Pallid Light: The Waking Dead
Coming to bookstores next February, 2010, is my new novel Pallid Light: The waking dead. I'm going to offer up that it's fast-paced, and a bit of an action tale. For a preview, visit my website. The first 3 chapters are online. (Click Here)
I'm already working on other projects, and have been for a while. In the queue are a few anthologies and two more novels. If all goes according to plan, they should appear next year and the following year. By then I'm certain I'll have more projects, and the process will repeat.
For those who know about my sleeping disorder (now you do if you didn't), I find the subtitle to Pallid Light rather ironic. It didn't occur to me until after I'd finished the novel. Oh, how many times I've felt like the waking dead.
Now comes the confusion: Why does the book on Amazon have two authors listed? Pretend you didn't see that. I write under a pen name, and through a variety of channels of confusion, the title was listed with my pen name and my real name. This will soon be corrected. As it turns out, my pen name doesn't have the same Nielsen ratings I do - see the previous post for details on that. And, given myriad other things, one confusion lead to another, which resulted in me co-authoring with myself. Even though I found myself difficult to work with, in the end, I won all of the arguments. A good sign, I hope.
I do want to thank Malcolm McClinton for his cover art, and everyone who read the book and offered insights.
Below is some copy text for the novel. It takes place in Temperance, Illinois. The town will never be the same.
Pallid Light: The Waking Dead
The world ends with the flip of a switch. The thundering storms strike across the world, searing the earth, leaving destruction in their wake. Few will survive. For the folks living in Temperance, Illinois the nightmare is just beginning. When the sky roils in luminous colors, the people of the small town begin to die, and Randall Clay decides to escape. What he didn’t expect was the dead to come back to life or the nightmare that came after.
8 comments:
I'm first in line for this, William. I'm ordering today. Chuck's trying to post but I'm cutting him off. Congratulations.
I am looking forward to reading this. Someone asked me if all the zombie novels were the same and whether or not if someone reads one of them, they read them all. My response is that the zombie novel is something of a canvas, its a framework for the author to paint on and create something unique, to stamp his personality on it. It's sort of like the blues. One would think the twelve bar pattern would become old, but there are so many variations and ways to reinvent it that each time a blues artists digs in, I am entertained and surprised. So it is with the zombie novels.
Congratulations, William! I was going to ask you how you get time for all of this, but then I remembered your sleep disorder...
I usually have a pretty good idea if a writer's style is going to appeal to my tastes by his or her use of strong verbs. Case in point: a few paragraphs into the free sampler of this novel, William wrote, "...Fat drops of rain exploded against the window."
This one sentence informs me that the writer selects his verbs with care. I look forward to picking up this novel for all its zombie goodness. Congratulations, William.
--Jeff Talanian
Rick - Thanks! Every line needs a beginning. :)
Stewart - I agree with you. That is the thing with genre, it can be altered and changed into something different, or it can be repeated. I suppose that has always been the attraction of genre and sub-genre. And I look forward to reading your upcoming novel and it's variation. :)
Rick - Sleeping disorders can produce wondrous imaginings. And dark bags under eyes.
Jeff - I'm a fan of verbs as well. It goes back to (Harlan Ellison, I believe) who said "is/was" are verbs to be replaced. Of course, we can't always do that. But verbs have energy, and they can be fun to play with as well.
Hi William,
Huge congratulations to you - very much looking forwards to reading this treat!
A Merry & Betentacled Christmas,
Sarah
I can't wait for this one!!!!
Hi William,
I've had the pleasure of meeting Harlan Ellison three times, one such instance being an intimate gathering of about 25 people. He is a very entertaining, off-the-wall, eccentric speaker; witty and sarcastic, yet charming all the while. One of the stories he told us was regarding the development of the Star Trek episode _City on the Edge of Forever_, which Harlan wrote the screenplay for. Shatner supposedly called Harlan, in a panic to see the script, asking where Harlan lived. So he told him. When Bill arrived, he dumped his motorcycle in Harlan's yard after speeding down his street and into his driveway. Harlan thought the guy was dead (I think he said he'd hit a tree), but Bill popped up and demanded to see the script. When Harlan eventually produced it, Shatner did not actually read it; rather, he went on to count how many lines of dialog he had as compared to Nimoy, and apparently had a fit because Nimoy had a few more lines. It was all very funny, "had to be there" kind of stuff, because Harlan is such an animated speaker.
On his advice regarding "is/was" -- I get his point. Really what I think he is trying to teach young writers is that the use of weak verbs modified by adverbs can be terrible. Often this is true. Now, I'm not advocating that we should all aspire to be Hemingway, but I do feel that a meticulous writer can always find an adverb or three worth plucking. But everyone preaches this.
Cheers,
Jeff Talanian
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