Greetings From The Sunshine State

Hey guys, just a short message this  month touting my new upcoming ADULT and YOUNG ADULT novel. Yet, I suppose, Monsters In The Woods isn’t exactly a new project, right? It’s been a long time coming at just under four-years because of circumstances out of my control. As most of you may recall, a few years back I spent a week wandering the familiar home for children. You see, when orphaned by my mother Harriet “Tish” Smith in 1973, I grew up on the streets of Times Square until New York Child Services snatched me up from a street-corner and ferried me off to what was then called The McQuade Foundation for Boys.  I ran away numerous times looking for my birth-mother,. Thankfully, a houseparent, the late Clifford Webb, finally got me to stop looking. “She is long gone” he said hugging me tight, “we’re your family now.” Finally calming down, and dealing with my circumstances, I spent a few years at McQuade from there from the ages of 12 to 15. When I visited the old McQuade Foundation Campus, I knew it had been bought and run by an organization dubbed Saint Christopher’s Inc. Growing up  in the small Hudson Valley village of New Windsor, New York, life was certainly much different. Roller Rinks and Drive In Theater’s were the shit at the time and my friends and I spent a lot of time at both. Remember, the modern cellphone, iPhone and others were not invented yet. The personal computer or MacBook  wouldn’t be imagined by Founders Steve Jobs and Steve Wozniak until they created Apple Computer on April 1, 1976, the 200th anniversary our country’s independence from the British in 1776.

Back then, our country was suffering through The 1973 oil crisis that began in October 1973 when the members of the Organization of Arab Petroleum Exporting Countries proclaimed an oil embargo. It was targeted at nations at countries supporting Israel during the Yom Kippur War. The initial nations targeted were Canada, Japan, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States and later extended to Portugal, Rhodesia and South Africa. By the end of the embargo in March 1974, the price of oil had risen from US$3 per barrel to nearly $12 globally; US prices were significantly higher. The embargo caused an oil crisis that left our countrymen standing in mile long lines for rationed oil.

I remember all that. So, I wanted to imagine a novel that took place at The McQuade Foundation for Boys. With a simple idea of creatures from outer space invading the Earth and devouring humanity, I outlined in my head a pretty twisted manuscript with Reptilian extraterrestrials, Grey aliens and Giants fighting for control of our planet. The story would be epic, in the vein of Harry Potter but absolutely nothing like it. Below is a FREE PDF copy of the manuscript, this is an exclusive for my fans. Enjoy!

MONSTERS FINAL JULY 2017

Added by the author: March 18th, 2018