Whispers in the Night: Dark Dreams III

It's coming out Monday. The "warmly-received" (per Kirkus and Publisher's Weekly) sequel to Dark Dreams I and II (Kensington-Dafina). Find it at bookstores or online at Amazon (buy by clicking to the right sidebar on the Amazon direct link), bn.com, etc. Unless you've lived under a rock or read only titles like Every Bitch Needs a Church-Going Thug, Brandon Massey's Dark Dreams series has featured national bestsellers and fan/critic favorite black authors, from Zane to Eric Jerome Dickey, moi, Tananarive, Steven Barnes, Robert Fleming, LR Giles, Linda Addison, my girl and horror queen LA Banks, plus actor turned thriller author Michael Boatman (you know him from "China Beach," "The Glass Shield," HBO's "Arli$$," "Spin City"...Mike, me, T. Due and LR Giles are have been in all three Dark Dreams).

Brandon is the new Dean L. Koontz, and has been lauded so by lit. critics and fans alike. Thank God for Brandon. That's all we need to say in this culture.

My experience with my own stories hasbeen nothing short of a bizarre suspense thriller, of course. My first story "I, Ghoul," drew down the ire of the University of Maryland Medical School and the Med Chi Society over the facts of grave robbing and slavery in 1803, per the Baltimore Sun and Baltimore City Paper. My second story, "Leviathan," for which I should have sued Disney and Jery Bruckheimer for stealing re: the "Krakken" in Pirates of the Caribbean was about a giant octopus--a freak of nature hiding in the caves and the shallow shelf off the coast of West Africa? Or the embodiment of a sea spirit worshipped by the cultures along the Gambia River? You decide. It's 1750 and the Portuguese and English are going nuts because this thing is attacking slave ships. The human cargo seem to willingly give themselves to the monster, as if it's a savior and they are sacrifices. A true scientist, Owuda and his young son are enslaved over a debt (and because his Gallileo-like mind enrages the local Fulani Muslim imams and the Fulani Viceroy, who's feeding slaves to the Europeans in return for gunpowder etc.). Of the creature's an allegory for the dutch, British and Portuguese trading companies that are the true tentacled monster. Well, high school teachers in maryland , DC and Columbus, Ohio wrote me and loved it, as did there kids. Yet a certain well known black professor/activist in New York excoriated me over the portrayal of Muslin overlords feeding other black folks into the Middle Passage meatgrinder. I'm not anti-Islam, nor am I Larry Elder or Clarence Thomas. Far from it. But facts is facts. Now I have a major premium cable giant (no, not HBO) interested. So bite me...

Now comes the story in Whispers. "Mr. Bones." 1893, Buffalo NY. A minstrel show(with black actors in black face). The show's manager may or may not be the Son of the Morning Star himself. Flash forward to 2006. Mindless thug/bling/hoochie video Hip Hop world. No redeeming value regardless of what Russell Simmons gushes on talk shows. And the same dude seems to be in charge. Again, somebody leaked the topic and some "industry" folk who read XXL, etc. called me on it and this same professor/activist have recently "called" me on it. Day-um.

So pretty please go out and buy Whispers in the Night: Dark Dreams III. You can read the original manuscripts of I, Ghoul and Leviathan by clicking the story titles--for you unlucky few and new fanboys & girls who missed DD I and II...

...and perhaps LA Banks and I should write a story about a werewolf who takes revenge on the DA who prosecuted Glenarlow Wilson. That guy smirks while they disbar Nifong? Hmmm...