized was working for me. I could see it turning into a long series, possibly never ending.

I’d wanted to write a short story series, so it was being written with that intent. However, it kept growing, revealing more dimensions of what it wanted to be, and so it became a novella. The maximum amount of words for a novella was nearly reached. If I was going to get it published in a magazine, it could not succeed novella length. This forced me to write an abrupt ending. Dissatisfied with the sudden cliff-hanger, once again, I stepped away.

Years passed. I moved to a different town, got year-round employment instead of seasonal work, and came to realize also that self-publishing was the way to go now. I’d struggled for ten years to get stories of mine published, with nothing to show for it. Either I could risk losing another decade of my life or I could do what I loved and not worry about the publishing side of it. I wasn’t even sure writing a whole book was feasible while working full-time. Workplace responsibilities, stress and self-discipline always pulled me into an unnatural state where my true spirit, passion and inspiration faded away. It would sometimes take me months to get back to where I’d left off before returning to work! But, I could. Such was the benefit of seasonal work.

It seemed wise to look through what I’d already written. There was only one book which I’d completed that I felt really belonged in print: The Under-dwellers (later re-titled Sick Nick, the first book my The Under-dwellers series.) The truth is, I believed it to be an inspired and literary work which was too good for self-publishing. I felt sure that it belonged in print. Although facing reality would soon change my mind on this stubborn position, for the time being this one was off-limits for the Kindle. However, I found one of my several Sector Storm stories, the one I’d written last. I liked what I read and—despite that it was written so densely to be a shorter story—I felt like expanding it into a novel. And why not? The hard work had already been done: the concept, the characters, the technologies, the glossary of terms and races, even illustrations of what some of these characters, weapons and warships looked like! It felt doable to me, and it was. The rest of the book flowed as I typed, and I just kept imagining more and more...

Written in my early thirties, but as with Sector Storm, it was inspired by my past. It was actually based on a dream I used to have when I was about twelve. It always went the same: submerging with friends of mine (although they were not my real life friends,) to discover that we were on a rowboat in some brick-walled sewage channel, underground. We’d resurfaced from some deep and troublesome place, changing us forever. Yet, each time we returned, we had no memory of where we’d been or why it’d changed us so. All we had of it was the dark weight we felt due to it. Each time, as we neared escape from the sewers, I’d wake up. I’d always intended to write a story on this intriguing dream experience one day.

It came to me as I contemplated on the idea of “Under-dwellers” and “Surface-dwellers;” used to refer to “deep souls” and “shallow persons.” What better way to capture its meaning than to set at least part of the story in an Underworld? This way, I finally got to return to my dream and explore the darker world beneath it. In those days, whole novels were always written in longhand. It felt more intuitive—the feeling of ink on paper, of having actual physical contact with my story.

The problem was, as with the first book I’d attempted to publish in print, this one would have to be typed. Every word of it. As the first experience of doing this (for an enormous fantasy epic novel) had been so daunting a task, I decided to try something different and break an old rule of mine: never to rewrite a story because it would lose its original intuitive energy. Rather than looking and typing, looking and typing, I merely sat back and typed from memory and enjoyed telling the story all over again. (Well, I’ll be honest: some of it was typed from what I’d previously written because it seemed too good to lose!)

To my relief, the second version of the story turned out better than the first! Not only did it still feel fresh and intuitive, it was a better read! The first book had been divided into three parts: The Surface (my main characters in their adult lives,) Under It (their childhood experiences, including the Underworld,) and Surfacing (their return and eventual stand against their childhood nemesis.) The first and final parts worked, but the middle section—one third of the book in length—was tiresome. It seemed a rather materialistic take on the spirit world to me, with my characters studying the universe in some kind of mystical classroom setting. Also, it stretched on and on. In the rewritten version, I wrote a summary of their key experiences, as told to them by images, beamed through a magic stone.

This made the novel smaller, which I liked; it’d been written to be short, on the advice of other authors that shorter was best when you’re an “unknown” trying to get, well, known. (I’d later discover that the minimum word count for supernatural thrillers was much longer than mine, at the time at least (this may have been one reason why my queries garnered little interest, as it might not have reached expectations.)

When I realized I hadn’t the patience to spend more months of my life attempting to get it published in print, it was prepared for publication on the Kindle. I renamed it Sick Nick, after the main villain. This seemed a punchier title...

Unlike the previous two books, Elves of the White Oaks has little history behind it.
I simply felt a desire to write a fantasy adventure novel again. Imaginative music
helped to inspire my writing, and I drew a bit from some past, unpublished works
of mine. It is the kind of fantasy story I always enjoyed writing; youthful and fun,
yet with serious adult weight to it. This book relies more on atmosphere than my
previous novels...