The creative habit is like a drug. The particular obsession changes, but the excitement, the thrill of your creation, lasts.

-- Henry Moore, sculptor and artist, (July 30, 1898 – August 31, 1986)


I myself spent nine years in an insane asylum and I never had the obsession of suicide, but I know that each conversation with a psychiatrist, every morning at the time of his visit, made me want to hang myself, realizing that I would not be able to cut his throat.

-- Antonin Artaud, playwright, (September 4, 1896 – March 4, 1948)



It's NOT all about me, it's about what I write.

I am a bad Netizen: I don't post unless I feel I really have something of interest to say. Just can't do the daily trivia stuff, you know, that mundane self-delineated/slightly egocentric litany of my trials, tribulations and travels -- hell, it only occasionally interests me (and I'm living it!), so why would it be of enough interest to anyone else to pour it onto a Forum? And the self-confessional type of blog or forum posts just DO NOT appeal to me at all. That which is private STAYS private, Blogoverse -- and Social Networking -- be damned.

I'm a storyteller. I'm not the story.

As an author, fledgling or otherwise, good, bad or mediocre, I DO want to talk about my work. It's the work that matters, not the dramatic minutiae behind producing it, not the circus atmosphere of an imagined "cult of personality" that frames it.

And, for me, and I'm not passing judgment of ANY sort on anyone else, the time spent blogging about my not-terribly-unique Reality is infinitely better spent telling a story. Writers write. Through my stories I can, if I work hard, produce something honest and unique.

I'm a storyteller. I'm not the story.

Hope I didn't offend anyone. It's just this one man's opinion.

So, as you may have fleetingly noticed, it has been a while since my last post.

But, at last, there's something to actually blog about: my novel NOCTURNES IN PURGATORY has been accepted into the BY LIGHT UNSEEN MEDIA publishing schedule for 2012! Persistence pays off: the book will see the light of day. Been a long time coming.

You can read the publisher's advert blurb HERE: http://www.bylightunseenmedia.com/nip.htm

An urban paranormal, speculative-fiction thriller, the novel is the latest chapter in the continuing the adventures of Montgomery Quinn, member of a race of metahumans called Olympians, and his crusade against the Moon-Chosen, a power-mad, criminal cabal of vampires.

"You will stand one foot in the Light and the other in deepest Darkness.
Greet each new day with the knowledge that you will slay monsters..."

As non-supernatural beings, the Moon-Chosen are extremely long-lived but not immortal. They are scientifically classified as "Homo Draeconis", products of parallel evolution where their development as a species shadowed that of Homo Sapiens. The governments of the United Nations know about their existence and have entered into covert treaties with them to maintain their secret from the general population. A specialized arm of the U.S. government's intelligence community, the UCCCF, monitors the activity of the vampires.

Living at the fringes of society, Montgomery Quinn, sometimes called "The Adversary", is a wealthy outcast. Quinn, a reluctant foe of the Moon-Chosen, preferring to lead his life in relative obscurity, is an "Olympian" whose longevity and extrasensory abilities greatly eclipse the abilities of normal humans. His personal history has led him into conflict with the Moon-Chosen countless times over his long life.

NOCTURNES IN PURGATORY is a blend of occult mystery and high-tech, high-octane adventure set in an amoral, noirish world of mobsters, intelligence agents and vampires. The vampires depicted in this world are not the traditional variety. The heroes are not the standard He-man Hollywood stereotypes. The novel explores the themes of vengeance, xenophobia and species-bigotry, as well as those of guilt, regret and redemption for the major characters.

The novel is cross-genre, more Robert Ludlum-themed than the usual modern urban "Vampire Hunter"-trope, with a generous dose of Michael Crichtonish tech-noir, and a dash of mystery crime thriller thrown into the mix. And maybe, just maybe, the story says a little bit about how much the actions of ruthless human beings can resemble those of creatures we often label as "monsters"...

It's smart, dark and violent, but, admittedly, I'm more than a little biased. Still, it's nice to be able to say something definitive about it.

I'm looking forward to getting the cover art... this could be fun!

Thanks for listening and for letting me ramble!

_________________
"We do not have to visit a madhouse to find disordered minds; our planet is the mental institution of the universe."

- Johann von Goethe

Nice drawing! In the end, it's always about the author.