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| Deposit Photos |
My love of storytelling started in elementary school. Even from that young age, I gravitated to the dark, the mysterious and the unusual. Perhaps it was from my regular intake of Scooby Doo. Perhaps it was my parents open-armed embrace of the Halloween holiday. Whatever it was, it took root.
The first story I remember writing was about a haunted house with a pit of maggots, pretty dark stuff for a young child. I gravitated to horror because of the infinite possibilities, building worlds that didn’t necessarily abide by the same rules as the world we all live in. A place where my imagination could flourish. I wrote about monsters, mysteries, murder and mayhem.
By high school, I was churning out notebooks of dark poetry and
song lyrics, experimenting with language. Due to the dark nature of the writing, I raised a teacher’s eyebrow or two along the way; but honestly, I wasn’t a troubled kid. I picked up on their non-verbal cues. After assessing the situation, realizing I wasn’t a threat to myself or others, they encouraged my writing. I’m very grateful for that. They could’ve just as easily tried to dissuade me. I often wonder if in today’s climate, it might have been made into a bigger deal than it was, just a kid who liked writing dark stories.
I completed my first full-length novel around the age of twenty, and in the process, fell in love with the idea of ultimately becoming a novelist. I didn’t do anything with that first book. Only one person read it. But it didn’t feel like wasted effort. In writing, you take something away from every project, whether it be a success or failure. Though it was a deeply flawed novel, the success of that first project was knowing that I could take a book from start to finish, which lent me the confidence I would need years later to pursue writing another book and publishing.
I continued writing creatively throughout college and graduate school. My first real writing success was seeing a one-act play I had written open for four nights at the University of North Florida. That was a thrill like I had never felt, getting to see the impact my words and story had on a live audience.
The plan was always to be a novelist, but life happened. I started a
career, met my wonderful wife, and we started a family together.
It’s peculiar how life comes full circle sometimes. How reasons I told myself I didn’t write, became the primary reason I did again. It’s easy to push aside dreams when you’re raising children, excusing away procrastination. I don’t have enough time or I’ll get to it when the kids are older. Sometimes life gives you a little nudge, or in this case, my oldest son did.
While reading a Goosebumps novel with him, I mentioned that I had written a book, and how I loved to write. He paused, looked up at me with innocent eyes and asked, “Will you write me a book, Daddy?” He was completely naïve to what that ask entailed, but I agreed, and my writing journey began anew.
It took a couple of days to shake off the rust, but ten months later,
the first draft of my debut novel, The Tear Collector, was completed. It’s gone through quite a few revisions since that first draft, but right away, I felt I had something in this story. The novel blends mystery, suspense intrigue and horror and sets it at the pace of a thriller while weaving in a beautiful coming-of-age story. But I think its biggest strength of all is the characters. The dynamic between the boys, how they interact with one another and how relateable and authentic they are. It was hard to say goodbye to them, but as I’m now working on a sequel, I didn’t have to for long.
My goal was to write something similar to some of the stories I loved growing up, like a Goonies, though admittedly with a bit more horror. While The Tear Collector and Goonies are wildly different, I do think this story hits the mark on conjuring up the nostalgia I was aiming for. And it’s something that I think makes this novel appeal to younger generations as well as my own and beyond. It’s also why I’m not shocked, despite the story being substantially different, that Advance Readers have mentioned that it reminds them of Stephen King’s The Body, better known as its film adaptation, Stand by Me.
I couldn’t be more excited about my release on December 2, 2019. For me, it’s a fulfillment of a lifelong goal—publishing a novel—which I hope is the first of many to come. And I can’t wait to share this exciting story with readers.
Dreams can be an elusive thing, but I will always be grateful to my oldest son for setting me on a path of chasing my own and pursuing a career as a novelist. I’m currently working on the sequel to The Tear Collector and a standalone urban fantasy novel tentatively titled, Deity.
Shawn Burgess is a speculative fiction author, with a love for the
unusual, whether that be in his own writing, or in his reading of the works of others. He lives in Jacksonville, Florida, with his wife and two sons. You can connect with Shawn by clicking on the links below.
The first story I remember writing was about a haunted house with a pit of maggots, pretty dark stuff for a young child. I gravitated to horror because of the infinite possibilities, building worlds that didn’t necessarily abide by the same rules as the world we all live in. A place where my imagination could flourish. I wrote about monsters, mysteries, murder and mayhem.
By high school, I was churning out notebooks of dark poetry and
 |
| Deposit photos |
I completed my first full-length novel around the age of twenty, and in the process, fell in love with the idea of ultimately becoming a novelist. I didn’t do anything with that first book. Only one person read it. But it didn’t feel like wasted effort. In writing, you take something away from every project, whether it be a success or failure. Though it was a deeply flawed novel, the success of that first project was knowing that I could take a book from start to finish, which lent me the confidence I would need years later to pursue writing another book and publishing.
I continued writing creatively throughout college and graduate school. My first real writing success was seeing a one-act play I had written open for four nights at the University of North Florida. That was a thrill like I had never felt, getting to see the impact my words and story had on a live audience.
The plan was always to be a novelist, but life happened. I started a
It’s peculiar how life comes full circle sometimes. How reasons I told myself I didn’t write, became the primary reason I did again. It’s easy to push aside dreams when you’re raising children, excusing away procrastination. I don’t have enough time or I’ll get to it when the kids are older. Sometimes life gives you a little nudge, or in this case, my oldest son did.
While reading a Goosebumps novel with him, I mentioned that I had written a book, and how I loved to write. He paused, looked up at me with innocent eyes and asked, “Will you write me a book, Daddy?” He was completely naïve to what that ask entailed, but I agreed, and my writing journey began anew.
It took a couple of days to shake off the rust, but ten months later,
My goal was to write something similar to some of the stories I loved growing up, like a Goonies, though admittedly with a bit more horror. While The Tear Collector and Goonies are wildly different, I do think this story hits the mark on conjuring up the nostalgia I was aiming for. And it’s something that I think makes this novel appeal to younger generations as well as my own and beyond. It’s also why I’m not shocked, despite the story being substantially different, that Advance Readers have mentioned that it reminds them of Stephen King’s The Body, better known as its film adaptation, Stand by Me.
I couldn’t be more excited about my release on December 2, 2019. For me, it’s a fulfillment of a lifelong goal—publishing a novel—which I hope is the first of many to come. And I can’t wait to share this exciting story with readers.
Dreams can be an elusive thing, but I will always be grateful to my oldest son for setting me on a path of chasing my own and pursuing a career as a novelist. I’m currently working on the sequel to The Tear Collector and a standalone urban fantasy novel tentatively titled, Deity.
Shawn Burgess is a speculative fiction author, with a love for the
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| Shawn Burgess |
