July 16, 2023 was an important day in my personal history. It was officially the last day my sister and I delivered bad news around town. Unofficially, we ended up doing it another week until the newspaper found a replacement carrier. It was also the day I clicked “Publish” three times. Once for the Kindle ebook, a second time for the paperback and a third time for the hardcover of STURGEONS (the complete serials). To celebrate its anniversary, here is the story behind the two stories comprising this one book… 
It was a dark and stormy evening in June 2013 as I drove home from a friend’s wedding in Omaha, Nebraska. The sun was setting, and the rain was torrential as I slowly made my way west on interstate 80. I was pulling into Grand Island, Nebraska when the rain finally subsided, but darkness had enveloped me. Home was still an hour away and lightning flashed in the direction I was headed, so I made a decision to seek refuge in a big yellow house.
The inhabitants of this most curious dwelling welcomed me, for they were a cousin and a mutual friend. Conversation and cannibalism ensued as we caught up on life and then watched a particularly heartwarming Asian film titled ZOMBIE ASS. Sleep was required after such an emotionally compelling experience, so we retired to our separate sleeping arrangements to wait for whatever morning would bring us.
My cousin and I, two early risers, were sitting at the kitchen table chatting about this, that and whatever, when our mutual friend joined us with his shiny new computer tablet. I had never seen one before, and he was eager to show us how he could take photos and record videos with it. Plus, he could perform a voice-activated Internet search with just a touch of the screen. My first ebook had been published earlier that year, so after several other ideas, I asked him to search for DARK EXCURSIONS.
He tapped the screen and said, “Dark Excursions.” A few seconds zipped by and the tablet’s feminine computer voice spoke, “Results for Darkening Sturgeons.” Simultaneous laughter erupted between the three of us and I instantly knew I had to create something from this wayward voice-activated Internet search. So, that’s exactly what I did.
It was a dark and tranquil early morning in January 2017 as I sat alone in the car. Plenty of papers were rolled and my sister was delivering the bad news to one of our customers with an endlessly long driveway. I was existing in a perpetual state of waiting. Waiting for the appointment with an eye specialist. Waiting to find out if my vision loss was reversible. (SPOILER ALERT: it wasn’t.) Waiting for whatever was to come next. My thoughts were spiraling around the terrifying possibilities of the unknown and that’s when I felt a large swelling of despair racing towards me like a tidal wave. I had felt these depths many times as I saw my world disappearing before my eyes, but I didn’t want to feel it again. Especially since my sister would return to the car soon.
I knew I wouldn’t be able to completely prevent the wave from crashing upon my being, but I hoped I could lessen the impact. My mind focused on what I had accomplished up to that point. I briefly thought of old, unreleased stuff, but I mainly sorted through more recent creative endeavors. Going back and forth between my books and blog, I celebrated my words, my characters, my stories, in case my medical crisis was to be the end of my own story. Then I solely focused on DARKENING STURGEONS because deep down it was my favorite published creation. The goofy/serious plot, the assortment of quirky characters and how it was all so randomly created could always make me smile.
That’s when I heard a voice in my head. A voice I didn’t recognize, and he asked a startling question. What do I remember about the day my hometown was destroyed? It was as if someone had asked him the question and he was repeating it before answering. The answer unfolded behind my diminished eyes and I was swept back into the rebuilt town of Sturgeons, which I had always wanted to revisit. I felt a few tears slide down my cheeks because I suddenly experienced a twinge of hope. Hope that I would make it through the chaos and find a way to tell this tale, and I did…eventually.
HAUNTING STURGEONS, the emotional aftermath of a sci-fi/horror cataclysmic event, became my second blog serial, after two false starts. I wrote a few chapters later in 2017, but it was too big and too overwhelming of a project at the time. Then I seriously planned a creative revolution in 2018, but ended up writing VISION BENT (half-blind poems) instead, which I released in 2019. Years later, after that question, What do I remember about the day my hometown was destroyed, kept reverberating through my mind on a loop, I finally made HAUNTING STURGEONS a reality.
Then, in 2023, after briefly considering and scrapping a third blog serial, I started editing DARKENING STURGEONS and HAUNTING STURGEONS into a 2-in-1 volume. I went through a few title options, including The Sturgeons Dichotomy, but I decided simplicity, and acknowledging its origins, was best, so the book became STURGEONS (the complete serials). The cover is an altered A.I. image originally generated by Dave of My Gay Opinion and his partner to celebrate the release of HS as an ebook.
I’ll leave you with a few photos of STURGEONS sent to me by my awesome readers! 📗
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| Photo courtesy of Fred’s Shed of Sniffable Stuff |
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| Photo courtesy of The Cornwall Museum of Curious Creations |
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| Photo courtesy of The Florida Library of Forbidden Fiction |
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| Photo courtesy of The Cali Kindle Pop-Up Exhibit |
Freak Out,
JLH
P.S. click the pic to discover how I whipped the midnight oil…
