Parisian Phoenix Publishing

Last year, we released cosmic horror, Lovecraftian-with-hope novel Deadlights by Hugo Yelagin. He was in middle school when he started that novel. He published it at age 17.

I was 16 the summer I wrote “Vampire Bridge.”

And they say you should burn your first novel because it’s awful. I think, in many ways, I did “burn” this novel, but I’ve always saved it. I wrote it in two composition books— my English teacher Mrs. Herr probably gave them to me before summer vacation— for my cousin Amanda, who was eight at the time. There’s a massive scribble on the cover because the original title was Galen and Demetria. I have no recollection of who Demetria was.

Today, I plan to open these books, possibly for the first time in 25 years, and for the first time ever, share my baby-writer guts.

My goal this summer is to type this, but I am already unsure if I am going to laugh or cry after looking at the first 300 words.

Turns out, Demetria was the first version of Adelaide Pitney.

Here is the opening of that story (errors maintained):

(1)

It rained like water had been storing up for years on the day Demetria Ingemar, the far from average American girl, arrived in the small foreign town.

She knocked on the door of the friendly rooming house and welcomed the thought of drying out.

“Hello,” answered the short homely woman who came to the door.

“My name is Marcell Cummins,” lied Demetria.

“You have a room waiting.”

Demetria followed her into a corridor that lead to a sleeping chamber.

“Thank you,” smiled Demetria.

Rest never came to her in that night. Once the sun set, she shined brighter than any star.

She slipped under the covers and waited for the visitor who greeted the travelers who were still dumb enough to come here…

A reminder that all of my books and ebooks are available all-the-places and on Amazon.com. Find my Amazon page here. My novels are all available in KindleUnlimited.

This is an amazing story of how death impacts the relationships of the living. It’s a ghost story, with some magic, some heroism, and a werewolf.