A Writer's Tale

Suppose a teenaged girl is having an “overnighter” at the house of her best friend? In the middle of the night, intruders break in. They butcher everyone in the house. Everyone except the girl, who hides, then risks her life to save her friend’s brother. The girl and boy run outside, the killers in hot pursuit.

Exactly what I was looking for.

When I wrote the book, I started with the girl being awakened late at night by the noise of breaking glass. I then kept the opening sequence going for 87 manuscript pages of frenzied, terrifying action.

I’d experimented with this technique somewhat in my novella, Wilds, which is told in the form of a journal. I wrote Wilds immediately before embarking on Endless Night, so the Simon tapes seem to be an extension of my experiments with the technique. I soon would take the “real time telling” all the way in Island.

A couple of characters in Endless Night are fictional portraits based on real life.

Jody’s father was inspired by an L.A.P.D. officer I observed during the course of a televised trial. I came to admire his guts and integrity.

A little white dog that attacks Simon was inspired by Bogart Harb, who lives with us when its owners, Sally and Murray, leave town on trips. My Deadline Press short story collection, A Good, Secret Place, was dedicated to Sally, Murray, and Bogart.

I finished writing Endless Night on December 2, 1992 and sent a copy to Bob Tanner.

Headline published it in 1993, and Book Club Associates bought 12,000 copies. It was also bought for publication in Italy and Spain.

Endless Night has not been published in the United States.

As of this writing, the Headline paperback edition is in its 7th printing.

While I would not recommend any of my books to squeamish or prudish readers, I have to say that Endless Night is more extreme than most. It contains some of the most vicious and disgusting material I’ve ever written.

But it also contains the story of a gutsy girl named Jody who risks her life to save her friend’s brother a boy she hardly knows.

And it tells of her smart, courageous father (an L.A.P.D. officer) who will do anything to keep his daughter from harm.

Jody and her father have a very sweet relationship something that you’ll rarely find in books and movies. For some reason, teenagers are most often portrayed as egocentric jerks and their parents are insensitive louts who never understand them. If a father does appear to be sensitive and understanding toward his daughter, it turns out that he’s molesting her in secret. Not so in Endless Night. Like so many people you find in real life, Jody and her father are simply good, caring people.

Going up against a perverted, sadistic killer.

IN THE DARK

Endless Night took care of my urge to write a straight-forward, lightning-fast story. After finishing it, I was ready to settle down and develop something more complex.

I’d pretty much given up on ever finishing Quake.

I embarked on MOG on February 15, 1993. MOG was short for Master of Games.

The basic idea of the plot was simple.

A small-town librarian finds an envelope with her name on it. Inside is a fifty-dollar bill and a note that reads:

Dear Jane,

Come and play with me. For further instructions, look homeward, angel. You’ll be glad you did.

Warmest Regards,

MOG (Master of Games)

Mystified but curious, Jane searches out the library’s copy of the Thomas Wolfe novel, Look Homeward, Angel. Inside, she finds another envelope. This one contains a hundred dollars, and another note. The note gives her more instructions.

And so it starts.

Each time she deciphers the instructions, goes to the required place and finds the next envelope, the amount of money doubles.

Very soon, we’re talking real money.

Jane finds herself getting into some very bizarre and dangerous situations, but she keeps accepting the challenges, keeps pushing the limit. She likes the money. Also, however, she is caught up in the game. She hopes to find out, sooner or later, what it’s all about.

Though the basic idea of the plot seemed fairly simple, I saw that it had some real potential.

It was exactly what I wanted.

An adventure story. A treasure hunt. A deep mystery. And plenty of room for suspense, scares, and horror.

Also, it was “infinitely expandable.” There was no built-in limit to the number of adventures Jane might experience. So I would have no trouble writing my minimum 600 pages.

Not only could I expand the story to my heart’s content, but it had an “open” format.

MOG could send Jane just about anywhere. The possibilities were staggering.