Meet William Doonan

This week I’m honored to have as my guest blogger William Doonan, a writer of mystery novels and stories, as well as an archeologist, a professor, and a very pleasant, funny guy. I know many of you are familiar with his work, which includes the Henry Grave cruise ship mystery series, as well as American Caliphate. If you know his work, you’ll agree with me that Bill Doonan is a highly entertaining writer, a real storyteller.

As I do routinely for these blog posts, I asked Bill to tell us what he feels about the Joy of Story. Here’s what he has to say. In the process, he tells the story of his adventure e-publishing his newest novel, The Mummies of Blogspace9.

Thanks, John, for having me on your blog, and thanks to your readers for reading. I’ve been thinking a lot about story-telling recently. As a college professor, I find myself telling stories every day; to illuminate concepts, to break the ice, and to build community. I can’t imagine a life without story.

I’ve written several books and dozens of short stories. I’m a mystery writer at heart, I’ve come to realize. But I’m an archaeologist by profession. And my most recent opus The Mummies of Blogspace9 draws on both of these facets.

It’s a fast-paced, genre-bending mystery involving an ancient pyramid (where I had the privilege of working for five summers) and a number of undead conquistador mummies (whom I have not yet encountered but suspect are real).

I worked really hard on this story, first as a serialized novel on my blog www.williamdoonan.wordpress.com, and then, after meticulous rewriting, as a novel onto itself.

It’s a taut, high-stakes epistolary thriller about a team of archaeologists who inadvertently dig up more than they bargained for. Demons of antiquity are not easily amused, nor are those who’ve sold their souls to protect them. The Mummies of Blogspace9 will fill your heart with terror and with glee (but not at the same time, because that would be very strange, and also pointless).

You’ll laugh out loud, cringe in fear, and shake your head with delight. Here are some plot elements you might enjoy:

      undead mummies;

      archaeology;

      very attractive protagonists who you will develop crushes on;

      carefully-chosen fonts;

      delightful full-color, high-resolution illustrations.

       

Here’s a blurb from one of Leon’s posts (Leon being a protagonist):

“None of us knew what was at stake. And that’s the thing about archaeology— you never know what you’ll find when you start digging into an ancient pyramid. Maybe some burials, mummies even. But surely not a five hundred year-old secret worth killing for.

“Had I known at the onset that seven weeks later most of my friends would be dead, I would have left Peru in a heartbeat. But of course I didn’t know that.

“I didn’t know that a demonically-possessed Spanish Grand Inquisitor would haunt the crap out of us, or that a pair of undead conquistador knights would help us find the secret to putting down walking mummies.

“And surely, I wouldn’t have just sat around had I known that something was watching from inside that pyramid, some malevolent force that could animate the dead.

“But it’s all true, as you’ll come to realize.”

The Mummies of Blogspace9: Horror has a new URL

It’s an e-book, and that isn’t everybody’s thing. I get that. But I wanted to try something different, and this format allowed me to play around with illustrations. So if you have a Kindle, have a look. If you don’t, you can still see some fun things for the bargain price of 99¢. Here’s a link to peruse, gawk, or buy:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Mummies-of-Blogspace9-ebook/dp/B00C44N1L0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1367790997&sr=8-1&keywords=the+mummies+of+blogspace9

William Doonan is a mystery writer, archaeologist, professor, and purveyor of fine silk carpets. For more information about his work, visit www.williamdoonan.com.