The Story of the Rooster Story

I put my first book up for sale in 2015.  As I wrote the thing, I had a bunch of ideas about the story that would work in a sequel, so I wrote one.  After that, I had no plans for a third.  I thought I sucked enough marrow out of that bone, and I wanted to do something else.  My wife Amy and I were talking one night and she kidded that she wished I would write the kind of stuff she liked to read.  She likes thrillers and mysteries. She has zero interest I both science fiction and time travel.  I basically told her “tough titties”.

But we talked off and on when I was looking for ideas and we had a love of vengeance movies in common.  Somewhere in there, we fell upon an idea of the aged hitman story. It’s been done, but the twist would be that the guy’s dying wife would be the one to get him started in the business. The job would serve as a way to grieve and keep his wife’s vengeful spirit alive.   Killing bad guys, evil assholes that escaped justice, etc.  And that was it.  I wrote up a chapter or two in 2016.  I even brought it to read at a writing workshop with a bunch of other weirdos and tried it out.

But I couldn’t get any traction with the story.  So, I wrote Part 3 of my time travel series.

After that, I played with it again.  Failed.  Again.  Later I tried it by adding a sci-fi element.  I got 40,000 words. Stopped.  Deadsville.  I put out a few other things, but I spent at least a full year of the last six trying to put it together.  But I failed.  Four times.

Then, 2020 came and it sucked for humanity.  I wrote to keep busy and put together a novella-sized story that was fun to knock out.  Only 150 pages opposed to 270 or so.  E-book writers can do whatever they want.  They can make a series of tinier books and put one out every other month.  That was it.  That’s how I would do the hitman stuff, or as we called it, the “Rooster” story.

I could make a series of adventures and knock them all out in a year or so.  Before my novella thing was done, I already started making notes.  By the holiday season, I had a draft.  I had some characters developed, some lore, some humor, a cliffhanger ending.  Good stuff.

Amy didn’t like it.

Well, tough titties.  I liked it. 

I had a cover and was playing with series titles.  I would get all the Rooster stuff out in 2021 and then I would start fresh with a new idea.

Then I saw two words online: “Billy Summers.” 

An obscure, lesser-known author named Stephen King announced a book coming out in August 2021.  From the Amazon description: “Billy Summers is a man in a room with a gun. He’s a killer for hire and the best in the business. But he’ll do the job only if the target is a truly bad guy. And now Billy wants out. But first there is one last hit. Billy is among the best snipers in the world, a decorated Iraq war vet, a Houdini when it comes to vanishing after the job is done. So what could possibly go wrong?”

Dear reader, this is my fucking story.  Subtract the Iraq war vet detail and that’s Rooster.  I know, I know, it doesn’t really matter.  He’ll have one million readers and I’ll have less than four.  It could be a movie, and HBO show or a series in and of itself.  It shouldn’t matter at all.  But it does.  How does this sound:

“Wanna read my book?  It’s about a guy that goes crazy in a hotel and tries to kill his family.  No, it’s not The Shining.  My guy is a painter and it’s a B & B in Michigan.”

Or:

“Wanna read my book? It’s about a possessed Honda Civic that comes to life and kills out of jealousy for its owner.  That’s not Christine!  Her name is Stephanie!”

It just sucked the life right out of the project.  The wind is out of the sails.  Shit happens like that.  But something about Rooster still itches my brain.  I’m am 100% positive I am moving on to something else, but maybe Rooster will come back in some form.  A side character folded into a sci-fi story sounds interesting. Space Rooster, perhaps?

Either way, Amy won’t read it. 

However, the project known as “Call Me Rooster” was completed.  I’m not putting it up for sale but you can get it through my site in a PDF if you like.  Read, enjoy, imagine what could have been. 

As for me, 2021 is for reading, some blogging, and taking notes for the next novel, whatever that is.

I will also be skipping the next King book.