I want to tell you about the books I never shared with you, and one that’s remained a secret for more than five years.

I released my first story through self-publishing in 2014. Since then, I’ve been pretty stubborn about this whole writing thing, and to date have published more than a million words.

In amongst all of that, there are four books that I started but, for a few different reasons, didn’t ever release.

This happens for all writers. It’s rare to never have a project fail. Just like the paintings that don’t make it into a museum, authors can spend months or years working on books that are ultimately scrapped.

Sometimes these abandoned projects can be salvaged years later, when the author has the skills to repair whatever wasn’t working. Sometimes they’re published posthumously. Sometimes they never make it, and those ideas stay with the author alone.

My never-published books can only be found in one place: my hard drive. Some may never leave.

Today, want to tell you about them.

The first was a psychological thriller. I made it about five chapters before I realised my heart wasn’t in it. The story was slow and too melancholy. I wasn’t enjoying writing it, which meant it wouldn’t be enjoyable reading.

The second abandoned project was a haunted house novel. It’s two-thirds completed. I love this story; it’s full of energy and humour and some of my most-loved creepy moments. But I floundered in the later chapters. I knew what the ending should be, but couldn’t pull the story together for it. As it grew longer, it became increasingly out of control, like a runaway train that I had to switch off before it could cause too much damage. I have hope for this book: it might be possible to pull it back together and turn it into something really good one day.

The third story attempted to blend a crime thriller and a horror novel. It had two of my all-time favourite characters, and I still miss them. But, like the others, this book was flawed. The story became unfocussed and messy, with too much talking and not enough happening. I put it aside to let the ideas breathe, but never picked it up again.

And, at last, my fourth and final “unpublished” novel. The one I’m calling the most important out of all of them, because it’s currently the only one from the set that is actually being published: The Whispering Dead, originally written under the name Gravekeeper.

I wrote The Whispering Dead in 2016, in between The Haunting of Ashburn House and Carrow Haunt. Unlike the other books here, it didn’t have a major flaw holding it back. In fact, it was complete. It was edited. It was very, very close to publication.

What stopped it?

The story was the first part in a series. And, at that time, I wasn’t sure I could actually finish a series. I’d only just started writing full-time, and I had very little practice at sequels. The idea of writing five books sequentially was daunting to the point of paralysis.

I decided that, if I was going to commit to a series, I needed to be sure that I could finish it. So, even though Gravekeeper was ready to go into the world, it was held back while I started the next book.

Then life hit in the worst possible way. I lost a family member. This sequel–a story that was supposed to be fun and creepy and full of energy–turned bitter. The characters lost their joy.

I made the difficult decision to pause that book and work on something that wasn’t so closely tied to loss. At the time, I imagined I could come back to the Gravekeeper series before the year ended.

But The Whispering Dead, a book I’d pinned so many hopes on, remained hidden on my hard drive until the following year. And then the year after that, and after that, and the one after that.

It’s now five years later. I’d almost accepted that the Gravekeeper series would never be published. Then, one day, I mentioned it to my editor. She was enthusiastic. She offered help. We spent the second half of last year pulling things together, and…

Book Two is written. Book Three has a rough outline. And Book One has a publication date: May 4th 2021.

I’m so incredibly happy. Out of the four never-released books, this one deserved it the most. Even after five years, I still love the story and the characters as much as when I first created them. It was, and still is, a huge passion project.

The story is fast and full of atmosphere: deliciously haunted locations, a protagonist with a mysterious past, and a sense of finding home–even if home is, in this case, a graveyard. Add in new friendships and a decades-old murder and you have (I hope!) a very fun read.

If you want to give it a taste, the first chapters are live on my website.

The full book is available for pre-order at a whole host of stores. Just a heads-up, though: if you like to order from indie outlets, my publisher is planning something special for them. We’ll have details on that soon!

In the meantime, you can pre-order the paperback at:
Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | Booktopia | IndieBound | Amazon

Or pre-order the ebook:
Amazon

This has been a long email, but thank you for giving me the chance to talk about these three lost books, and one that, through your support, is finally getting its chance in the world. It means more to me than I can say.

Until next time, take care, dear reader.
–Darcy