Literary – KEVIN CRAIG

Have You PRE-ORDERED I WILL TELL THE NIGHT Yet?

Self-publishing is a lot of work! I have been so coddled by the publishers who dealt with my eight previous releases (9?). I know it probably seems odd to not be completely sure how many titles you have out in the world, but that’s me.

Okay, I just went and checked. I WILL TELL THE NIGHT will be my 9th novel. I have three books out that are not novels, too. Two are short stories and one is a short story collection.

Anyway, enough with the digressions. As I was saying, it’s really quite a job to release a book on your own. But I’m almost there. ARCs (advance reading copies) are arriving soon. Once those are approved, I will be ready to go!

I’m absolutely in love with the cover, btw.

The main character, FINN BARKER, is the boy on the cover. The story starts when he is a man of almost-fifty. He discovers his estranged mother is dying and he makes a quick decision that has him speeding from Toronto to New Brunswick in a car with his boyfriend, in the hopes that he makes it in time for a reunion, apologies, and goodbyes.

I WILL TELL THE NIGHT won the hearts of the 2016 Muskoka Novel Marathon panel of judges. They voted the then unfinished novel with the 2016 MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON BEST ADULT NOVEL AWARD.

Lori Manson and I, at the 2016 Wrap Party for that year’s Muskoka Novel Marathon. Lori won for Young Adult/Juvenile novel, and I won for Adult.

I thought long and hard before I set about getting this novel ready to publish. It was rejected by a great many publishers. I thought I would be upfront about this. Reader beware, they say. I honestly had so many wonderful (actually mind-blowing) compliments about the story…each and every time I received a response from a publisher on my full request. Each glowing review came with a sentence at the end of the response announcing that they were going to pass (REJECTION), and a few sentences about WHY they were going to pass.

This is a literary novel. The main character is gay. There is no heat level. I don’t think any of the publishers I approached knew where to put this novel on their list. Granted, some probably just didn’t like it. A book doesn’t have to sing to everyone who reads it. But I could tell that some were genuinely perplexed about how to market a book like this. It would seem that the lack of a heat level hurt its chances just as much as a family saga story with a gay lead character did.

Anyway, I really love the story. I recently had a decision to make…let it die, send it to the trunk forever…or bring it to life on my own. I chose the latter. Maybe it’ll find a few readers. Maybe the story will speak to a few of those readers. It spoke to me.

It releases JAN 7th, 2025. I would appreciate all the help I can get on this one. If you feel so inclined, I would love it if you would share the news about my newest novel in your social media feeds. This would REALLY HELP! I’m one person. I have a little bit of a reach, but I’m hoping for word of mouth here. Anything you can do will be appreciated.

THANK YOU SO MUCH!

Pre-Order I WILL TELL THE NIGHT today! I have high hopes for this little engine who thinks it can…

CANADA PRE-ORDER LINK

USA PRE-ORDER LINK

UK PRE-ORDER LINK

SYNOPSIS:

Finn Barker escaped his family in Miramichi, New Brunswick, decades ago for the anonymity of Toronto. When he learns of his mother’s impending demise, he decides to make the trip back home to say goodbye. But going back will awaken all the sleeping ghosts Finn’s not quite sure he’s willing to stir. With no time to decide, his split-second decision to jump back in has him driving across the country, with his boyfriend Steven behind the wheel. Along the way, Finn begins to unpack the mess he left behind. There’s the grandmother, MyImogene, he adored, and the twin brother who died of cancer when his own parents would have preferred to lose the other twin. There’s also the huge scandal Finn orchestrated with a teacher that gave him the Dutch courage he needed to flee. It was almost all bad.

Finn makes it in time for goodbyes, but then there’s the still very active strife between him and his father, the funeral, the family, and the secrets that shed new light on the cause of the rift between his parents and his beloved MyImogene. Every family carries secrets. Finn discovers they’re the one thing you can’t escape, no matter how far away you run. Secrets always catch up. Often, it’s death that has a way of bringing them back into the light of day. He was able to make peace with his dying mother, but can Finn make peace with all the rest…or is it time to run away for another thirty years?

PLEASE HELP SPREAD THE WORD!

Is Fiction the Lies of Truth? Do We Hide Our Own Lives Within the Words?

As my latest novel, I WILL TELL THE NIGHT, moves closer to its release date, I can’t help but think about the way fiction is often an alternate version of reality. The manipulative way we mingle truths in with the creative lies is almost vulgar. Those who know the writer can pick out little bits here and there that seem to be almost autobiographical. It’s the same with every novel ever written.

As I work my way through my final pass, I’m seeing similarities between story and my lived life. Let me make this perfectly clear from the onset, though…this upcoming novel has almost nothing to do with my own life. It is totally a work of fiction. Any similarities is coincidental, blah, blah, blah!

But the fine hairs… let’s just say there are hidden truths in all fiction.

The horse pictured above sat on a shelf in my grandmother’s house back in Nelson, Miramichi, New Brunswick. That happens to be the geographical setting of most of my novel I WILL TELL THE NIGHT. It’s the story of a gay man who was born and raised in that small town in the East Coast of Canada. A man who fled to the big city of Toronto, Ontario, when his homosexuality was not accepted. It’s a family saga about dysfunction and redemption.

The horse above makes an appearance in this fictional story. See, it just seeped in. I had nothing to do with it. I was happily writing along and suddenly this horse appeared in the story. The horse is real, but it’s also fictional. This is exactly what I’m talking about. We bleed little pieces of reality into our fiction without actually realize we’re doing it.

The story has nothing to do with my own life. But I did steal tidbits and peppered them through the story. I used some of my own experiences, geographical familiarities, etc. Hell, I even used the bric-à-brac and tchotchkes from my own life. These are the details that make the lies of fiction more believable, aren’t they.

I’ve had more than one person tell me they were nervous about reading this one. I guess the plot line invites the possibility of autobiographical fiction. But it’s not! This novel is all lies…all make belief…all fiction. If you spot similarities, I guess it just means I did my job properly. I strive more than ever to make this novel ‘believable’. But it’s not a story about me…in any way.

On the Miramichi, August, 2024. Michael and I took grandboy Edward down for the Labour Day Weekend.

Although I spent most of my childhood summers in the Miramichi, visiting my granparents, uncles, aunts, and cousins, I am not FROM there. I never in a million years would have made an escape from the shores of the Miramichi the way my main character did in the novel. If anything, I would have ran toward the place. It’s still one of my favourite places in the world.

I have always wanted to write a novel set in New Brunswick. ALWAYS! This one came about in 2016 after a series of events transpired. In April of that year, my mother passed away. My parents were living back in the Miramichi at the time of her passing. My brother and I made a last minute trip to get there prior to my mother’s passing. We made it. We said our goodbyes.

Then, fast-forward three months to July and it was time, once again, for the Muskoka Novel Marathon. With our experiences fresh in my mind, a story came to me. Who knew the heartrending experience of driving a thousand miles to see our dying mother one last time would remain fresh in my mind and beg to be used in a fictional setting?

A panel of judges chose the novel to win the 2016 BEST ADULT NOVEL AWARD at the Muskoka Novel Marathon.

There is a gossamer resemblance to our journey East and the journey taken in the novel, but all similarities fall apart after that. I know this may come across as ‘thou doth protest too much’, but the truth is the entire story is FICTION. This is what authors do. They take a square and mold it into a circle. The square is still there…but you just can’t see it. We twist and pull at our own life experiences, mold things into a story, and then we pull out all the identifying details. What’s left is pure fiction. If you write close enough to the bone, though, that fiction is also reality. We create something new.

I have said enough. I now feel like I’m attempting to convince a horse of his essential cow-ness. If you know me, and you read this story…you may think, “hmmm???” But you won’t find me in it’s pages. None of it is true.

PREORDER I WILL TELL THE NIGHT today! It drops on JANUARY 7th, 2025. I promise you, it’s all LIES.

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PREORDER USA LINK

I Will Tell The Night – A Family Saga LGBTQ Literary Novel

It’s happening! My 2016 Muskoka Novel Marathon novel, I WILL TELL THE NIGHT, is being released. This is the novel that won me the BEST ADULT NOVEL AWARD for that year. It was originally scheduled to be released from the same publisher who published my novels SUMMER ON FIRE and PRIDE MUST BE A PLACE, but that publisher closed its doors before the release.

After unsuccessfully attempting to find another home for this baby, I have decided to self-publish this one. It would seem that it’s difficult to find a publisher for LGBTQ Literary fiction. This is especially true when there is zero heat level in it.

I have very strong feelings for this novel. So much so that I feel I can’t move forward before first putting it out into the world. The release date will be JANUARY 7th, 2025! So I have some work ahead of me, as we are about to go on vacation and I want to do a one-last-pass edit on it before I release it. Just know that I have done everything in my power to make it the best possible story I could make it. I’m super proud of this one…it feels…real. I want to get it as polished as possible before releasing it.

I have had so many readers and edits on this manuscript…so many eyes that I’m not sure there’s anyone left who hasn’t read it.

I really have to work on the cover blurb for this, so for now you will have to settle for the query letter synopsis.

Finn Barker escaped his family in Miramichi, New Brunswick decades ago for the anonymity of Toronto. Now is his chance to reunite with the strangers they’ve become. But going back will awaken a hell of a lot of ghosts Finn’s not sure he’s willing to awaken. With no time to decide, his split-second decision to jump back in has him driving across the country, with his boyfriend Steven behind the wheel. Along the way, Finn begins to unpack the mess he left behind. There’s the grandmother, MyImogene, he adored, the twin brother who died of cancer when his own parents would have preferred to lose the other twin, and the scandal he created with a teacher that gave him the reason he needed to flee. It was almost all bad.

I have some work ahead of me. Watch for updates on the release, etc. All I have now is a finished manuscript that needs one last edit, and a cover.

I WILL TELL THE NIGHT – COMING SOON

Pre-Order links will be in my next post…which will be going live later this morning!