Darren Pillsbury

For those of you who have read PETER AND THE BOOGEYMEN, you know that Dr. Sheldon Prescott has a…um…’condition.’ That ‘condition’ will figure prominently in the 18th story in the series.

Here’s the initial drawing for the cover to PETER AND THE CRAZIES, which comes out on June 1st:

Creepy, eh? Let’s hope the end result is similarly unnerving.

By the way, Dr. Prescott (in his everyday, ‘normal’ condition) was inspired in part by Sheldon Cooper of the TV show The Big Bang Theory. That’s why I named him ‘Sheldon,’ for one thing. (It was originally something else, and I changed it to match my favorite fictional theoretical physicist.)

There are major differences between the characters – number one being that my Sheldon is not funny in the slightest, except when he’s freaking out (there was a massively fun scene to write in CRAZIES where he bugs out). He’s also a full-fledged adult, versus the overgrown man-child that is Sheldon Cooper. But they’re both arrogant, super-smart, and socially aloof.

So, there you go – once we get the show off the ground with Lance Henrikson as Grandfather, we’ll ask Emmy-winning Jim Parsons to guest star in a several-episode arc.

Not every story has a song associated with it, but a number of them do (like “Little Toy Gun” for Peter And The Gingerbread Men).

In Peter And The Carnival Of Evil, there’s a description of hypnotic carnival music that plays – in his dream, then later played by the evil Siamese twin Leng, and later over the loudspeakers at the end of the story:

Somewhere far away, carnival music drifted through the air. It was soft and sinister, and sounded like it was played on an organ made of hollowed-out bones.

In my mind, that song is the organ solo in “House Of The Rising Sun” by the Animals. Check out the whole song, but specifically the solo starting around 1:37:

There was a story idea I had that led to the creation of Cyrus Gimler and his band of evil misfits. It was basically a gang in New Orleans sometime from 1860 to 1900, four or five guys who did all sorts of bad things. I never really developed it beyond one image of the gang beating up one of their members in a muddy alleyway, but the image of the bowler hat and the old-style clothes made it into the first scene of Carnival, as well as the fact that Cyrus stole the mirror from a guy in New Orleans.

It’s not a particularly pressing question, since the odds of a TV show ever happening are about ten million to one. (I would want a TV show adaptation, not a movie. That would allow all or most of the stories to get told, rather than choosing one or – God forbid – trying to smush several villains from different stories into one movie.)

However, you might be interested in who I think of in the role when I see it play out on the movie screen of my mind’s eye.

I told readers years and years ago (when I first blogged the books, before publishing them on Amazon) that I originally saw Richard Harris as being pretty close to Grandfather. You might know him from a range of film roles, but one of his most famous (and his last) was as the first actor to play Dumbledore in the first two HARRY POTTER movies. (By the way, this photo is from GLADIATOR.)

Take away the cape and neck scarf thingie, put on a tie and starched white collar, give him a haircut in the back, grow out that beard a little, have him scowl like he wants to kick your ass, and I see Seamus Flannagan.

Unfortunately, Mr. Harris died in 2002. So…barring the kind of Tupac hologram technology they debuted at Coachella this year, he’s out.

There are probably a lot of actors who could play Grandfather wonderfully. Clint Eastwood has the gravelly voice now I associate with the character, though doesn’t remind me of him at all physically.

But as far as living actors playing Ol’ Grouchy, I think Lance Henriksen would be awesome.

You probably know him as Bishop from ALIENS, or Frank Black from the TV show MILLENIUM.

Of course, he’s a bit older now…

Actually, a LOT older. He turned 72 on May 5th. (Happy Birthday, Mr. H!) Which means he’s EXACTLY the right age to play Grandfather now. Unfortunately that means he’ll probably be too old to ever play the character if the show got made.

Haha! I’m forgetting, ten million to one…as long as I’m going to dream, might as well dream it’s happening in six months, right?

The qualities in that first photo are what would make him a great Seamus Flannagan. The eyes, the scowl, the lined face. And the voice – he has that rumbling, bass voice that Grandfather has. Slap a beard on him, get him scowling…and voila, Seamus Flannagan.

I promised more updates! Here you go!

One thing I’ve always said about writing the PETER AND THE MONSTER series is that, in my mind, it’s a television series. That’s how I treat it. Every story is an episode. Season One is probably all the stories through “Peter And The Werewolves,” and we leave it at the end of that story on a cliffhanger until Season Two.

I also visualize the stories as I write them – to the point that sometimes I’m just transcribing stuff that I can see in my mind’s eye.

Also, there are things I would do that don’t translate quite as well into text. Action sequences, for instance. And one of the action sequences I would love to see is the battle about 2/3rds of the way through PETER AND THE GINGERBREAD MEN. You know, right after they break out of the basement of the house – after the lawnmower bit.

In my head, I see Gwen whipping around, her rifle blasting, and Gingerbread Men getting blown apart by the baker’s dozen. Peter and Dill are shooting, too – but, let’s face it, they’re way worse shots. Gwen would be deadly as the Terminator in this sequence. At least to Gingerbread Men.

And this is the song that would be playing on the soundtrack: “Little Toy Gun” by Honey Honey. When the song slows down around 1:28, everything in the show would cut into slow motion – Gwen whipping around, paintballs splatting, evil cookies exploding into tiny little crumbs.

Just listen to the song and don’t watch, at least not at first – the video is kind of cheesy. Well, it’s okay, but it’s going to interfere with the real visual: Gwen in her Doc Martens and black goth dress, dealing death to gingerbread men with her Baikl Drozd.

Oh, and just as a bonus: the tiny covers on Amazon don’t really do the Gingerbread Men justice, and you can barely see the pins baked in, so here’s a closeup. It’s still not exactly what I wanted – I couldn’t figure out how to make razor blades work visually, so I used fishing hooks instead – but it’s close enough:

I have decided not to make ‘The Perfect’ the enemy of ‘The Good.’

I’ve been saying I’d start posting on my blog for months, but I always thought I would do some fancy-shmancy artwork…or big words of wisdom…which is a lot of work. And besides doing the PETER stories, I’m pretty lazy.

So when I decided to do a picture of Gwen, I was going to do it like my covers…ink it in Photoshop…add in textures…colors…make it real purty…

And, of course, I never got around to it, cuz that’s WORK, man.

So I’m just going to start posting easy-peasy stuff that I think is pretty cool. Hopefully you’d rather have behind-the-scenes stuff that isn’t perfect, rather than nothing at all.

So.

When I was doing the covers for individual ebook versions of stories #1 through 13, I didn’t quite know what to do for GINGERBREAD MEN.

The original story was originally called PETER AND THE SMALL ONES, so as not to give away the surprise right off the bat. Which would have been cool for the reader…but I don’t think PETER AND THE SMALL ONES is nearly as marketable as PETER AND THE GINGERBREAD MEN.

So I had an alternate idea for the cover, which was Gwen, with several threatening shadows over her (which were supposed to be shadows of gingerbread men that you couldn’t see).

Anyway, here’s the image I have in my mind of Gwen:

Note the clunky boots (probably Doc Martens) and the Baikal Drozd, a Russian-made BB gun she uses to devastating effect in GINGERBREAD.

The PETER stories will follow our characters until their senior year of high school, and I think I stumbled across someone who looks remarkably like what I figure Gwen will look like at 17 or 18:

She’s the New Zealand singer Kimbra, and that’s a shot from her video “Settle Down.”(I don’t think her voice in the music video is a match for how I ‘hear’ Gwen, but the visual’s pretty much dead-on.)

She’s actually most famous right now for her verse in the song “Somebody That I Used To Know” by Gotye (go-tee-YAY). “Settle Down” is really good, but “Somebody” is awesome – the male singer sounds like Sting, and the song resembles a lost Police masterpiece. And Kimbra’s part rocks.

Anyway. If I were to cast somebody for Gwen in her senior year, the woman in that shot above would be a front-runner.

Start coming back regularly, as I’m going to behind posting more stuff like this.

What up, folks!

Peter And The Boogeymen is now available on both Kindle and Nook!

Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007YMK47G

Nook: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/peter-and-the-boogeymen-darren-pillsbury/1110478555?ean=2940014487153

Hope you enjoy it! Let me know what you think!

Here’s the summary:

Something evil has come to Duskerville.

Scott Benhadler is a good kid, but he’s been bullied beyond endurance. Picked on, called names, beat up, humiliated.

When he gets the chance at revenge, he takes it – but soon finds that the dark forces he’s unleashed are no longer under his control.

By the time he seeks out the help of local misfit Peter Normal and his grandfather, Crazy Old Man Flannagan…it might just be too late.

Book #17 in the PETER AND THE MONSTERS series! 41,000 words.

Hey everybody, just wanted to say that you should check out http://www.fkbooksandtips.com for free ebooks on Kindle.

Michael was kind enough to post my book there today, and I’m seeing massive levels of downloads! He’s definitely one of the best resources for free Kindle ebooks on the web.

Go check him out!

Hola folks,

Sorry I have not posted more or responded to comments. That is my April resolution (since my New Year’s one failed so miserably). I’m going to start posting drawings, so come back starting early April and check out a sketch of Gwen and various other ideas I have lined up.

First off, a shout-out to South Central Middle School in Emerson, Georgia! I did a reading there on March 28th, to 250 students in a cafeteria – and my audience rocked! They were awesome! Thanks guys! Anybody who wants to (and this goes for my regular fans, too) can always contact me at darrenpillsburybooks(at symbol)gmail.com. The (at symbol) part = @. Just trying to stop internet bots from spamming me.

I told some of the students I would draw up some documents on how to publish on Amazon and CreateSpace, and I’ll share that with everybody. Just give me a week or more, I’m out of town over the weekend, but I plan to start working on the goodies as soon as I get back.

Speaking of goodies, PETER AND THE GROWNUPS is available on Kindle!

http://www.amazon.com/dp/B007P9F6WQ

Sorry, Nook folks, I fell down on the job. I’ll upload the Nook version tonight, but it can take 24-78 hours for them to list it in the store. So keep checking BandN.com every day. I’ll list a definitive link once I get back into town.

Here’s the description:

The grownups have finally caught up with Peter Normal.

After months of battling supernatural monsters in secret, Peter, Dill, and Gwen have been apprehended by the police.

Now they’re on trial for a crime they didn’t commit. But no one will ever believe the truth.

At stake: their freedom. And quite possibly their lives.

And the only person who can save them is Seamus Flannagan…Peter’s grandfather.

Enjoy GROWNUPS, and thanks again to South Central Middle School for being such a great audience!

PETER AND THE MUMMY now on sale!

Amazon.com Kindle Version

BandN.com Nook Version

It’s just another school field trip for Peter and his friends Dill and Gwen.

Except that there’s an Egyptology exhibit at the museum.

As they often do around Peter, things go very, very wrong…

…and the kids discover that vampires aren’t the only monsters that rise from the dead.

The newest book in the PETER AND THE MONSTERS series!

21,000 words.

Sequel to the following stories:
PETER AND THE HELPERS (Story #14)
PETER AND THE FRANKENSTEIN (Volume Three)
PETER AND THE WEREWOLVES (Volume Two)
PETER AND THE VAMPIRES (Volume One)

Includes a sneak preview of Darren Pillsbury’s recently released ebook, IMAGINARY FRIENDS!

What up, folks!

Some interesting news:

My first novel, IMAGINARY FRIENDS, will soon be available in ebook format for the first time.

It’s the story of a single father who starts to see his two little boys’…wait for it…imaginary friends.

If you like the humor of my other books, you’ll definitely want to check this one out.

IMAGINARY FRIENDS should be published on Amazon.com for the Kindle by noon on 2/3/12, and in the next couple of days for the Nook on BarnesAndNoble.com.

I’ll let you know as soon as it’s available.

Also, I’m chugging along on relaunching the individual stories that make up the first three books in the PETER AND THE MONSTERS series. There are 13 of them in the books PETER AND THE VAMPIRES, PETER AND THE WEREWOLVES, and PETER AND THE FRANKENSTEIN.

In fact, by 2/15/12, I should be publishing the first new story in almost nine months, PETER AND THE HELPERS (Story #14).

And the best news is, I’ll be publishing a new PETER story every month thereafter, starting with these:

PETER AND THE HELPERS (Story #14)
PETER AND THE MUMMY (Story #15)
PETER AND THE GROWNUPS (Story #16)

That’s it!  I’ll keep you posted as the stories roll out – starting with IMAGINARY FRIENDS in the next few days!

PS – By the way, if you still haven’t got a copy of PETER AND THE VAMPIRES: VOLUME ONE yet, it’s available for free now on the Kindle as well as the Nook!

Kindle:  http://www.amazon.com/PETER-AND-THE-VAMPIRES-ebook/dp/B004ZQRLS4/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&m=AG56TWVU5XWC2&s=digital-text&qid=1304877609&sr=1-3

Nook:  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/peter-and-the-vampires-darren-pillsbury/1100686093