He Has Stayed Too Long
A Group Novel by The Thirty
He Has Stayed Too Long will be a very unusual novel; in fact, I don't think there's another one like it anywhere.
In the fall of 2018, after having a few poems and stories picked up by an anthology, I got to thinking--usually a dangerous thing--could the anthology concept work for a novel where everyone contributed a chapter? And where would I find enough writers crazy enough to participate in an experiment like this?
The answer came to me that night when I was on Twitter discussing recent horror releases with a few friends in the writer’s community: these folks just might join in. They’re horror fiends—nothing scares them!
True enough, I put out the call on Twitter and had a fantastic response. Typical novel length and typical chapter length sort of dictated that we write a novel with 30 chapters. The "author" was dubbed “The Thirty.” (“The Dirty Thirty” every once in a while) and the title of the book was arrived at by voting. He Has Stayed Too Long won by three votes, but we might have to re-think that once the novel is finished which should be very soon.
I finished Chapter One on November 17, 2018 and sent it out to everyone via email the following day. The next writer took Chapter Two and things progressed from there.
Is it the novel I envisioned while writing Chapter One? Nope. Not even close.
Is it the novel D.W. Gillespie envisioned while writing Chapter Five? I seriously doubt it. When Jonathan Janz got it at Chapter Seven it was morphing again. By the time Chris Sorenson got it at Chapter Nineteen, it was nothing like I thought it would be. It's evolved with each chapter and each author—and has become more complex and interesting.
Not every writer in The Thirty was a published author of fiction—they will be soon, but for some, this was their first soirée into the world of writing horror fiction. Each writer brought something to the table and it's been a sincere pleasure for me to get my hands on the successive chapters as the book blossomed. In cobbling this together, I've tried to hold editing to a bare minimum and for the most part, I keep it limited to continuity and the usual, boring, grammatical stuff. And any time I get an email or a DM about a misspelling or a continuity error from one of the authors, I jump right on it. We keep each other on our toes.
As of this writing, we are on Chapter Twenty Eight, so completion is just around the bend.
You will, no doubt, recognize some of the authors and some will be new to you. They are:
Chapter One--Don Gillette
Chapter Two--Mindi Snyder
Chapter Three--Steve Stred
Chapter Four--Miranda Crites
Chapter Five--D.W. Gillespie
Chapter Six--Charlene Cocrane
Chapter Seven--Jonathan Janz
Chapter Eight--Bethany Guerra
Chapter Nine--Lachlan Watt
Chapter Ten--Terri Harrington
Chapter Eleven--Aaron Nash
Chapter Twelve--W. Sheridan Bradford
Chapter Thirteen--Michelle Enelen
Chapter Fourteen--Kev Harrison
Chapter Fifteen--Sadie Hartmann
Chapter Sixteen--George Ranson
Chapter Seventeen--Owen Morgan
Chapter Eighteen--Tracy Robinson
Chapter Nineteen--Chris Sorenson
Chapter Twenty--Jake Kennedy
Chapter Twenty One--Imber Blu
Chapter Twenty Two--Mason McDonald
Chapter Twenty Three--Frank Errington
Chapter Twenty Four--Kyle Gray
Chapter Twenty Five--J.J. McDowall
Chapter Twenty Six--Jim Herbert
Chapter Twenty Seven--Chris Chelser
Chapter Twenty Eight--Lilyn G
Chapter Twenty Nine--Scott Kemper
Chapter Thirty--Edward Lorn
I've got no idea at all how publication is going to work and I pity any publishing company that's got to sign 30 writers up for one book--but that's a bridge I didn't envision having to cross a year ago, so we'll see how it goes... I've gotten to know all of these folks well over the past year and not a soul in the bunch is mercenary or egomaniacal, so we might just publish the thing independently and put the proceeds into a scholarship fund or something. Again, we'll see how it goes...
So... there's the story up to this point. And thank you for your interest!
You will, no doubt, recognize some of the authors and some will be new to you. They are:
Chapter One--Don Gillette
Chapter Two--Mindi Snyder
Chapter Three--Steve Stred
Chapter Four--Miranda Crites
Chapter Five--D.W. Gillespie
Chapter Six--Charlene Cocrane
Chapter Seven--Jonathan Janz
Chapter Eight--Bethany Guerra
Chapter Nine--Lachlan Watt
Chapter Ten--Terri Harrington
Chapter Eleven--Aaron Nash
Chapter Twelve--W. Sheridan Bradford
Chapter Thirteen--Michelle Enelen
Chapter Fourteen--Kev Harrison
Chapter Fifteen--Sadie Hartmann
Chapter Sixteen--George Ranson
Chapter Seventeen--Owen Morgan
Chapter Eighteen--Tracy Robinson
Chapter Nineteen--Chris Sorenson
Chapter Twenty--Jake Kennedy
Chapter Twenty One--Imber Blu
Chapter Twenty Two--Mason McDonald
Chapter Twenty Three--Frank Errington
Chapter Twenty Four--Kyle Gray
Chapter Twenty Five--J.J. McDowall
Chapter Twenty Six--Jim Herbert
Chapter Twenty Seven--Chris Chelser
Chapter Twenty Eight--Lilyn G
Chapter Twenty Nine--Scott Kemper
Chapter Thirty--Edward Lorn
I've got no idea at all how publication is going to work and I pity any publishing company that's got to sign 30 writers up for one book--but that's a bridge I didn't envision having to cross a year ago, so we'll see how it goes... I've gotten to know all of these folks well over the past year and not a soul in the bunch is mercenary or egomaniacal, so we might just publish the thing independently and put the proceeds into a scholarship fund or something. Again, we'll see how it goes...
So... there's the story up to this point. And thank you for your interest!
