Guest post by Barry Napier, winner of the Write a Dead Man Novella contest. Part horror and part action, the short novels in The Dead Man series follow Matt Cahill, an everyday man, as he battles people infected by a mysterious, violent evil.

If I’m being honest, I had only read one and a half Dead Man books before entering the contest. But that first book, Face of Evil, is a great kick-off for the series and gives a clear idea of where the series is headed.  A sucker for a good series (as both a reader and a writer), I drafted up my sample chapter, strung a synopsis together, and entered the Write A Dead Man Novel contest.

The concept of books that have the interconnectivity of a good drama TV show has always appealed to me, so needless to say, when I got a phone call delivering the staggering news that I had won the contest, I was floored.

I was stopped at a red light on a Thursday afternoon at a busy intersection with my family. As a mini-meltdown from my son in the back seat rose to a thundering level, my phone rings.

“Hello?”

 “Hi,” comes an unfamiliar voice on the other end. “This is Lee Goldberg and I’m calling to let you know that you’ve won the Write a Dead Man contest!”

I paused for a minute. My son kept screaming. With the look of shock on my face, I think my wife must have thought there was bad news on the other end.

“Oh, hi,” I said rather stupidly.

For the next thirty seconds, Lee went through some details, most of which I only caught fragments of.  Feeling like an idiot, I could hardly speak when he was done. The light turned green. A good thing, too; it’s likely the only thing that unfroze me from the amazing news that I had yet to digest.

Even now, as I tinker with a tentative outline, it hasn’t sunk in yet. There is something that I’m drawn to in the episodic layout of the Dead Man books. They have quick gut punch plot points that promise something much larger in scale while also delivering extensive character development and fresh ideas.

As I plan out this book, I am trying to not only respect and follow the mythology that has already been developed, but to build upon it with my own twists. I am honored to be a part of this great series and look forward to placing Matt Cahill in some uncomfortable situations.

Barry Napier is a humble servant to ambient music, coffee, and the horror genre. His past books include The Bleeding Room, The Masks of Our Fathers, and Everything Theory: Cold Compass. Read the first chapter of Barry Napier's Dead Man novella here.

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