An Announcement and a Sneak Peek

Hello everyone,

I know it's been awhile since I've stopped in and said hello, and for that I apologize. I've been keeping a little too busy and my mind doesn't allow short-term memories such as "you should write a post" to take hold. So what have I been doing? This past week I was at SXSW in my "journalist" capacity covering the film festival. If you want to read my reviews and coverage you can go here:

https://www.boomhowdy.com/author/boom_havens/

I've also been hard at work on a few screenplay projects, attempting to overcome my neurotic hatred of self promotion, and forming a third novel.

Speaking of that third novel, I thought I would give you a sneak peek of what the beginning of a novel looks like for me. Typically, something just slams into my brain and will not leave. It may be a scene, a character, or an image. For my upcoming novel it was a little of all of these things. It is tentatively called "Who-Man" and I'm pretty excited about the possibilities of it. Below is what this novel looks like in its infancy. It came to me in a short burst of narrative. This is how "Who-Man" begins: 

" Most of you are afraid of death.

I am not.

I die everyday. 

It is not scary.

Waking up, being alive.

That is terrifying.

Every moment of living, from the first gasp of existence to the last gasp of death, is nothing but fearful chaos. So many variables, so many choices, so many faces of possibilities, it is all full of terror. 

Especially when it will not end.

Death is quiet, death is calm, there are no variables, no choices, it just is. It is everything. Death is our natural state. It is what we were for the millennia before our birth, it is what we will be for the millennia that follow. It is the natural order. Life is the anomaly. Life is what is to feared. 

I have woken from death thirty-eight times now, each time hoping I would not.

They don’t think I know, they think I don’t remember. 

I do.

I’m assuming that at some point I did not remember. I woke up as a grown man, a grown man who knew things and had skills he had no real right to know or have. I was less human and more biological tool. I was manufactured. I have no memories before this.

I’m not sure if I was once a human that is now a meaty facsimile or if I am the conglomeration of cellular data that was accumulated and programmed to be what I am. I guess it doesn’t matter. I am this, regardless of origin.

I do know that I’m not supposed to remember. I know this because of what they say. They joke about me, they give me nicknames. 

I am “Who-Man”.

They call me that because I look like a human but I have no identity. It started with a new tech asking, “Who?”, when someone referenced me. The name stuck.

“Prep Who-Man for deployment. Check vitals on Who-Man.” And so on.

I always wake up in a grey cylinder of hazy liquid. This is my home.

The first person I see is a bored looking technician, always wearing a size-too-large lab-coat. He looks like a child playing scientist. He is usually sipping a coffee out of a styrofoam cup that looks overused. Saggy, stained, and wilted it is the emblem of this place."

So there you have it. That's my newest book in its entirety. I'll let you know how it all turns out.

Regarding the neurotic fear of self promotion, I will be on The Horror Happens Radio Show discussing The Devil and Me on Tuesday, March 21st at 3:10 CST. Listen in and listen to me say words about my book.

Finally, the screenplay projects are in that weird area of being exciting but also being something I probably shouldn't discuss too much. Let's just say I am revisiting old characters and it feels very nice. We should have more concrete news soon. 

As always, thanks for the support and general kindness. I appreciate it more than you can know. Take care of each other, and we'll talk soon.