Spring 2008

As of late, I’ve received more than a few emails, wondering, Is another book in the works? Are you writing? Are you alive? Yes, I’m alive and writing, and quite a lot has happened. So it’s time to break down the cobwebs, raise the shades, and let a little sunlight into these dusty digs.

In September of 2005, while on book tour for LOCKED DOORS in the funky town of Bisbee, Arizona, I was struck with an idea that has possessed me ever since—a big, risky book that would be a new direction for me as a writer, a story that demanded to be written NOW.

And last month, on Valentine’s Day, I accepted an offer from St. Martin’s Press for this novel, ABANDON. Here's the rundown:

* * * *

One place.
Two stories.
One hundred thirteen years apart.

Abandon, Colorado
Elev. 11,039 feet
Pop. 123

The year is 1893, and the residents of this remote mining town perched high in the Rockies stand on the brink of becoming the last great mystery of these mountains. On Christmas Day, every man, woman, and child will disappear, belongings forsaken, meals left to freeze in vacant cabins. Not a single bone will be found.

Abandon, Colorado
Elev. 11,039 feet
Pop. 0

The year is 2006, and two backcountry guides lead a history professor, a journalist, a psychic, and a paranormal photographer deep into the Colorado wilderness to the distant ruins of Abandon. Ostensibly, they’ve come to shoot the ghost town and see what they can learn of the mass disappearance more than a century ago. But some have ulterior motives, and they are all on the verge of discovering that twenty miles from civilization, with a blizzard bearing down, they are not alone in the ghost town of Abandon, and the past is very much alive.

* * * *

Publication is tentatively slated for spring of next year, and for those of you who’ve asked about SNOWBOUND, it will actually follow ABANDON, and I’ll talk more about that later.

But rest assured, there is much, much more to come—a new website, excerpts, contests, short story news, so for now I’ll leave you with a YouTube link:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vk3bsapzlmc

The film club at the local college here in Durango, with Preston Benson at the helm, undertook the making of a video trailer for ABANDON, shot on location at a ghost town high in the San Juans. Take a peek, and I promise not to let two years slip by again without contact. For all of you who’ve emailed and I’ve not gotten back to you, I apologize and you’ll hear from me shortly. But having practically lived in a cave the last two years working on these books, I’m just now rejoining the ranks of the living (accompanied by a nasty flu).

As always, thanks for reading, and for your patience.

Blake