Don’t worry, I have more to say, but if I had to, I could summarize the writing of Death Sight in a single, succinct paragraph:
I had a series character I had written and published a handful of short stories about in little magazines and anthologies. One of those stories was made free on Amazon for awhile and was kind of popular for a bit. So I drew up an outline and wrote a novel. There.
Besides, by this point Will was really in need of an origin story, as I’d already written all the tales in The Castleton Files collection.
But let’s talk about why I made Will the way I did.
Really, I can let a reader sum it up -
I once saw a customer review of the audio version - which I’m honored to have had narrated by now-veteran reader James Foster - that noted Will was “Not Harry Dresden - Thank God!”
I smiled some to see that.
(Please note I have nothing at all against Jim Butcher and have dabbled in urban fantasy myself - check out “Snakes and Spells vs. The Silver Bullet” and other stories in my Modern Mage Wars universe, of which there may well be more forthcoming....)
Although Will eventually goes to some fantastical extremes in what will be a rather long history, if he (and I) lives as long as I have planned, Will starts out the way so many of us do - smalltown and ambitious and initially promisingly successful … but then ... hey … wow … um … just *maybe* you’re *not* gonna be that big lottery-hit somebody despite all that one-in-a-million talent your high school teachers and maybe even your college profs and perhaps even your first (and second and, yes, desperately even your third) boss or director assured you that you had.
The world seems intent on putting stumbling blocks in our way and, well … a lot of us succeed in eventually stumbling pretty darn good.
In addition to being tired of Chosen One stories I was also tired of superpower stories. So Will knows, after The Inciting Incident That You’ll Have To Read About, that he’s psychic - or rather that psychic-type shit happens to him often - but he doesn’t know what specific psychic-type shit will happen to him next or how or when. He might, suddenly, without warning, read a mind, and then not be able to for the rest of the story, or he might have an insightful, warning vision or … he might wish for something to happen and … nothing happens. He finds this thing rarely drops, say, a fully solved case in his lap just in the nick of time. Usually it’s as much a curse as a blessing. Really, he’d just rather be - or at least *thinks* he’d rather be - an ordinary cop or detective.
While Will does indeed kick ass from time to time, and while he does indeed solve mysteries, I wanted to give him as many totally normal doubts and problems as possible at the start in Death Sight because … has life ever just hit you all at once? Will’s worried about his status with Candice, his girlfriend. His dad’s on his deathbed. And this psychic crap is giving him a frickin’ nervous frickin’ breakdown. (Yes, that’s a double frickin’ except Will’s not that polite!) In fact, this psychic baloney eventually sends him to therapy. And while there is indeed possibly a literal demon on his ass, what does that matter when the local wannabe drug-runner also has his flunkie meth-heads after him with real bullets?
And all this is for starters.
My intention with Will Castleton was always to represent those of us who feel we didn’t pick ANY of these stupid bullshit battles we’re in, these constant, neverending onslaughts from every side,these salvos against the relatively easy way things should be from forces both so apparently everyday and yet also so frighteningly massive they seem downright supernatural. (I mean, really, whether or not you believe in reincarnation, have you ever wondered what kind of supreme monumental genocide you must have pulled in some other life to deserve THIS crap? On top of THAT crap? On top of that OTHER crap you ALREADY had going on?)
And, believe me, Death Sight is just the beginning. There are several more books in the series available and more on the way! Will’s just getting started!
Death Sight is available in ebook, print and audio formats. Amazon Audible iTunes
It is also, like all my books, available free via Kindle Unlimited.
I had a series character I had written and published a handful of short stories about in little magazines and anthologies. One of those stories was made free on Amazon for awhile and was kind of popular for a bit. So I drew up an outline and wrote a novel. There.
Besides, by this point Will was really in need of an origin story, as I’d already written all the tales in The Castleton Files collection.
But let’s talk about why I made Will the way I did.
Really, I can let a reader sum it up -
I once saw a customer review of the audio version - which I’m honored to have had narrated by now-veteran reader James Foster - that noted Will was “Not Harry Dresden - Thank God!”
I smiled some to see that.
(Please note I have nothing at all against Jim Butcher and have dabbled in urban fantasy myself - check out “Snakes and Spells vs. The Silver Bullet” and other stories in my Modern Mage Wars universe, of which there may well be more forthcoming....)
Although Will eventually goes to some fantastical extremes in what will be a rather long history, if he (and I) lives as long as I have planned, Will starts out the way so many of us do - smalltown and ambitious and initially promisingly successful … but then ... hey … wow … um … just *maybe* you’re *not* gonna be that big lottery-hit somebody despite all that one-in-a-million talent your high school teachers and maybe even your college profs and perhaps even your first (and second and, yes, desperately even your third) boss or director assured you that you had.
The world seems intent on putting stumbling blocks in our way and, well … a lot of us succeed in eventually stumbling pretty darn good.
In addition to being tired of Chosen One stories I was also tired of superpower stories. So Will knows, after The Inciting Incident That You’ll Have To Read About, that he’s psychic - or rather that psychic-type shit happens to him often - but he doesn’t know what specific psychic-type shit will happen to him next or how or when. He might, suddenly, without warning, read a mind, and then not be able to for the rest of the story, or he might have an insightful, warning vision or … he might wish for something to happen and … nothing happens. He finds this thing rarely drops, say, a fully solved case in his lap just in the nick of time. Usually it’s as much a curse as a blessing. Really, he’d just rather be - or at least *thinks* he’d rather be - an ordinary cop or detective.
While Will does indeed kick ass from time to time, and while he does indeed solve mysteries, I wanted to give him as many totally normal doubts and problems as possible at the start in Death Sight because … has life ever just hit you all at once? Will’s worried about his status with Candice, his girlfriend. His dad’s on his deathbed. And this psychic crap is giving him a frickin’ nervous frickin’ breakdown. (Yes, that’s a double frickin’ except Will’s not that polite!) In fact, this psychic baloney eventually sends him to therapy. And while there is indeed possibly a literal demon on his ass, what does that matter when the local wannabe drug-runner also has his flunkie meth-heads after him with real bullets?
And all this is for starters.
My intention with Will Castleton was always to represent those of us who feel we didn’t pick ANY of these stupid bullshit battles we’re in, these constant, neverending onslaughts from every side,these salvos against the relatively easy way things should be from forces both so apparently everyday and yet also so frighteningly massive they seem downright supernatural. (I mean, really, whether or not you believe in reincarnation, have you ever wondered what kind of supreme monumental genocide you must have pulled in some other life to deserve THIS crap? On top of THAT crap? On top of that OTHER crap you ALREADY had going on?)
And, believe me, Death Sight is just the beginning. There are several more books in the series available and more on the way! Will’s just getting started!
Death Sight is available in ebook, print and audio formats. Amazon Audible iTunes
It is also, like all my books, available free via Kindle Unlimited.