The Fear County Chronicle #27
When you've been in the writing game for 38 years, there's bound to be a heck of a lot of misfires. Let's take a look at 10 books Ol' Ron wrote... but never saw the printed page.
Sometimes in the world of writing, books, and newsletters, you have a quiet stretch with nothing much to report. This is one those times for the Ol’ horror hound. I find myself midway through the writing of The Saga of Dead-Eye Book Three: Man-Eaters, Mummies, & Murderous Maniacs, finished with a run of six book releases in 2023, and preparing for about the same number in 2024. So, what should we talk about this time?
How about something all writers, be they budding storytellers or seasoned authors, find on their hands every now and then, especially at the very beginning of their literary journey. Of course, I’m talking about the story or book that never found a home and has been quietly exiled, either in sad resignation or because of a sense of inadequacy and embarrassment. The fabled “trunk story”. All who have devoted themselves to the practice of writing fiction or nonfiction possess such ill-fated missives stowed away somewhere. Perhaps you don’t have the traditional steamer trunk — a dusty filing cabinet serves just as well — but there’s bound to be a story or two, or maybe a couple of novels — finished or unfinished — that were shuffled away into the shadows, either because your writing skills weren’t yet up to par, or they simply didn’t find a home with the publisher or magazine that you had in mind when you wrote the thing.
Believe me, I probably have more of those dismally dismissed writing projects than most folks, having been working in the horror genre for pert near forty years now. So, let’s take a look at ten books (yes, actual full-length novels) that Ol’ Ron wrote over the years that just didn’t make the grade.
Junk in the Trunk: 10 RK novels that never saw print.
Beyond the Walls (1976) / This was my first attempt at novel-writing after I abandoned my teenage aspirations of becoming a comic book artist and began to try my hand at fiction writing. At the time, I thought it was adult reading material, but looking back it was more akin to dystopic YA science fiction.
Synopsis / A band of teenagers seek a better life, trapped in an ultra-violent New York City that has been encased in fifty-foot steel walls. Since they were born inside and have never seen the outside world, they dream of what awaits them beyond their captivity and devise a daring plan for escape. Lambert Wilson Literary Agency actually took on this book in 1978 but could never find a buyer.
True fact: When John Carpenter’s Escape From New York was released in 1981, I was absolutely, positively sure than someone had stolen the idea for Beyond the Walls during the brief time it was agented in NYC and was outraged at the similarities (although I loved the movie and watched it six times in the theater). That was a common case of a young, wet-behind-the-ears writer with illusions that everything he created was totally original and exclusively his.
The Piranha (1977) / My next novel attempt was a male adventure book in the spirit of the old pulp magazines of the 1930s and 40s. When I was a highschooler, I loved to read the old Bantam Doc Savage reissues with covers of the muscular Man of Bronze painted by James Bama. I was a big fan of The Shadow and the Avenger, too. For some reason, I had it in my mind that that those tales were recently written, and I was so enamored with those swashbuckling adventures that I wrote one of my own, intending to turn it into a best-selling series. This was a prime case of being caught up in something you love and want to emulate, with no possible chance of success.
Synopsis / A former navy intelligence operative from World War 1 later finds himself abducted by mobsters during a bank robbery and left on a deserted island. When he escapes using his underwater expertise, he returns to New York City (of course) and vows vengeance on all criminals as the Piranha, a Doc Savage-style crusader with a group of skill-savvy aides to help him fight crime.
True fact: I actually did several issues of a homemade comic book of the Piranha in high school, before trying my hand at translating it to purely written form.
Hunter’s Prey (1979) / Following high school, I became obsessed with manly pastimes (guns, martial arts, etc.). So, I decided to write a revenge tale called Hunter’s Prey, this time set in my home state of Tennessee.
Synopsis / A college professor and wildlife advocate moves to a rural Tennessee town with his wife. He soon enrages a local group of redneck hunters with his liberal ideas. Late one night, they run him off the road, beat him nearly to death, and end up killing his wife by accident. After recuperating, he trains himself in the skills of a hunter and tracks down each man during one of their annual hunting trips in the forest, subjecting them to different methods of gruesome demise (one even ends up with his head mounted to a cabin wall, much to the horror of his buddies).
True fact: I actually sent this book to my first real agent, Scott Meredith Literary Agency (who later represented me during the Zebra Books years). It wasn’t accepted for representation, but it was my first step toward discovering the type of genre that would eventually be right for me).
The Last Battle of Reb Bowen (1981) / In the early 1980s I was heavily into Civil War and Old West history. I read a heck of a lot of Louis L’Amour books and even took up gunsmithing, knife making, and black powder shooting. So, I decided to try my hand at writing a western novel. I combined my interest in the War Between the States and Western history and wrote The Last Battle of Reb Bowen.
Synopsis: Confederate soldiers Reb Bowen and Hyram Teal return home from the Civil War to find their Southern town overrun by federal troops and carpetbaggers. When the government confiscates Reb’s land, he burns his cabin and fields and he and Hyram head west to locate Reb’s widowed mother, brothers, and sisters. When he arrives in the Colorado town they moved to, he discovers they have been run off by a band of outlaws led by the notorious Morgan Creed. Reb and Hyram discover the family hiding in the cliff dwellings of Mesa Verde. Together, Reb and his family face Creed and his men for one final battle.
True fact: Alas, after sending the manuscript for The Last Battle of Reb Bowen out to several potential agents, I lost track of it, and it now exists only in my mind. Maybe someday I’ll sit down and try to rewrite it from memory.
Twelve Gauge (1982) / One night in 1982, while in the middle of an all-night writing session (I worked the graveyard shift at my job and wrote at night on my days off so as not throw off my routine) I was interrupted by the boom of a shotgun from a distance, followed by another soon after. The next morning, I discovered that a local deputy had caught two men breaking into the town drugstore and had been ambushed by a third from behind. A few nights later, I sat down and began to write Twelve Gauge, a crime/suspense novel, loosely based on the deputy’s murder.
Synopsis / When his deputy is murdered and ambushed during a drugstore burglary, Sheriff Ben Gatlin begins an investigation and a county-wide manhunt to catch the culprits and bring them to justice.
True fact: The original TG book didn’t make the cut with Scott Meredith, but years later I would rewrite it as a horror suspense novel with the same name. It would be accepted by Zebra Books and published in 1992 as Father’s Little Helper.
The Saga of Dead-Eye (1983-1985) / After reading the epic western novel, Wild Times, by Brian Garfield (Death Wish), I decided to try my hand at western prose once again. Taking the character of Dead-Eye that I had created during my high school days, I set upon a two-year writing journey and penned an 880-page tome detailing the vengeful gunfighter’s pursuit of the outlaw Jules Holland and his gang throughout the Old West. I had lofty expectations for The Saga of Dead-Eye and submitted it to Scott Meredith, but it returned a couple of weeks later, rejected. I was absolutely devastated! Years later, I reread it and found it to be bloated, ill-plotted, and overindulgent, with page-long descriptions of the various characters. A learning experience for sure, but not a very pleasant one at the end of the trail.
Synopsis / Colonel Joshua Wingade returns from the Civil War to discover that his wife and child have been murdered by a hook-handed outlaw named Jules Holland and his band of bushwhackers. He catches up to them but is shot and left for dead. As he chases the outlaws from one territory to another, he gradually becomes one of the deadliest gunfighters in the West.
True fact: There were several incarnations of Dead-Eye throughout the years as I tried to sell the idea to various publishers (I even pitched it to Berkley Books as a horror western series in the early 90s). Eventually, Thunderstorm Books began releasing The Saga of Dead-Eye as limited hardcovers, and Crossroad Press in ebook and paperback editions.
What Haunts These Walls (1993) / Several years into my publishing stretch with Zebra Books, my agent contacted me and wanted to know if I wanted to try my hand at a middle-grade Christian horror book. Apparently, Nashville Christian publisher Thomas Nelson was interested in starting a line of faith-based books directed toward grade school readers. So, I sat down and wrote one. Unfortunately, after several revisions, it didn’t fly with TN and, eventually, the original manuscript got lost somewhere through the years.
Synopsis / After his father is transferred to a new job, a ten-year-old boy and his family move into an old house. His new classmates claim that the place is haunted. As the days pass, frightening events unfold that convince him that his classmates were right and that some restless spirit haunts the walls of his new home.
True fact: As my agent attempted to sell this book, the publisher kept requesting rewrites and making odd suggestions. One concerned a scene in which the boy shares his faith with a classmate. “We don’t want the books to be too preachy,” they said. “Also, please refrain from mentioning Jesus or God.” As a Christian myself, this stance seemed strange and a bit confusing, especially since the publisher had intended this to be part of a “Christian Horror” series.
Ghostly Warning (1994) / Another attempt at writing middle-grade horror fell flat when I wrote a short novel titled Ghostly Warning. My agent shopped it around for nearly a year, but it found no takers.
Synopsis / Two teenage girls, Heather and Janet, arrive at summer camp and learn that a girl had turned up missing there years ago. Strange and frightening events take place and, when Janet turns up missing on night, a ghostly presence leads Heather to a hidden cave. Unknown to her, a killer awaits inside.
True Fact / I actually still have the original manuscript for this one, so I may give it a read and see if it’s promising enough to revise and resubmit somewhere.
Dead Old Men (1996) / Around the time that the horror genre was heading toward its implosion in the mid-1990s, I decided to write a straightforward mystery/detective novel, but with a Southern flavor to it. I came up with Jimmy Jack Dixon, a former tobacco farmer turned private investigator and set the story in the town of Coleman (the same one in my novels Hindsight and Restless Shadows). My agent shopped it around to a few publishers, but eventually it was a no-go.
Synopsis / When an elderly man is discovered murdered on a bench in front of the Bedloe County courthouse in Coleman, Tennessee, rural PI Jimmy Jack Dixon begins to investigate. A chain of clues, and several murder attempts on his life, eventually reveal dark secrets from sixty years earlier.
True Fact / This is another one I still have the manuscript for. I’ve toyed with the idea of totally overhauling it into something much more dramatic than a mere detective novel, taking place during the early 1970s during the time of the Vietnam War.
A Dark and Blood Ground (2012) After I returned to the horror genre in 2006 after a ten-year hiatus from writing, my first two books were Midnight Grinding & Other Twilight Terrors and Hell Hollow, both published through Cemetery Dance Publications. After that, I made another deal with CD for a novel titled A Dark and Bloody Ground. Unfortunately, three-fourths of the way through writing the novel, my computer hard drive crashed, and the manuscript was utterly and hopelessly lost.
Synopsis / For years, Boone and Jessica Hale, a high school history teacher and a real estate agent, have been searching for the mythical region of Syntrillia — a Southern state so vile and depraved during the Civil War that its location and history was completely stricken from the annals of American history. When they come across an old diary and a map showing the true location of Syntrillia, they decide to take to the Appalachians and seek it out. When they do, they find themselves trapped in an evil place more horrifying than they could have ever imagined.
True Fact / To tell the truth, the mere thought of actually sitting down and trying to rewrite this novel from memory has seemed to be such a daunting task that I’ve never even attempted it. But since I still owe Cemetery Dance this book after nearly twelve years, I will be attempting to rewrite it following the completion of Fear Eternal, the long-awaited sequel to my magnum opus, Fear.
And speaking of Fear Eternal…
I’m pleased to reveal the novel’s cover here, designed by the incredible Lynne Hansen. After finishing up The Saga of Dead-Eye, Book 3: Man-Eaters, Mummies, & Murderous Maniacs (now in progress), I will devote this winter’s writing to completing Fear Eternal and hope to have it ready for publication by the spring of 2024.
20% Off through the month of November at RKHORROR!
From now through November 30th, get 20% off your order at the RKHORROR online bookstore by entering promo code ZOMBIETURKEY. Check out my selection of books, artwork, and t-shirts, and while you’re there get in the holiday spirit with paperback editions of my Christmas horror story collection, Season’s Creepings, or my extreme Christmas novel, Twelve Gauge. Plus, all books come with a personalized inscription and hand drawn RK artwork on the title page.
Well, that’s all for the Chronicle this time around. I’ll be back in a couple of weeks with a special Thanksgiving edition. Until then, Many Happy Nightmares, y’all!
I would 100% read Hunter's Prey if you ever try to publish it again! That sounds amazing and would be a great movie.