Greg Mitchell's Blog

 While work continues on the upcoming winter release of the third and final installment in my Old Greenesboro Trilogy, we're going to turn the spotlight on a different author today--my oldest daughter, Jo Mitchell. It may come as no surprise to you, but Jo has been writing for nearly her entire life, and I'm proud to announce her debut science fiction novel Call Me Fuchsia, out now in both print and Kindle editions. But enough of me yapping. I'll turn it over to Jo.

GM: Hey, Jo. Well, I certainly know who you are, but tell us about yourself. 

JM: Hey! I’m JoMitchell. I’m a science fiction author and college student from NortheastArkansas.

GM: Tell us about the book!

JM: My new book is CallMe Fuchsia. It’s the first of a trilogy. This book is about a woman namedTanzee Clyborne and her feelings towards her best friend, Pepe Bijiola. WhenPepe is given a job opportunity in a world of mechanical and corrupt politics,Tanzee becomes suspicious (and jealous), and chooses to investigate.

GM: 

What initially inspired you to write Call Me Fuchsia?

JM: There’s a lot ofdifferent places I took inspiration from, really. During my freshman year ofhigh school, I was in a Civics course that watched the 2020 election. About thesame time, I heard a sermon over the letter to the church of Thyatira discussedin Revelation. I took the two and melded them into a world of politics,devotion, and lies that I penned about twenty songs over before sitting down tocharacter plan. Ultimately, the world started to get too big for music, and Irealized I wanted to dedicate time to the stories I was trying to tell.

GM: 

Though this is your first published novel, you’ve writtenseveral stories before. What made you decide to pursue this one to publication?

JM: Honestly, a lotof it was timing. I scrapped the project twice, picked it up again, rewrote thetrilogy, and prayed so many times over it. Despite hesitating dozens oftimes, I think the sheer amount of time I spent over it pushed me tocompletion. So much of my high school years were spent writing orplanning the trilogy, and even though I’ll never be completely satisfied withmy product, the opportunity to write it has been an honor and a privilege. Astacky as it sounds, a lot of different versions of myself worked on Call MeFuchsia, and I think those versions deserved to see it come to fruition.

GM: What do you hope the reader gains by reading the book?

JM: We live in aworld of constant digital and mechanical struggle, where so much of our time isspent debating whether or not our own advances and creations are good for us. InCall Me Fuchsia, I wanted a technology that could speak for itselfwithout the chatter of human dictation. I wanted a robot whose rapidadvancement paralleled that of our hand-held electronics. I hope, somewhere inthe overwhelming and neon-lit world of my novel, readers see characters thatmake poor decisions that still feel guided. I won’t act as though myfirst novel is the perfect book or a radical, cyberpunk dialogue. It’s alsojust a story I wanted to tell with characters that I wanted to build. Still, asthe story progresses, there is a story of constructed truth, false hope, andthe sting of humanity.

GM: What’s next for you?

JM: Book two andthree of the trilogy are my current priorities. Call Me Fuchsia itselfis over sixty percent aligned with its first draft, which I wrote at 15. Thenext two books, though, are more recent and tell a story that feels truer to myabilities now. After that, I can’t promise one specific title. I’m certain itwill be science fiction; the genre is easily my favorite type of writing.Whatever it is, I want it to be very different from this trilogy while stillsounding like I wrote it. A lot of Call Me Fuchsia was my attemptat modernized, grandiose science fiction, and I’m sure my next project willlean more towards the media that I’m digesting now. All art is a nod toprevious art.

Thanks to Jo for stopping by, and be sure to go check out Call Me Fuchsia today!

ABOUT THE BOOK

Tanzee Clyborne and Pepe Bijiola exist as two of millions in the gloomy capital of New Thyatira. The poor quality of life in the city, known for its class divisions surrounding the color purple, leads the pair to find refuge in both art and rather intimate interactions with each other. Too often, Tanzee wonders if their connection is more than physical. 

However, a unique career opportunity suddenly has Pepe whisked away to the rich neighborhoods of the East District with a woman who claims to be the next ruler in a once monarchial state. Tanzee, rightly skeptical at first, becomes obsessed with learning all she can about Pepe's new employer. With the help of her friend Atlas--a repairman in large, black sunglasses--Tanzee must decide if she is more concerned with Pepe's wellbeing or what will become of her life without him.

From breakout novelist Jo Mitchell comes "Call Me Fuchsia": a tale of love, lust, and the abyss that is the in-between.

Earlier this year, I released Hell's Dark Riders--the first installment in the brand-new Old Greenesboro Trilogy, which serves as an Old West prequel to my classic The Coming Evil Trilogy. It was my plan to release the entire trilogy in 2025, and that work continues as, out today, is the second book in the Old Greenesboro Trilogy--Strange Gods! 

Of all three books of this new trilogy, I think this second act was the hardest to put together. If you've read The Coming Evil Trilogy (and, if you haven't, what's stopping you?) there were quite a few off-handed references to events that took place during the Winter of 1884 in Old Greenesboro. Of course, at the time I made all those references, I never really thought I would ever come back and fully flesh out that history. So, when the time came to do just that, it was a wonderful challenge to stitch together all those disparate threads into a fresh tapestry, while also including as many surprises and twists as I could. 

Therefore, I invite you to travel back to 1884, for the first Dark Hour, and witness firsthand the harrowing history that laid the foundation of The Coming Evil Trilogy. 

As always, the book is available in print and on Kindle. Order your copy today!

ABOUT THE BOOK

The Dark Hour is here.

Winter, 1884.

Five years following his defeat of Hell’s Dark Riders, a new life of peace has at last found retired demon hunter Everett Greene. Far away from the wicked influence of the infernal City, Everett has settled his young family in the fledgling community of Greenesboro, where he hopes to raise his son away from the monsters and mayhem that he, himself, once battled.

But when the quiet town of Greenesboro is visited by a stranger promising prosperity, Everett senses that perhaps the evil he sought to leave behind has followed him, after all. The wealthy newcomer John Graves begins to poison the minds of the townspeople with a twisted religion, and soon Everett realizes that he will again have to face down the darkness. 

Everett is joined in this endeavor by his friends - the young widow Virginia Hallerin and outlaw Dead Eye Reggie, among others. Each one is put to the test, challenging just how much they can stand to sacrifice and how long their faith can last against the cunning of Graves, who shows himself to be both more familiar and more terrible than any of them had expected.

Strange Gods is the middle act in an epic new tale that sets the stage for the events depicted in The Coming Evil Trilogy.

It's June. The sun is bearing down on us, the humidity in Arkansas is building. Summer is in full effect, and my heart yearns for autumn colors and cool breezes and Jack O'Lanterns smiling back at me from inviting porches. If you're like me and would love a little taste of Halloween this blistering summertime, then perhaps I have just the thing for you.

Whisperwood, my new novella collaboration with writer and occult detective Bob Freeman is now available in print and on Kindle for your macabre enjoyment. Back in 2018 (has it really been that long??) Bob and I entertained one another by composing a novella whereby we each took turns writing a chapter. There was no forethought, no planning. We only sought to surprise each other with every installment--and periodically dropping our heroes in impossible situations to gleefully muse how the other author might rescue them. The fruit of that labor was Halloween House --a story of an old manse's demonic possession. 

 As stated in my introduction to Whisperwood:  

We set Halloween House firmly in Bob’s rich Liber Monstrorum mythos that occupies the majority of his writings, featuring his iconic protagonist, Occult Detective Landon Connors. What’s more, Landon’s sidekick in that yarn was none other than “Greg Mitchell”, a character Bob named after me some years ago in his Connors’ short story “The Cabin in the Woods”.

Now, while Bob’s spent these years writing stories set in the world of Landon Connors and his colorful supporting cast of hard-boiled characters, I, too, have been developing my own fictional universe of monsters and heroes spread across a number of novels. And, to return the favor he paid me in “The Cabin in the Woods”, I named a character after Bob Freeman in my novel Night World, which introduced Blue Squad: a government-sponsored task force dedicated to combating the forces of darkness, led by skeptic ex-cop Jack Mills. 

When it came time to do the follow-up to Halloween House, Bob suggested it was only fitting that, since our first co-writing venture took place in his mythology with my alter ego, we should take a trip across the multiversal pond and set the sequel in my story-world and include Bob’s fictional counterpart. I eagerly jumped at the notion, already growing excited about the concept of tying our two universes together by giving them a common extradimensional foe. 

  

Whisperwood is the result of that endeavor, and I'm very proud of the story we've crafted (by the seat of our pants!). This book is especially exciting for me as this is the inaugural title under my new Willowbrook Underworld banner. If you have read my (to date) two HITMEN collections, then you may be aware that, for over 25 years, I have been filming backyard blockbusters with my friends and family. These elaborate "home movies" have become the foundation of my fictional universe--a test bed of characters and ideas. The two HITMEN braided novels (Four Tales of Magick, Monsters, and Murder and Night World) are, in fact, expanded adaptations of a carefully curated selection of those home movies. The movies--and the books inspired by them--take place in the town of Willowbrook. I would love to continue adapting those movie projects into written form, but as the mythology has grown significantly over the last quarter century, finding the next selection that could fit thematically into a braided novel is becoming trickier.

It is my hope that the Willowbrook Underworld line is the solution to that conundrum. Now, I can release individual adaptations at a time, rather than trying to narrow down which ones to include in upcoming collections. There might still be collections, yes. And, under Willowbrook Underworld, I also hope to write all-new stories set within the mythology of those "home movies" that are very near and dear to me and my family. Whisperwood is one such story--an original tale set within the home movie universe, starring characters that you can meet in my novels Night World and Infernal City.

This summer, as the hot days draw out, I welcome you to the mist-shrouded forest of Whisperwood to uncover the monsters that lurk there...

ABOUT THE BOOK

When Special Agent Jack Mills of the National Clandestine Agency receives a call from an old partner, he is drawn to the small rural community of Whisperwood to investigate an unsolved murder from his past. Aided by his new task force of monster hunters, Mills must return to familiar paths fraught with peril and painful memories, leading him to Holbrook House--a mysterious ruin possessed of something not from this earth.

As the danger mounts, Mills seeks the aid of author and paranormal investigator, Bob Freeman, to unravel the mystery surrounding Holbrook House and the cult that has come to offer sacrifice to its new otherworldly occupant.

Finally, the veil between worlds is torn, unfathomable abominations emerge, and no one is safe within Whisperwood.

Order your copy today! 

 

 

Out today is the brand-new "The Coming Evil" tale Hell's Dark Riders--the very first installment of the Old Greenesboro Trilogy! Journey back to the 1800s to witness the formation of the town of Greensboro as seen in The Coming Evil Trilogy and learn of its original confrontation with the demonic Strange Man. Throughout the original Coming Evil Trilogy, the events of this era were only briefly glimpsed, but now all will be revealed. There will be more than a few surprises along the way, and your journey starts now.

Available in print and Kindle. Order your copy today!

ABOUT THE BOOK

The year is 1879. It is a time of darkness.

Four mysterious figures on horseback ride across the OzarkMountains, leaving death and misery in their wake. Led by the false godChemosh, these demonic Dark Riders seek to overthrow the world of Man andre-establish their wicked reign upon the Earth.

Everett Greene once fought such creatures, but has sinceretired, leaving that war behind. When Virginia Hallerin, a young mother whohas suffered unspeakably at the hands of the Riders, beseeches Everett tointervene, the haunted hero is compelled to leave his life of peacefulisolation and anonymity behind to re-enter the fight. Aided by his mentor JesseCrocker, an old, grizzled bounty hunter down on his luck, Everett determines tofollow the trail of the murderous Riders.

Along the way, Everett and his companions will encounterhellish beasts as they fight their way into the very heart of evil. Yet, theRiders have an ace up their sleeve. Once Everett discovers that the villainshave enlisted a certain “Strange Man” with an agenda of his own to join intheir scheme, he realizes that this battle will be unlike any he has everfought before.

Hell’s Dark Riders is the opening act in an epic new talethat sets the stage for the events depicted in The Coming Evil Trilogy.

Welcome back. Three items of business to discuss this morning that I think fans of The Coming Evil Trilogy will be excited to hear, so let's get right to it.

Item 1: There is a brand new trilogy of The Coming Evil books headed your way! Back in 2011-2013, I published The Coming Evil Trilogy, a series of books that tells the story of the small town of Greensboro and its harrowing battle against the invading demon known only as "The Strange Man". The books were always my ode to the wild monster movies of the 1980s, and very much served as my own "coming of age", both as a writer and as an adult. It wrestles with questions of faith, friendship, bravery, and discovering what matters most when up against the darkest hours of our lives. As readers of the original trilogy know, over a hundred years before The Coming Evil begins, the town of Old Greenesboro first ran afoul of the Strange Man--events that have only been hinted at...until now!

Now, journey to the past to discover the origins of Old Greenesboro and how its feud with the Strange Man began! I am pleased to announce Book One in the Old Greenesboro Trilogy: Hell's Dark Riders.

The thing that excited me the most about this new trilogy--and was the most challenging--was how to present this story in a way that was fresh and surprising while also following the course that was clearly laid out within the pages of The Coming Evil. Readers of that first trilogy will already know the fate of Old Greenesboro and its citizens' first encounter with the Strange Man, so I knew this telling needed to expand on those things you know--and reveal truths that you could never have guessed. What's more, the events in this new series will provide new insight and a deeper context to the Coming Evil books already in circulation.

What's more, readers of my other works will see many familiar locations, characters, and mythology within the new trilogy. I have often said that Infernal City, my Rift Jump duology, and the HITMEN series were all cousins of The Coming Evil. If that's the case, the Old Greenesboro Trilogy is their common ancestor. Seriously, folks, it all begins right here, and I can't wait to share it with you at long last. Which leads me to:

Item 2: Each installment of The Coming Evil Trilogy was released in February, and things timed out in such a way with this new book that I felt no reason to break the streak. So, Hell's Dark Riders is scheduled to drop on February 4, 2025, in both print and Kindle editions! But wait, there's more.

Item 3: All three installments of the Old Greenesboro Trilogy will be released THIS YEAR. Looking through my writing journals recently, I was shocked to discover that I have been jotting down notes for this new trilogy since 2004! Indeed, I have made rare mentions of it over the years on this very blog, but I have resisted saying too much, as I wanted to complete the entire trilogy before announcing Book One. So, it is with much relief that I can safely announce that all three books in this new trilogy are finished and edited. I could stretch out the releases over the next three years, but I have been not-so-secretly writing these novels for the last fifteen years, and it's time to finally release them into the world. No hard dates are down as of yet, but I suspect Book Two will be released sometime this summer, and then Book Three will hit around November/December. So let's keep the party going throughout 2025 and make this the year of Old Greenesboro. 

I so greatly appreciate all of you who have read and enjoyed The Coming Evil throughout the years, and it is my hope to reward you with a wild ride through some very unexpected territory. As for Hell's Dark Riders, here's your first glimpse into this exciting new story:

ABOUT THE BOOK

The year is 1879. It is a time of darkness.

Four mysterious figures on horseback ride across the OzarkMountains, leaving death and misery in their wake. Led by the false godChemosh, these demonic Dark Riders seek to overthrow the world of Man andre-establish their wicked reign upon the Earth.

Everett Greene once fought such creatures, but has sinceretired, leaving that war behind. When Virginia Hallerin, a young mother whohas suffered unspeakably at the hands of the Riders, beseeches Everett tointervene, the haunted hero is compelled to leave his life of peacefulisolation and anonymity behind to re-enter the fight. Aided by his mentor JesseCrocker, an old, grizzled bounty hunter down on his luck, Everett determines tofollow the trail of the murderous Riders.

Along the way, Everett and his companions will encounterhellish beasts as they fight their way into the very heart of evil. Yet, theRiders have an ace up their sleeve. Once Everett discovers that the villainshave enlisted a certain “Strange Man” with an agenda of his own to join intheir scheme, he realizes that this battle will be unlike any he has everfought before.

Hell’s Dark Riders is the opening act in an epic new talethat sets the stage for the events depicted in The Coming Evil Trilogy.

 

Some exciting news today. I have partnered with Saint Euphoria Pictures to write an official novel set within the world of the Mihmiverse-- That Which Lurks in the Dark !

"What is the Mihmiverse," you ask?

A brief background. For twenty-five years, I've taken my camcorder and gone out all over town with my friends and growing family to film home monster movies. We've never released them to the public--not even by way of YouTube--and have no desire to ever do so. They are simply something that we make for ourselves and our circle of friends to gather and watch and share. But they do contain an ongoing mythology that has grown to encompass (so far) over forty "home movies". The mythology has expanded so much, in fact, that it has now crept into my novels.

In fact, my two novels HITMEN: Four Tales of Magick, Monsters, and Murder and HITMEN: Night World are "big budget" adaptations of a curated handful of those same home movies! And, if I have my way, there will be many more such adaptations to come. These movies mean a great deal to me and have become a special "Secondary World" that even my kids hope to continue one day with their children.

Keep that backstory in mind as I take you back to the height of the Covid-19 pandemic. The world had shut down (though we continued to make our movies, since we were stuck in our homes with little else to do), when lo, I hear that Blobfest was going to be held digitally that year, given the shutdowns. Blobfest, for the uninitiated, is a yearly event celebrating the famed 1950s B-movie The Blob, as well as serving as a general gathering of all lovers of classic B-movie monster cinema. Our family had long wanted to go to Blobfest, but we rarely travel (that far, anyway), and the price was always out of our range. But, during Covid, Blobfest was going to be digital! No, it wasn't the same. But it was about as close to "going to Blobfest" as I was likely to get.

We "attended" the digital film festival and, during the breaks between showings, they played a trailer for a recent movie shot in the style of the a classic 1950s drive-in shlockbuster. The movie was Danny Johnson Saves the World, and that was my first introduction into the Mihmiverse.

Filmmaker Christopher R. Mihm has, for the last fifteen years, been writing and directing 1950s style monster movies with his friends and family... Sound familiar? I immediately sensed in him a kindred spirit--a man who made movies for the love of it with the people he loved. Only, he actually released his movies to the public! 

After seeing that first trailer, I dove headfirst into watching ALL the "Mihmiverse" movies and became an incredible fan of Mr. Mihm's passion and imagination. His movies are fun, and also have a very intricate mythology shared between them--which I loved, of course.

Then, last year, Mr. Mihm put out the call that he was making a new movie entitled Annihilate All Humans and he was looking for fans to film themselves in the midst of a flying saucer attack to send to him to be used in the movie! I immediately reached out and gathered my cast and crew from my home movies and we shot a brief sequence, which ended up in the finished movie. From there, I connected with Christopher and shared with him my own "home movie" experiences. 

While listening to his monthly podcast recently, I learned that there was one movie that Mr. Mihm began, but was never able to finish once the pandemic started. A "lost" Mihmiverse movie. He expressed regret that it had never reached fruition, and I corresponded with him about taking that script and adapting it to a novel. Remember, I'd done the same for my movies and knew there was a certain thrill in taking a script designed for a small budget and blowing it up in a way someone of our means would never be able to produce on film. He graciously accepted my offer and I set out to write--and complete--this Lost Chapter in the ever-growing Mihmiverse saga.

The book is out today and I hope that you check it out. It was a real treat to write. If you love campy, good-hearted monster adventure, this is for you. And while you're checking out the book, I encourage you to explore all the offerings the Mihmiverse provides. There is much fun to be had for monster fans of all ages!

As for the book, here's the official synopsis for That Which Lurks in the Dark:

Love! Terror! Tentacles!

It's New Year's Eve and the Phantom Lake Lonely Hearts Club is holding its annual celebration. When the night's festivities are interrupted by a distant explosion and subsequent blackout, its members are forced to deal with their personal anxieties in the form of overwhelming darkness, otherworldly be-tentacled creatures, a pair of monster hunting scientists and, most frighteningly, their own awkward quests for love!

Order your copy today!

 I told you the book release was just around the corner. ;)

Today, Genre Experience proudly presents my latest novel NIGHT WORLD, Volume 2 of my HITMEN saga. The book is available for purchase on Amazon in print and digital. As with the previous volume, this book is a "braided novel"--four novellas that interconnect (in this case, VERY heavily) to create a larger story. NIGHT WORLD is a celebration of monsters, fantasy, childhood, spooks, thrills, and all things Halloween. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

Every Halloween, the shadow of another world falls over the town of Willowbrook, and the monsters come out to roam. The blue-skulled giant who slew Boss Adrian Marcon’s criminal empire was not the first such creature to walk the quiet streets of this burg, nor the last. As more threats emerge from a mysterious realm, new heroes must stand against a rising cosmic evil that endangers the very fabric of existence.

In four tales of thrilling encounters with otherworldly invaders, Zoe, a teenage mother, must grapple with the shocking truth about her infant son; Jason and Jack Mills, twins raised to hunt the creatures of the night, search for balance between their tumultuous upbringing and passing their legacy on to a new generation; and Rosetta, a mystical exile in Willowbrook, finds herself faced with a decision that will forever alter not only her life, but the lives of everyone, in every world. A war of worlds has begun between the dominion of Man and the armies of the Night World.

Writing this book came as a surprise to me. If you need a refresher course, the original HITMEN novel began as a series of a no budget "home movies" that me and my childhood friends put together. They were only ever done for fun--just an excuse to chase each other with guns and dress up like monsters and tell stories that entertained us. But, man, was it a blast (read more about it here, if you're so interested). At any rate, around 2014, I had completed my epic The Coming Evil Trilogy, and I was looking for more stories to tell. I remembered those old home movies and decided--also for fun--to novelize them, greatly expanding them (think of it like a Director's Cut), to unleash on an unsuspecting public. Writing that book was a great excuse to look back on those years and was my way of saying good-bye to making home movies.

Only...I wasn't done, apparently. Or maybe those home movies weren't done with me.

After my girls were born, I dusted off the old camcorder and started making NEW home movies, letting them in on the fun. Together, as a family, we crafted stories of fairies and imaginary kingdoms and a world where monsters roam freely. As my "professional" writing took a backseat, we started making more and more home movies. Sometimes two or three a year. Elaborate productions that increased in cast, scope--but not necessarily budget, haha. They are still every bit "movies for fun", though, and will never be seen by a public audience, ha. However, as the home movies--and the mythology we were creating within them--grew and grew in my mind, concepts from these movies began to bleed over into my novels. So much so that I have novels-in-progress right now (including my next sequence of Coming Evil stories) that are almost wholly dependent upon some of the elements that we've introduced in these home movies. These are stories we've been telling each other for ten years or so, and I thought it was finally time to give them the novelization treatment. I am immensely proud of those stories, as they represent all those Saturdays that we went out, as a family, playing make believe and "fighting monsters" together. I hope that you will check it out and join in the Mitchell family tradition! 

As I write this, I'm finishing up post-production on ANOTHER home movie (I think we're approaching thirty installments now?), so there is still plenty of road left to travel if I choose to continue these novelizations. I think I will, as it is just so much fun giving a "big budget" update to our amateur films. Beyond that, though, this book marks another important occasion in my larger mythology. While the first story in NIGHT WORLD is, in fact, a prequel to HITMEN: Four Tales of Magick, Monsters, and Murder (starring Vinnie Caponi: Urban Mythologist), the follow-up sections take place later on the timeline, giving Readers their first peek of the world post-The Coming Evil! Aside from that, there are also tons of tie-ins to my loosely connected "In-Between Trilogy" of the Rift Jump dulogy, Infernal City, and of course the original HITMEN. The world that started in The Coming Evil continues to grow and grow, and NIGHT WORLD is certainly a quantum leap forward, laying the groundwork for all my upcoming novels for the foreseeable future.

Get your copy today!

Check out this incredible artwork done for the book by Bob Freeman!

In keeping with my (apparent) one post a year theme, here's yours for 2021! Haha, seriously, I don't get around these parts much anymore, but for those one or two of you who are still following--I've got a new book coming out!

As related in a previous post, my "writing career" has taken a serious backseat to "fun writing". I burnt off my entire twenties and most of my thirties "chasing the dream", as it were, of becoming a "professional writer". And, while I DID achieve that dream, it never satisfied. I chased after that for so long, I really forgot to live my life, and, as my oldest daughter is now a full-fledged teenager, I see that time with them is short. So, on the professional side of things, my writing has slowed down.

But that doesn't mean that it's stopped.

Since the 2017 (!) release of my last novel Infernal City, I have turned my attention to writing machinima based on the old video game Star Wars Knights of the Old Republic AND I've taken a turn at doing some no budget Star Trek fan films. I co-wrote and released Halloween House with my friend and often-collaborator Bob Freeman, but mostly I've been churning out a bevy of "home movies" that I make with my kids and my friends. These are not meant to be show to a public audience (as they are VERY amateur and not kind to copyright laws, haha) but they are stories I am proud of nonetheless. If you're a frequent reader of my work, then you know that I adapted four of these movies--the original main canon installments--and released them as my novel HITMEN: Four Tales of Magick, Monsters, and Murder. 

Well, I've done it again. Allow me to introduce to you my NEXT novel, a new adaptation of four more of the home movies we've created: NIGHT WORLD!

With fantastic art, once again, by Bob Freeman, this book is a love letter to the stories/movies I've been crafting with my daughters for, quite literally, their entire lives. I'll go into it more upon the book's release, which should be in a week or so, but in the meantime, please enjoy the cover! Keep your eyes peeled and your ears to the ground for the release--this is one wild ride!

I look back over my life as a writer sometimes and am often struck by how eclectic my journey has been. From "Christian Horror" novels to Syfy sharksploitation movies to a non-fiction guide to the convoluted chronology of Back to the Future--it's really all over the map! Well, last month, I added a new destination on this wild ride--Star Trek fan films.

As has been discussed before on this very blog, I've been making "home movies" since 1998 with friends and family. But, unlike filming your kids at their soccer games kind of "home movies", mine involve an ever-evolving mythology with complicated characters battling all manner of monsters and devils. They've really become an extension of my professional writing, often serving as a test bed of ideas that will eventually find their way into a novel. In fact, I took the four original home movies that created the foundation for that complex mythology and adapted and expanded them into my novel HITMEN: Four Tales of Magick, Monsters, and Murder . Not only that, but I've taken four more movies and am currently writing another adaptation--a sequel to the HITMEN collection! But more on that in a later post.

The rule of these home movies, however, has always been in place: they are just for us. I'll never post them to YouTube. I show them to new friends and am willing to show them to just about anyone who drops by the house and is ready to sit through 30+ movies, haha, but they're not intended for public consumption (or critique). It's a simple matter of creative expression and having fun with my friends.

In 2014, one such friend was Grace Bridges. Grace, and her outfit Splashdown Books, was the publisher of my first Rift Jump novel. Hailing from New Zealand, Grace frequently makes "tours" of America, visiting her authors. I was the next stop on her list and, while at the house, I was showing her a selection of my home movies. She instantly fell in love with them and, before she left (two days later), she expressed the desire to do a home movie with me! I rarely say "no" when I meet someone who shares my passion in this sort of thing, so I said "Let's do it!".

Her suggestion: Make a Star Trek movie.

Though I'd seen all the Trek movies a few times and I'd caught a number of episodes of the various series over the years, I was not a Star Trek expert by any stretch of the imagination. Nonetheless, I agreed and, with Grace leading the writing and serving as my resident Star Trek guru, we quickly (two days, remember?) crafted Star Trek: Splashdown. It was a crazy rush, but we did it, Grace had a movie she was proud of, and she continued on her travels, showing our little movie to the friends she encountered along the way. And that was that. It was over.

Until it wasn't.

Fast forward to June of 2019. I've done MANY more home movies, but I've got this itch to do another. Most of my movies involve a core group of characters. I just ping pong back and forth between a few different storylines every couple years, and see "what happens next". But I felt as though I'd tapped out all the potential for the foreseeable future. All my various storylines were just stalled out and I couldn't think of any fresh take. So I turned my sights on movies in my saga that I rarely looked at. And I remembered Splashdown. I played "Commander Mitchell" in that movie, and I thought "I wonder whatever happened to that guy?" At the same time, I had, by accident (and a slow day at work) discovered the brilliant fan film series Star Trek Continues .

I fell in absolute love with that series and it opened up to me not only the world of fan films, but the world of Star Trek. I started watching Star Trek with a new appreciation for the first time. And the fan films--I was stunned to see that, all these years, people like me had been making their own "home movies" with complex mythologies and returning characters. They were even crossing over with each other's creations, making an elaborate expanded universe of storylines! I was excited, and it slowly dawned on me, then, "Hey... I made a Star Trek fan film too!"

That was when I wanted "Commander Mitchell" to return. Only, I had no Star Trek costumes, no props, no fancy CGI, no sets, no ideas, nothing. Just me and a camera and a desire to do something. How could I ever compete with something like Star Trek Continues? That's where Vance Major came into my life.

I ran across his name numerous times while researching fan films. This guy is a legend. His character of Erick Minard has existed across multiple eras of Trek and he's crossed over in so many other series. And characters from over a dozen fan film series have crossed over with his series! It's insane. Vance, however, is a man after my own heart. He has no real "crew", he shoots all his movies on his cell phone, and he just recruits friends, family (and any co-workers who stand still long enough) into his 70 some-odd short films. He has this intricate mythology with a core group of characters, all centered around his ship, the USS Constar--a ship that, by fate or bad luck, ends up at every major battle in the Star Trek canon, even though no one seems to notice or acknowledge their contributions. They are heartwarming films, honest films. Vance bears his heart and soul in these movies, speaking to things that are personal and meaningful to him. Seeing his movies--that they were more in line with the kinds of home movies I had been making all these years--was inspiring. "I can do that!"

I contacted Vance and plainly said, "I've got this character I would love to bring into one of your movies, but I have no costume, no sets, no props." Vance's reply was an instant "No problem! We'll figure it out!" And that's just what we did. Not only did I appear in that movie, I edited it too. Then we did another. And another. And another. Since June, I have now starred, written, directed, edited (and, yes, also bought a cheap Starfleet-esque uniform) in six or seven of his Constar Chronicles . Last December, he dropped all those movies onto YouTube ready to be binged.

Among them? The original Splashdown movie Grace and I made back in 2014, now including a brand-new bonus scene featuring Captain Erick Minard :) It's all come full circle, haha, and I've broken my Number One rule for the first and only time, putting one of my home movies on YouTube for public consumption and critique. But it was Vance who gave me the courage to do so, leading by example. You can now watch that movie right here.

We're not done yet, though! Vance and I have more ideas for future collaborations, expanding these characters and their relationships. Best of all--this October? I'm slated to step foot on a real Enterprise replica set to film a movie for the first time. Wow...

I am grateful for all the opportunities that Vance has given me, and for his friendship. I've found a kindred spirit in him as we have the same heart when it comes to telling stories in our respective mythologies. It's been another unexpected stop on my writer's journey--a detour, some might say--but, much like Star Trek, you never know what adventures await you down winding back roads in life. I'm happy to have taken the time explore this new avenue, boldly going...

(If you're interested in skipping straight ahead to my contributions, check out: Splashdown, Smoke and Mirrors, All Roads Lead to Home [which I wrote and directed], Wonderwall Part 2, The Scribbler)