The musings of Sean Paul Murphy: Editor, Producer, Screenwriter, Author. Or, Hollywood -- and beyond -- as seen from an odd little corner of northeast Baltimore, Maryland.
Sean Paul Murphy, Writer
Sean Paul Murphy, Storyteller
Showing posts with label TouchPoint Press. Show all posts
Showing posts with label TouchPoint Press. Show all posts
I have been a proud member of the TouchPoint Press family for nearly ten years since the publication of my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God. I was one of the first authors they published. The company was small and very friendly, and appeared to be on the up and up. As it grew, I really enjoyed the Facebook author's group which allowed me to bond with my fellow authors. It was a great support group.
Many of those authors are now extremely unhappy with TTP and its owner Sheri Williams, and I sympathize with them completely. Contracts and obligations have not been met. Monies have not been paid. Still, I will always be thankful that Sheri took a chance on my strange little memoir. I appreciate her belief in me. I wish her success in her future endeavors.
I wish the same for my fellow authors. The rights for our books are being reverted back to us. Soon readers will not be able to buy the existing books on Amazon or other websites anymore, which means I will have to revise all the blogs here that link to them. I will probably self-publish my memoir, but I might try to find a new publisher for Chapel Street. I will also try to find a publisher for Life-Like, my next novel which was already in the pipeline for publication.
I view my time with TouchPoint Press positively. I met a lot of great authors and editors. I wish them well.
If you want a copy of one of my books, you better get it quick:
Be sure to check out my novel Chapel Street. It tells the story of a young man straddling the line between sanity and madness while battling a demonic entity that has driven his family members to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.
You can buy the Kindle and paperback at Amazon and the Nook, paperback and hardcover at Barnes & Noble.
I have the great pleasure to announce that TouchPoint Press accepted my new novel Life Like for publication.
TouchPoint Press previously published my memoir, The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God, and my horror novel, Chapel Street, which was inspired by a haunting my family experienced. They are also including my short story, The Park Family Cemetery, in their upcoming horror anthology The Nightmares of Strangers, Vol. 2. Despite my previous success with them, I was takng nothing for granted. I know they have rejected subsequent books by legacy authors.
I expected a longer process. I knew they were overwhelmed with submissions and haven't even worked through the books submitted in 2022. However, they agreed to look at the book when I submitted it. I suspected that it would be months before a decision would be made, but I got a lucky break. When I commented on Facebook that I had submitted the book, Kimberly Coghlan, the editor of my novel Chapel Street, saw the post and asked me to send her a copy of the manuscript. I did, and she read it that morning and said she loved it. She expedited the process and I received the contract soon thereafter.
I am happy to be a part of the TouchPoint Press family again. I am eternally grateful that publisher Sheri Williams took a chance on my oddball memoir. I was also very pleased the way the company handled the negotiations for the film rights to my novel Chapel Street. That was something that could have gone bad very quickly. They could have asked too much and ruined the deal, or too little and ruined my retirement. I found them wise and thoughtful, and very solicitous of my opinion throughout. You couldn't ask for more!
In addition to Sheri and Kimberly, I have many people to thank for the creation of the book. First and foremost is my wife Debbie. She is an incredibly supportive wife who has long pleaded with me to give up my day job and solely write -- even if it means she has to drive Lyft! Every guy should have a wife like her. I must also thank my old friend and trusty editor Trish Schweers. Trish helps me hammer my books into shape long before a publisher sees them. She also provided one of her poems for use in the book as well.
In addition to my normal readers and kibitzers, I must also thank Jeff Elkins of The Dialogue Doctor podcast. I met him through my granddaughter, who wants to marry her son. (They're both in the second grade.) Jeff really liked the book but suggested some major changes which entailed cutting out three existing chapters and adding more material. Even more importantly, he helped me define the genre of the book. I think I let it sit on the shelf for years because I didn't know how to define it. Jeff called it a techno-thriller, along the lines of Michael Crichton. To me, thriller is enough.
Here's the logline:
A lovelorn slacker, Andy Watson, finds himself working in a futuristic mausoleum where people can talk to holographic facsimiles of their loved ones. He soon finds himself in a world of trouble when he comes to suspect that one of its beautiful inhabitants, Claudia Elser, was murdered by her husband. Life Like is a high-tech thriller that explores the outer limits of artificial intelligence and love.
You often hear writers say their work was inspired by dreams. Life Like is the only story I wrote inspired by a dream. I had a near death experience while finishing up my award-winning documentary Sacred Ground: The Battle For Mount Auburn Cemetery. Soon after my return to the land of living I had a dream I was walking through the ruined, decrepit grounds of Mount Auburn. Then I soon found myself walking through a new section of the cemetery where the bodies were preserved in glass chambers, like in the 1934 Boris Karloff/Bela Lugosi film The Black Cat.
The Black Cat
Unlike in The Black Cat, in my dream I could also push a button on the side of the burial chambers to talk to the dead. When I woke up, I knew I had a tale to tell. It was just a matter of finding a compelling human story to attach to the concept. Of course, I pulled from my own life experiences for the characters and conflicts. In Life Like, I deal with my familiar themes of lost love, death and the specter of suicide -- but in a lighter manner than before.
Life Like actually started out as a screenplay. Here's a taste of the responses I got when I sent the script around Hollywood: "What the script has going for it most is its genuinely unique, high-concept premise -- as opposed to most other comedies, the material does not seem the least bit derivative." "A wonderful premise and unique to boot." "The material should be applauded for its quality characterizations." "Realistic and sharp dialogue." "The dialogue is endearing." "Strong character development." "It's entire third act stands out as the most invigorating part of the script." "A pretty funny and surprisingly emotional story about closure." "It's a fun and exciting read with a captivating plot and a happy ending!" "This project's prospects are rather bright." "Sure to get industry attention."
I was thankful for all the kind words, but I got no real bites. Why? Because the stakes weren't high enough in the original draft. The script was a character study which would have sold in a heartbeat during the 1990s, but the market had changed. Little human stories are no longer in vogue. While I figured out a way to increase the stakes, Jim Proimos, a well-known illustrator and the author of children and young adult books, offered to develop the script as a graphic novel. Before we got beyond some initial artwork, Jim was invited to pitch animation ideas to some LA production companies. He asked me if he could pitch Life Like as an adult swim style animated series. I said yes. He began pitching before COVID-19 shut down Hollywood.
In the downtime, I figured out how to increase the stakes. In the script, instead of restricting myself to Andy's perspective as originally planned, I started with the death of Claudia Elser and followed her tale parallel to Andy's story until the two finally met. I felt that worked. However, instead of pursuing the material as a script or graphic novel, I decided to convert the story into a novel since it dealt with a number of themes and ideas which are important to me. To me, screenplays are easier to write than novels. If an idea intrigues me, I don't hesitate exploring it in screenplay form. However, for me to develop something as a novel, it must resonate with me on a deeply personal level. That's why I generally write in first person. I don't write a novel unless I really see myself in it. Trust me, there's love and angst on every page of my books.
Now the publishing process will begin in earnest. The assigned editor, no doubt, will grow frustrated by the many sentence fragments I employ to maintain a conversational tone in the text. I will happily make the changes. I am excited to see what they will come up with as a cover and the announcement of the release date, etc. Then, one day, I will receive the finished book itself. Everything after that seems anti-climatic.
I hope you will enjoy the book when we're done.
Here's a video of me signing the contract:
Here's my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God. It is my true story of first faith and first love and how the two became almost fatally intertwined.
Here's my novel Chapel Street. It's the story of a young man battling a demonic entity that has been driving members of his family to suicide for generations. It was inspired by an actual haunting my family experienced.
I have the pleasure to announce that my short story The Park Family Cemetery has been accepted by TouchPoint Press for inclusion in their upcoming horror anthology Nightmares of Strangers (Vol. 2).
Here's the logline:
In The Park Family Cemetery, photographer Gary Sypniewski, a recovering drug addict, shoots graves for a genealogical website. Unfortunately, his addictive personality will not allow him to walk away when he is denied entrance to a beautiful but walled family cemetery in a crime-ridden neighborhood in Baltimore. Will his obsession cost him everything he has? Or give him everything he needs?
If you're surprised my new story is set in a cemetery, you obviously haven't been visiting this blog with any frequency!
The Park Family Cemetery is the first short story I have written since college. By the time I graduated, there was still a viable market for short stories in magazines and other publications. Writers could make a living writing short stories. However, the market place has sadly changed. That's a pity. With the shorter attention span of today's internet obsessed audiences, you'd think there would be a natural market for short stories. Then again, maybe there is....
I was inspired to write this short story by the work of other writers I have met online. People often ask me to read their screenplays and novels. Because of my schedule, I often have to refuse. However, I usually have time to read a five or ten page story. I was particularly impressed by Rich Hosek's podcast Bedtime Stories For Insomniacs featuring his short stories. Other talented writers, like Melissa R. Mendelson, also shared their work with me. They made me want to get in on the action.
I thought writing a short story would be a great challenge. I am now accustomed to working in longer formats. Did I still have the skill to tell a short, concise but compelling story? I wasn't sure. I had to try.
The inspiration for the story came while I was photographing graves in the Hebrew Orthodox Memorial Cemetery for the FindAGrave website. I was the only person in the cemetery. In fact, I had never seen another person in the cemetery during any of my numerous visits. Then the thought suddenly came to me: What would I do if I noticed a black clad mourner in one of my photographs when I got home? That thought really creeped me out.
That was all the idea I needed to get started. Sadly, I didn't even use it! Because of the time constraints of the format and the amount of time I needed to establish my character, I had to cut that scene out. However, the initial concept remained: A damaged person gets into deep supernatural trouble while photographing graves for a genealogical website. On the most fundamental level, that's essentially the same plot as my novel Chapel Street. This story would have the added bonus of being the second entry in my "Resting Place" universe.
One thing was certain: I didn't expect the story to get published. I knew my publisher had a horror anthology in the works, but I didn't think I'd have a chance against the more experienced short story writers. I thought, at most, I would read it myself and build a YouTube video around it. Fortunately, I got accepted!
I want to thank Publisher Sheri Williams and Deputy Publisher Ashley Carlson and the good folks at TouchPoint Press for accepting my story! I am also looking forward to working with Associate Editor Liam Lassiter to create the final version.
Most importantly, I can't wait for the rest of you to read it!
Tina's book tells how she managed to escape a bout of suicidal depression by giving her dying cousin Brian one of her kidneys. It was a sacrifice that forever altered both of their lives. I haven't read it yet, but I am looking forward to it.
I do consider the TouchPoint Press staff and my fellow writers a family. We have a very active Facebook group and help each by pointing out promotional opportunities, etc. My only regret is that so few of my fellow authors live in the mid-Atlantic region. Fortunately, Tina and her husband live just across the state line from me in South Central Pennsylvania so we've had the opportunity to meet in person. Strangely, Tina was also a client of Betty -- the Hagerstown, Md.. fortuneteller who looms large in the actual haunting that inspired my novel Chapel Street. What a coincidence!
Tina gave me the opportunity to do a short video trailer for her book. Here it is:
For me, the journey down Chapel Street was long and arduous.
I began writing the novel in earnest, originally titled RestingPlace.com in October of 2016. My first draft was completed in May of 2017. Eight months. Not bad. I wrote it almost entirely while working for National Geographic. I worked nights. During the days, I would wake up around noon and go downstairs and write for an hour or two. When I went to work, I would email the draft to myself. On slow nights, when my work was done, I would download it at NatGeo and continue writing.
The novel is about a man battling a demonic curse that had driven his family members to suicide for generations. As it began taking shape, I would leave a printout for my lovely wife Deborah to read while I was away. She found the story frightening. So frightening that she didn't want to stay home alone at night. She would retreat to the bright lights of the Horseshoe Casino in downtown Baltimore. I began to fear that the book would never return enough money to compensate for those losses!
One of the reasons why my wife foundChapel Street so frightening, aside from my narrative skills, was the fact that she knew the story behind the novel. Or at least bits and pieces of it.
Chapel Streetdidn't really begin in October of 2016. It began in late April or early May of 1974, when my family moved into 21 St. Helens Avenue in the leafy Lauraville neighborhood of Northeast Baltimore. Our family of two parents and five children, soon to be joined by a sixth, had no idea at the time that the house was inhabited by a demonic presence.
21 St. Helens Avenue
The entity was insidious. It eschewed major shows of force in the beginning, preferring instead to concentrate on spiritual and psychological attacks on a few specific individuals. I had no direct encounters with the entity myself until nearly ten years later. After my mother and a friend had an ill-advised Ouija board session in the empty front attic bedroom, the paranormal activity in the house escalated dramatically. Now it made itself known. There was no denying what was going on. It would generally prey on one person -- or couple -- a night. You could always tell who it was: You'd find them sleeping on the sofa in the living room the next morning. However, the details of the attacks stayed private. Since we feared that talking about the entity empowered it, we never discussed it in any detail.
This was not fun and games. It was deadly serious. The house exuded a menacing sense of oppression. People lapsed into depression. Even before the Ouija board incident, I had attempted suicide in the living room. I did not attribute my actions to any paranormal activity at the time. Now I am not so sure. Because I was not alone. My sister Laura and my brother Mark both committed suicide. Other members of the family also attempted to do so. There were also things I call suicide events. They were supernatural interventions that, if played out as intended, would have resulted in a death that would have appeared to have been suicide.
Here's one. At the height of the haunting, for a number of consecutive nights, I awoke to find myself climbing out of my third floor bedroom window at precisely three in the morning. Always three in the morning. A fall from the roof outside of my window would have definitely been fatal. And the only explanation could have been suicide. Needless to say, I was horrified. Only a constant barrage of prayers ended these occurrences. That experience would eventually became the cornerstone of the novel.
The lethal intent of the entity -- or entities -- was obvious. However, I suspect now that it couldn't actually kill us. It had to make us kill ourselves....
My family finally left the house in 2005. We still didn't talk about it. There had been incidents where the entity appeared when people talked about it. It was best to remain quiet. However, sometime in 2016, my mother pulled me aside and asked me if I thought the entity in the house was responsible -- in part -- for the deaths of my sister and brother.
I had been wondering the same thing myself. I dealt with my attempted suicide in my memoir The Promise, or the Pros and Cons of Talking with God. While I was writing the book, I really couldn't rationally explain the mental, emotional and spiritual collapse which led to it. In retrospect, suicide seemed a wildly disproportionate response to my emotional state and utterly out of character. Did I unknowingly fall victim to the entity's psychological and spiritual manipulations? More importantly, did my siblings? Was there a spiritual or supernatural aspect to their deaths that we missed? That was a sobering thought. Whenever there are suicides, there is always survivors guilt among the loved ones left behind. My mother's questions played on that.
Chapel Street was my attempt to explore that disturbing possibility in the safety of fiction. My protagonist Rick Bakos, a young man much like myself, is emotionally crippled by a series of suicides in his family. When he finds himself waking up every night climbing over railing of his tenth story apartment balcony, he slowly uncovers the supernatural cause for the suicidal mayhem in his family.
Although the book is also a romance, the central relationship is between Rick and his late brother Lenny. I very much drew upon my relationship with my late brother Mark. In the novel, Lenny -- or a clever simulation -- appears frequently to his brother Rick.
I can't say that Mark made any post-death appearances to me in real life, but I believe I captured him in the character of Lenny. Mark, sadly, wrestled with mental illness during much of his adult life. As a result of his madness, we were sometimes estranged. However, in calmer times, he periodically confided in me about his experiences with mental illness and the conditions and the routines in the hospitals where he found himself.
I also developed Chapel Street's villain Betty, in part. from a reference Mark made in his suicide note about an ominous, unexplained dark woman. The actual name Betty came from a now-deceased Frederick, Maryland, fortune-teller my mother and some of her friends visited. Unlike the cheery mediums one finds on reality TV shows, this Betty wasn't afraid to give bad news. She told my mother that two of her children would commit suicide. She was right. (So far.) My mother, however, assumed it would be Mark and myself. I can't blame her. That was the safe bet. My sister Laura's suicide was a stunning surprise that crushed our family. However, Laura herself had visited Betty a few short days before her death. I wonder what Betty told her....
My surviving sister Jeanne, who had never previously seen Betty, drove up to talk to her after Laura's death. Betty's first words to her were: "I did not kill your sister."
I wonder.
I must say that the only thing my mother found unfair about the book was naming the villain after Betty. She contends Betty was a nice woman.... Fortunately, she did not object to the depiction of the mother in the book. I had warned her, anytime I discussed the book, that the mother was not based on her. She was, however, based on the late mother of a late friend of mine.
Chapel Streetintersects with me, and my family and our experiences at 21 St. Helens Avenue in countless ways -- albeit in a highly exaggerated manner. My sister, upon reading the rough draft of the novel, called it a cartoon version of our experiences. She's right. I am simply not a talented enough writer to adequately convey the more subtle horrors of the actual events at 21 St. Helens Avenue. But I believed I truly captured the maddening terror of being deliberately tormented by an entity beyond the human realm.
So that's the history of the book. When I finished it, I didn't know what I wanted to do with it. I essentially sat on the manuscript for years, aside from periodically sending it out to find an agent. Eventually, I decided to send it to Sheri Williams at TouchPoint Press, who had previously published my memoir, to see what she thought of it. She liked it, so I let her have it.
I think it is a great book, and I hope it will be adapted into a film. I'm sure it'd be a home run at the box office. However, even if the book never sells a single copy, it is already a success to me because it proved to be the impetus to finally get my family talking about our experiences. That was long overdue. Although I was already working on another novel, I put it aside to start compiling an oral history of the house at 21 St. Helens Avenue and the events that took place inside of it. People ask me if that will become a book one day. I don't know. The prospect doesn't enthuse me. I like happy endings, and it's hard to turn what happened to my family into a win.
Oh well.
I would like to take this opportunity to again thank my lovely wife Deborah for her undying love and support. I am also indebted to my friend and editor Trish Schweers, who always manages to hammer my work into shape against all odds. My beta readers, Patty Gehret and Beth White Werrell, also contributed heavily to this book with their red ink. I would also like to thank my editor Kimberly Coghlan, who managed to pull me across the finish line, and Colbie Myles for the cover art. I am also grateful to my fellow authors and media professionals, including K.A. Hitchens, Krista Wagner, Kenji Gallo, Jamie A. Hope, Sydnye White and John Molli, for their advice and kind words.
You can currently buy the ebook and paperback at Amazon and the hardcover at Barnes & Noble. Soon, the ebook and the paperback will be available by quality booksellers everywhere. The hardcover will be exclusively sold through Barnes & Noble.
If you really want to be horrified, listen to me read some chapters in my Baltimore accent:
Here's the fourth chapter of my upcoming paranormal thriller Chapel Street. This will be the last official weekly chapter read of my COVID lockdown pledge since my home state of Maryland is entering Stage 3 this week. However, I might still read another chapter or two for the fun of it.
This is one of my favorite and most frightening chapters of the book. It could be said that I wrote this book for this very chapter. As I reported earlier, this book was inspired by a true haunting my family experienced at our home at 21 St. Helens Avenue. My most harrowing experiences during the haunting involved me nearly sleepwalking myself to death. A number of nights in a row, I woke up climbing out of my attic bedroom window. Had I not woken up, I am sure I would have fallen to my death and that death would have been misinterpreted as a suicide.
To make matters even creepier, this always happened exactly at 3:00am.
I feel this chapter captures that experience. I hope you enjoy it.
The book itself is now available.
The ebook is now available for pre-order on Amazon. Click Here. The pre-order price is $2.99. After it is released, the retail price will go to $7.99. Talk about savings! I'd buy it now!
The hardcover (yes, hardcover) is available for pre-order at Barnes & Nobles now. Click Here.
I'll be back with another chapter soon. Until then, stay safe!
Sean Paul Murphy’s Chapel Street Mixes a Tragic Family
History with a Terrifying Demonic Presence.
May
8, 2020--Baltimore, MD--Sean Paul Murphy’s new supernatural thriller Chapel Street is set to release July 3.
After
enduring the death of his father in a car accident, Rick Bakos grew up to watch
both his brother and his mother succumb to madness and suicide. Nor were they
the first members of his family to kill themselves. After photographing the
grave of Betty Kostek, Rick finds himself drawn into a maelstrom of horror.
Each night he finds himself inexorably drawn closer to self-destruction. Rick’s
only ally is Teri Poskocil. She too has fallen under the suicidal spell of the
late Betty Kostek. The couple soon discovers their pairing wasn’t a
coincidence. Their great-grandparents were next door neighbors on Chapel Street
nearly a century earlier. Together Rick and Teri must solve the mystery of
Chapel Street before they find death at their own hands.
“This
is not just a product to me,” Murphy states. “I grew up in an actively haunted
house and experienced the tragic suicides of two siblings.” Murphy creates a
spine-tingling story about family, love, and good versus evil. Chapel Street will appeal to horror
aficionados ages eighteen and older. The horror is predominantly psychological
and spiritual in nature. By combining the tragedy of suicide and questions of
the afterlife, Murphy creates a compelling tale in the vein of The Conjuring and Hereditary.
About Sean Paul Murphy Sean Paul Murphy, a writing
instructor at Towson University, has written fourteen feature films including Hidden Secrets, Sarah’s Choice, The Encounter
and the Revelation Road trilogy. He
is a 2012 winner of the $50,000 Kairos Prize for Screenwriting. A series of
short crime films he wrote for the FBI won a combined six Emmys on the Pentagon
Channel.
About TouchPoint Press TouchPoint Press, a traditional
publisher of digital and print fiction and nonfiction, strives to be innovative
and energetic in all we do from acquisitions to promotion before and after
publication. We are proud to work with talented authors whose works have received
or were nominated for several awards. Our staff is comprised of professionals
whose collective experience in publishing, editing, journalism, design, and
marketing set the stage behind our growing fiction and nonfiction lists.
For
interview and review requests, contact Ashley Carlson at media
@touchpointpress.com.
###
You can pre-order the ebook here: Amazon
You can pre-order the hardcover here: Barnes & Noble
Here's the second chapter of my upcoming paranormal thriller Chapel Street.
The prologue and the first chapter of the novel established the death obsessed protagonist Rick Bakos, who has been scarred by a series of suicides in his family. This chapter gives us the most recent face of our villain: Elisabetta Kostek. That name means nothing to Rick initially, but before long he will discover her damning connection to his family.
