I just finished the first draft of a folk-horror novel. Inspired by writers such as Adam Nevill (author of The Ritual—now a Netflix movie) and H.P. Lovecraft.
This is my first major writing project ever. It was exhausting but also far more doable than I originally thought. Only took two months to get 70,000 words in. I need to do some massive editing, at least three more drafts, hire an editor and book cover designer, and go through the grueling process of self-publishing, but it feels so relieving to have that first draft done.
If all goes as I think it will, the finished product will be out by June this year!
For my Sunday paid subscriber-only posts, I’m planning on releasing a single chapter for you to read each week until the book launch. These chapters will be second-draft quality but are still not fully finished. So, feel free to offer up some constructive criticism. I would appreciate it.
The first page of each chapter will be available for everyone to read but from the second page, it will be under the paywall.
My Wednesday posts are free for everyone and I will keep publishing my Dark Gods of Japan series on exploring folklore, festivals, and ancient traditions. The first of this series is under the paywall but most of the rest of it will be free.
Now, to the book!
Warning: the book is a horror story. As such, violence, mature themes, and a general sense of discomfort pervade throughout (that is my hope at least).
Synopsis of the book
Tentative Title: Valley of the Stars
Cody Baker did a terrible thing. The kind of thing polite people don’t talk about. He and two friends go on a hiking trip to Japan, all of them seeking a distraction from the horrors of their lives. While visiting a remote valley, hidden in the depths of an isolated mountain range, they become lost. They discover a thriving community, where the people are happy and life is prosperous. They say it is thanks to their god, a strange, ancient deity of the sky. Is this community the haven these three friends have been longing for, or will the price exacted by the “god of stars” be too steep to pay?
Chapter One
Wakayama, Japan
1967
When confronted with the sum of all our fears we are often given a choice: flee before them, or take the leap into the void and meet them head-on. Ken Matsushima drove along the mountain road that night in the lightly falling snow wishing he had the luxury of choice. He looked at his fuel gauge, nearly empty. He barely had time to think when he left the city that morning on this spur-of-the-moment trip.
You’re so boring and predictable, Ayumi had told him that morning as she slipped out of his bed to smoke in the kitchen. I think we should see other people. And with that, she was out the door and out of his life.
His tires slipped at every turn but he managed to keep the car from crashing into the side rail. Of course, he had forgotten to put chains on.
Just keep your eyes focused on the road and everything will be ok.
He hit an incline, his wheels sputtering and losing their grip as he snail-crawled his way up. In any other situation, the view would have been stunning. Great cedars and pines shot their way into the snowfall, their evergreen tops still visible though the road itself was a white haze. Even in his concentrated state of panic, he was able to absorb these details.
Why didn’t I think this through?
He slammed his hand against the steering wheel. The car responded to the abuse by fishtailing at the end of the incline. He spun the wheel with sweaty palms. The back of the car swished left, and right, then it straightened out. Having reached a flat part of the road, Ken stopped. It wasn’t smart to stop in the middle of the road in a snowstorm, this he knew. He also knew that it wasn’t likely that any car would come screaming down the road to hit him, he hadn’t seen anyone for the past four hours.
All I wanted was to do something spontaneous for once. Never again I guess.
At least the car was warm. He couldn’t imagine what it would be like to crash and have to survive out there. Looking out his window he saw the magnificent trees in the snow. And above them, a single star burned through the clouds and the storm. A red star.
Ken had the sudden feeling of being watched. Alone beneath a mostly featureless sky, a tiny spec on the great mountainside, but instead of loneliness he felt known somehow. He also had the sudden realization that his life may very well be in danger. He had no idea where he was, his car was about to die in an hour tops, and he very likely was going to fly right through the side railing and into those trees. His grave would be forever under that red star, that watchful sentry in the dead winter sky.