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!
