Review by GhostWriteHer.com

Tormenta (S. Bond Herndon)

A Review by Carla Ives (http://ghostwriteher.com)

Able Dawes needs a fix.  He needs it bad.  There’s a storm coming, a big one.  The fog is rolling in.  The winds are howling.  Able Dawes is in a fix, but he can’t see past the need of his addiction. . . yet.

I was provided with my copy of Tormenta by the author, S. Bond Herndon, and would like to express my sincere thanks to him for the opportunity to review it.

It’s September 2005 and Galveston Island is still reeling from the horror of what Hurricane Katrina inflicted on New Orleans only a month before.  Now Hurricane Rita is headed straight at them and it doesn’t take much of anyone’s imagination to know what’s coming. 

Able Dawes is beside himself.  A young junkie in desperate need, he ventures out into the storm thinking only of his next rush and how to get it.  He needs it.  His girlfriend needs it.  There’s a storm coming.  So what?  Storms have come and gone in his young life.  He’ll ride this one out, too.

Something’s different about tonight, though.   He feels it.  Every fiber of his being senses it.  He can’t explain it, so he just keeps walking.   There’s that horse-drawn wagon he’s never seen before.  He’s lived here all his life.  It’s a small place.  How did he miss it all these years?  And then there’s all those people  he doesn’t quite recognize asking, “You’re that Dawes kid, right?”  Running just under the radar for the mob all these years, he never knew he was all that visible.  And then there’s Spoons, an old bluesman, seemingly out of place and time on this night, who begins to spin a fascinating but macabre tale.    At first, Able listens politely.  It helps him keep his head on straight until he can hook up.  He listens to Spoons as the Dawes family springs vividly to life through the old man.   But Able’s adopted and he knows it.  What does he care what happened to the ancestors of his now last name?  

Able knows he’s in bad trouble, strung out like he’s never been strung out before.  He strikes out, once again, for the familiar house of his supplier.  Relief floods over him when he sees the familiar mailbox.  Or is it?  And still there is Spoons, telling more and more of the strange and frightening Dawes family history.  

Now Able’s really shook.  He can’t negotiate the storm.  He can’t get what he needs.  He can’t do much of anything except listen to Spoons.  And then Beau Dawes, his adoptive father and mentor, the only person to ever give a damn about him on this earth, albeit mean as a snake. . . is standing in front of him.  There’s just one small problem.  Beau’s been dead awhile.  

In Tormenta, S. Bond Herndon recreates the Victorian world of Galveston Island, Texas at the turn of the 20^th century.   Skillfully meshing the old world with the new, he recounts one family’s history and its relation to the devastating flood of 1900, eerily weaving  it together with a warp thread of voodoo.  The characters are engaging.  It’s a fast-moving story and a fast read as the story inexorably draws you to its conclusion, much as the characters are drawn to the seawall by the flood waters.  The language is appropriate but rough at times.  However, if you like your history blended with horror, Tormenta  is the perfect read for you.

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The Early Returns...

So far, the reports are good.  Those who’ve already gotten a copy are reading, enjoying, commenting.  I hope everyone feels free to do that.  Besides, I appreciate the feedback.

Mostly, I just enjoy seeing someone read something with my name on it.  Go figure…

More to come,

S

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Posters, reviews & promotion…

Moving right along, we’ve gotten a couple of versions of the promo posters that are going out to bookstores here in the area.  One version has a color sat image with hurricane Rita bearing down on Texas, while the other is in black and white. 

Also, the fantastic London Fashionista Vicki Day reviewed "Tormenta" on her blog , which receives over 9k hits a day.  Of course she is raving about it.  Vicki sat in while I was composing the story on my site, and followed along on the daily, sometimes twice a day entrees as this dark tale poured out of yours truly.  Here’s hoping that all of her considerable contacts across the pond can sway buyers over this way (Hello, New York?)

I’ve no clue what the publisher is planning for promotion; I’ve not met with or spoken to my BA about all that.  However, we’re moving right along with our own brand of spreading the word.  The big task at hand now is getting word around the regional area and I’m pretty sure that’s where most of the work will begin.  No one is talking about NOT going national, or international, should things swell to such ranks.  However, the goal was to achieve 50k readers (people who bought and read a copy) in the greater areas of Houston/Galveston, Dallas/Fort Worth, Austin/Waco and San Antonio.  With demographics of around 20 million in those areas alone, and with a story based and set in Texas, the rest ‘should’ be quite natural—so long as people know it’s out there…

Of course, all my old gang out in the Carolinas, Georgia and Florida are ordering like mad and I’ll be pretty busy the next few days signing copies to send back out to all of you—thanks for those orders, by the way.  I’ll have to set up a signing out there, probably in February, but it’s still too early to set up dates yet.  There’s no telling what this little story will do, but I’m hoping for the best anyhow.

More to come…

S

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Start the presses...

Happenstance and good luck put my first of two days off the day job with my final proofs.  I held my breath and opened the file, read a few breathless lines and smiled as I exhaled.  Finally, I see what my work looks like after a good editor has finished with it.  The feeling of seeing your words and thoughts come together in tight format is like nothing else, for me. 

Some folks like to jump off of bridges while shackled to rubber bands or strapped to parachutes.  I send in work that I hope will come back looking like this…

Sure, we had a few (eleven) small corrections to make as we dusted off the finished product.  But that is exactly what we now have: Tormenta, as a work of American Fiction is headed for print production.

It won’t be long now, gang…

S

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Final stages of Tormenta: The Cover Art

Tormenta's wrapper, just click to view larger image

Last night we got this nice surprise in our Book email.  For all of you who’ve wondered how this whole process works, here is one more step in the evolution.  I’m tickled that so many of you have been able to follow along from rough draft to this point. 

We are very pleased with the work the Publisher has done so far, very professional in all respects.  They are getting review copies out to those sources that have requested them, newspapers, book clubs, etc. 

As you can see, the cover art is pretty slick.  I really like the font used on the back copy ‘blurb’ that describes the story within.  Hopefully, that blurb is enough for the casual shopper to pick up, look at and make a decision to hold on to it all the way to the check out aisle.

We opted out of a picture of yours truly on the back, although we are going to update the web/blog/site with a B&W head shot that helps suit the darker mood of this work.  But, I like those corpses! 

Anyhow, let me know what you all think of the cover, even though none of us can do a damn thing about it now…

More to come!

S

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This is really happening

Tormenta, as many of you know, was not my first publishing rodeo.  The Fabulous Feathermaye and I co-authored a book that came out in 2004.  When we got that little deal, we were utterly tickled to be going into print.  It is also when we began to learn about the publishing process, both what it was, and what it has now become.

Our first little book got a few good reviews, but the editing was so horrible that it was embarrassing to have anybody read it.  Common sense told us to let it die, and we did, regrouping and continuing on with new work while trying to claw our way back into a publisher’s door, one that isn’t an “Author-mill” that only wants new authors with a memoir to sell to their family and friends; those guys were churning them out like confetti and we simply had to wait out our contract’s seven year period (that ends next year) just to get the rights back away from those…people.

I’m not sure what’s tougher: learning to write a good story that stands up to scrutiny (especially if you’re a dyslexic who can’t spell), or figuring out how to bang our way into the market place.  I started out nearly twenty years ago, long before email and electronic submissions were accepted.  Back then, you had to write a book, have it printed out down at the local printer, then use good ole snail mail to send it in.  Since no one knew who I was, I’m quite sure most of those went on top of the proverbial slush pile, some may still be gathering mold somewhere in New York.  Who knows?  Like darts on a map, I was just hoping for some luck.  No dice…

As this new age of publishing came to life, the big houses began to pull back, most not even accepting cold submissions any more, no more editors sending back my work with handy corrective notes or suggestions (in red ink, of course), or worse, those rejection letters that generally say: ‘Thanks, but you don’t fit what we’re looking for these days…’ ad nauseam.  

Another door slammed, another door knocked on, another no-answer.   My friends, I have hundreds of those.  Each one now represents the start of more attempts at the great American novel, and inside each of those flawed attempts, grew the strands of something better, something that I had been looking to develop over all these long years: Style.

Just before we sent our first book off to the Author mill, we did get a call from a huge talent agency.  The main partner prides himself as ‘The Literary Lion’, and his agency’s body of work backs that up.  Feathermaye and I were still living in the Virgin Islands when I answered the phone one day…

“Hello, is this S. Bond Herndon?”

Understand, I had decided to use that pen name long before this phone call, but I’d never had anyone actually talk to me, much less address me by that name. 

“Um…yes, this is he.”

For three days and nights we thought we had won the goddamn lottery.  This guy and his round-table of experts had us pegged as a hot property!  I called a couple of buddies, just to sort of pinch myself about it all being real.  Then, the following Monday, of course it was a Monday, we were told by his secretary that they had decided to ‘go another way’.  Evidently, they had a big deal going with a book they had just sold at auction.  The book was about angels and that sort of thing.  I suppose they did not figure it best to back one book about angels and another about dark forces and New Age philosophy.  It was tough; the breath was punched from our sails.  But, when I decided to dedicate myself to this I told myself that I would not back away, no matter how tough it got.  I know an old Blues man who would just say: “That’s payin’ yo’ dues, boy…”

Maybe he’s right.

My new publisher is not Random House, Simon/Schuster or Putnam.  They're small, and they’ve been selective, for the most part; they certainly do not take on anybody with a few words written down on paper.  But, they seem to be doing things right, so far.  The Internet has opened up the world for writers and now we’re working together to simply spread the word without a few hundred thousand bucks to spend on an ad campaign. 

Thanks to all of you who’ve pre-ordered from the site.  I don’t mind signing several hundred copies at all… really…I don’t.  The publisher’s expectations have been blown away so far and we’re beginning to mix in advertising—look for those facebook and google ads!—lots of other promos as well as the possibility of a book launch party…something I had not even thought about.  My guess is it won’t be a black tie affair and we won’t even get a whiff of a New York style cocktail party, probably beer, in longnecks, at the local Ice House down the street.  That’s just Texas style, and we don’t mind that one bit—yeehaa!

More to come…

S

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