Hello!
Here it is the first Friday in January, and I’m just about recovered from the holidays. The cookie jars are empty, the tree needs to be taken down, and it’s drizzling outside. It’s time to update you.
The first draft of the fifth book of the Cid Garrett P.I. series is finished. It’s called Walnut Grove House. Cid rejoins the Kiki Pickles Renovation company to work on a country manor house whose owner is upfront in declaring it a haunted house and stresses that the construction team isn’t to mess with the ghosts. The Cid Garrett P.I. books are books without feathers. That means no birdmen and active involvement by archangels. I do bring in a PEEP from time to time, but Cid runs the show. I write this series for the readers who aren’t interested in paranormal things you wouldn’t find in a standard ghost hunting book. This book is my current priority, and I hope to get it to you late February.
Thanks to all of you who have purchased Sticks and Stones. I will talk about this book more later in the month. I don’t want to give any spoilers away. Book 29 is in my head and as soon as I finish my personal edits on Walnut Grove House, I will start writing it. The Haunted Series will continue as long as you enjoy it.
I’d like to take a moment and talk about the evolution of the Haunted Series. If you’re new to the series, you may want to stop reading here. I will be discussing books 1-4.
When I started writing The Hauntings of Cold Creek Hollow, I did so on a recommendation from the Webguy. At the time, I was seeking a traditional publisher with the Cin Fin-Lathen mystery series, and although my queries had actually made it into a few meetings, I was rejected. The Webguy and I were discussing the latest rejection as we walked. He suggested I write something different. I did. To accomplish this, I looked at things that I was interested in. At that time I had been watching several ghost hunting shows. I do have an interest in ghosts. I have seen residual haunts and experienced a few active ones. My original intent was to parody ghost hunting teams, but when I typed these words on the page:
“Note to self: no more favors,” Mia said as she pulled her well-worn Cubs baseball cap down over her eyes. She tested her hearing. She could tell an SUV from a sedan by the whine of the wheels on the black top. “Who needs eyes?”
She heard a sedan slow in front of her, and she pushed back her hat in time to see Deputy Whitney Martin, Whit to his friends, pull up and lower the window of the county sheriff’s patrol car.
“Hey, Mia,” the dishwater blonde man greeted her with relaxed familiarity.
“Whit.”
“Whatcha doing on the side of the road?”
“I’m manning a speed trap,” she said in mock seriousness.
“How fast was I going?” Whit humored the young woman.
“Real, real fast.”
“Damn, there goes my insurance. You broke down?”
and,
He came out of the barn carrying an axe. His torn overalls were dirty with dust and time. The farmer slowly approached her.
“Hey, Murph.”
Murphy didn’t say anything but acknowledged her with a tip of his hat.
I fell in love. I wanted to write a book with banter, with complicated relationships, and growth. I wanted my characters to grow with every encounter. It would be a rollercoaster ride that sucked the reader in and didn’t let them go until the end. I wanted humor, thrills, emotional highs and lows, and paranormal entities like no one has ever written about. My group of investigators are called Paranormal Entity Exposure Partners (PEEPs) because Burt, Mike, Ted, and the rest weren’t going to be satisfied with just investigating ghosts. These are smart investigators. They’re not going to do the dumb things that create easy scares. They were going to need more than a standard haunt to keep them happy. I would need more than a formula book to keep me challenged. I think PEEPs and I found a way for all of us to be happy.
The book took off. It shocked the heck out of me. Looking back, I wouldn’t have made the chapters so short and maybe paid better attention to a few other things. But it was liked, and I set out to test the waters with book two, Ghostly Attachments. I brought in OOBing (out of body), my name for bilocation. I wanted to see if the readers would welcome my main character changing, along with all the conflict and comedy that happen when people change. Most of you did. In Sandtrap I put a spirit into glass (fulgurite). I wrote two novella’s Eternal Maze and Homecoming. The idea was to give you readers single haunts. I tried not to move the storyline in them. Well, I tried.
If you made it past the fourth novel Darker than Dark, then you were in for a wild ride. I made a promise to myself that if I was going to continue this series, I wouldn’t write the same old thing. It’s a challenge, and to be clear, I find nothing wrong with formula books; they give their loyal readers the comfort that everything will follow a similar path and the ending will not unsettle them. There are many outstanding authors who write to a formula and they sell a lot of books. I’m just not one of them. I’m going to upset you at times. Life is upsetting. I use real language, and sometimes my characters are a bit juvenile. I think there are thirteen-year-olds in all of us. (I apologize to the thirteen-year-olds who are well-behaved and sensible.)
Alexie Aaron books aren’t for everyone. When I started publishing the eBooks (2012), the only classification that Amazon had was horror. Then later, ghosts. I think the series falls between ghosts and paranormal fantasy, but I’m still not certain they belong there. I have a devil of a time attracting new readers because there are a lot of books out there. I thank each and everyone of you who have shared or recommended my books. This is how I’m still able to hang in and write full time.
What you can expect from future books of the Haunted Series? They are going to be fun. The real bits will be researched, the paranormal lore will have an Alexie Aaron take on them, and the characters will be consistent while still allowing them to grow. I will continue to use previous characters because I feel every character I write could actually have more to say and to contribute. I will continue to put a glossary in the back so you can refer to it if needed. I don’t expect you to remember everyone. I have written over 700 characters between the Haunted Series and Cid Garrett P.I.. I have to research names because the Red Pen isn’t pleased if I reuse a name.
Phew… I’m not known for writing short things for a reason. I hope you found the above interesting. If you’d like more from me about certain books, or the process of writing a long series, then let me know. I’m an open book filled with scary things, happy things, inclusive things, and above all, love.
Alexie Aaron