It was somewhere around 15 years ago that my longtime chum Robert A. Brown started sending me letters, usually a page or so long, written with a manual typewriter on authentic 1930s air-mail stationery — and sent with real old air-mail stamps. Something like this might have been surprising coming from anyone else in my life, but I knew how much Robert delighted in reaching into the past, pulling out things that captivated him, and sharing them with others. He was, and is, one of a kind, a great man with a fascinating and unique angle of vision.
In the letters, Robert took on the persona of a writer for the the WPA Folklore Project, sent to the hills to collect stories from old-timers There, he finds himself neck-deep in mystery, murder, and, ultimately, a big nest of witches and their animal familiars.
It took me some time to realize that these letters could be the foundation for a book (which might have been Robert’s idea all along), and a damned scary one at that. It took us many more years to figure out how to do it, set aside the time to do it right, and hammer it out to each other’s satisfaction.
Now, finally, the first one’s done. Thanks to another great friend and fellow writer, Bill Bernhardt, SEVENTH SENSE has just been published by Bill’s Babylon Books. SEVENTH SENSE is the first volume in the trilogy, and I’m happy to say we’ve been getting some swell reviews on Amazon.
I’ll be launching SEVENTH SENSE on Wednesday, May 27, at Tulsa’s Magic City Books, 221 E. Archer Street. The event runs from 7 p.m. until 8:30 p.m. Of course, I’d love to see you there. If you can’t make it, though, please check it out online and/or consider ordering it from the store of your choice.
Thanks, Magic City. Thanks, Robert. Thanks, Bill B. And thank you all for reading — not just this blog or my new book, but anything.