Book Two
Like many sequels, if not most, in the minds of several readers it does not quite measure up. There are several reasons, I think, that that is true. First of all, while it purports to be a "horror" novel, it is not. I have found over the years that those who love horror do not like much, if any, humor intermixed with their horror. AUTUMN SAGA has its tongue stuck most firmly in its cheek. And that is blaphemy in the minds of many pure horror fans.
Secondly, and possibly even more significantly, it never pays off the reader's diligence with an out and out bloodbath at the end. This writer has never been a fan of disemboweling, evisceration, nor cannibalism. I took a step back from that corpuscular precipice and offered a creative alternative instead. Besides continuing to utilize the present tense to tell my stories, that may certainly have been the final stroke which cost me a few more of the readers I already had (though the numbers of RAoF books that sold dropped off significantly after book one, so I probably did not engage enough readers in the series to begin with). But those readers whom I did retain remained loyal throughout the entire series. So, as a writer you count your blessings, even when limited, and keep writing.
What also, unfortunately, has happened to my series is that with an extremely limited advertising budget, I could not get the word out far and wide, or even near and narrow. Even major gay publications are certainly not going to devote precious magazine or newspaper space to a humble series such as mine. And, of course, after I began publishing in 1996, after so many unfortunate delays and disappointments in having a major publishing house such as St. Martin's Press reluctantly decline to publish volume one, the heretofore timely wave of gay publishing in general was beginning to significantly wane. Then, the Internet began to take a profound toll on most gay and independent bookstores all over the country. Even though I managed to get booksignings in several cities in the 1990's, the bookstores in most of those cities eventually closed. Then the publications that once featured reviews of gay-themed books also began to die off. This vicious economic circle of destruction cut a swathe through RAoF, along with almost everyone else.
Yet had I the knowledge back then of what was to come, I probably still would have continued to add to the RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE series, regardless of the adverse climate into which it was introduced. I had become close to my several main characters, and I was beginning to think of a number of different ways to challenge them and their increasing resources. RAoF was only just getting started.
AUTUMN SAGA remains a personal favorite, regardless of its mixed reception because I love the cover with the Pavilion in Cheesman Park, the unanticipated magic and witchcraft which underscores the plot, the further revelations involving the two main characters, and especially the horror villains of old: The Headless Horseman of Sleepy Hollow, the Wolfman, Dracula, the Invisible Man, Frankenstein, and King Kong, characters and creatures which terrified me as an impressionable child in the 50's. Now, of course, they all seem so quaint. And it was that sense of quaintness which infuses AUTUMN SAGA. Like the use of present tense, it may have been a mistake in the modern world to have attempted to employ charm instead of profuse blood letting; but, I suppose, in retrospect, I would not have done it any other way.
Think of this particular novel in the series as a failed experiment and move on. Forunately, like most volumes in the series, it's short: 149 pages of text, with short chapters. While one amazon.com critic complained that he was bored silly reading it, his particular boredom cannot have, mercifully, lasted too long.
I must also mention here who inspired me to write using short chapters: Armistead Maupin with his TALES OF THE CITY series of novels set in San Francisco from the late 70's through the present day (he has recently added to the series with MICHAEL TOLLIVER LIVES). If you have never read these delightful books, they are a divine treat and not to be missed. However, short, interconnected, cliff-hanger chapters are about all that our two series have in common. Do not tar Mr. Maupin, whom I have briefly met on a couple of occasions at Denver-area booksignings, with the same brush as I. His sweet, charming novels and mine have little else in common.
RAINBOW ARC OF FIRE: AUTUMN SAGA:
"...refreshingly light hearted. A welcome departure from most contemporary gay fiction...."
-Martin Garnar
Dayton Memorial Library
Regis University
Click here to buy this book from Amazon.com
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