*** Special Feature - March 2020 ***
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| Check out the Book on Amazon |
Sunny Florida, beautiful beaches, no traffic on A1A... Zombies roaming the dunes in search of the living... Darlene Bobich in a fight to survive, find food, safety and ammo for her Desert Eagle before its too late...
Dying Days are upon us... The Undead Roam the Earth... Searching for the Living... To Eat... To Feast... To Rip Apart... Extreme Violence... Extreme Sexual Situations... Extreme Undead...
Continuing the Darlene Bobich story begun in "Darlene Bobich: Zombie Killer..". And soon to be an independent film!
Writing The Book Before You’re Ready To Write The Book
The first time I decided to write what would eventually become Chelsea Avenue, I was in my mid-twenties. We’re talking about 1995. Ancient times. No real internet to Google on or chat with strangers in distant lands.
I had written many, many short stories up to this point. Had quite a few published in zines (look it up, young people) and more than a few rejected. I was on my way to being a rich and famous horror author… oh, and I’m still waiting.
The idea for the book was easy enough: some sort of monster was killing people in Long Branch, NJ. At Murphy’s Law club, which really existed when I was growing up. On, conveniently, Chelsea Avenue. I imagined a huge cast of characters, most of them eventually dying horrific deaths, until the monster was killed and tossed into the ocean. See? Simple.
So I started writing it… and ten thousand words in I gave up. It was… boring. Cliché and too typical, especially since I quickly realized I was more or less copying every Dean Koontz horror novel I’d ever read. And I read all of them.
I put it away for the next ten years or so, working on other stories. Honing my craft. Getting better at this writing thing. Trying to figure out where Chelsea Avenue went wrong.
In 2005 I didn’t figure it out again. I got further in the book, doing an edit on what I already had and doubling the word count. Yet… it was a string of deaths and nothing more. Sure, I had written some cool scenes and the monster was kinda bad ass, but… there was no story and no character(s) to root for. I gave it up again and worked on my craft. Other stories. Actual novels by this time that sold because they made sense. At last enough to get them published.
By 2011 I wasn’t even thinking about Chelsea Avenue. I had written and released over a hundred short stories, novellas and novels by this point.
Then, as so often happens, something completely odd happened. I saw a prompt for an anthology wanting elemental creatures. I decided to create a set of four elemental gods: Wiy of the Water, Og of the Flame, Soh of the Wind and Dir of the Earth. Would they battle or try to overthrow the human race?
Wait… what if one of them, Wiy of the Water, wanted to drown the world and his brothers tried to stop him?
The short story was forgotten as well as the 20k I’d previously written of Chelsea Avenue. I now had not only a better monster to write about, an elemental god, but I had the chops and skill to create interesting characters that worked within the actual plot. Yes, cool deaths galore would ultimately be a highlight of the book (and the other two books in the series) but it sold well because it was a novel. An actual story with everything you’d hopefully like in a story.
The first version was released in 2014 but the publisher went out of business soon after, so it was immediately picked up by another company.
It was the story I needed to write, but I also needed to gain the skill-set to write it properly.
Chelsea Avenue 2 came out in 2018 and Chelsea Avenue 3 in 2020. Why so long between them?
I’m still improving and getting better. Never rush the story. If you can’t get it right, there’s no shame in putting it aside for a later date.
You might never get back to the story, and that’s alright, too.
We all have many stories to tell and a short amount of time to do it.
I had written many, many short stories up to this point. Had quite a few published in zines (look it up, young people) and more than a few rejected. I was on my way to being a rich and famous horror author… oh, and I’m still waiting.
The idea for the book was easy enough: some sort of monster was killing people in Long Branch, NJ. At Murphy’s Law club, which really existed when I was growing up. On, conveniently, Chelsea Avenue. I imagined a huge cast of characters, most of them eventually dying horrific deaths, until the monster was killed and tossed into the ocean. See? Simple.
So I started writing it… and ten thousand words in I gave up. It was… boring. Cliché and too typical, especially since I quickly realized I was more or less copying every Dean Koontz horror novel I’d ever read. And I read all of them.
I put it away for the next ten years or so, working on other stories. Honing my craft. Getting better at this writing thing. Trying to figure out where Chelsea Avenue went wrong.
In 2005 I didn’t figure it out again. I got further in the book, doing an edit on what I already had and doubling the word count. Yet… it was a string of deaths and nothing more. Sure, I had written some cool scenes and the monster was kinda bad ass, but… there was no story and no character(s) to root for. I gave it up again and worked on my craft. Other stories. Actual novels by this time that sold because they made sense. At last enough to get them published.
By 2011 I wasn’t even thinking about Chelsea Avenue. I had written and released over a hundred short stories, novellas and novels by this point.
Then, as so often happens, something completely odd happened. I saw a prompt for an anthology wanting elemental creatures. I decided to create a set of four elemental gods: Wiy of the Water, Og of the Flame, Soh of the Wind and Dir of the Earth. Would they battle or try to overthrow the human race?
Wait… what if one of them, Wiy of the Water, wanted to drown the world and his brothers tried to stop him?
The short story was forgotten as well as the 20k I’d previously written of Chelsea Avenue. I now had not only a better monster to write about, an elemental god, but I had the chops and skill to create interesting characters that worked within the actual plot. Yes, cool deaths galore would ultimately be a highlight of the book (and the other two books in the series) but it sold well because it was a novel. An actual story with everything you’d hopefully like in a story.
The first version was released in 2014 but the publisher went out of business soon after, so it was immediately picked up by another company.
It was the story I needed to write, but I also needed to gain the skill-set to write it properly.
Chelsea Avenue 2 came out in 2018 and Chelsea Avenue 3 in 2020. Why so long between them?
I’m still improving and getting better. Never rush the story. If you can’t get it right, there’s no shame in putting it aside for a later date.
You might never get back to the story, and that’s alright, too.
We all have many stories to tell and a short amount of time to do it.
About the Author:
Armand Rosamilia writes about zombies but he also writes about crime fiction, contemporary fiction, supernatural thrillers and nonfiction. He hopes readers love his Voice.
He can be reached all over social media, wherever the cool kids are hanging. He’ll be lingering near the back.
https://armandrosamilia.com
https://armandrosamilia.com
Giveaway:
1 Signed copy of Chelsea Avenue 3
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