Demon at the Window: New Project Update #1

I have no idea what's happened to make me so prolific as of late, but I'm liking it. A lot. I suppose if writing is a form of stress release, as many writers find it to be, then I must be pretty freaking stressed out. I don't even have the edits finished on Graduation Summer yet - in fact it's not even going to end up in the hands of beta readers until Monday at the earliest - but I'm already nearly a quarter of the way through the new project's first draft. I guess that means I can let you in on it now, huh?

This one's called Demon at the Window.

Jack Cochran is struggling to get his private investigations firm off the ground. When his assistant gives him a case involving someone stalking some of her friends, he thinks it's just going to be an easy way to make a buck, a thought that's reinforced when his new client tells him they think they're being stalked by a straight from the bowels of Hell demon. But as Cochran digs into the case, he discovers that maybe there is more reality to what he considered myths than he ever dreamed of.

This one is still a bit in the horror genre, with touches of mystery and thriller thrown in for good measure. If my projected word count is accurate, I'm sitting at about 25% complete on the first draft. I'm not even going to guess about time to completion on this one, but like Graduation Summer I intend to submit it for publication and do it myself if a publisher doesn't bite.

A bit of backstory:

I've had the idea to do a book about a PI named Jack Cochran for a while now. I always knew he would end up investigating things that are supernatural, but that he was a skeptic himself. Every time I started one of these tales, I couldn't get it to go anywhere. After the third failure, I shelved it, but the character stayed with me.

Fast forward a few years. I needed a name for a TBI agent to put in Graduation Summer. As a joke for myself, I used Jack. I finished the chapter he first appeared in, and thought nothing else about it. As the story progressed, I suddenly realized that I could build on this. I figured out why Cochran would have left the TBI and started his own investigation firm. The rest clicked into place when I had an idea for his first case.

I started writing it fully expecting another dud. Three failures with him before, remember? But to my pleasant surprise, it was falling into place this time. So, like a good little artist when the Muse starts talking, I ran with it, and here we are.

It'll be a bit before this one escapes into the wild. I need to let GS run it's course first. But there is something else on the horizon. Call it a spiritual sequel to GS. Hey, if Marvel and Stephen King can do an interconnected universe, why can't I, right?

Keep rooting for me, and let's hope Jack makes it to a completed draft this time, what say? More later, once I'm further along. More on GS once I get some beta feedback.

Thanks for stopping by!