Book Review of David Jacob Knight’s The Pen Name

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

The Pen NameGood horror is hard to come by—very likely because I don’t follow the genre as closely as I should. I love horror with a supernatural twist, which is why Stephen King has always been one of my favorites. With limited reading time, Stephen King’s bi-annual offerings have kept me fairly occupied, satisfying my “horror” craving. I guess I’ll need to make more time. David Jacob Knights first entry into the horror genre instantly earns him a place on my “to read” list. Check out my review of The Pen Name. 

“The Pen Name takes the age old premise of the Faustian Bargain and fashions a unique, utterly horrifying contemporary tale. A devilish blend of psychological thriller and supernatural horror—this one will keep you turning the pages long into the night.

Meet Ben, a struggling writer on the verge of failure. Reality, both financial and family-related, is one step away from crushing his lifelong dream. Armed with his self-published novel, The Mark, Ben takes a chance on a book convention, ordering hundreds of copies of his novel. The books never arrive, crushing his hopes even further. The single bright spot of his day is a chance encounter with Jack Fleischer, New York Times bestselling author, who happens upon Ben at the convention. Fleischer has somehow procured a copy of Ben’s book and asks him to sign it. Ben’s career is about to take off—in a direction he never anticipated.

Knight captures the essence of Ben’s character. His hopes, dreams, frustrations and fears—all play a significant role is the terrifying suspense that unfolds after the “deal of a lifetime” is waved in front of him. The particulars of the deal are sketchy at best, the contract is several hundred pages long, and the Fleischer’s literary agent is impatient. Das Verlag Publishing needs an answer right away! Within the span of minutes, Ben has to make a choice. The rest is white-knucked ride through psychological hell, masterfully twisted and turned the moment you get comfortable.

Das Verlag is a force to be reckoned with, watching his every move—and if Ben violates the terms of his agreement, terrible consequences lie ahead. The problem is that Ben doesn’t have a copy of the agreement, and all efforts to secure one after signing it have failed. When his publisher’s requests start to cross the line of sanity, Ben is catapulted into a life or death struggle to uncover the shocking truth about his contract with Das Verlag.

The supernatural element is present, but never overdone. The scenes inside Das Verlag publishing are awesome…a skyscraper in the middle of the cornfields of Pennsylvania, reachable by taking an unmarked highway tunnel that doesn’t appear on any map. You have to take the trip with Ben to see it. The devil is in the details, and Das Verlag doesn’t disappoint.

I look forward to future offerings by Mr. Knight.”

Finding a little inspiration…

Posted on by Steven Konkoly

to start a new novel.

You’d think that starting novel number six wouldn’t be a big deal. It’s always a big deal, and frankly, I find myself more than a little nervous as I type the title on the page, make sure it’s centered and STARE at the screen for an indeterminable amount of time. The first words are always the most difficult for me, compounded by the fact that those words commit me to a minimum of three straight months of writing.

I wrote the first 420 words to The Perseid Collapse this morning, sitting at a desk in a hotel room. Not exactly where I would choose to start such an important undertaking, but my day job requires these things, and I write everyday no matter where I find myself…even a lonely hotel room. No, it wasn’t someplace fancy or scenic. As a matter of fact, it was within sight of both a mall and the Maine Turnpike.

But it was in Bangor, less than eight minutes (as measured by my iPhone’s mapping software) from my favorite author’s house.

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I’ve been to Bangor several times over the past few months for work, but I’ve purposely avoided West Broadway. I’ve driven by it and struggled not to turn. Why? Because I wanted the context of seeing Stephen King’s house to be special. Seeing it on the same morning that I typed the first words of my sequel to The Jakarta Pandemic qualified, so I made the turn off Union Street and parked in front of his house long enough to take a few pictures. It was all I needed to round off a perfect morning…almost perfect. I forgot to bring the power cord for my Mac Air on the trip, and found myself with 46% power upon waking at “zero dark thirty.” 420 words was all I could write before the computer basically told me to save my document and find something else to do.