Continued from the Make Your home COLLINWOOD!!! thread....


DARK SHADOWS: THE LABYRINTH OF SOULS
Outtake #2

The cold dawn of a new day found Julia Hoffman already out of bed, dressed, and hard at work on her research of the venom in Carolyn's blood. In the last 24 hours, she had discovered no new properties, isolated no unusual compounds, observed no variation in fresh samples, or otherwise made any more headway than she had on the first night. She felt thoroughly frustrated and very nearly defeated.

She was about to mount another specimen on the stage of the microscope when the phone rang. Her heart skipped a beat. Not again, she thought.

"Hello?" she whispered.

"Hello, Julia," came a soft, half-familiar feminine voice. "I have to tell you.... Carolyn is simply not suitable for Quentin. No one is suitable for Quentin."

"Except for you, don't you mean?"

"Exactly."

"Do you know what you are?" Julia snapped.

"Full of shit?"

"Absolutely right."

"Ah."

"Do not call here again," Julia said sternly, clenching one fist in anger. "If you do, I will turn you over to Sheriff Patterson and then you'll only get one phone call. I doubt you will wish to waste it on me."

"Don't bet on it, Julia."

"I'm going to say good-bye now. Remember my advice."

There was a round of muted giggling, a click, and then the line went dead. Julia gently placed the receiver back on its cradle, wondering why this mysterious caller--and her giggling friend--continued to plague her. The caller seemed to know too much about her--and the whole Collins family.

Perhaps the strange, deluded woman simply watched too much television.

End of Outtake #2

[shadow=maroon,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

Depressed about not being able to go to the fest this year, I spent most of the weekend writing a new chapter of DARK SHADOWS: THE LABYRINTH OF SOULS. So, okay, I had fun. And though I'm not making any money off this, it was a lot cheaper than flying to Anaheim and staying at a hotel. On the other hand, I didn't get to hang out with any stars.

D A N G I T !
and all that.

So you lucky people coming back from the fest have more DS to occupy your time, if you're so inclined. I imagine some of you might not have even read the previous chapter(s) yet, since I managed to zap them out pretty quickly, one after the other. So here's the links to the three most recent:

NEW: Chapter Six http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/labyrinth06.htm

Chapter Five http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/labyrinth05.htm

Chapter Four http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/labyrinth04.htm

Well, I hope you find these entertaining. HarperCollins don't know what they missin...  

[shadow=purple,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

Bad, evil, wicked DS fans! Yes, gracious... due to your overwhelming support, I have found myself unable to avoid writing another chapter in Labyrinth of Souls. I've got a couple of projects with my agent that I'm waiting to hear back on, and another possibility down the pike... so in the interim, thinks I, what better way to keep the writing going than with a bit more DS?

So, to punish you people for your impertinence, I have posted CHAPTER 4 at:

http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/labyrinth04.htm

Take that! And that!

[shadow=purple,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

Well, since it looks like most folks are enjoying it, I'm going to go ahead and post the final complete chapter of DARK SHADOWS: THE LABYRINTH OF SOULS. This is as far as the actual writing progressed. I do have a detailed outline, complete with chapter breaks and some dialogue, that covers about the next third of the book; beyond that, there are only scant notes. If I have a chance, I may condense these into a readable synopsis and make it available to anyone who specifically requests it. I will not, however, give away the ending.

A HUGE thank-you to everyone who has taken the time to post comments here. It would be great if something should happen with the series one day and the book actually come to fruition. However, realistically, I don't think we can count on it.

I don't know if anyone picked up on it, but I've posted the title of the book here as The Labyrinth of Souls, while on the manuscript itself, it's titled The Labyrinth of Dreams. The latter more accurately represents the storyline, I think, but since dreams was used in our first title, I didn't particularly want to repeat it.

So, without further ado.... Here's the third chapter. Enjoy.

http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/labyrinth03.htm

[shadow=maroon,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

Ok, I'm gonna put something up for those of you who enjoyed DREAMS OF THE DARK and anything else of mine you were gracious enough to read.

Back when the future of the novel series had not been dashed by HarperCollins, I came up with a proposal for a new DS novel titled THE LABYRINTH OF DREAMS, with the possibility that Beth Massie would again co-write it. I composed a partial outline and actually wrote the first three chapters. Now that the chances of future books are slim, this thing's sitting here without a home.

So, what I'll do is post the first chapter for a couple of weeks, the second chapter after that, and finally the third. It'll leave you hanging, of course, but I might be willing to clue anyone who's interested to the possible ending by way of the original outline.

I'm not advertising this site anywhere else and would appreciate it if others don't either. But you're free to read and enjoy it -- or not, whichever is appropriate. Any comments are welcome -- positive or negative. Don't worry, I'm a writer, and I've been trashed by the best and the worst of them. Never be bashful about speaking your mind.

If you don't like it, I promise I won't hurt you much.

So, here ya go....

http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/labyrinth01.htm

[shadow=red,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

Hi peoples,

I have at long last completed my newest novel, BLUE DEVIL ISLAND, and I'm currently composing the marketing pitch (ugg) to send to my agent along with the manuscript.

No vampires in this one; more like Leviathans who are actually scary.  For anyone who's interested, I've put up a sample chapter on my Web site, and yer welcome to read it at yer leisure. Get it here:

http://home.triad.rr.com/smrainey/BDIChap4.htm

Note: This particular chapter is not scary. But there may be more samples to come that get creepier. Enjoy.

[shadow=red,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

I noticed at the end of the CBS Evening News with Dan Rather that one of the producers is Bob Rooney.

There you have it for yourself. With a bit of initiative and hard work, even a beleaguered small-town bartender can find his niche in broadcast news.

Wonder if he's related to Andy...



[shadow=orange,left,300]--Mark[/shadow]

I happened upon an entertaining factoid; some of you may know it, but I didn't. Remember the old show Love, American Style? Yes, that one.

Whine-queen Kathy Cody (credited as Kathleen) was in an episode; even got her face in the opening credit heart.

Picture here:

http://www.gynoid.com/las/las-ontape.htm (Scroll about halfway down the page.)

She was paired with Davey Jones, of all people. And here I thought Marcia Brady had dibs on the poor chap.

--Mark