“Well, that’s mostly true, and I know who and what you are and what your expertise is,” he picked his teeth with his fingernail, “But we’re not going to beat the Russians with rockets and Buck Rogers alone.  We need more.”  Then the President paused and looked away, as if suddenly saddened.  “We are going to lose Vietnam.  There is no way we can win.  What is worse is that it is only a matter of time before they will be in France, Saudi Arabia and even California for all I know.  We need more than troops and firepower too.  We need something else, and your job is to provide that something else no matter what the cost.”

“What exactly are you asking me to do, Mr. President?”

“I want you to work at militarizing wildlife . . .”

From The Deep Cove Lineage

My first book, The Haunting of Pastor Butch Gregory and Other Short Stories, was a mostly spiritual endeavor, as are most of my short stories such as Speculation and The Land Begins to Heal.    To be a writer, though, I think, means in part that I am able to tell stories that don’t necessarily carry a spiritual message.  To that end, I began working on a purely secular plot revolving around a monster.  I chose the monster/horror/science fiction milieu because I personal enjoy these types of stories.  What resulted was The Deep Cove Monster.

I published the first short story last summer and then followed that up with the second one in the winter of 2013.

Last week the third, and by far the longest installment of the series was released by my publisher, bardandbook.com.  It is available at their website or at amazon.com, smashwords, bardandbook.com and it should be available at other outlets soon, such as barnesandnoble.com.  Click on the image below to buy from Amazon.com

Title--The short story, about 12,000 words, is titled The Deep Cove Lineage.  In essence it is an origins story so I almost titled it Deep Cove:  Origins or maybe Deep Cove Beginnings but decided that both of those seemed a little too copycat.  One of the elements in the story is the successive generations of monsters that are bred in captivity, hence the word lineage.  I decided that I liked that idea better and it felt less used.

Horror--I believe that the horror genre is over populated with mass murderers or homicidal paranormal creatures.  What I wanted to do was bring elements of the horror story motif in a more realistic and less personal environment.  I don’t know if I achieved true horror story status, but there are some scenes I wrote that felt, well, gruesome.

Science Fiction--Somewhere along the way, and we can probably blame Star Trek for this, science fiction turned into outer space.  However, the origins of science fiction are not really outer space as much as scientific innovation that leads to disaster or danger.  It was this concept that I worked on in The Deep Cove Lineage–science that has gone too far and caused a dangerous situation.

Period Piece--I am still intrigued by working on a period piece.  I was not born until 1971, so the 60’s and 70’s are in my thoughts but I still have to work on it.  The Deep Cove Lineage begins in the late 1960s and ends where the first two begin, 1978.  It is fun to think about music, food, and fashion and the way people might think about life a generation ago.  One of the ways I did this was to emphasize the formal feeling of the lab–everyone is required to wear their white lab coat.  No one in my generation would think of enforcing such a rule, but in the 60’s that might be something people are sticklers for.

Sex and Violence--There is sex in this story, but it is not graphic and more suggestive than actual.  The violence is tough though.  People die an alarming rate once things heat up.

Changing Attitudes--Without giving anything away, I worked very hard to drastically show, and hopefully not over explain, how the scientists change in their attitudes toward human beings as their work progresses.  Most of the change is influenced by the villain, Dr. Sleeth.  People change as we slowly warm up to ideas that are convenient.  There is a little political commentary in that concept.  We accept things today we would not have accepted 12 years ago because it is convenient.

The Monster--In the first two stories all we see of the monster is its destructive power.  In this origins story, we learn why the monster is the way she is and who is to blame.  I think, maybe, I might have even been able to build a little empathy for the beast.  Maybe.

I hope you enjoy the story.  If you haven’t already read the first two, you can buy them from my Buy Jamie’s Stories page at the top of this blog.  Thanks for reading.  I really do appreciate it.