Several years ago, I had the idea that wanted to do a kind of neo-pulp character, like the Shadow, or Doc Savage, or Conan, somebody larger than life. I wanted to tell pulpy stories, but with a more modern sensibility.
What came out of that brainstorming was a phrase that I couldn’t get out of my head, and I don’t know where it came from, Black Rose in the Garden of Eden.
From that phrase came the character Black Rose, a nineteenth century sorceress who wears a tricorne hat and carries a bullwhip. One of the hallmarks of larger-than-life characters is that their stories are often told from the point of view of the people whose lives they impact. The heroes become the catalyst for other people’s stories.
So that’s what I set out to do, starting with a short story featuring Black Rose.
But what started out as a short story passed the 8,000-word mark and I was like, “Well, maybe I can finish it in 15,000 words.” When it passed the 20k mark, I was much chagrined, because I hadn’t even reached the climax yet. The final product turned out to be about 31k, novella length. Unfortunately it is darn near impossible to sell a novella to traditional markets. It’s just an awkward length for current publishing models.
Fortunately, Lawrence M. Shoen of Paper Golem Press thought otherwise. He published Where the Devil Resides in the fourth volume of his novella anthology series Alembical in 2018, where it resonated in strange ways with the other novella in the volume, “The Ground Is Full of Teeth” by Catherine Schaff-Stump, which features werewolves and themes of abused children.
I’m proud to announce that Where the Devil Resides is now available in both ebook and trade paperback! I’m pleased that it’s already gotten a couple of excellent reviews.
Here’s one:
“As a novella, this is a lot of fun, a little bit pulpy, but at the same time serious, and dark. The bad guys and underlying evil is like what you’d find in a Lansdale or Vachss story, but you have a bit of Lovecraft and even Poe peppered in here. The unreliable narrator and very crafty layering of meanings among the characters, their words, and their actions make this the single best thing I have read by Travis Heermann. The author attempts some things that I would classify as culturally risky, but totally pulls it off through artful arrangement.”
Amazon Reviewer
