Unlike his book, which is about bad luck, a local author may have some good luck in publishing his first novel.
Don’t open your umbrella indoors. The penalty could be death five minutes later.
That’s the premise behind “Superstition,” which Broadway author James Blakey describes as “a fun, twisty, puzzling, whodunit.”
The book was released in September, and since then, Blakey has been promoting it at various locations. The book is available at Parentheses Books, just north of downtown Harrisonburg, at Winchester Book Gallery, and on Amazon, where it peaked at No.1 in the horror comedy category.
In the book, with a hint of the supernatural, superstitions are being broken on a college campus, and the punishment is death or severe injury. Not to mention other injuries being caused by more mundane acts of stupidity, such as driving while drunk in a heavy downpour.
“Students are dying. An intrepid college newspaper reporter makes the connection and tries to uncover the truth. His editor doesn’t want him to follow up. The college doesn’t want him to make a panic. But he’s determined to uncover the truth and protect the student body,” Blakey said.
The book is fast-paced and funny. Not an outright comedy, but there are some funny bits in there, he said. He said there is also a bit of nostalgia because the story has a 1980s or 1990s vibe, although it’s set in the present day.
This is his first novel, although he has about 50 short stories published, dating back to 2011. These are in various genres, including “The Case of the Vanishing Unicorns.” Blakey describes it as “a Western fantasy mystery mashup.”
“It’s kind of like a mini-Agatha Christie,” he said of the story.
Blakey started on “Superstition” in 2017 and finished it in November 2022. During that time, he worked on other stories.
“I grew bored with my existing hobbies and wanted to get a new hobby. So I started writing seriously,” Blakey said.
Blakey has been writing for a long time. He said he may have had some floppy disks from his Apple II computer in high school.
Before his writing career, he was the “world’s foremost authority on professional cheerleaders.” He was even allowed on the field at NFL games as part of his job.
This comes up in the book. Some of the characters are cheerleaders at the fictional Martin Van Buren University in upstate New York.
Blakey described the writing process.
“I started with an idea — bad luck is killing students,” he said. “Slowly, it came together. It was going to be at a college, and I came up with my protagonist.”
Blakey also worked with a critique group, which made suggestions. By November of 2022, he began sending out queries. The problem was he wasn’t sure if it was a fantasy or horror novel. He also queried small presses, which don’t require an agent.
These steps also provided additional input, and that made him go back and rewrite some parts of the book. There were other exciting bits of feedback. Originally, Blakey wanted Jerry, his reporter protagonist and his cheerleader companion, in her cheerleader uniform, to appear on the front cover, surrounded by signs of bad luck. But the publisher said no.
“People will think it’s a young adult book, and it’s not young adult,” Blakey recalled.
Instead, they went with his other idea — a cracked mirror and a black cat with a collar emblazoned with the number 13. Blakey said this had to go through more than one attempt because the cat looked too cute for a book in which people die.
Finally, everyone involved got it together, and Blakey liked the result.
He also worked with an editor, who handled other aspects of the book. Some of it was minor stuff, like copy editing, while others were higher level. There were point-of-view issues, such as the story being inside Jerry’s head and suddenly moving into someone else’s head without any transition.
Finally, the book was ready in September of this year. He’s been pounding the pavement ever since, talking up the book. This Saturday, he will share a table with fantasy author A.K. Lang from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at the Hanover Book Expo in Mechanicsville, while on Dec. 4, he will be at the Laurel Ridge Holiday Book Fair from 4:30 to 7 p.m. in Middletown.
On top of that, in addition to his work, he now runs a writers’ group of his own— actually, three of them — in Harrisonburg, Edinburg and Charlottesville.
Shortly after he moved to the area — just as the pandemic was lifting — he began going to the writers’ group in Charlottesville because there was nothing in Harrisonburg. He set up a meeting group over Zoom, but that attracted writers as far away as Florida. Eventually, he went live.
“And then slowly, it came around. In late 2022, we started getting consistent people. Now we have 10 to 12 people pretty consistently,” he said.
The Harrisonburg group meets every month on the first and third Thursday at 6:30 p.m., either at the central branch of the Massanutten Regional Library or at Panera Bread. The last three meetings of this year will all be at the library.
The format is each author submits a work in advance, and the members do their homework. At the event, the idea is to provide constructive criticism “that makes strong writing even stronger,” Blakey said.
People need to attend two meetings before they are eligible to submit their work as a way for them to get a feel for the format.
The Charlottesville group is similar and meets every other Tuesday at the library. The Shenandoah County group meets at the Edinburg library on the fourth Thursday.
The Harrisonburg meeting gets writers working on novels more than the other groups. With very few exceptions, these groups attract people who are inclined to be supportive and help other writers along.
One of the things that makes the group work is it provides a framework for people to sit down and write — one of the bugbears for most writers. Once people are told that they have two weeks to turn in 2,000 or 4,000 words, depending on the group, they tend to do precisely that.
“It becomes kind of a snowball effect. They’re writing, and they’re excited about writing, and it’s infectious. Their enthusiasm is infectious, and other people write. So I think that’s a strong point,” he said.
Also, people who attend are exposed to a variety of genres. People writing fantasies might get a look at the bare bones of writing a mystery.
Another thing about the writers’ group is people are more likely to get honest feedback from people who know and care about the craft. Even if your friends mean well, getting knowledgeable information from friends or family isn’t easy.
And the people providing the feedback genuinely care.
“We’re not being critical of the author; we’re being critical of the work. There’s no real hesitation on the part of the critiquers. They’re trying to be helpful. They’re appreciative of the help they got, and they’re trying to be helpful back.”
Right now, Blakey is working on a new project — a sequel to “Superstition,” in which some of the characters will return, and a sequel to another project, “Charlottesville Fantastic,” called “Shenandoah Valley Fantastic.” This will feature short stories by contributing authors in the Shenandoah Valley. Each submitted story must take place in the Shenandoah Valley and contain at least one speculative element — fantasy, sci-fi, or horror. Submissions must be 1,800 to 5,500 words. The contest will open Feb. 1.
This post was originally published on here
