|
|
THIS NOVEL BEGAN as a five-thousand-word short story that I had written with the intention of submitting it to a themed anthology by Graveside Tales entitled The Beast Within.
The theme the editors were looking for was a look at the human behind the beast or the monster. That’s exactly what I attempted to look at in my story “This Time Around.” I thought it might be interesting to explore a man trying to deal with the side-effect of being a werewolf, and a story that took place only when he was human, and not the monster. So I started it off with him waking up naked in Battery Park and trying to get back home undetected.
The story was not accepted for publication in the anthology, but I was pleased to have written it.
To me, it was a fun little romp, with my main character finding himself side-tracked from his original mission to get back to mid-town by following his inherent desire to use his extraordinary senses and super-human powers to good use. I hadn’t even named the main character in the original version of the tale.
It wasn’t until I showed the story to my friend and writing mentor Sean Costello that it ever occurred to me there was more to this character, more to this tale.
After finishing his first read, Sean put the manuscript down and said, “Good story. Where’s the rest of it?”
“What do you mean?” I replied, “That’s the whole thing. It ends there on a humorous note.”
“But there’s the whole mystery about the other wolf, the unsolved murder, how he ended up with a bullet in his leg.”
“Yeah, you see, that part doesn’t really matter. It’s one of the side-effects of being the monster. Wondering what happened, never really knowing. That’s the point. The story is about him as a human, how he has to put up with crap like he found himself in when he woke up.”
“No,” Sean said, a big grin on his face. “There’s more here. This reads more like the start of a novel. I want to know what happens next.”
“Nothing happens next.”
“Sure it does. He walks into the diner and meets his agent for breakfast and then what happens? What do they talk about? What is the meeting about? What does he do next to find out more about the other wolf? What are some of the other side-effects of being a werewolf? Are there other, more personal side-effects he has to deal with? You have a lot to go on just by answering those questions.”
And so I did.
I started to work on converting the story into a novel back in 2006. And, at the time, I was about to become the subject of a recurring “reality show” segment on a writing podcast that I was following called The Writing Show. With a subtitle of “Information and Inspiration for Writers” the podcast was hosted by Paula B. Paula, whose full last name is Berinstein, was an amazing host and among the first podcasters that I put on my “must listen to” list. She inspired and entertained me, and I was honored to actually start to become a small part of her show.
The reality segment was called “Getting Published” and the series about me was called “Getting Published, with Mark Leslie.” The idea was for Paula to interview a writer in the midst of working on a project. In my case, it was to write A Canadian Werewolf in New York during NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month) in November of 2006 and then to follow my process of finding an agent and publisher for it.
I failed to complete either the novel or the 50,000-word goal for NaNoWriMo that year. I reached about 30,000 words by the end of November, and, as November ended, I kept chipping away at the novel while working on other projects. 2006 was the year that the anthology North of Infinity II which I had edited, came out. And, interestingly, I wouldn’t put another book out until 2009 when I edited Campus Chills.
But, even by the year 2010 and Episode 11 of the “Getting Published, with Mark Leslie” series, I still hadn’t finished the werewolf novel. I seemed to have found every excuse in the book not to finish it. (You can listen to the episodes via the links from www.writingshow.com – or, to hear my ongoing excuses and reasoning.)
Among my excuses were the writing and publishing of several other books in that time span (4 non-fiction titles published and 5 written, 2 novels written, both published and one of them even published twice by two different publishers, and 2 anthologies edited and published.
But, despite my excuses and procrastination, I did manage to finish the novel in the spring 2015. And shortly after that, I found an amazing editor for it. Joshua Essoe, a freelance editor, was recommended to me be several trusted colleagues at Superstars Writing Seminars hosted by Kevin J. Anderson. Due to the high demand for his expertise there was a waiting list to use him – but Joshua was worth every single penny, and I encourage writers of speculative fiction to check him out at www.joshuaessoe.com.
One of the things that strikes me as amusing about this novel is that it follows the same structure as the very first short story that I had ever published. The story “The Progressive Sidetrack” was about a high school senior whose attempt to ask a girl he has a crush on to that night’s dance are continually thwarted by his duties as Student Council President. Every time he thinks he is going to get his chance, he is blocked or prevented from his goal. My writing instructor at the time said it was reminiscent of the movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, but I had more been thinking about the 1985 Martin Scorsese film After Hours which follows an office worker from the end of his shift, through a long series of misadventures that continually prevent him from returning home. In many ways, this novel is just that – the idea of Michael having goals and places to be and then throwing curve balls at him along the way, very much follows the same convention.
There are, within this book (as there are in many of my stories) fun little “Easter eggs” planted there for fun and discovery.
Among them are two characters who first appeared in a short story I had written called “Distractions” which first appeared in the 2001 World Fantasy Con CD-ROM edited by Nancy Kilpatrick. “Distractions” was reprinted in my 2004 book One Hand Screaming and also appears in my chapbook Active Reader: And Other Cautionary Tales from the Book World. The main character of “Distractions” is Maxwell Bronte, a frustrated and down-on-his luck fantasy writer, desperately trying to overcome writer’s block by taking a serious and disturbing stand against the distractions in his life. I really liked the name Maxwell Bronte and so thought I’d make that the main character in Michael’s series. That short story also mentions motivational speaker Andy Robinson (who inspires Bronte to his extreme distraction-eliminating lifestyle); Robinson appears in this novel as the guest who cancels on Letterman, freeing up the spot for Michael.
Another fun self-reflective element for readers is the alliteration used in Michael’s Maxwell Bronte novels such as Print of the Predator and Roost of the Ruthless Raven. These are a cheeky nod to my own non-fiction titles Haunted Hamilton (2012), Spooky Sudbury (2013) and Creepy Capital (2016), not to mention the almost direct mock Tome of Terror (the Maxwell Bronte novel) referencing my own Tomes of Terror: Haunted Bookstores and Libraries.
See, I can have a good time making fun of myself.
It’s all part of the overall process.
Speaking of process, thank YOU for going through the process not only of reading this book, but also for taking the time to read these “behind the book” notes. Writing is fun, but so is sharing some of the more intimate behind the scenes details. Given your dedication to detail, I’d love if you could rate and review this book on your favorite online review site. I’m not particular about what sort of review you offer, either positive or negative, just that you put one up – reviews really do make a huge difference towards helping a writer find new readers. So, in advance, thanks for that, too.
If you care to comment privately to me in any way, I also love hearing directly from readers. You can reach me via mark@markleslie.ca or look for my author page on Facebook or even follow me on Twitter (@MarkLeslie). Heck, if you sign up for my newsletter at www.markleslie.ca there’s even a free read in it for you.
And so, ten years after I had originally begun this novel, I finished it. It’s not the longest time I’ve taken to write a book, but it’s right up there. Michael Andrews has been with me for a significant amount of time. He’s a friend, he’s partly me, and he is a whole lot of fun to write.
As I make revisions to this book, yet again, in 2020, including an entire cover and series rebranding, I know I have returned to and will continue to return to Michael’s world to see what he is up to next.
For example, the novella Stowe Away, which you’ll see a short excerpt from, appears at the very end of this volume.
That one takes place in July 2015, almost a full year after the events in this novel.
The next full-length novel in Michael’s universe is called Fear and Longing in Los Angeles and takes place in July 0f 2017.
If everything goes according to plan, that book should be released in mid-2021.
Let’s just hope that with all the planning and in depth work I’ve done in the summer of 2020 to re-release this novel, re-brand the series, and invest in audio, all read by Scott Overton, it’s not another ten years before more stories and novels featuring Michael Andrews see the light of day.
Or the light of the moon, as it were.
Mark Leslie
July 2020