The Disciples - Novel Excerpt

Dispatch #1

Time to rip the band-aid off.

I’m writing my first novel. And it will be out late Summer/early Fall this year. As any good marketer should, I will start teasing small excerpts throughout the coming month(s).

The desire with these excerpts isn’t to spoil anything but rather to bring you into the world I’ve endeavored over the last year and a half to create. I hope you enjoy reading these blurbs as much as I’ve enjoyed the process of writing them.

Synopsis and cover art:

Dispatch #1 — Emery, CA 1983

Josh turned quick in his seat and leaned in toward Miles with the twitching weight of some creature about to strike. Miles flinched. Glanced over. That same smile. All teeth and no light. Demonic. Grinning.

“When was the last time you were something other than a wandering, stupid spirit in the world?” Said the boy. “You don’t see what I’m doing for you, I’m giving you access to the feeling of being alive. The Comanche and the Huns and the Mongols and the Muslim conquerors took what they wanted. They wouldn’t recognize you as a man. They wouldn’t even recognize you as a slave. I’m creating something that has been dead inside the rotten human consciousness for millennia. Ever since we decided to farm wheat for kings. The higher animals act through subconscious spirit and instinct but man is broken. At the edge of being unfixable.

I lied. I don’t want to spend my life on a farm. My father thought I was useless. Pete thought I was useless. But one choice can unbreak you if you’re willing to listen to instinct. It’s the only way to live. The only way. And I realize it now even though I knew it for so long. Because I acted. And I’m teaching you first because you’re at the farthest end of the curve. Nobody thinks you can be anything other than what you are. You’ve done things so horrible you can’t even remember. Your whole life is a bad memory. I see straight through you. You’re spiritless. You don’t even know why I chose you. And now I’m bringing you back from the dead—and look—you’re already sweating. I’m bringing you back from the dead so you can smell the fresh air again. You will. If I can do this for you. I can do it for anyone.”

The boy cranked down the window and looked into the cavern of forest and shadow surrounding. Miles didn’t say anything for a long time. It grew cold and the car seemed to be running on a road that itself appeared random out of the void before them, laying its path in seconds before the wheels followed. A nameless dream. A choir of nothing and everything.

“You think that killing this boy will change the world?” He said.

“It's changed yours hasn’t it?”