The prequel to Machina
This book started with a short story, and that’s an interesting story.
I wrote a short story called ‘Lullaby.’ It was good, and it was a finalist in the Writer’s of the Future contest. It was one of probably three or four stories considered for the grand prize in that prestigious contest.
I didn’t win, but I figured it would sell pretty easy, so I sent it off to other contests, and various magazines. Nobody wanted it.
The point is that editors, agents, and so on, are subjective in their opinions as to what is good and what is bad. Very subjective.
In fact, there is no rhyme or reason as to who wins a contest, or sells a story, in the publishing business. It is a fact that some of the greatest writers in history turned to self-publishing. Beatrix Potter, Edgar Allan Poe, E. L. James, Mark Twain, Virginia Wolf, John Grisham, Jane Austen, Margaret Atwood, L. Frank Baum, Edgar Rice Burroughs are some of the luminaries who tried their hand at self-publishing.
Most publishers don’t want to publish self-published books. It seems they want to discourage such entreprenuership. They probably just don’t want to encourage competition that might cut into their sales.
ABOUT THE BOOK
Speaking of short stories, after Lullaby I wrote a tidy, little piece that told of a lawyer who has to take an unpleasant fellow out to view an inheritance, an old mansion.
The mansion turns out to be haunted, the unpleasant fellow gets his just desserts, and I thought that was it.
A day later I’m back in the chair, pounding my fingers so hard the nails stopped growing. A few weeks later I came up for air to find that ‘The Haunting of House had spewed out of my printer. Where the hell did that come from?
Whew! Thank goodness that was over. I knew I really was done now. Stupid short story seemed to have grown wings, but…my manic fit was truly over. Except…the next night I’m back in the chair, working ten hours a day for a couple of months, spittle drooling from my open maw as my fingers took on a life of their own. My awareness was splattered back up against the ceiling as I watched the bizarre unfolding of Machina.
The only way to describe Machina is that it is as if Franz Kafka wrote The Stand.
But it all starts with The Haunting of House. That wicked novel that started with a burp of a short story.
It is apart from Machina, concerned more with how the hero of Machina came to be. You can read Machina without The Haunting of House, but it does leave a bit of a gap as to where the hero of Machina came from.
Want to enter the house? Just click on…
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The original back cover for…
THE HAUNTING OF HOUSE
Some men are born…others are made.
This is the prequel to Machina.
JIMMY COHEN ~ an amiable yuppie lawyer, has the disagreeable task of administering a will.
MR. TREAK ~ he has an inherited a house, but the house has taken a dislike to him.
OSCAR TREVANT ~ An average looking Joe with mystical powers.
GABRIELLA ZELLA ~ an Amazon warrior who will fight her way out of Hell…or into it.
A SAGA OF HELLISH PROPORTION ~ Banks robbers and ghosts and corporate holes. Murder and mayhem and terrible disease. And then there’s the crippled boy on the third floor. Why are the cops are after him? What’s his secret?
JIMMY ~ A little boy with no hope…yet he is the source of all hope.
Want to find out about the next book in the series?
