What? You mean you don’t like my cheesy ‘retro’ 80s cover? I’ll probably get around to changing it. At the time I just wanted to hurry up and get my book, The Dancing Man, out there; and then I just sort of left it. So there it hangs on Amazon. The cover has kind of grown on me. It does look like the old 1980’s computer graphics output. Lol.
I will say, I had more fun writing this book than just about anything else I’ve written. I knocked part one out in about two days, and then came back and wrote part two about six months later. There are scenes in the book that seemed like they would be straight out of an ’80s movie, even though the book’s setting is the 1870s. There is one scene where ol’ Frank is pinned against the wall and there is a witty exchange between him and the antagonist that I can’t reveal without ruining the book for you. All I could think (and at one point I had it in the book blurb) was of the line, “Nobody puts baby in a corner.” Now, I’ve never even watched the movie, Dirty Dancing, but I’m familiar with the line. And, well, nobody puts ol’ Frank in a corner either; at least not as long as he can reach his axe.
It really is a hilarious tale of horror, and axe wielding mayhem. Okay, so who am I to judge? I wrote the damn thing, so take my word on this with a grain of salt. But I will say that I get the feeling that if I had that much fun writing it, then that’s got to shine through. The reader will be seeing and experiencing the same visions/feelings as he or she reads it that I experienced as I wrote it. Of course, it does come down to what sort of sense of humor the reader has. I can almost guarantee that if the reader has any sort of sense of humor, he or she is bound to chuckle a few times.
Frank, Arlen, and Farley (okay, Farley, not so much) were truly alive to me as I wrote. They all just carried me along. I simply recorded it all as I watched it play out.
The only other time I’ve had a character come so alive and carry things along is Riley, the narrator of the more recent story, “Bawdy, Bonny Sally,” from my latest book, The Pirate Tales.
In any case, I really should change the cover so the book sells. However, you don’t have to buy; I’ll never turn away a reader. If your interest is piqued just let me know. I’ll get you a free digital (pdf) copy.