Another Snippet of Dialogue from "The Night Life".

In this scene, Richard and Tanya are duckingi t out, trying to decide what to do with Jane, whom they've just realized is not the girl they think she is.

Jane is no ordinary girl - rather, she's a runaway teen who's not been seen by her parents in over four yeas. And when Richard finds her in a gas station one day, he finds that she's completely devoid of any memory of her past. She doesn't even remember her own name. After some time, Richard and Tanya began to hypothesize that Jane might have killed herself prior to Richard finding her, in order to avoid ever being found by her frantic parents. The following scene is an exchange between Richard and Tanya, who are fighting over Jane's possible fate - do they take her to the hospital and get her treatment, or do they protect her from the parents who drove her away to begin with?


“Those people are slime balls!” Tanya spat, “the lowest of the low! Richard, if we risk her being found, her life will be hell. It will probably be much worse than it ever was before, before and after she ran away. We don’t know that she killed herself, but if you ask me, she had some pretty damn good reasons to try.”

“Tanya, we don’t know what’s happening with her,” I pleaded. “We don’t know if she’s brain damaged. We don’t know if the brain damage is worsening. We don’t know if she has an internal bleed somewhere…”

“If she did, she would be dead by now.”

“The point is, this girl needs our help, and we’re the only two people able to provide it.”
“I don’t get you Richard,” Tanya stared at me, “first, taking her to the hospital is out of the question. But now that we have an idea of what might have happened, you’ve changed your mind?”

“She’s just a girl,” I sighed. “If she attempted to end her own life on our watch, I would never live with myself.”

“And if she ended her life because we let her go,” Tanya paused, “I would never forgive myself.”

Book Chew!

I wish I had more visitors, because otherwise, posting this would actually do some good, but this site is actually pretty sweet, and if it takes off, could be really convenient to both authors and readers. So, here it is...Book Chew.

Basically, it's a site where authors can post parts of their work for the sake of previewing/promotion. Again, I think it's a splendid idea...it gives readers a good idea of what the rest of the book might be like. You know, post a chapter here and there, and it could turn out awesome. I really hope it takes off, myself. Check it out!

Another Brief Glimpse at "Family History: Part I".

           “William wants you to have a nurse,” Josephine sighed, failing to explain her husband’s reasoning, “I know you’re not even sixty, Joel, but the doctor said…” 

            “I don’t care,” he cut her off irately, “I don’t need anybody taking care of me, especially when it’s his idea.” 

            “William is only doing what’s best for you…” 

            “My stepson,” Joel interrupted, “thinks I killed his father. He’s certainly not going to look out for me.”

            “My father is just taking the doctor’s advice, I think,” Edward Alexandre shrugged in an attempt at helping his frustrated mother. “I don’t think he’s trying to kill you, if that’s what you’re implying.” 

            “Well, I’d like to kill me,” Joel snapped. 

In this scene, Josephine, the wife of William Thalo, tries to convince the rapidly aging Joel Barrett to consent to having a caretaker.  Joel, relentless and miserable, only fights the idea.

(Note: William Thalo is Joel's stepson, and Joel Barrett is the grandson of Collie Barrett. The scene in question takes place in 1885, seventy-three years after the first scene.)

And Now, Why I'm Here - A First Look at "Family History".

Family History.


What is it?

Put simply, and without much explanation, it's a project I worked painstakingly on for about 2-3 years.

And now, it's just "gathering dust" in my hard drive, because it's a 180k word monstrosity that I was sure was pretty much unpublishable.

Well...okay, so I didn't really try that hard, I'll admit, because reading so many "We don't like stories that are over 100k words unless you're Stephen King" was pretty daunting to me.

But, I kept it around while simultaneously working on my other (and current) project, The Night Life, thinking that I would one day do something with it.

And now, I think that day has finally arrived.

With the latest e-readers becoming so popular and self-publishing becoming more relevant, I figured that I might as well take this project and put it online. Hell, maybe I'll make $10, whereupon I could treat myself to a nice cheeseburger.

More importantly: maybe somebody would read it!

So, what's it about?

Well...it's about a lot of things.

But namely, it's about a family, and how they cope with an old curse.

But rather than attempt to type out a boring old synopsis, here's a preview:

Pressing the pen to the paper, Calvin Connor Dowling Deland began his last words: “It was the beginning of the end…”

            He paused to think, contemplating everything that had happened throughout his too-short life. He thought of Amber Ozzly, of Henry Austin and Marie, and of Northgate. He thought about all of the pain and suffering his ancestors endured and of the horrific consequences of fate’s twisted sense of humor. He thought of Jamie, time travel, and the limitless supply of drugs; Thalopolis, sex, Joel Barrett, and his mother. Though of course, nothing occupied more space in his mind than Collie. Picturing her face, he continued to write.

            “She was the beginning, and I was the end. She was the matriarch while I was the last loser at the end of the line… yet how could I possibly be the end when I’ve completely given myself over to the beginning?”

            “Because,” he scribbled, “I am not the end. My family line is not a line at all, but a circle. Because when you take a piece of string and connect the two ends, they will inevitably meet. Thus, like a circle, like Joel Barrett’s love for his wife, and like my enduring love for Collie, Family History does not end. In fact, it’s only beginning…again.”

            When he finished scribbling his last thoughts, Calvin gently placed Family History on the floor and replaced his pen with a small pistol containing a single bullet.