Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 174

This week's image is an unknown. It's only been shared on twitter a handful of times, but no credit has been given. 

As I am writing like mad for National Novel Writing Month, I thought I would use this prompt in that, and give a snippet of my Tricky story. 

The General Guidelines can be found here.

How to create a clickable link in Blogger comments can be found on lasts week's post here.

There is also a Facebook group for Mid-Week Flash, if you fancy getting the prompt there.

Foreboding

When Tricky rose the next day, dawn was breaking. She poked her head out of the little loft window and looked at the sky. Pink and orange reflected in the clouds that had gathered. She could still see a smidge of blue, but the darkness within the clouds was tainting the fading light purple. It seemed ominous somehow as she thought about what was ahead of her. 

She was walking back into Clancy like butter wouldn’t melt in her new golden locks. She knew if there was a chance anyone recognised her she would be done for. People didn’t mess about, not with Carter in charge. They didn’t want to risk his wrath and would go squealing to him like a slapped piglet. And then walking into his house, into the rats lair, in front of all the people she had known for the last decade and more, and be a stranger in their midst, it made her stomach flutter like she’d just seen her first lover. 

And Thatcher, what of him? Annie had warned her off. Could she resist him or was she too attached? She had to pinch his bum at least, she’d promised. 

Questions flooded her mind about what was ahead of her, but she took a deep breath and pushed them back. One at a time. Time was something she had, and could create if she so wished. She looked forward to the sanctity of her new cabin. She could do what was needed to get her Obsidian back, and maybe any other treasures that dark weasel had got his hands on. But there were things she needed to gather first and she would do that along the way. Remferry bordered Delane just by a smidge, and she had secreted something there a long time ago, almost a century. She’d wondered if she would ever need it, and now she did. If only for peace of mind. 

Guest Blog - Editing Process Q&A - Adam Stemple

Our next guest author is AdamStemple is an award-winning author, poet, and musician.

Like most authors, his life experience is broad and odd. He spent twenty years on the road with a variety of bands playing for crowds of between 2 and 20,000 people. He started, ran, and sold a poker training site. He worked in a warehouse. He picked corn. He traded options and demoed houses. He drove pizzas for nine months in 1986, which for twenty-seven years was the longest he’d ever been employed. He drank too much and has now been sober for over fifteen years. He published his first book at the age of sixteen, “The Lullaby Songbook”, which he arranged the music for. His mother is a famous children’s book author. His children are artistic. His wife is a better person than him in nearly all regards.

Do you send a proposal before a book is accepted? Do you send in an outline first and get that okayed or do you go straight to the full draft?

The only books I’ve sold on proposals alone were sequels. I know several authors who sell proposals and won’t even write the book without a contract in hand, but they are big names.

Do you do several drafts before you send it to the publisher for editing, or do you just send the first draft?

I can’t imagine sending an editor a first draft. *shudders* If I have sold a book/story to a publisher, I send them something that I feel is ready for publication. That means innumerable drafts (though, in fact, I do number them).

How many times do you go back and forth (on average) - does it vary with the publisher or with the story?

Varies wildly. Short stories generally have the least amount of editing, though I went back and forth with one story for almost eighteen months before it got published. I've had stories go through verbatim. With books, it’s generally a more detailed process because the time frame is longer.

What kind of changes/suggestions do they make? Are they just minor ones or are they major?

I’ve had all different kinds. Depends on what the editor is looking for. Had one where the editor wanted all references to child abduction taken out of an adaptation of the Pied Piper. Would have been kind of hard to manage. Sometimes, it’s just some minor grammar changes. In general, the editor bought your book because they liked it, and therefore, major changes aren’t necessary. This is also a factor of selling books, not proposals.

I just had a great line edit from Rachel Brune, editor at Crone Girls Press. She caught a few grammar gremlins while also suggesting a few things for flow. It was clear from her suggestions that she understood what I was trying to do thematically with the story and I was happy to accept the changes/rewrite the paragraphs she suggested. I think I stetted* one thing.

*Stet – to leave in place, an editing/proofreading term.

Does it go through various stages, like developmental, copy editing and then proofing? Or is it straight into copy and proofing? Or again, does that vary on book and publisher?

Always been developmental, copy editing, then proofing for me - though some developmental editing includes copyediting, especially in small market short story sales.

What would you say best practice is in regards to accepting/rejecting edits - is there always a discussion, or do you feel you have to accept all/some of them? Do you find it hard to embrace the suggestions/changes given?

The pressure of wanting to sell something—anything—is immense for any writer. But you should still feel free to stet sections your editor wants changed. I deal with it by leaving notes on the parts I stetted explaining why I feel the change is unwarranted. Often in leaving that note, I realize that since I have to explain it, maybe I didn’t make myself clear enough the first time and rewrite the section anyway. My father always said, “You can deny the solution; you can’t deny there was a problem.” A professional reader thinks a portion of your story is weak; you should at least take a second look at it.

But if you find yourself at complete odds with an editor, you should consider whether the market is actually right for your story. It's a hard thing to do, but I have pulled out of sales—not after a contract is signed—but I have done it.

Maybe I’ve been lucky, but 99% of the editors I’ve worked with have been smart, sensible, and understanding of writers and writing. They’ve been as committed to putting out the best work I can do as I am. The relationship has never been adversarial as our aims are the same. And as much as a long editorial letter can be a horror when it appears in your inbox, if it’s a good one and the changes improve your story, it’s a gift and should be received as one.

Thanks so much for taking part in this blog series.

One last question, what projects are you currently working on?

Currently I’m promoting my latest novel DUSTER, out on Kindle and POD paperback, and a new story out with Crone Girls Press in THE WOMB OF NIGHT, a Midnight Bites anthology.

Invaders from the north. A missing son. A conspiracy that spans centuries. And the man at the center of it all has only a murderous pimp and a treacherous half-breed to help him.

The Dusters, a race of cat people from the north, have invaded and now former soldier Mika must make a grim choice: take up the sword again or watch everything he loves burn.

With his old friend from the military, Gair, and a mysterious, half-breed Duster, Mika makes his way from his Northern border home to the southern capital, across the frozen wastes of the Duster homelands, and deep underground where the legendary Gallochs dwell, desperate to unravel the mystery of the invasion and how it's connected to his origin. Hunted by his own kind and unable to trust his companions, he finds that to save his family, he may have to defeat not only the Duster army but the very Gods themselves.

Penned by award-winning author, Adam Stemple, Duster is an epic, page-turning fantasy that is dark, funny, and violent by turns and keeps the reader on edge till the very last sword stroke.

The Travelling Cat Chronicles by Hiro Arikawa
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I read this book for my bookclub. I was quite looking forward to it, but it was a struggle to read for two reasons. First was the translation: I felt this could have been edited better after the initial translation. A lot of sentences didn't read well and could have been reworked, and also some paragraphs.

The second was that it was a VERY long time until anything happened. It is a sort of aimless ramble about a guy going round his old school friends to see if anyone will take his cat. It is from the POV of the cat sometimes and that could be considered interesting, except it wasn't always. For more than half of the book you have no idea why he is trying to get this cat homed as he does have an apartment. With each friend he visits we go on a trip down memory lane about how he met them. We learn more and more about him during each visit, but it isn't until around 70% in that you find out why.

And really it is only the last chapter that really redeemed this book for me and make it a 3 star rather than a 2 star. Finally something interesting happened. Heartbreaking? Maybe. I didn't feel connected enough to the character to feel a great deal as I felt the narrative was very flat. Yes it is sad.

This is a 'Literary' book, hence it has won a ton of awards. I am still yet to understand why these sorts of books have such an impact. I feel that they are given an award and that is what attracts people to read them. They are put on a 'bestseller' list and thus people think, oh it must be good I will buy it. But personally, this was left wanting. Maybe in its original language it reads a lot better. Maybe there is a lot lost in translation.

I feel like I missed the point of it. Lovely cover though.

View all my reviews

Guest Blog - Editing Process Q&A - Vanessa Knipe

Our next Guest author is Vanessa Knipe, a dark fantasy writer.

Born in Malaysia, Vanessa first landed in the UK at 3 years old. As a teen, Vanessa learned her love of canoeing in the alligator infested bayous of the Texas Gulf Coast. She now lives in Scotland and juggles fighting for a decent education for her Autistic son with wrestling the Creatures of the Night, though that’s not a nice thing to call her cat. Vanessa has concentrated on her writing since becoming widowed in 2001, as being a single mother of a disabled child made it impossible to work the required shifts in NHS Biochemistry laboratories. 2006 saw her beginning her writing career proper with the publication in the US of Witch-Finder, a collection of short paranormal adventures. She has had seven books published with two publishers, five still in print. She was recently awarded an MSc (dist) in Forensic Science from the University of Strathclyde. 

Do you send a proposal before a book is accepted? Do you send in an outline first and get that okayed or do you go straight to the full draft?

Proposals are for non-fiction. I haven’t done non-fiction yet, but I understand the process. A publisher will commission the writer to write the manuscript off the back of the proposal. For fiction, I always follow a publisher’s guidelines; they usually have a helpful page telling prospective submitters how to make it easy for them. All the places I have submitted to have wanted the first three chapters and a synopsis. They recommend that the full manuscript is ready if they are interested because they could forget you in the time it takes to write the book after the submission. I don’t see the point in querying unless I have a fully prepared manuscript.

Do you do several drafts before you send it to the publisher for editing, or do you just send the first draft?

I have never sent in a manuscript for submission that hasn’t been the best I can make it. Most have gone through a minimum of 5 passes at editing by me. After the fourth pass I take it to my critique group and let them read it. The final draft incorporates suggestions from the group. After that I change the font from TNR to comic sans – it’s amazing how many errors are still in the manuscript even at that point. Finally, I draft a synopsis and start the submission process.

My first ever published short story, Granny’s Secret for Perfect Vegetables, went through an additional editing stage. I had to produce a script for a course I was taking and I chose that one. Along the way it acquired more action scenes and a better ending – so I wrote those into the short story and it was published. I learned a lot from that incident.

How many times do you go back and forth (on average) - does it vary with the publisher or with the story? 

Two or three times at most. Both my publishers set deadlines once we started the process.

What sort of deadlines did they set? Were they short or long? Were they in depth edits that were going back and forth over or small things?

The deadlines were for the date of publishing. As I have worked with small presses the publishing dates were usually four to six months; I understand it’s longer for the larger presses. The time I spend with the publisher’s editor is different. They have two to three weeks for each book so it’s a rapid back and forth. Only one book had major edits because it needed shortening as the publisher had a maximum word count that I had breached. We rolled back to an early draft, which was shorter, and added in bits from the later draft that couldn’t be left out.

What kind of changes/suggestions do they make? Are they just minor ones or are they major?

For me it has mostly been copyediting at this stage, except for the book mentioned above.  One book the editor pointed out that I had a love affair with a particular word – a time travel book where I called everything a Chrono-something, like a Chronosploder for a time bomb, Chronostream for moving through time or Chronoshield protection againt a Chronosploder. So I had to cut back on that and come up with new words. I’ve actually done it again in a book I’m preparing for submission. This time I’m overusing the word Chaos. A critique partner pointed it out so I’m replacing Chaos with raw power, wild magic and uncontrolled force.

One book was rejected by a publisher, even though it was in the same series as he was running, because I had been so obvious with the wicked stepmother cliché. That was a rewrite and resubmit that was over five years ago and I still haven’t figured out how to replace the wicked stepmother.

What would you say best practice is in regards to accepting/rejecting edits - is there always a discussion, or do you feel you have to accept all/some of them? 

You are adapting your story to the House Style. It is better to at least try to come up with a compromise with your editor so you’re happy to have your name on the cover. I tend to accept most of them unless I can come up with a good reason to keep it my way. Once it’s in the hands of a publisher, it’s their book. If you don’t agree with that then you go independent.

Thanks so much for taking part in this blog series.

 One last question, what projects are you currently working on?

I'm currently editing two fantasy books: He Who Drinks Fire  (where the overuse of Chaos happened) an alternative world epic fantasy. There is a submission window with a publisher at the end of November which I hope to catch. And Diamond Winter which is a fantasy apocalypse, but the ending needs rewriting so it won't make the submission window. I intend to do National Novel Writing Month with two SF novellas, and I have a part-finished near-future detective novel crossed with the Scarlet pimpernel.

You can find all of Vanessa’s book on her Amazon author page.  

Mid-Week Flash Challenge - Week 173

This week's prompt photo was taken by Swiss Photographer Rene Burri, in Luxembourg Gardens, Paris in 1950. He died in 2014 at the age of 81. 

I had this story in my head for a few days, but it's always finding the time to write that is my problem. And not really just that, but to actually get started and stop procrastinating! 

The General Guidelines can be found here.

How to create a clickable link in Blogger comments can be found on lasts week's post here.

There is also a Facebook group for Mid-Week Flash, if you fancy getting the prompt there.

Momento

He pushed the shovel into the ground leaving a mark. It was soft at this time of year, so it wasn’t difficult – not like it had been last year. He left a line all the way round until he had the shape he wanted. Then he put his foot to the edge and pushed in deeper, digging the earth up, and shovelling it off to his right.

There was something therapeutic about digging in the ground; Gus felt at one with nature, breathing in the forest air, hearing the birdlife in the trees. It was how it was meant to be, man out here in the wilderness doing his thing, not bothering anyone.

He’d been ‘off grid’ before the saying was fashionable. No one could find his place; there were no roads, no defined paths. He’d built the place with his own hands. He loved it up here. He’d tapped some of the water coming down from the mountains, which in turn powered what few apparatus he couldn’t live without.

He went into town occasionally, a handful of times a year, and was reminded why he’d left civilisation. People weren’t kind. They didn’t really care about the guy next door. They liked to think they did; they pretended to, to feed their own need to feel good. They needed to feel connected to each other to give them purpose. Gus didn’t need that. He felt connected to nature, and himself up here. That was all he needed. He didn’t like people. He didn’t want to see them or be with them, but there were certain items he couldn’t live without.

His dislike of people went way back, and if he really thought about it, it came back to one instance, one moment that had decided it all for him and brought his existence among the herd to a close.

He remembered it like it was yesterday. He’d spent a long time trying to fit in, and by the time he’d finished college he’d managed a pretend life. He existed in so far as showing up to events and places where others were, but that was all. If he’d dared to engage he was shunned. He was the nerd they didn’t want to notice. He was good for things like rides, going round his house and eating his cupboards empty, and borrowing money – money they didn’t think they had to give back.

But that day on the square it changed. He’d arrived late which meant a seat on one of the outer tables on the terrace the cafe occupied. It made it hard to keep up with what was going on and feel a part of it. And then he’d had to shuffle back to let someone get their chair out, and one of the legs of his had moved onto a metal grate and slipped through. He’d gone down with a crash.

They’d all noticed him then. They’d laughed and laughed. Not one of them got up to see if he was okay, or helped him. He’d cut his arm quite badly and grazed up the side of one leg, but they weren’t interested. Just lots of jeering and pointing until the entire square were looking.

He’d got up and pretended all was well and chuckled a little too. But once they had died down and gone back to their chatter he’d slipped away and gone home. He’d nursed his cuts and scrapes and nurtured his bruised ego.

But they hadn’t let him forget; ‘Gus the Grate Lover’ became a nickname, one he couldn’t shake. And each time it was explained to someone new, he was humiliated again.

During the term break he’d come up to the mountains on a hike to get away from it all, and decided to make the move. He’d never looked back since.

But he hadn’t forgotten, and every visit he’d take a momento back with him. He’d smuggle it up here in the back of his car, and lug it the last quarter of a mile, unless it was awake. Sometimes he’d keep it alive a while, but never too long. Then he’d bury it out here. Some of them were close, but most were further afield. He knew where each one was; he’d marked their graves in his own way. And this was the last one – the last of the group that had been there that day. He was relieved, but also a little sad. He liked being out here digging.

 

Guest Blog - Editing Process Q&A - Trevor Wood

Our next guest author is Trevor Wood, a crime writer who recently won the CWA John Creasey (New Blood) Dagger Award, for his book: ‘The Man on the Street’. 

The CWA is the UK Crime Writer’s Association and they host yearly awards called The Daggers. This means that Trevor is a veritable celebrity, so I am extremely grateful he agreed to take part! 

His new book ‘One Way Street’ came out last week on Thursday the 29^th of October, and is a follow up to 'The Man on the Street'. (see details after the interview).

Trevor Wood has lived in Newcastle for 25 years and considers himself an adopted Geordie, though he still can’t speak the language. He's a successful playwright who has also worked as a journalist and spin-doctor for the City Council. Prior to that he served in the Royal Navy for 16 years joining, presciently, as a Writer. Trevor holds an MA in Creative Writing (Crime Fiction) from UEA. His first novel, The Man on the Street, which is set in his home city, was published by Quercus in March 2020. He is represented by Oli Munson at AM Heath.

On to the questions:

Do you send a proposal before a book is accepted? Do you send in an outline first and get that okayed or do you go straight to the full draft?

For my first publishing deal I had already written The Man on the Street. I wrote it as a standalone but the publishers believed it had ‘legs’ as a series and gave me a two-book deal without requiring any outlines for the second book. Once I’d delivered the second book I sent them a two-page pitch for a third book in the series and on the back of that they gave me a second two-book deal, the subject of the fourth book to be agreed at a later date.

Do you do several drafts before you send it to the publisher for editing, or do you just send the first draft?

Yes, many many drafts! I wouldn’t want anyone to see my first draft, and I try to make the first one I send to my editor as perfect as I can. Most days I edit what I wrote the day before and then I stop around every 10k and edit the whole lot again. I’m not a planner so my first full draft will often have a few plot holes that need filling and that’s my first job. After that I do a variety of edits. I like to make the beginnings and endings of every chapter memorable so I focus on those in one edit. I do other edits e.g. deleting any adverb that hasn’t earnt its place. I also do what I loosely call a ‘fuck’ edit where I delete any swearing that I don’t consider necessary. My books are set in Newcastle’s homeless community so I tend to write a lot in and reduce them as I go. I used to be a sub-editor on newspapers so do have a pretty good eye for detail. All the time I’m looking for typos etc so by the time I’m ready to send it in it’s pretty clean copy.

How many times do you go back and forth (on average) - does it vary with the publisher or with the story? 

On both books so far it’s been accepted after one pass I think. So my editor has sent me notes on the first draft I’ve sent to them, I’ve changed things accordingly, or not, if I had good reason not to, and that version has then gone to a copy editor for checking.

What kind of changes/suggestions do they make? Are they just minor ones or are they major? (any examples?)

Mostly minor so far, thankfully, possibly because of all the editing I do beforehand. Many are just making sure that character’s motivations are right, that there’s enough detail to support the way they behave and the decisions they make. When my first book, The Man on the Street, was initially out on submission one editor was very interested in the book but couldn’t convince the rest of the Acquisitions Team. He asked me to do some fairly major rewrites to try and get it through, both structurally and in terms of adding other characters and plot links. I did them but it still didn’t get picked up by that publisher. However, the new version went back out on submission and I received several offers for that version so it was well worth all the work in the end.

Does it go through various stages, like developmental, copy editing and then proofing? Or is it straight into copy and proofing? Or again, does that vary on book and publisher?

Yes, my editor is the first port of call. She covers pretty much everything but is the only one who really considers structure. Once she’s happy it goes to a copy editor and then for final proofing. The copy editing is always interesting as often I find it’s quite a subjective process. My books are set in Newcastle so there’s quite a lot of vernacular and, though it’s written in close third, the voice is very particular and there are some words that just sound better than others. My first copy editor changed ‘knelt’ ‘leant’ ‘leapt’ and ‘dreamt’ to ‘kneeled’ ‘leaned’ ‘leaped’ and ‘dreamed’ but it didn’t sound right in that voice so I changed them all back again. 

What would you say best practice is in regards to accepting/rejecting edits - is there always a discussion, or do you feel you have to accept all/some of them?

I think you have to be grown-up about it. All the suggested edits come from a good place, everybody involved is trying to make your book the best version it can be. So I take every single suggestion seriously and try to make them work. Sometimes, if I understand the rational for a suggested change but don’t like the proposed solution I’ll change things in a different way than suggested. I’d say I probably end up accepting about 75% of the edits proposed. If I don’t accept things then, when I send back the new draft, I always explain why I don’t think the suggested changes were a good idea or why they don’t work in the context of the rest of the book.

Do you find it hard to embrace the suggestions/changes given? 

Not at all. Ultimately I’ve got be happy with the finished book – it’s got my name on it after all - but I think if you have a sympathetic editor then most suggested edits will improve the book.

Thanks so much for taking part in this blog series.

The word on the street is that a rogue batch of Spice - the zombie drug sweeping the inner cities - is to blame, but when one of Jimmy's few close friends is caught up in the carnage, loyalty compels him to find out what's really going on.

One Way Street sees the welcome return of Jimmy Mullen, the homeless, PTSD-suffering, veteran as he attempts to rebuild his life following the events in The Man on the Street.

As his probation officer constantly reminds him: all he needs to do is keep out of trouble. Sadly for him, trouble seems to have a habit of tracking Jimmy down.

Available from Amazon and all good bookstores - click on the book cover to be redirected to Amazon UK.

Guest Blog - Editing Process Q&A - Richard Wall

Kicking off the Guest Blog series, on editing processes in traditional or small press publishing, is author Richard Wall. 

I chose Richard because today is launch day for his second novel, ‘Near Death’ published by Burning Chair Publishing. Congratulations! (see details after the interview).

Born in England in 1962, Richard grew up in a small market town in rural Herefordshire before joining the Royal Navy. After 22 years in the submarine service and having travelled extensively, Richard now lives and writes in rural Worcestershire.

His first short story, “Evel Knievel and The Fat Elvis Diner” (available on Kindle), was soon followed by “Five Pairs of Shorts” a collection of ten short stories, another short story called “Hank Williams’ Cadillac” and his latest novel, “Near Death.”

Richard’s stories reflect his life-long fascination with the dark underbelly of American culture, be it tales of the Wild West, or of the simmering menace of the Deep South, or the poetry of Charles Bukowski, or the writing of Langston Hughes, or the music of Charley Patton, Son House, Johnny Cash, or Tom Waits.

So here goes:

Do you send a proposal before a book is accepted? Do you send in an outline first and get that okayed or do you go straight to the full draft?

I try to keep within the guidelines of the publisher / agent that I’m sending to - some ask for the full MS, some for the first 3 chapters or 20k words.

Do you do several drafts before you send it to the publisher for editing, or do you just send the first draft?

Usually I write the MS, leave it for a while (couple of weeks) then go back and look for typos, inconsistencies etc. I may have a couple more read throughs before sending.

How many times do you go back and forth with the editor (on average) - does it vary with the publisher or with the story?

My most recent novel, Near Death, went through two major changes after I sent it to the publisher. There was a major developmental edit, followed by another edit after Beta readers had made their comments.

What kind of changes/suggestions do they make? Are they just minor ones or are they major?

Major ones were:

• inconsistencies/confusion in the timeline of events
• suggested changes to dialogue to make it more realistic and in keeping with the personality/setting/situation of the character - basically making it sound like how people actually speak
• I wrote a character with a similar name to the protagonist, and two other characters whose names were similar to each others. It was pointed out this might cause confusion. 

Minor ones included keeping the use of language consistent - the story is set in the US, narrated by an American so the spelling etc had to be ‘Americanised’. Also a particular crime scene detail involving the death of a child was removed, which, on reflection was a good call.

Does it go through various stages, like developmental, copy editing and then proofing? Or is it straight into copy and proofing? Or again, does that vary on book and publisher?

With Burning Chair (my publisher) it was developmental, copy editing, review by beta readers and then final proofing.

What would you say best practice is in regards to accepting/rejecting edits - is there always a discussion, or do you feel you have to accept all/some of them?

Try to keep an open mind, be polite and don’t be precious :) With Burning Chair I accepted most of their suggestions. If I disagreed with a suggestion (which I did a couple times) I gave an explanation why, we had a brief back and forth until the matter was resolved. I think there has to be trust on both sides; you have to trust the publisher that their suggestions come from a good place, and they have to trust that you know what you are writing about :)

Do you find it hard to embrace the suggestions/changes given?

No, not at all. But then, I’ve been lucky in that Pete and Simon at Burning Chair ‘get’ my writing and can see the bigger picture of the story I’m telling, so the suggestions they make all go to improve that story - which is what it’s all about. That’s very important.

Thanks so much for taking part in this blog series.

One last question, what projects you are currently working on?

My next project will be to complete the final short story in the Beelzebub Jones Trilogy - a collaboration between myself and ace musician Half Deaf Clatch. After that I have plans for a paperback compilation of all my shorts stories and occasional poetry. This will carry the working title: ’Nicotine, Liquor and Blasphemy’.

 

 

"See you on the other side, Preacher Man."

 These are the last words of Joseph Hickey, a psychopath executed at Sing Sing prison for the murder of the Howell family in New York State. 

 After giving the last rites and watching Hickey die, troubled prison chaplain John Henry Beauregard quits his job to start a new life in the Appalachian Mountains.

 Hickey's death should have been the end of the nightmare, but then another family is murdered in identical circumstances, and John Henry is called back to New York to give the last rites to the killer.

 As the killings continue, John Henry is drawn into a mystery with devastating consequences. 

 Is it possible to commit murder from beyond the grave?

 Can John Henry stop the endless cycle of torment and solve the mystery before it is too late?  

Available at www.burningchairpublishing.com, www.richardwall.org, Amazon and all good bookstores.