The Time I Met My Wife - and a 1 Star Review

So getting one-star reviews on Amazon and other book-selling sites is part of being a writer. I received one today for my horror novel Death Rhythm. You can read it here if you want (it's the one titled "No cat killing"). I have nothing against the review or the reviewer - she basically read the first few pages, in which a cat is killed, and she decided that the book wasn't for her. No problem.

But it DID remind me of the first time I met Melissa (whom I have been married to for the last fifteen years). 

I met Melissa on-line. I had written Death Rhythm way back then - I actually wrote the original drafts in the late 80's, early 90's - and was looking for some opinions. Melissa was on AOL (remember that?) in the Minnesota chat room, and her profile said that she had majored in psychology. So I asked if she'd be interested in reading it, since I wanted her opinion on whether or not the psychological aspects of the novel were okay. She agreed to give it a look.

So I drove up to the cities, we went out to dinner, then drove over to a Kinkos to make a copy of the manuscript. But as we pulled up to the Kinkos, and were making our way to the front door, we began talking about pets. I said something along the lines of having grown up with dogs. Melissa then mentioned that she was more of a cat person. We went inside, and as we waited in line at the counter, she glanced down at the first page of the manuscript and read the first paragraph where it talks about a woman beheading a cat.

Do I know the way to a woman's heart or what?!

* * * * * 

Visit My Amazon Page

Death Rhythm

I wrote the majority of my novel Death Rhythm when I was in my early twenties. It was my first novel, and I didn’t really know at first if I had it in me.

It started with a vivid dream I had of being in an attic and discovering a locked metal box. I opened the box and found a pair of drumsticks and an old medal on a ribbon – an award for a drum competition that someone named Evelyn had won. Also in the box was a small piece of paper with a childish drawing of a snarling face, beneath which was written “Look out for Big Ed.” Though the drawing was simple, it was incredibly frightening. I also knew that the ‘Ed’ in the picture was female – an ‘Edna’. I knew that something bad had happened to Evelyn, and I knew that whatever this bad thing was had occurred at the hands of Edna.

That was my dream, and it stuck with me for a long time. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. There was so much mystery contained in it. So I started to write a novel, trying to figure out what had happened.

I wrote it in starts and stops. Scenes came to me:

            A guy walking over a narrow trail toward an old graveyard, autumn leaves crunching beneath his feet.
            A beheaded cat swinging from a tree.
            A teenage girl playing with corpses as if they were dolls.
            Gravestones covered in blood.
            A giant dream-phallus crushing someone against the ceiling like an insect.
         
And most importantly; a girl banging on an old field drum to drown out the maniacal ravings of her older sister – of Big Ed.

Yeah, I had a bit of a morbid imagination. I guess I still do.

I’d write a scene, and then maybe a month later, write another. I plotted as I went along, unsure of where the story was taking me. Eventually it started coming together.

I thought of it as a horror novel, but after it was finished and other people read it, they labeled it different things. One reader considered it psychological suspense. Someone else thought it was a mystery. Whatever anyone wants to consider it is fine by me. Hell, I guess you could even say there’s a little romance in it, although if you were to call it a romance, I’d recommend you get counseling.

It’s a short novel, about 65,000 words. I wrote two novels after it that were complete crap and will never see the light of day, and then a few more after that which I do like. But this one is my first born, and I think it has matured rather nicely.

It’s certainly not for everyone, but if you do like horror (or psychological suspense, or mystery) I hope you’ll give it a chance.

Visit My Amazon Page