Sunday, November 28, 2021

DEFACER ~ An Original Novel from Blood Work


An Original Novel from Blood Work

 

Blood Work, since its very first post, has been a space dedicated to the appreciation and critique of film, comic books, video games, and more (basically where we can discuss all of the things we love). While we don't always gush over everything, we're always honest and sincere. This space has always meant to be a place for an honest and true celebration of the things we love. This space only exists because we want it to, born of the love and enthusiasm we have for these movies, video games, comics, and more. 

For some time now, we here at Blood Work have been shaping and crafting an original story of our own. With the same spirit that this space was created, DEFACER was born out of our love for the horror genre. While we love to provide commentary and appreciation for the mediums we enjoy, we have always longed to contribute to these worlds and stories. Just as with this blog, the intention behind this was to be honest and sincere in our efforts, no agendas or disingenuous motives, but no grandiose plans or world-changing intentions either.

Briefly, here's what you can expect to get in DEFACER:

~

"Jeremy's life wasn't always drenched in blood and littered with corpses. He led a quiet mundane life until becoming possessed by the Defacer; a dark entity with a desire to kill. When night comes the Defacer takes over, leaving him no choice but to obey. And someone dies. Every day since, he has been haunted by vengeful spirits and pursued by clawed shadowy creatures.

Jeremy's only wish is for the killing to stop, for the Defacer to leave, and for an end to the nightmare. As his hope and sanity slip further away, three people enter his life that could change everything. One of them could save him while another could bring an end to his suffering. And the third could unleash far worse horrors upon him.

As the body count rises and the creatures in the dark slither closer, a new terrifying threat looms over him. Jeremy's fate lies with these three strangers. Which of them will lead him to salvation? And which will lead him to damnation?"

~

Follow this link to purchase Defacer

Defacer is meant to be pure escapist entertainment. It is meant to be a love letter to the horror genre, yet infused with our passion for comic books, super heroes, video games, movies, and music. It is an amalgamation of everything we hold dear. 

Defacer is an original story of our own design with the hope and desire to convey our love and passion for these mediums to the reader. And, with any luck, generate the same feelings of love and enthusiasm for the story and characters within from the readers. If Defacer can do that or, at the very least, provide a few hours of escape from someone's daily grind then it will have served its purpose. 

A little history on the evolution of Defacer: 

Defacer has been a long time in coming. When pen was first set to paper, and the ideas were beginning to take shape, dates back to the fall of 2009 and first shared with others in 2010. The first iteration was a rough prose format written "20th Century" style on a physical piece of paper. The title and moniker "Defacer" was there from the very beginning. The original prose piece has only ever been seen by we here at Blood Work.

At the time of the idea's inception, there was a longing to create comic books. Gears were switched from prose to a comic book script format. The very first iteration to be shown to people outside of Blood Work was in this comic book script style. With firm determination to be a comic book writer (even though a graphic artist we are NOT), we set a monthly schedule for ourselves, producing a fully scripted serialized story each month set in the world of Defacer. This was in an attempt to train ourselves under the conditions with which a writer in the comic book medium would likely work under. We even practiced writing two separate ongoing series simultaneously, like many writers in comics do (some writers produce as many as four titles a month!). 

We produced two years worth (24 issues) of both titles before realizing no company would hire us to write comics without an artist or prior publishing credits. So we returned to the prose format in which those first ideas for Defacer were transcribed with the thought that, in prose, only a writer is needed and not dependent on an artist. Rather than start at the beginning again, we decided to continue chronicling the story of Defacer in this format, meaning that chapters 25, 26, 27, and 28 were novella sized. We did this because we didn't want to stop moving the story forward. We were so enthralled with the story we were telling that we didn't want to stop.

As we neared the end we realized that there was no way we could properly present this story without going back and rewriting those first 24 issues in prose format. So, after a few years of building the story of Defacer, the characters, the arcs, and the plot, we at last went back to the beginning to adapt the comic book scripts into novels. Having already written much of the story already, knowing the greater arc and endgame, getting feedback from the few readers we had, even knowing what worked and what didn't, the adaptation process began in earnest.

Naturally, the story and characters changed and evolved in various ways, but the intention and goal remained. Many years and many drafts later, Defacer was at last in a place where I felt it was ready to be shown to the world.

In today's world there are many avenues to distribute and publish one's work. Self-publishing on Amazon.com is very easy and user friendly. With a logo and cover in place, and a burning desire to release Defacer into the wild, to grow or die, we pulled the trigger and finally published it.

This leads us to the hear and now. Published only as an eBook at the moment, Defacer is available for purchase at the price of $2.99 or FREE if you have subscribed to Kindle Unlimited. Once we receive a bigger cover with not only the front, but the spine and back as well, we'll move to self-publishing a physical copy (a prospect that excites us beyond words). Until then, at the very least, the digital version will have to suffice.

Whether something comes of Defacer or not, it is at least out there for one or more readers to stumble across. And who knows what the future may bring. We're keeping our hopes modest and, for now, are keeping our noses hard at work on the next story.

Defacer was a story that we HAD to tell. We here at Blood Work love this story and these characters. And we hope you will too.

To everyone who takes a chance with this story, thank you, from the bottom of our hearts. And we hope you stick with us as we have a few more stories to tell!

Follow this link to purchase Defacer

Thank you so very much for your kindness and support!

We'll see you soon!

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