Moving On to the Next Chapter

Unbelievable as it seems, come this May, my first solo outing, Hiram Grange and the Chosen One, will have been published for nine years. Its debut was a pretty exciting event, as any writer can attest to. I finally had my own book, written entirely by me. I started getting positive reviews of my work. People occasionally recommended it, in small horror circles. I had something I'd written that was, at the very least, good. I had something of mine to sell at conventions and signings in my hometown. Esteemed authors like Robert Dunbar had blurbed my work, for goodness sake.

From left to right: Illustrator Malcom McClinton, writer Rob Davies, writer Scott Christian Carr, layout Danny Evarts, writer Richard Wright, myself, and behind, publisher and writer Tim Deal.

Among the "Hiram Six" (Tim Deal, Scott Christian Carr, Rob Davies, Richard Wright, Illustrator Malcom McClinton) enthusiasm ran high. What was in store next for Hiram Grange? Another series of books? A novel? Limited edition chapbooks? A short story collection of Hiram Grange adventures, edited by us? Graphic novels?

Eventually, however, reality set in. Though I'm proud of the work we did to this day, Hiram Grange was, in all reality, a very niche character. Published by a very small press. And, for whatever reason, we failed to capitalize on the-then still new ebook craze, as no Kindle versions of the Hiram Grange Chronicles came out until about four or five years later. Also, we'd written our versions of Hiram all at the same time, so our visions of Hiram himself varied. I know mine turned out to be very different, for sure.

Anyway, too soon, reviews stopped rolling in. It became very clear that, beyond the small reach of Shroud Publishing and small press horror, not many folks were interested in an absinthe-swilling, opium smoking, perverse anti-hero. We probably never sold enough copies online to clear our token advances.  As awesome as the Hiram Grange ride was, it proved to be short, and I think we all realized we had to move on to other projects.

Myself in particular, I realized that the action-adventure style of Hiram Grange wasn't something I wanted to explore at that time. I tried several novels which fell apart, because back then, I was still - stupidly - resistant to outlining. For the next two years, my short story subs saw nothing but rejection.

Finally, I realized that if I wanted to stay in this writing thing for the long haul, I needed to make myself okay with the fact that, for the time being, "nothing" was happening. I needed to buckle down and write a lot, read a lot, and find other ways to remain part of the horror community. So I became very active on Goodreads. I started "Horror 101," an examination of the horror genre, which first debuted on the podcast Tales to Terrify, before it moved over to Lamplight Magazine. I blogged a lot about horror, blogged a lot about my life, and about writing, in general, not worrying about how many people actually read said blogs.

Finally, in 2013, Things Slip Through debuted through the-then new Crystal Lake Publishing, opening the small town mythology I'd wanted to create for so long. And, though I've by no means raked in the cash, over the past 6 years and five Clifton Heights books, I've experienced the most success I've ever had, far more than I experienced with Hiram Grange.

But now...I'm once again at a crossroads. The sales of Things You Need have been the lowest of all my Clifton Heights books, and the reviews have been slow coming in. I blame no one for this. When you think about it, I've gotten a lot of mileage out of two short story collections, two novella collections, and a novella, when I think, in reality, most readers just want to read novels. Also, despite my efforts to make Clifton Heights a non-sequential series, I believe that when new readers see: "The newest installment in Kevin Lucia's Clifton Heights Series," I think they just assume it is a sequential series, and not many folks want to jump into a series cold.

I still have two more Clifton Heights books set to come out, stories I believe represent the best of my writing, to date. They'll be published in limited edition hardcover, however, and that sort of thing can't be rushed. Which is fine. I am beyond honored that this publisher bought not just one book from me, but two. I think readers will really love both books, and I also love them, because they are on the opposite ends of the spectrum when it comes to horror/speculative fiction.

But, as I said - release dates on limited edition books like this are slippery. So I have no real idea when they'll be out. Which means - I'm once again in a period of "emptiness." Nothing coming out anytime soon, and several works in various stages of drafting.

So, what to do?

Initially, I got a little depressed. I wondered: "Is this it? The end of the road? Even if Crystal Lake does want more books from me, will they just sink to the bottom of Amazon rankings, only to be noticed by a few?"

After my recent wonderful evening with Tom Monteleone, F. Paul Wilson, and Stuart Davide Schiff, I rebounded. Felt better about things. And this week, I've realized what I need to do: I need to imagine myself in the same place as I was when the Hiram Grange buzz faded.

It's time to move on. It's time to write different things outside my comfortable little mythology. It's time to take some scary steps (like find an agent). At the same time, I don't want to disappear, as I was feeling like doing a few months ago. I need to throw my efforts into continuing my Cemetery Dance Online column, "Revelations." I need to talk about what I love, reading and horror and reading horror, and other geek stuff. I need to have fun on Facebook.  I need to be happy with my rather small accomplishments but also move on, if I want to be in this thing for the long haul. 

I need to move on. Which means, I need to leave Clifton Heights. I need to "kill" Gavin Patchett.

More on that next time...