The Wendigo Lives!

So, today is a scary day. No, not talking about COVID-19, or economic instability, or the pervasive corruption and lies in high offices in this country. It’s scary for me personally as today Graythorn Publishing is releasing my first novel Wendigogo for presales! This is the first book in The Reluctant Wendigo series, and I’m both excited (woohoo I has a real BOOK I WROTE which has been my dream since age 5) and anxious (oh man now I have a very real deadline by which all rewrites must be DONE and people will be reading my work assuming they buy it and aaaaaaaaaaaa).

Just a bit stressful, yeah.

I’ve updated this blog and intend to resume posting more often. At least once a month. Blogging for me is an afterthought, well behind daily grind stuff and friends and family and oh, of course, the near-constant scenes running in my head for Book 2 at this point. (Working title is Love Song of the Murder Deer, to give you an idea of tone.)

So, my wendigo. I started this story years back (you can even find an early bit in an earlier blog post), but then didn’t know what to do with it. The story felt incorrect. The characters didn’t gel. So I abandoned it for a while.

Cut to early 2019. The everyday bullshit spewing from this administration and my continual fury at the Congresspeople and CEOs of some companies who dug right in to enrich themselves at everyone else’s and the planet’s expense, coupled with my love of snow, sparked the wendigo back to life. I hadn’t clearly envisioned my protagonist to this point, but pop culture sources combined in my dreams: the film Cabin in the Woods for overall tone and bloody humor, as well as the name Mordecai; and I’d been watching a lot of Better Call Saul, and later, Mr. Show. It suddenly hit me what Morty would look like, how he would sound and act, and how his reaction to our current news cycle would be amped up considerably with an infusion of ancient, angry manitou. I revised my original plot and launched in. The first complete draft was done January 2020. And now here I am working on rewrites, with cover art gorgeously finished, and pre-orders now available for ebooks!!

UPDATE: Now also available directly from Graythorn Publishing at https://graythorn-publishing.square.site/s/shop ! Support indie publishers and booksellers!

Welp. Didn’t think I’d publish first as a comic horror author, but here we are. Wendigogo now up for preorder; publishing 4/21/20! Gorgeous full cover art by Sally Jackson -- go check out her art ! I’m a little overwhelmed right now; still at the DIDJA SEE A REAL LIVE ARTIST PAINTED MORTY ALL PRETTY FER ME stage…

More hyped than a cannibal at a crowded buffet! Hope among you there are folks who enjoy a good evisceration served with a big ol’ dollop of snark. Happy Friday the 13^th!