Saturday, February 22, 2014

Pale Moonlight


Announcing the release of Pale Moonlight, an epic vision of vampire literature.

This is the latest in my self-published works.  You can find the paperback version here and the Kindle version here.

This is the first book manuscript I deliberately wrote, after the thrice NaNoWRiMo experience that resulted in The Cloak of Shrouded Men.  I wrote it in the fall of 2009, with the idea of doing a fairly straightforward vampire novel, a sort of swashbuckling version that exists in the completed story in the form of the pirate Quincy, one of several supporting characters.  Instead of an action adventure, it became as most of my stories do an exploration of motivation.

I attempted for years to sell this book to traditional publishers, and never found any success.  I continued writing manuscripts, but it's the failure to find interest with it that led to all of the self-published efforts that make up the bulk of my releases.  I figured it was about time for the story to join that tradition.

Besides the silly notion of writing a version of the vampire story that I could never hope to complete with my particular writerly inclinations, Plato Finnegan's adventures in relation to his sister Fiona and the vampire Eolake in that particular aspect were based on my close bond with my beloved sister and her own successful efforts to emerge from a bad relationship.

Happily, the story also afforded me an avenue for a recurring character in some other projects, Oliver Row, who in Pale Moonlight is my version of Van Helsing, the one that would necessarily have to exist in this modern era of skepticism and TV drama which so often turns to this sort of material for inspiration.  One of the many minor characters who help round out the cast is Jason Clayton, my vision of an American Harry Potter, whose Dumbledore mentor is also an homage to a favorite high school teacher.

Pale Moonlight was originally entitled Finnegan, and that was what it was for the longest time, with at times various subtitles such as American Nightmares.  I had at one point retitled it Modern Ark, but recently - and for that reason finally decided to release it - on the present one, which not only evokes classic vampire imagery (not to mention the naming scheme for the Stephenie Meyer books) but a line from the Tim Burton Batman and a Star Trek: Deep Space Nine episode (bonus points if you can give me details on both, perhaps even a free copy!).

As with a lot of classic literature, it is most likely completely unfilmable, but if you want to try, I would be more than willing to help adapt it.

As I am a terrible CreateSpace formatter, the paperback features nothing that would be mistaken for a professional release.  I released it because I believe in the story.  There are bound to be the same typographical errors that plague all my releases (although since this also occurs in the ones released by persons other than myself, I don't feel quite as bad).

It is a book I hope may be enjoyed by everyone, but I know it won't.  If you are Pat Dilloway, for instance, Pale Moonlight will probably damn near infuriate you.

I am quite pleased to present it.

16 comments:

  1. Congratulations, Tony! I'll be sure to mention it tomorrow.
    And the DS9 reference comes from an episode with that name that involves getting the Romulans to fight against the Dominion. (No free copy - I'll download my own.)

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  2. Congrats! Pat has high standards even for himself, no matter the name he published it under.

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    1. He's pretty much hated the other books he's read of mine without saying it. This one is even more head-gamey than the others. He doesn't like that.

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  3. Congratulations on the new release! There's always room for more vampire fiction. I have one bubbling in the back of my brain pan too, although I have a few other projects to clear out of the way first. Keep on writing!

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    1. Thanks! It's always good to have projects to work on in the future, likes an ace in your back pocket. (Not that I condone cheating. It was the vampire.)

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  4. If you look at your sales on Amazon, I'm the one who borrowed it with KDP Select.

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    1. Be sure to wipe your thumbprints when you return it. I know how you lick your finger when you turn pages.

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  5. Congrats on your book release!! Sometimes the books that no publishers want are the ones that are most interesting.

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  6. This is what I love about self publishing. If no one buys it, you can publish it yourself. I went through a similar thing with "Toons."

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    1. It finally necessarily had to come to that. And I guess I'm happy with that.

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  7. Hi Tony,
    I just bought this book without knowing anything about it. Why? I just had to find out why it turned up in an amazon search with my name, Eolake!

    I made the name up as my nom de plume in 1988, and I've been half-dreading others using it since. Nothing has come off it though until now, 2014, when I find out there's a nice Italian boot called Eolake and a "nefarious" vampire called Eolake!

    I do sleep mostly in the day. But most of my other traits are lupine, so if you'll be so kind as to correct the next edition of your book...

    Eolake

    http://eolake.com

    eolake [at] eolake.com

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    1. I promise no offense was intended. I simply liked your name.

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  8. 'Why thank you,' he said, polishing his nails on his shirt. 'Made it meself.'

    Unexpectedly, many people have trouble pronouncing it. But text-to-speech gets it right, in straight English, so people can hear it that way.

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    1. Good. Because that was always a question I had about it.

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