INTRODUCTION
This book has been in the works
for about a year and a half.
Originally, I saw it being 300
pages. It’s twice that now. Congratulations, you got so much more than I ever
expected (for roughly the same price – though print costs more due to paper).
What’s more, you received a much better story (my best?). Not to break my arm
when I try to pat myself on the back, but I do feel more in the flow with this
than my other works, and yes, I do love them, too. This means something for me,
and I hope it does for you.
Thank you for buying this!
For many reasons, this book
feels more special for the flow and the growth of characters that I am
exhibiting. This is a mix of experiencing positive psychologists Mihaly
Csikszentmihalyi and having read Luigi Pirandello’s play Six Characters in Search of an Author. This is not to forget my
love of the first season of the TV show Heroes,
The Walking Dead, pretty much
everything on Destination America, Ancient
Aliens, the first Die Hard, many
of M. Night Shyamalan’s films, Joseph Campbell’s Hero with 1,000 Faces, Marvel origin films, and even some This is Us mixed with James Wan’s Insidious, Annabelle, and Conjuring side – not Saw.
I’m a big fan of character
growth. Static characters mean nothing. I’m also a big fan of the “beautifully
imperfect” nature of all people (we’re still lovable and human despite our
failures). People can only find pure good and evil in the godly and the demonic.
Humans are problematic at many points in time. They have back-stories. They
make decisions for a reason, and we need to know it, even if the reason doesn’t
come up right away. I like this characterization and connection. I would say
this is why I’m moving from this book to Intersections
(the next mega collection of Blackrock, which will outsize this one and the
last one).
Perhaps another reason I really like
this book is that it started out as a tribute to my sister’s son CJ, who is the
inspiration for Colin Jameson. From the first idea of what I originally called
“The Wendigo Story (what is now chapter 1)” to an image of a Punisher type
character, who was locked and loaded with bullets melted down from the Nails of
Christ, CJ figured prominently in the book as someone who I wanted to give the
opportunity to destroy evil.
As time went on, I added other personas
to the book because I wanted to pay tribute to other young people that needed
to be heroes. These include my friends Will and Heidi’s sons (Liam and Zac) and
a teenager I tutor (Tyler). Additionally, I included my dad’s cousin Bart (he
was a rancher in real life (RIP) – who is mixed with the look of my one school’s
president Dr. Griscom), my niece Amanda, my nephew Quinton, remembrances of
several former friends who were lost to different directions and bad decisions along
the way, my mother’s maiden name (Gittleman), my brother in law (Bruce), my
English teacher (Borkert), my neurologist (Vargas), a former student (Nguyen) and
my Air Force training instructors in the military (Honig and Rouse – they seem
like the right people for the job of training). Once again, these were all
people who needed to be heroes. I like how they worked out here.
In creating personas, I believe that
everyone deserves a chance to be a hero. Many of these younger people are not
only good people, but they are great young people who were never received a
spotlight to stand out, so I figured, “Why not make them a sort of superhero
who could stand out?” Thus, they all appear positively to make them members of
S1, the world’s foremost paranormal organization dedicated to fighting
paranormal, supernatural, and evil beings in a Navy SEALs meet the X-Files way.
And yes, there is a persona of me in Dead Mouths. Many people saw how that
character resembles me (as Charlotte was originally modeled after my wife
Heather), and yes, it’s true, I started out writing fiction this way. It happens.
While I’m stuck with that in some ways, I’ve deviated from that connection
significantly, and I will continue to do so in Intersections, as I’ve moved beyond that to the cosmic world that
creates characters for me.
In the original version of the story
(outline only), long since annihilated well before book 1’s release, Dave was
the main character. However, in this book you are about to read, it’s clear
that the main good characters are Tony Lucas (the id), Suzie Heilman (the ego),
Ouray (the superego), Bart Doherty (the leader lost down the rabbit hole), Marcus
Powell (the leader on the side of the rational), Colin Jameson (the knight in
training), Ivan Parker (the strength of experience), Charles “Chuck” Jones (the
warrior lost down the rabbit hole), Sean “Big Dig” Carruthers (the mysterious
adventurer), Abraham Owens + Vincent Littleman (the heroes from another world
coming to save the day), and Benson Villaneuva (clairvoyance).
In a future book, I will be able to
express the evil more clearly, though it’s obvious that Eli Jordan + his
father, Abdul Halim, Paolo Crespo, Theodore Swanson, the Fressineaus, Parvez
Kharimi, Jason Harper, and Pyotor Osokin will fall majorly into this with all
of the demons who are coming to congregate at Blackrock.
That said, it’s best not to get too far
ahead in these things.
As for the mad props…
First and foremost is the love and
support of family and friends. Whether they be the family I’ve found along the
way (my wonderful wife, Heather) or my parents + sister and the rest of my
extended family (especially my Gram, who let me build forts in her apartment as
well as to play with my Star Wars figures at her place every weekend of my
youth – rest in peace), I’ve always been able to be lost in other worlds of
daydreams and fantasy.
Quite simply, from an early age, I was
encouraged and allowed to be imaginative. This led me to Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, V, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, Independence Day, Altered States, Contact, The Mummy (the Brendan Fraser
one), The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Creature Double Feature, Ancient
Aliens, The Conjuring, A Haunting, Signs, Monsters and Mysteries in America,
Jaws, and a lot of other science fiction / aliens / ghost stuff (Frank Edwards’ Stranger than Science and the Warrens’ experience) as well as great
action movies like Die Hard and the
Asian cinema of John Woo and Chow Yun Fat. This is not to forget the myriad of
Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Norris action movies in my formative years (not
to mention one too many viewings of the original Red Dawn).
In addition, music is a big part of who
I am as a writer and person. From my earliest days with Billy Joel to Iron
Maiden to Neutral Milk Hotel to the Polyphonic Spree to the Misfits to Phish to
Jack Johnson to Okkervil River to Jay Z to the Hold Steady to the National to Slayer,
songs have always inspired me to sing along and to move on through. My mp3
player ranges from cheesy pop songs by Echosmith to eerie metal music by King
Diamond to experimental stuff by Sonic Youth. There’s a time and place for
everything, and frankly, I wouldn’t want to live in a world without music of every
genre. Simply stated, I could have never written this book with bad music or
silence. For this, I do name check songs, bands, and literary things to get
other people interested in them as well. Support your favorite artists as I
support mine.
First and foremost is the love and
support of family and friends. Whether they be the family I’ve found along the
way (my wonderful wife, Heather) or my parents + sister and the rest of my
extended family (especially my Gram, who let me build forts in her apartment as
well as to play with my Star Wars figures at her place every weekend of my
youth – rest in peace), I’ve always been able to be lost in other worlds of
daydreams and fantasy.
Quite simply, from an early age, I was
encouraged and allowed to be imaginative. This led me to Star Wars, Raiders of the Lost Ark, V, Close Encounters of the Third
Kind, Independence Day, Altered States, Contact, The Mummy (the Brendan Fraser
one), The Walking Dead, Stranger Things, Creature Double Feature, Ancient
Aliens, The Conjuring, A Haunting, Signs, Monsters and Mysteries in America,
Jaws, and a lot of other science fiction / aliens / ghost stuff (Frank Edwards’ Stranger than Science and the Warrens’ experience) as well as great
action movies like Die Hard and the
Asian cinema of John Woo and Chow Yun Fat. This is not to forget the myriad of
Stallone, Schwarzenegger, and Norris action movies in my formative years (not
to mention one too many viewings of the original Red Dawn).
In addition, music is a big part of who
I am as a writer and person. From my earliest days with Billy Joel to Iron
Maiden to Neutral Milk Hotel to the Polyphonic Spree to the Misfits to Phish to
Cat Stevens to Jason Isbell to Modern Baseball to Allo Darlin’ to the Front
Bottoms to Okkervil River to Jay Z to the Hold Steady to the National to Slayer,
songs have always inspired me to sing along and to move on through. My mp3
player ranges from pop songs by Echosmith to spacey stuff by the Orb to eerie
metal music by King Diamond to happy stuff by Bob Marley to experimental stuff
by Sonic Youth. There’s a time and place for everything, and frankly, I
wouldn’t want to live in a world without music of every genre. Simply stated, I
could have never written this book with bad music or silence. For this, I do
name check songs, bands, and literary things to get other people interested in
them as well. Support your favorite artists as I support mine.
Along the way, I have also had many
great teachers who allowed me to grow as a writer, teacher, and person with
their style and willingness to take on my honors contracts and engage in
personal discussions (Ron Borkert, Bill Harst, Dave Leight, Susan Hartman, and
Eric Wolf come to mind). With them, I was able to do many great projects and
learn so much more than I would have if I didn’t participate in class actively.
Because of them and my parents, I learned the value of education. While I
didn’t always understand or appreciate education or the “do this / do that”
approach to things, I eventually did embrace it, and I was able to teach myself
by learning to observe what others did and by absorbing information and
educational experience because of it. In addition, many colleagues and peers in
the educational world supported my dream, which was to educate other people about
the value of writing (of these Karen, Joann, and Helen stand out). I can’t
begin to state what that means to me. Teaching and learning are great things.
Embrace knowledge in all that you do.
In an ideal world, I would list many
names, and they would be definitive with regard to who has helped me along the
way. However, I know that I’ll forget people, so rather than try to be
all-inclusive here, I’ll thank all of my friends from those who were there with
me during the awkward and lonely high school years. In addition, there were the
friends during the wild ride of the Loft days, my time in the Air Force, the
England experience, the post-England college time, and the last seventeen years of my life. All
of these people have been involved in me being an educator, and my experiences
hiking, traveling, and living life while listening to great music, experiencing
movies, reading books, and embracing an America that I almost left, while
spending time with the people who matter.
For all of the mistakes I’ve made, the
dumb things I’ve done, and the bad choices I’ve made along the way, my family
and friends have stuck with me to get to this place as a writer / teacher /
person. I appreciate that. I must also say that I still can’t believe that I
have a wife who would embrace my eccentricity and rough around the edges nature
to still be here for me, nearly nine years after our first memorable date. Like
Lou Gehrig, I’m the luckiest man on the face of the earth to have someone
who’ll let a major time, effort, and cost undertaking like this book series
happen.
As for me, in many ways, like Eddie
Vedder said when he refused to be people’s messiah after Kurt Cobain’s death or
when King Ezekiel on The Walking Dead
negated himself to the role of just being “some guy” after causing his group’s
problems, that’s who I am, too. However, I have a gift (writing) and experience
(good and bad) to share. For this, I hope I inspire you with my life and dreams.
In this, it’s important to note that my
whole family and all of my friends support me through my Parkinson’s diagnosis
(September 27, 2016). I may have PD, but PD doesn’t have me. I will write
through the tremors I am currently experiencing and whatever symptoms occur to
me in the future. Simply put, my role in this situation is to educate and
advocate (not whine about what I can’t do). I do that by choosing to live life
and be happy. If my role in life is to share my knowledge of the world and
entertain people while answering their questions about my condition, so be it.
People mean well. If they’re asking, it’s not to troll; it’s to learn. Really.
Disability is only an inability if we let it own us. We can avoid this by
living, living vicariously, and supporting the causes of finding a cure and
treating people. Boo yeah!
Also, in whatever came my way, I always
found great people to influence and inspire me. One of those people was MaryAnn
Schaefer, who edited this book and provided tons of writing advice to me. I am
very very grateful to her for that (she changes my Barks to Barts when my mind
is getting bumpy on the I’ve been writing too long / lack of connectivity on
the PD dirt roads, too). I’m also very thankful that she allowed me to have a
couple of Air Force / England Thanksgivings with her, her husband Bill, and her
daughters Sky and Nicki all those years ago. I can’t begin to explain what they
meant to a young guy 3,000 miles from home on the holidays.
I am also mega-grateful to Ken Guard
for his NRA-fueled action writing advice, which made many things with the
attack on The Whale possible. He’s
been my friend longer than many of my readers have been alive. That’s a good
thing. The same is true with my friend, Pete Apostolakos, who has made
various input suggestions throughout. Muchos gracias!
I am thankful to Thaddeus Stevens Library for hosting Halloween
readings two years in a row. It’s so cool to be able to do things like this
with and for students.
I am super thankful to Brad Adams,
Tyler Richard, and Caleb Haddon for all of the graphic arts work they did for
me to include complete design and creation of this cover. When in doubt, hire a
student intern that comes recommended by his / her teacher. You’re giving them
experience to be even greater (these guys rock). Also, support the industrial
arts. I may be a college writing teacher, but higher education isn’t all
college. We need great tradespeople, too.
In this writing endeavor, many of you
will choose to help me by either advertising or buying this book. You will read
my works and provide constructive criticism. You’ll tell your friends about my
books. You will inspire me while I keep working on the Blackrock Canyon series,
which is between 1,500 and 2,000 pages at this point in four different books. I
think it has (at least) a couple thousand to go, but that’s just me. THANK YOU
for what you will do and what you have done!!!!
In the meantime, I look forward to
entertaining you along the course of my writer’s journey. Hopefully, I’ll even
inspire some of you to embrace your own creativity, which would be awesome to
see all of the young people, the Dylans and Lydias of the world (as well as
Little Zen Monkeys), move to take to a keyboard to bang out their stories and /
or just keep living their life in greatness. The world is your oyster. Do what
you have to do. It’s go time. Where would we be without writing or the oral
tradition or petroglyphs or other great art to inspire us to communicate what
we see and do to the world?
Thanks for reading and supporting my
art.
You guys and gals are awesome. Really.
Enjoy my book. I know I enjoyed writing
it.
Dan
November 20, 2017
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