Here's an overview of my tenth published book, Out of the Devil's Mouth. I'm giving away a signed copy on my Facebook page this week!
Publication Date:
April, 2008
Where the idea came from:
I’m not the only storyteller influenced by the great Indiana Jones movies. Raiders Of The Lost Ark made me want to tell stories of my own. Simply put, this is my version of an Indiana Jones tale.
One line synopsis:
A travel writer/adventurer from 1929 takes a trek to the Amazon jungle to look for a missing explorer.
Journey to publication:
Of all the books I’ve been fortunate to publish, Out Of The Devil’s Mouth is the one that seems most out of place. I say that because it’s a pure adventure, along with it taking place in 1929 (making it my only historical novel). I never intended to do a book like Out of the Devil’s Mouth, but circumstances paved the way to start a series that never actually became a series.
In November of 2006, right after our daughter Kylie was born, my editor from Moody Publishers called me to tell me that my upcoming book with them was going to be cancelled. That book was called Isolation. It was supposed to be published in January of 2007. I’ll get to this later when I detail Isolation’s journey to publication, but needless to say, my relationship with Moody was somewhat strained.
Moody went on to publish Sky Blue which was already in the works. Initially I was going to follow Sky Blue with a novel in the vein of Apocalypse Now about a man going up the river to search for a missionary who had gone mad. That tale was going to be dark and deal with demon possession. But since Isolation had been canceled, my editor and I felt like we needed to do something safe. I shared my feelings about the Indiana Jones movies and we decided to come up with a series based on similar adventures.
The Response:
A lot of people have enjoyed Out of the Devil’s Mouth. I loved writing it and loved the characters. I planned a trilogy at least, but a follow-up never came. As I began to start thinking of ideas for book #2 that was due to Moody Publishers in January of 2008, they decided to cancel the remaining book in the contract. Henry Wolfe would remain a one-book wonder.
My Thoughts:
I hope that someday down the road I can tell some more Henry Wolfe adventures. From a branding standpoint, it doesn’t fit what I’m doing now, so it makes sense to let Henry go. But as I said, I had a lot of fun writing this. I never took it too seriously yet I still tried to tell an enjoyable story.
Labels: 15 Weeks Of Giveaways, Out Of The Devil's Mouth
