Trent Kinsey, Something Strange To Blame

Dear Reader,

Let me thank Kayden for letting me run rampant in her blog for the next three days. Not everyone is brave enough to let me play freely in their yard. But I'll be good and leave her the same way I found it, promise.

For the next three days I will be talking about my releases with Moongypsy Press, all of which have some paranormal aspect to them. But I wanted to do something different than just posting blurbs and excerpts...I wanted to give you all a little bit more about my tales of horror and romance.

With that said, I'd like to tell you about some of the weird occurrences that surrounded the writing of my first Moongypsy Press release, Who's to Blame.

I wrote Who's to Blame almost immediately after I sold 10:15 to Eternal Press around this time last year. I had become so excited about becoming a fiction author (I used to be a journalist). I wanted to jump right back into writing and the idea hit me, and my muse wouldn't let me stop until it was complete. I finished Who's to Blame over one weekend and began the edits before submission.

Who's to Blame is a story about a viral outbreak that leaves everyone in an aggressive, zombie-like state. Within five days of writing the story, H1N1 hit the news. The first occurrence. What's really strange about this occurrence is that there was a town mentioned in my story, outside of Twenty-nine Palms, California. I chose this town because I am a Marine and know of the town, and it seemed like a good opening setting. Not long after the outbreak of H1N1, a story aired about how the specific strain of flu made it to that same town.

It took close to 45 days for my first rejection of Who's to Blame. It was upsetting considering it was my first rejection as a fiction writer. But as with all of us in the game, I picked up the manuscript, looked it over and then revised it before submitting again.

This time I changed something small about how the President looked when giving the address to the nation about the outbreak. I had mentioned that he looked as if he were suffering from the same disease as Michael Jackson. I did it to emphasize how white he looked with dealing with such a catastrophic outbreak. Again, not long after submitting the manuscript to another press and while waiting for it to be rejected yet again, Michael Jackson died. The second occurrence. And I promise I'm not trying to poke fun of the late King of Pop.

I told my friend, Imari Jade, that if Who's to Blame got rejected again, I would not revise it because it seemed that each time I picked up the pen to this particular story, people got hurt. And to this day, I have yet to see the President bite a chunk out of the CDC director's neck! Yes that happens in the story too, but of all the things that could happen, is that too much to ask? For those of you that don't know me well, the previous statement is a joke.

So there you have it friends. A couple of strange occurrences that happened when writing a strange story. Hope you enjoyed and hope to see you tomorrow when I talk about The Book of Absolute Truths!

Trent Kinsey

http://www.trentkinsey.com

http://www.moongypsypress.com/kinsey.php

http://www.trentkinsey.com/books/blame/blame.php