I am working on a book for 2016.
I wrote a book approximately 15 years ago and I hope it never sees the light of day.
In fact, those publishers that stole my stamps and never sent me a rejection note were doing me a grande favor.
This is how its gonna be this time:
I am going to write a hard, prologue to my book online. No ebook to download. Just a website. It'll be the resume.
Prologue to what book? It is the werewolf story that I was born to write. I was born under the shadow of the Gonteekwa. My father's pseudonym was BIFF DEMMON. He bopped around writing fanzines and the like before settling on news journalism.Check his credential
The shadow though. I said I was born under the shadow of the Gonteekwa. I have mentioned it before in this blog, and I will do it again: My father roomed with Larry Ivie for a spell in New York in the early 60s. They went their separate ways, but Larry ultimately wrote the WEREWOLF story that Frazetta illustrated in CREEPY Magazine #1. Larry Ivie gave my old man props. In WEREWOLF, Biff Demmon the great white hunter, gets taken by that which he can't understand (The Gonteekwa). I will re-mention the Frank Frazetta art, because it is a major aspect of it all.
I grew up in a Christian household with some serious horror DNA.
Understand my life: My father turned away from his pop culture writings. He became a family man and barrel-rolled out of the path of many people who are now pop culture giants (Philip K. Dick for one). My father turned away and became a born-again Christian, and a respectable journalist. Calvin Demmon kept that stance until the end of his life.
Part of Dad's stance coerced me to go to a missionary school in Texas back in 1987. I stayed there for 3 years. While I was there, I committed my life to Christ and went abroad, teaching the gospel to anyone who would listen. I went on a tour to Grenada in 1987. I met a man in the hills who said he knew of a man who could change from a man into an animal and back into a man again. He scared the hell out of me. He really scared the hell out of me! In fact, his manner and clothing were so odd, that I have really simplified him in the re-telling of the story. I never saw the werewolf, but I was ready to believe.
I gave the Christian system as much as I could. I read the Bible and I read the Greek and Hebrew. I taught Sunday school. I led a few different youth groups and I served it up in soup kitchens. I prayed and fasted like a motherfucker. In the end, my faith collapsed.
The Gonteekwa novel that I am writing touches down hard on Christianity and its failures. I no longer call myself a Christian, but it was a helluva 30 year run. What do I do with all of this compounded scripture in my head? All of this theology that I meditated upon? All of these stories of mis-applied faith and Christians behaving like racist pagans? All of this intel?
I'll tell you what I'm doing. I 'm writing a werewolf story that will hopefully cause you to question whatever spiritual stance you think you have. If you have none, then it will serve as the best werewolf story you will ever read. Well, that's the plan at least. But look, I am done with silver bullets and full-moons. Let's go with full-on lycanthropic demon possession instead. Wayyyyy more interesting than Larry Talbot and the gypsy camp.
I can say this, because as far as I can tell, the werewolf genre is balls. It needs a steel-toed boot to the head. I'm bringing that boot. I have the story, and I have the website.
You can follow the construction of the Great American Horror novel at www.gonteekwa.com
You can also follow the spoiler-laden Gonteekwa #Twitter account. Its your insight into my writing process.https://twitter.com/gonteekwa
#Gonteekwa
#SENDAPUBLISHER
PS. My daughter (a high school student) drew the art at the top of this post. She re-imagined the horrible stories I tell her when I pick her up from school and she pushed the art through an anime lens. I am very happy with it.