Release Date for my upcoming novel I WILL TELL THE NIGHT:
TUESDAY, JANUARY 7th, 2025!
You can pre-order the KINDLE VERSION of this title on Amazon now!
Follow Finn Barker as he makes his way home from Toronto to New Brunswick to see his dying mother one last time. Stick around to see if he can mend all the broken fences he plowed through thirty years earlier when he left home amid a cloud of scandal and chaos.
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.
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?
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!
A note of encouragement from fellow MNM writer, Jade…
Another novel writing marathon has come and gone. This marathon was extremely productive for me. I think I was just so thrilled to be back in person, that I kept my head down and my fingers on the keys and flew into creative action! This was the first IN-PERSON marathon since the dreaded lock-down of 2020.
The only time I ever really left the building was to go on the Creativity Walk on Saturday morning. Prior to the marathon’s beginning, however, I had staked out the closest pub/restaurant, as well as a general store down the road. There was also a beach across the road. SO MUCH to do that was NOT writing. And I scoped them all out before my arrival.
I did not do any of those things, with the exception of a quick visit to the beach with the Creativity Walk.
Creativity Walk participants with our usual iconic Strike A Pose moment…
During the last handful of in-person marathons, I probably would have dove into the things that distract from the writing. It was, after all, the reason I scoped out the area around the new venue. Things to do! But at the novel marathons, the thing to do is WRITE. Somewhere along the way, I might have begun to lose track of that notion. I was constantly distracted at the last few marathons. I’d walk downtown, go out to the pub night, go outside the venue with others and just shoot the breeze. There’s nothing wrong with that, but it doesn’t help one’s word count AT ALL.
Apparently you must actually sit with your laptop and hit the keys to grow your word count. Who knew?
This year, I guess I was on a mission. I can’t talk about my manuscript because it’s been submitted to the contest and reading judges may be lurking. (-; The manuscripts are subject to BLIND JUDGING for an unbiased review.
Anyway, I still socialized a lot. I wandered out onto the venue’s balcony to feel the sun on my skin. I did non-writing things. But I also surprised myself by how focused I was, how BUM IN CHAIR I managed to be at this marathon. I think we were all just so happy to be back in person. We wanted to take advantage of the luxury of merely WRITING for 72 straight hours. I hardly slept at all. Yes, I zoned in and out of consciousness while attempting to stay awake and keep typing…but I only went for a 1 1/2 hour sleep Friday mid-overnight and a 5 1/2 hour sleep Saturday mid-overnight. That leaves a lot of sleepless hours.
It’s always a huge personal moment for me when I get to pin my 100 PAGES ribbon on the Writers’ Wall of Fame. Such a thrill!
My final tally page count for this year’s marathon was 131! Word count was about 29,000 words, if I remember correctly. Have I written more than that at previous marathons? Absolutely! But it’s been a long time. The most I ever wrote at one marathon was somewhere between 50,000 and 60,000 words. This year didn’t come close…but it completely overshadowed any efforts I made during previous 4 years of online marathons, possibly even combined.
My prize for being in the Top 10 Fundraiser list! Gifts for the pups!
The marathon is, first and foremost, a fundraiser for the YMCA Simcoe/Muskoka literacy programs. We writers are always thrilled to contribute to such an important cause. This year we raised over $12,500.00! Thank you so much to my own personal supporters! Your donations mean the world to SO MANY PEOPLE! You’re changing lives!
The sponsors of the marathon went well beyond expectations! They donated fundraising prizes for the writers, food, money, etc, etc, etc. So generous! The photo above is my haul from the super generous people at PETSMART HUNTSVILLE. They really made this prize amazing. Our two pugs loved their windfall! There was also an army of tireless volunteers putting this event together and running it in real time…too many to mention here but all are amazing! This is truly an event that takes a village to pull off.
The view from our venue. I did not let it distract me…but I did take it in!
I’m busy continuing on with my story now! I have a nice start to this novel after my whirlwind of a weekend in Port Sydney! I can’t wait to go back up North for the Wrap Party in September!
Writing in the Sunshine!
Another year over! Thanks to all who made the 2024 MUSKOKA NOVEL MARATHON possible! You have restored my faith in my own creativity!
KEVIN CRAIG 