2023 will mark the 20th anniversary of the publication of my first horror/dark fantasy novel, The Harmony Society. It was my second novel published. The first was a work-for-hire comedic erotic mystery called Dying For It, one of five novels published by the short-lived Foggy Windows Books, which came out in 2001. (But that’s a story for another day.)
In
the late 1990’s I belonged to a writers’ group which counted the fantasy
novelist Dennis L. McKiernan as a member. Dennis became a mentor to me, and I
learned a lot from him. In addition, he was kind enough to recommend my fantasy
novel True Thief to his agent, Jonathan Matson. Jonathan liked the book
and called me on my thirtieth birthday to offer representation. Jonathan sent True
Thief out to a number of publishers, but none ever made an offer on it.
While
True Thief was out on submission, I decided to start working on another
novel. I didn’t want to do a sequel to True Thief, but I had no idea
what to write. Back then, I belonged to the GEnie network, a bulletin-board-based
proto-social media site created by General Electric. (Hence the GE in GEnie.)
Many other writers did too, including many well-known science fiction, fantasy,
and horror authors. While I’d focused on writing fantasy novels for years, my
short fiction tended to be horror, and I often hung out with horror writers on
GEnie. On night during a live chat session, I mentioned that I didn’t have an
idea for my next novel, and both Robert Weinberg and Tom Piccirilli told me to
just start writing and see where the story took me. I’d always plotted out my
novels before drafting them, but I decided to take Bob and Pic’s advice. I sat
down at my computer and started typing. Years earlier, I’d had a dream of a dark
angel imprisoned in a dungeon, kneeling on a stone floor, shackles binding his
wrists, iron spikes driven through the backs of his legs and into the stone to
hold him in place. I decided to base my story on this character, and I began
with an image of the dark angel standing on a cliff, gazing down at a sea of
razor-sharp silver feathers and these words: Nathan Bennett’s world first began
to unravel with the death of the Dark Angel.
Since
this was my first novel set in the real world (at least partially) I drew on my
own experiences to create the story instead of writing about an imaginary
medieval fantasy world. A couple years earlier, my first wife and I were living
in Vincennes, Indiana, and one day we drove past a large stone building with
columns, with the words THE HARMONY SOCIETY carved on the front. The structure
was somber and imposing – it didn’t look harmonious at all – and for some
reason I imagined the dark angel from my dream being imprisoned within. The
Internet was in its infancy back then, so I couldn’t easily look up what the
real Harmony Society was, but that was okay. I didn’t want reality to influence
my imagination too much. Much later, when the Internet was more developed, I researched
the Harmony Society, and you can read what I discovered here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony_Society.
I’m glad I didn’t know anything about the real Harmony Society, or else I might
not have used it in my book.
I
made the main character, Nathan Bennett, a community college professor like
myself, around the same age as I was (early thirties), and gave him a wife not
unlike mine. My wife and I had talked about having kids (we’d eventually have
two daughters) and she was pregnant at the time, so I decided to make Nathan’s wife
pregnant, too. They lived in the same type of apartment complex my wife and I
did, and had similar relationship problems as ours, although I gave some elements
of my personality to Nathan’s wife and some of my wife’s to Nathan, just to mix
things up a bit.
I
don’t recall how long it took me to write The Harmony Society. Maybe
three months? That’s how long it usually takes me to write a book, unless I
have a short deadline. (I wrote the novelization of xXx: The Return of
Xander Cage in two weeks thanks to not sleeping and drinking copious
amounts of highly-caffeinated coffee.) I was pleased with how The Harmony Society
turned out. It was weird – even for me – but it was my weird, and I
felt – or maybe I hoped – I’d found my unique voice as a novelist. I sent the
book to Jonathan, and my wife and I had our baby and moved into our first house
before he got around to reading it. He said he liked it and was going to submit
it, and I was relieved. The book had been a major artistic risk for me, and I
was glad my agent didn’t think it was a big pile of steaming shit.
The
RPG gaming company White Wolf had been publishing tie-in fiction based on their
games for a few years, and they decided to branch out into publishing original
horror/dark fantasy fiction. When I saw their submission guidelines, I was
thrilled. They were looking for new, original takes on horror, and I thought The
Harmony Society might be right up their alley. I asked Jonathan to submit
it to White Wolf, he did, and I was thrilled when they made an offer. The
advance they were going to give me was low – only $3000 – but it was $1000 more
than what their guidelines said they offered, so as you might imagine, I was
fine with that.
Then
a few weeks later, White Wolf contacted my agent and pulled their offer, saying
they were “no longer comfortable with the book.” When I asked my agent what
that meant, he said, “Who cares? A no is a no. We’ll just send it somewhere
else.” I’m not sure he ever did, though. Over the years I’d send Jonathan books
and I never knew if he submitted them or not. They got published because I
found publishers for them, or they were tie-in deals I arranged and brought to
Jonathan. He negotiated better contracts for me, but I stayed with him much
longer than I should have. I really liked him, and we spoke often. I learned a
hell of lot about publishing from him, but I should’ve found a more proactive
agent – which is exactly what my current agent Cherry Weiner is.
I’d
been striving to become a professional author since I was eighteen, and I was
severely depressed by having my first novel deal fall through. I wrote about
the aftermath of White Wolf canceling the contract in a previous blog, which
you can read here https://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/2012/04/one-that-got-away.html?m=0
if you’re interested. I wrote Clive Barker and Harlan Ellison asking if they
had any advice where I could send a weird cross-genre novel like The Harmony
Society. They were kind enough to reply – Clive via letter, Harlan via
phone – and both were apologetic that they couldn’t help me. It hadn’t occurred
to me that they were so established and famous that marketing their work to
publishers wasn’t really something they had to do. I deeply appreciated their
responses, though. I went on to other projects but kept an eye out for places
where I can could submit The Harmony Society. In the meantime, I decided
to put together my first story collection, one focused on my horror fiction,
and I called it All Too Surreal, a title I thought fit my brand of weird
fiction well. Author Steve Saville had started a small press called Prime Books,
and I submitted All Too Surreal to him. He enthusiastically accepted the
book, but before it could be published, he sold the company to Sean Wallace,
and Sean was the one who eventually brought out the collection. I decided to
see if he’d be interested in bringing out The Harmony Society as well.
He was, and the book finally found a home. Author Gord Rollo edited the
manuscript, together we picked out a cover, and The Harmony Society came
to life. Back then, small presses were experimenting with giving authors a
higher share of royalties in lieu of advances, and Prime was one of them. I
didn’t think this approach would pay off for writers, but I decided to give it
a try. It turned out I was right, but at least my collection and novel were out
in the world. Later, when the rights to The Harmony Society reverted to
me, Dark Regions brought it out in 2012, and it’s still with them today (and it
continues to regularly bring in money for us).
Despite
how The Harmony Society fared, I felt I was on to something with the
approach I’d taken with the book, and I wrote Like Death, which would go
on to be published by Leisure Books in 2005, and which started my personal and
professional relationship with editor Don D’Auria, which is still going strong.
I didn’t initially conceive of Like Death as belonging to the same world
as The Harmony Society, but the protagonists of Like Death cameoed
in Pandora Drive, and the chief antagonist of The Harmony Society
– Brother Nothing – was the catalyst for the events in my third Leisure novel Darkness
Wakes, so I decided all four books were connected, if only in some small
ways.
Darkness
Wakes
was my last novel for Leisure, due to low sales, and while I was sad, I was
happy to have had three books published with them, and happy to have met,
worked with, and got to know Don, but I decided my surreal horror wasn’t
something most readers wanted, so I abandoned it. (Being let go from Leisure
turned out to be a blessing because when they started to tank, I was able to
get the rights back to all three of my books before the company went bankrupt.
Other writers had a hard time getting the rights to their books back after
that.)
I
concentrated on writing tie-ins and urban fantasy novels for a time, most of
which had a horror element to them but weren’t as batshit crazy as my previous
horror novels. (I still continued to write surreal horror in short stories,
though.) I wouldn’t return to “Tim Waggoner” horror in novel length until 2014,
when I sold my surreal zombie apocalypse novel The Way of All Flesh to
Don at Samhain Books. This book wasn’t specifically connected to my burgeoning
mythos, though. It wasn’t until I wrote Eat the Night for DarkFuse Books
in 2016 that I returned to my mythos, and added to it by creating the
entropy-fighting organization called Maintenance.
I
created my mythos with no real plan. It just grew on its own over the years,
and while both Bob and Pic passed away some years back, if they were still with
us, I think they’d be pleased to know what they’re advice to just start writing
led to over the course of a couple decades. I of course dedicated The Harmony
Society to both of them.
Following
is a list of places, characters, and concepts that are part of the Waggoner
Mythos. It’s by no means complete. I tried to focus on the major elements, ones
that occur in one form or another in multiple stories. I also tried to avoid
including anything that would be too spoilery. The descriptions are from my own
reference file, so there are few small bits of information that haven’t
appeared in any story yet, but I don’t think any of it is spoilery either.
There are some new major mythos elements in my forthcoming novels A Hunter
Called Night and Lord of the Feast, but since these would definitely
be spoilery, I’ve left them out.
OVERARCHING
THEME
My
mythos isn’t about the struggle between good and evil. It’s about the inevitability
of entropy, the eventual but certain death of all existence, and how humans
deal with that reality and find ways to live with it (or not).
THE
GYRE
The
Gyre is an immense black hole that sits at the center of all reality. It has
been slowly devouring Creation since the dawn of time, and the Omniverse’s only
purpose is to serve as its food. The Gyre is the ultimate expression of the
concept of Entropy.
THE
MULTITUDE
Godlike
servants of the Gyre. Their purpose is to help break down reality for the Gyre
so that it might be more easily and swiftly absorbed. They basically predigest
the Gyre’s food for it.
SHADOW
The
realm that exists between reality and nothingness. It’s the bleeding edge where
reality is broken down and absorbed by the Gyre, and many strange creatures and
beings – as well as some humans – dwell there.
THE
NIGHTWAY
A
vast obsidian road which travels through a world of darkness beneath a starless
sky. It circles the Gyre, somehow resisting being drawn into it. No one knows
if it’s a natural phenomenon or was constructed artificially by some unknown
race. There are many dangers both on and off the Nightway, but some beings have
managed to make their home there. Since then, I’ve written seven novels
connected to my mythos, with two more contracted for which I still need to
write. Readers don’t need any previous knowledge of my mythos to enjoy my books,
but for those who are familiar with it, I hope it adds another level of
enjoyment for them.
THE
HARMONY SOCIETY
A
mysterious organization dedicated to one goal: domination of the Dark Angel,
one of the last surviving Umbral. Brother Nothing is the leader. Other members
are the time-traveling hitman Mr. Bones, the Pennyman, and the serpent-like
Ssssister. Brother Nothing is one of the most powerful members of the
Multitude.
THE
UMBRAL
A
race of Dark Angels who were the Architects of the Omniverse. When they learned
the truth about the Gyre – and what was ultimately going to happen to their
creation – some of them became the first of the Multitude to help process the
Omniverse faster and more efficiently. Only a few true Umbral exist now, and
the Multitude are always trying to find them and “help” them understand the
Truth – one way or another. The Umbral are in hiding and on the run and have
been for trillions of years. The remaining Umbral are the ones who founded
Maintenance. The world where the Umbral shed their wings to become the
Multitude is the one featured at the beginning of The Harmony Society
where there’s a massive sea of razor-sharp silver feathers.
BROTHER
NOTHING
A
thin man in an old white suit that’s become yellowed with age. He is the head of the Harmony Society, and some say the
other members are only manifestations of him. He is one of the Multitude,
perhaps the most powerful of them all, and is the prime representative of
Entropy in the Omniverse. Some say he may be an avatar of the Gyre itself.
MAINTENANCE
An
ancient organization of humans created to counter the Multitude’s efforts to
speed up entropy. Their goal is to slow entropy as much as they can. There is
nothing they can do to stop it. They see their role as slowing the Gyre’s
mindless devouring of reality, making its meal more flavorful and last longer.
Their motto: “Flavor to the feast.” They are overworked and underpaid, and
given that they know their mission is ultimately futile, their morale isn’t
exactly high.
THE
CABAL
A
crimson-robed group of men and women, all of whom are mutated to one degree or
another. They inhabit the Vermilion Tower, located on the Nightway, and their
purpose it to maintain the balance between Shadow and reality on Earth. They’ll
do anything it takes to fulfill this purpose, no matter the cost.
TAINTED
PAGES
A
bookstore specializing in mystic and arcane tomes. It exists in all realities
and may even be found in different towns on the same Earth. Owned by an
enigmatic being known as the Proprietor or sometimes The Bookman. The
Proprietor also collects humans that have been turned into books, and he keeps
these in his private collection.
THE
STYGIAN MARKET
An
interdimensional market where all manner of things may be sold or purchased. It’s
gigantic but it’s often accessed via a portal in a smaller structure, such as a
barn or abandoned house.
THE
BLACK TRUST
A
worldwide consortium of businesspeople who trade in items and services of the
darkest nature. Their goods come at an extremely high – and often hidden –
price. (This will make its first appearance in The Atrocity Engine.)
ARCANE
TOMES
The Book of
Oblivion, The Book of Masks, The Book of Depravity, The Book of Madness (also known as The Insanitarium). Every use of these books breaks down reality to a greater or lesser
degree, and that’s why they were created by the Multitude and sent to Earth. A member
of the Multitude sacrificed themselves to become each book. The books cannot be
copied word for word, but they can be imperfectly copied
FICTION
IN THE WAGGONER MYTHOS
The
works in the following lists all take place on the same Earth. The novels The
Way of All Flesh and We Will Rise exist in the same Omniverse as the
other stories, but they take place on different Earths.
Novels
The
Harmony Society (2003),
Like Death (2005), Pandora Drive (2006), Darkness Wakes (2006),
Eat the Night (2016), The Mouth of the Dark (2018), They Kill (2019),
The Forever House (2020), Your Turn to Suffer (2021), A Hunter
Called Night (2023)
Forthcoming:
Lord of the Feast, The Atrocity Engine, The Book of Madness, The Desolation
War (These last three novels are a trilogy.)
Novellas
The Men Upstairs (2012)
Short Stories
Featuring psychologist
and occult detective Ismael Carter: “The Grabber-Man” (2017) and “The Empty
Ones” (2019), both in Occult Detective Monthly.
I consider a number of
my other short stories as also belonging to my mythos, at least thematically, but
I haven’t clearly established them as such.
DEPARTMENT
OF SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTION
My Mythos
Work
If you’re interested in reading any of my Waggoner Mythos fiction, here’s
a link to my Amazon author page: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Tim-Waggoner/author/B001JP0XFM?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true
Your Turn to Suffer
The ebook edition of Your
Turn to Suffer has been on sale for 99 cents for a week or so. I don’t know
how much longer the sale will last, but it might well be over soon, so if you’re
interested in snagging a cheap e-copy, do it now! (I’m writing this on 12/18/2022,
so if you’re reading this an significant length of time past this date, the
sale is likely over.)
B&N: https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/your-turn-to-suffer-tim-waggoner/1137330372?ean=9781787585201
Google: https://books.google.com/books?id=osPwDwAAQBAJ
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/your-turn-to-suffer
Synopsis: Lorelai Palumbo
is harassed by a sinister group calling themselves The Cabal. They accuse her
of having committed unspeakable crimes in the past, and now she must pay. The
Cabal begins taking her life apart one piece at a time – her job, her health,
the people she loves – and she must try to figure out what The Cabal thinks
she’s done if she’s to have any hope of answering their charges and salvaging
her life.
“This story reads like one of those nightmares you
wake up from only to learn you're still sleeping and experiencing a
nightmare...except that it just continues like a Russian nesting doll of
nightmares within nightmares. The narrative paints a distorted and dreamlike
allegory, showcasing how guilt, even (or especially) when associated with
long-forgotten – or suppressed – memories can weigh heavily on us.” – Domus
Necrophageous
Scheduled
Appearances
Scarelastic
Book Fair. Scarlet Lane Brewing. McCordsville, Indiana: February 28.
Authorcon
2. Williamsburg, Virgina: March 31-April 2.
Stokercon.
Pittsburgh: June 15-18.
Where
to Find Me Online
Want
to follow me on social media? Here’s where you can find me:
Website:
www.timwaggoner.com
Twitter:
@timwaggoner
Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/tim.waggoner.9
Instagram:
tim.waggoner.scribe
Hive:
@timwaggoner
Blog:
http://writinginthedarktw.blogspot.com/
.jpg)