Dark Times in Cobalt City

Frequent readers know that I have plans to put out another Cobalt City book this fall. I might have mentioned it once or twice. I might also have mentioned that it’s a bit dark.

I’m deep in my final edit pass right now, with a goal to have it formatted by the end of the month. I’ve also been talking to a cover artist who has done great work for some friends and fellow publishers. I think he’ll be a great fit for the material.

Here’s the thing.

It’s dark.

“But dude,” I hear you say, “You write horror. That’s already dark. Isn’t that like warning us that the ocean is wet?”

Yes. And so very much no.

Let me share a bit of an anecdote. Years ago I used to collaborate with a good friend of mine on screenplays. The first two were horror, and we reached an early understanding: he’d do horror, but not serial killers. His reasoning was that it was one thing to write about supernatural horrors, but he didn’t want to write about human monsters. Ultimately, he didn’t want to feed into our inherent distrust of one another. And I respect that, so no serial killers.

Yeah, I write horror. But pretty much without exception it has all been supernatural horror. I have no problem making people look twice at potentially evil finger puppets, or question what might be lurking, evil and eternal at the bottom of a cold lake. But I have pretty much steered clear of human monsters.

The next Cobalt City book is not horror. It is very much a crime story. And like Greetings from Buena Rosa, the roots of the story lie in very real life horrors. In the case of Buena Rosa, it was the large number of unsolved murders in border regions of Mexico, and police torturing innocent people into confessing so that they could show some sort of progress or resolution. In the case of the new book, it was the industry of sex trafficking.

The truth of sex trafficking and human slavery is horrifying. It’s real easy to see why we as a culture are so quick to turn a blind eye or pretend that it “doesn’t happen here.” But it does. It’s a shadow industry that, according to some studies, collectively generates more money than fast food. We’re talking billions of dollars.

It’s the kind of situation that makes me want to see heroes step in and address the problem. And rather than send Gato Loco in again, I found my heroes in Protectorate favorite Velvet and a new character named Bantam. They’ll be joined by Xia Lo, the Harlequin, enforcer for the city’s criminal syndicate. Maybe “joined” is too strong of a word…

In many ways, this book (originally called Thicker than Water but now titled Ties that Bind), is an exorcism. It’s become a deeply personal project for me. All of my point-of-view characters are female. 2/3 of them are Asian. One character is gay, another bi. In watching them navigate and confront the linked industries of human trafficking and sex slavery, I get to see them grow and change. For purely selfish reasons I get to confront a problem I find deeply problematic on a variety of fronts. And as I’m closing in on the end of this final edit pass, I recognize that it’s a damn good book despite being a brutal ride.

Yeah, it’s grim subject matter. The journey is not a fun one. Imagine Andrew Vacchs writing superhero comics in the 80’s. It felt necessary for me to write this, but I honestly can’t imagine anyone wanting to read it. Sure, there’s a glimmer of hope. These are heroes, after all. That said, it’s not like anything else I’ve ever written in Cobalt City.

But I’m publishing it anyway. I’m shelling out cash for a cover I can be proud of. I’m making the text as polished as it can be. And I’ll be dropping this dark little slice of Cobalt City out into the world sometime in late September. A tiny slice of hell at about 50,000 words in length.

I’ll be honest, it’s entirely likely that I won’t sell a single copy. While it’s certainly not the goal, it is the realistic expectation. I know that Cobalt City: Ties that Bind is a good book. It’s a book that I’m proud of. I don’t need sales or reviews to convince me of that. If you want something less grim, I encourage you to read any of the other books in the Cobalt City universe, either those written by me or by several other talented authors. Completely ignore this one. That’s fine. I don’t blame you.

But if you’re ready to take a peek into the darker corners of Cobalt City, I have a book for you.