Behind the Scenes: Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary)
NOTE: The spoilers in this post don't go past Chapter Three.
Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) was not my first novel written (How to Rescue a Dead Princess, Out of Whack, and Elrod McBugle on the Loose all came first), nor was it my first novel accepted for publication (that was How to Rescue a Dead Princess). But it was my first book published, so it sorta FEELS like my first book.
At the time I wrote it, I was focusing on comedies but bouncing from genre to genre with each book, trying unsuccessfully to write something I could actually, y'know, sell. Graverobbers was my attempt at a mystery/comedy. And that's all it was supposed to be: the first installment in a funny mystery series. Not a horror novel. In each book, Andrew Mayhem would have wacky mystery-solving adventures, while trying desperately to find a babysitter for his two not-quite-bratty-but-not-exactly-well-behaved kids.
I knew the premise: Andrew and his buddy Roger would be would be approached by a woman in a coffee shop, offering them $20,000 to dig up her husband's grave and retrieve the safety deposit box key he had with him when he was buried. They'd reluctantly agree. They'd find the shallow grave in the forest, dig up the coffin, then nearly get killed when somebody inside started shooting through the lid. By golly, her husband had been buried alive! Andrew, Roger, and the rescued hubby would then have to solve the question of WHY she'd done such a nefarious thing...which I'd work out later.
But when I did get to that point, I came up with a new idea. What if instead of being weak, dehydrated, and freaked out, her husband had gone completely mad from the experience? Screaming incoherently, bashing himself in the forehead with the gun, and insane past the point of no return.
Suddenly the guy rips his own eyes out...and suddenly it's a completely different book. That to me is the defining moment of the series: It's a funny novel with likable, goofy characters, and then you get a "WHOA! WTF?!?" moment.
The degree of pre-planning I do varies with each book. After I got to the point where our heroes had dug up the grave, I then had to figure out what was actually going on. So I wrote about a page describing "whodunnit and why" and figured out how it was all gonna end. With the last chapter planned out, I could pretty much make the rest of the book up as I went along.
When I was halfway through, I gave it to a test reader...who !!!HATED!!! it. I don't mean "Gosh, Jeff, this work doesn't really live up to your potential," I mean "This is absolutely, positively horrible! It's not even competently written! What were you thinking?"
I went back through the first half to figure out what needed to be fixed. And I decided that, bad feedback or not, I still liked it. So I finished up the book and sent it off to my agent at the time...who !!!HATED!!! it.
He conceded that it had a couple of funny parts. Beyond that, he said that nothing in the book worked. Not the story, not the characters, not the suspense, nothing. Don't even try to rewrite it. Throw this one away and move on with your life.
So I trunked that sucker.
And I didn't pull it out again for a couple of years, until How to Rescue a Dead Princess was accepted by Hard Shell Word Factory in 1999. A brand-new publisher of e-books, Wordbeams, was seeking submissions. I figured I'd give Graverobbers another look. I did, expecting to have to do a complete overhaul to get the manuscript in readable condition, but instead I thought "Y'know, I LIKE this book!" There was one scene about halfway through that was too slapsticky and got cut altogether, and I tightened a few bits, but overall it was the same book that was so passionately despised.
Wordbeams accepted it and published it in May 2000. It didn't make a blip on the radar of mainstream publishing, but it was one of the top-selling e-books of the year. Reviews were (and have continued to be) almost unanimously positive, and literally every novel I have announced since then generates e-mail asking if it's going to be an Andrew Mayhem book. (Yes, even The Sinister Mr. Corpse.)
Wordbeams closed at the end of 2001. I immediately moved Graverobbers and Single White Psychopath Seeks Same to NovelBooks Inc., an e-book and trade paperback publisher who was getting good buzz. This buzz turned out to be based on insanity and stupidity, and after receiving my box of quality-deficient paperbacks, I asked to be let out of my contract. (It wasn't a pay-to-publish deal and they didn't have to release me, so I'm grateful to them for that, even if I bought the last few copies just to get 'em off the market and they sent them to me unprotected in a shoebox.)
I moved the e-book and paperback to Hard Shell Word Factory. In 2003, Mundania Press did the very first hardcover edition, and in 2005 they published it in paperback. (So if you're keeping score: 4 e-book editions, excluding the fact that Wordbeams did a "re-release" with a redesigned cover, 3 paperback editions, and 1 hardcover edition. Collect 'em all!)
At one point Local Talent Productions was going to do a movie version. However, during the two-year option the project didn't get much further than the screenplay stage (I wrote a draft, and the producer/director wrote a draft) and eventually died. There was interest in acquiring the movie rights to all three books from another production company, but it was a really, really, really, really, really, really, really bad contract and I elected not to sign.
I'm still proud of Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary). I don't think it works very well as a mystery, and in fact I eliminated that aspect from the next two books. And nobody will ever describe the plot as anything resembling "airtight." But though I'd probably do a fairly substantial rewrite if I ever sold it to a mass market publisher, I love some of the ghoulish setpieces (the search for the quarters, the puppets, the necklaces, The Dismemberment Game, etc.) and think that as a blend of horror and humor, the book is a success.
I've started a SPOILER thread on my message board about the book, where you can blab anything you want and learn a couple more interesting (?) factoids.
http://horrorworld.org/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewforum.php?f=9
Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary) was not my first novel written (How to Rescue a Dead Princess, Out of Whack, and Elrod McBugle on the Loose all came first), nor was it my first novel accepted for publication (that was How to Rescue a Dead Princess). But it was my first book published, so it sorta FEELS like my first book.
At the time I wrote it, I was focusing on comedies but bouncing from genre to genre with each book, trying unsuccessfully to write something I could actually, y'know, sell. Graverobbers was my attempt at a mystery/comedy. And that's all it was supposed to be: the first installment in a funny mystery series. Not a horror novel. In each book, Andrew Mayhem would have wacky mystery-solving adventures, while trying desperately to find a babysitter for his two not-quite-bratty-but-not-exactly-well-behaved kids.
I knew the premise: Andrew and his buddy Roger would be would be approached by a woman in a coffee shop, offering them $20,000 to dig up her husband's grave and retrieve the safety deposit box key he had with him when he was buried. They'd reluctantly agree. They'd find the shallow grave in the forest, dig up the coffin, then nearly get killed when somebody inside started shooting through the lid. By golly, her husband had been buried alive! Andrew, Roger, and the rescued hubby would then have to solve the question of WHY she'd done such a nefarious thing...which I'd work out later.
But when I did get to that point, I came up with a new idea. What if instead of being weak, dehydrated, and freaked out, her husband had gone completely mad from the experience? Screaming incoherently, bashing himself in the forehead with the gun, and insane past the point of no return.
Suddenly the guy rips his own eyes out...and suddenly it's a completely different book. That to me is the defining moment of the series: It's a funny novel with likable, goofy characters, and then you get a "WHOA! WTF?!?" moment.
The degree of pre-planning I do varies with each book. After I got to the point where our heroes had dug up the grave, I then had to figure out what was actually going on. So I wrote about a page describing "whodunnit and why" and figured out how it was all gonna end. With the last chapter planned out, I could pretty much make the rest of the book up as I went along.
When I was halfway through, I gave it to a test reader...who !!!HATED!!! it. I don't mean "Gosh, Jeff, this work doesn't really live up to your potential," I mean "This is absolutely, positively horrible! It's not even competently written! What were you thinking?"
I went back through the first half to figure out what needed to be fixed. And I decided that, bad feedback or not, I still liked it. So I finished up the book and sent it off to my agent at the time...who !!!HATED!!! it.
He conceded that it had a couple of funny parts. Beyond that, he said that nothing in the book worked. Not the story, not the characters, not the suspense, nothing. Don't even try to rewrite it. Throw this one away and move on with your life.
So I trunked that sucker.
And I didn't pull it out again for a couple of years, until How to Rescue a Dead Princess was accepted by Hard Shell Word Factory in 1999. A brand-new publisher of e-books, Wordbeams, was seeking submissions. I figured I'd give Graverobbers another look. I did, expecting to have to do a complete overhaul to get the manuscript in readable condition, but instead I thought "Y'know, I LIKE this book!" There was one scene about halfway through that was too slapsticky and got cut altogether, and I tightened a few bits, but overall it was the same book that was so passionately despised.
Wordbeams accepted it and published it in May 2000. It didn't make a blip on the radar of mainstream publishing, but it was one of the top-selling e-books of the year. Reviews were (and have continued to be) almost unanimously positive, and literally every novel I have announced since then generates e-mail asking if it's going to be an Andrew Mayhem book. (Yes, even The Sinister Mr. Corpse.)
Wordbeams closed at the end of 2001. I immediately moved Graverobbers and Single White Psychopath Seeks Same to NovelBooks Inc., an e-book and trade paperback publisher who was getting good buzz. This buzz turned out to be based on insanity and stupidity, and after receiving my box of quality-deficient paperbacks, I asked to be let out of my contract. (It wasn't a pay-to-publish deal and they didn't have to release me, so I'm grateful to them for that, even if I bought the last few copies just to get 'em off the market and they sent them to me unprotected in a shoebox.)
I moved the e-book and paperback to Hard Shell Word Factory. In 2003, Mundania Press did the very first hardcover edition, and in 2005 they published it in paperback. (So if you're keeping score: 4 e-book editions, excluding the fact that Wordbeams did a "re-release" with a redesigned cover, 3 paperback editions, and 1 hardcover edition. Collect 'em all!)
At one point Local Talent Productions was going to do a movie version. However, during the two-year option the project didn't get much further than the screenplay stage (I wrote a draft, and the producer/director wrote a draft) and eventually died. There was interest in acquiring the movie rights to all three books from another production company, but it was a really, really, really, really, really, really, really bad contract and I elected not to sign.
I'm still proud of Graverobbers Wanted (No Experience Necessary). I don't think it works very well as a mystery, and in fact I eliminated that aspect from the next two books. And nobody will ever describe the plot as anything resembling "airtight." But though I'd probably do a fairly substantial rewrite if I ever sold it to a mass market publisher, I love some of the ghoulish setpieces (the search for the quarters, the puppets, the necklaces, The Dismemberment Game, etc.) and think that as a blend of horror and humor, the book is a success.
I've started a SPOILER thread on my message board about the book, where you can blab anything you want and learn a couple more interesting (?) factoids.
http://horrorworld.org/v-web/bulletin/bb/viewforum.php?f=9
posted by Jeff Strand at 4:13 PM
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