As I'm currently still working on edits, not much else has happened that's worth noting. The day job's the day job, and we're hitting our cyclical slow season (Spring is always slow in our business). So things have been relatively chill but also are starting to drag. Once Mother's Day hits, things will begin to pick up and will ramp up from that point on as we hurtle toward the holidays.
In the meantime, I was able to put together the blurb for Compline. As always, keep in mind that this can still be tweaked the closer I get to finishing edits on the book. I've never scrapped a blurb entirely before, but I almost always change a few things as time passes.
So, anyway, this is it:
In a quiet corner of Prussia, late night peals of a ghostly bell summon select victims to a gruesome and otherworldly death. It’s a dark event that’s haunted the land for five centuries, and the truth behind it is made all the more elusive with superstition shrouding its history.
Lukas Geiger assists his uncle, a country doctor, and will do everything he can to unravel this mystery. It proves to be difficult, however, with doors being shut in his face while many young patients exhibit signs of physical abuse and neglect, and their tormentors succumb to the spectral bell’s calls. Surviving adults simply refuse to speak and leave their doctors frustrated and helpless.
Herrick Shriver returns to his birth country after finishing his studies in England, reuniting with the beloved uncle who helped raise him. Wide-eyed hope, however, crosses paths with dark secrets that refuse to stay silent. A strange bell tolls, and the night feels wrong. A silent figure stands on the moonlit drive, watching the manor house. Occasional nightmares about a long-dead friend trouble his uncle—as well as the doctors who look after him, one of whom catches and holds Herrick’s attention.
As their paths converge, Lukas and Herrick quickly learn that the truth lies in a long-abandoned church and its eerie collection of statues. That every step toward discovery is guided by a faded journal once owned by a nameless priest. That past and present might be more hopelessly entangled than they believed.
Set in an AU 19th century Prussia, Compline is a gothic reimagining of “The Pied Piper of Hamelin”.
My blurbs tend to max out at around 250 words though I've gone past that before. Seriously, when writers complain about how much harder it is to distill their novel-length fiction into a handful of words, believe their pain. No matter how many books I've written and published, the torture stays the same. It SUCKS.
EDIT: The blurb's word count has been updated to 265 because I can't shut up. This version is now closer to the final one.