Dead Mouths is slated to be the first of 4 books in the Blackrock Canyon Tetralogy. It tells the story about what happens when a ranch that was cursed and haunted by unspeakable incidents from the past is passed on to people who have no regard for its supernatural side, even when the effects of these incidents stare them straight in the face.
In the beginning of the first book, an almost dead and bloody hiker named Larry Gladwell is found by a rancher. He is then dropped off with the local chief of police, a guy named Tony Lucas, who is then thrust into the center of the situation. From the hiker's transfer to a local hospital in Moab, the mystery of how he got injured and left for dead unravels into demonic possessions. As the events increase in magnitude, many lives are intertwined together into the situation. Soon, the former ranch owner's son Harvey, a Native American named "Wolf," a couple from Pennsylvania named Dave and Charlotte, a woman named Suzie who has psychic abilities, and a pilot named "Chuckie" join forces with Blanding, Utah's finest in a battle that they can't even begin to fathom.
From developments in the canyon to peripheral events in the local towns, the history, present and future of this dwelling are interwoven into the mystery of what happened and how and why these things occurred.
As the tale goes on, a mix of demons, ghosts, and alien visitations to southeastern Utah are revealed. All the while, good and evil collide with the restless dead for a larger conflict, which is influenced by the actions of a small group of people who are hell bent and determined to reinvigorate the actions of a blood-thirsty shaman through his demonic master and their allegiance to his wicked way.
Will our heroes be able to save the day before the Satanic forces gets out or will they all be destroyed by the unlimited powers of black magic?
You'll have to read the story to find out, but until it's published (hopefully, by Thanksgiving), here's a 4-section teaser.
For those people who are interested...
This story was inspired by Waldo Wilcox's Range Creek Ranch, which is not haunted (nor did any of these events take place, but I started to wonder, what if a place filled with cliff dwellings existed and it was never known about because people were being protected from it?).
It's also influenced by Cowboy Wash's cannibalism claims, which mirror many claims of cannibalism throughout the Southwest. Here, I took artistic liberty for another what if. I claim nothing about knowing reasons for the true nature of these crimes against humanity. My goal is to create a scary horrific fictional world of what if.
Other than that, I have always loved places like Mesa Verde, which is my favorite national park. I grew up loving Frank Edwards' Stranger than Science and listened to the band Iron Maiden from an early age (who doesn't love Eddie?).
Currently, I watch a lot of H2 and Destination America shows on all things haunted and paranormal as well as try my best travel to see places that get featured on these shows. I tend to watch shows like A Haunting, but what I really like is getting out and seeing the places for real and contemplating all things. This isn't easy to do since many of them (like those featured in this story) are on the other side of the country, but yeah... someday I'll get back there and see more of them.
That said, I do have a strong respect for the academic and skeptical side of people like Carl Sagan, whose The Fine Art of Baloney Detection is required reading (in my humble opinion). While I am influenced by shows like Ancient Aliens, I take a fair bit of the show, at least what's beyond some of the encounters, skeptically. To this, I see them as an introduction to archaeology, anthropology, and history - in a "what if" alternative history / sci-fi theory kind of way (as opposed to matter of fact absolute truth). Yes, it could be said that I'm recreating some of it here, but I want to be clear that I see this book as a work of fiction.
I should also say that I am a big subscriber to the techniques that M Night Shyamalan uses in most of his movies. I like the idea of not revealing too much gore and instead focusing on the terror that characters feel instead (straight out of Aristotle's Poetics). Here, I prefer psychology to gross-out 100 times out of 100.
I would have to say that I went into this book to recreate and channel a fair mix of my interest in the movies Signs, The Mummy (the Brendan Fraser one), Jaws, Altered States, and Close Encounters of the Third Kind and how they could be combined with the reading of books like Stephen King's The Stand. What came out is something like that, but it's nothing like what it started out to be. Frankly, it's much better than that (once again, my humble opinion).
This book is also the product of a lot of music... whether indie rock, thrash metal, classic rock, or even old school country, I feel that all genres can inspire creation, creativity, and story telling. Nevertheless, some musicians like King Diamond seem to be really great inspiration for writing horror stories since his CDs are his own ghost stories with music behind them. Slayer is pretty awesome as well since they're just so brutal and heavy. Nevertheless, some moments mellow stuff like Jack Johnson works pretty good as well. It's all relative.
As we come to the end of this rambling, I feel I should give a few warnings.
1) I try to steer away from the gore where possible since I'm not a fan of it, but some scenes are more than PG. I can't say that this is for younger kids since it's not.
2) I would have liked to have steered away from some language, but realistic speech doesn't allow for it. Sorry.
3) I don't like stories that are root for the bad guy or the killer. Personally, I believe in God. I find real evil in the world scarier than fiction. For this, I feel like we need more heroism (in both real life and fiction) where good has to confront evil (hence, this story).
4) I do believe in ghosts due to personal experience. I'm open to believing in aliens though I've never been abducted or seen one (yet!).
5) I love history, hiking, music, baseball, and commitments to family life. I have tried to incorporate them here as well. That said, the baseball and music stuff does play into the whole of this story (trust me). It's not just me throwing everything but the kitchen sink in here!
6) If you're here for Friday the 13th or Texas Chainsaw Massacre, you came to the wrong place.
7) If you're here to say, "You know, Die Hard was completely believable until that part with the..." you're probably in the wrong place. This isn't meant to be the history of what was or even 100% real (though it is based in the real), but the history of what could be. It's meant to be scary and fun, and if you're lucky, you'll check out some academic stuff and places (like I did) after reading it. Let the fiction take you to the non-fiction - but have fun with this and enjoy the fiction stuff, too. That's what I wrote it for (as do people like Stephen King)!
8) I really think you should see some of these places that I write about with your own eyes. Create your own stories! Take road trips! Feel inspired to experience! Life is too short for anything else.
9) Yes, there are scenes where characters engage in drug use. If you read the scene, you'll understand that it's not done to glorify this but rather to open the characters up to making bad decisions while messed up on substances. That's why they're here.
10) That whole graffiti and destroying precious places thing... whether historic or natural or both... so uncool. Leave no trace. Stand up for history, whether on the trail or in the world as a whole. Enough said (No more Gustaf Nordenskiolds).
11) On a final note, I am an English teacher, and I went through my days reading the classics, but right now, I prefer my reading material to just flow and keep my interest. If writing can't do that, then so what if it's a classic? Then again, maybe I read too much Antonin Artaud and his call for "No More Masterpieces." So yeah, I'm not here to be Shakespeare (nor do I want to be him in any respect - though I get him). I'm here to entertain you and make you feel connected to a story for a serious chunk of time and maybe even want to read it again and share it with your friends.
So yeah... take all these things for what you want. It's what you get, and I hope you feel it's good.
Whatever this (and the other ideas flowing around my head) turn out to be, I hope that you like this! If you'd like to wax intellectual on this, feel free to send me a message!
Thanks.
Dan.
dankcm@hotmail.com
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