Sneak Peek: "Valley of the Shadow" Prologue

Prologue

“Nine-one-one.”

“There’s two guys—two kids in a car.” Jim’s voice was shaky. Out of breath. “I think they’ve just been shot. I saw another car tear off and . . .”

“Sir, where are you located?”

“I’m—I’m on the corner of Jefferson and West. Just a ways down on West. I think it was like a drive-by or something.”

“Are they conscious?”

“No. No, I think they may be dead.” Jim’s breath rasped over the phone. “Oh, man, there’s blood all over.”

“Sir, are these children?”

“No . . . I think they’re maybe teenagers.”

“Is the car unlocked? Can you get to them?”

“Uh . . . the window’s shattered. The driver side window.”

“Can you tell if they’re breathing?”

“No. I don’t think . . .” Something scraped against the cell phone. “I can’t tell. I don’t—he’s not breathing. The driver’s not breathing. Man, they’re just kids. They gotta be no more than seventeen or eighteen.”

“Sir, I have the police and paramedics on the way.”

“I’m checking . . .” Jim hurried to the other door. “I’m checking on the other side. The other kid.”

Jim fumbled with the door handle. He could hear a siren in the distance. The passenger door opened and the boy tumbled out, limp. Jim dropped the phone and caught him. Pulled him out of the car. Laid him on the cement. The boy’s head flopped and rolled. A cherry-red stain spread across his gray Nike T-shirt. Jim felt himself gag. He’d never touched a dead body before.

He picked up the cell phone. “I’m on the other side. I got the other kid. He nearly fell out when I opened the door.”

“Is he breathing?”

Jim bent and listened. He watched the bloody chest for movement. It was motionless. “No. I—he’s not breathing.”

“Sir, are you able to perform CPR?”

“What?”

“I can walk you through it. Until the ambulance arrives. Are you able to perform CPR.”

“I, uh . . .” Jim stammered. He’d taken a course back in high school. That was twenty years ago already. “I—I can try.”

The operator walked him through the steps. Clear the airway. Administer mouth-to-mouth. The kid had been smoking; Jim could smell it. He pushed on the boy’s chest, not sure if he was pressing too hard or not enough. He prayed silently.

He glanced up into the car. The driver was slumped forward against the window. Blood was pooling on the seat. Dripping onto the floorboard.

Jim could only help one of them.

“Somebody help me!” His voice echoed down the street. Cars rolled by on Jefferson. But nobody turned down West. He was half a block down. Too far down. They couldn’t see him in the dark. No other pedestrians approached.

The siren grew closer. Jim worked through another set and breathed in two quick breaths.
His heart was pounding yet he found himself strangely calm.

“Jesus, please help me. Help this boy.”

Five minutes ago he had been sipping a beer at Frank’s Tap around the corner on Jefferson. He’d had his own problems to worry about then. They seemed like pretty big ones at the time, but he hadn’t been in the mood to pray. He’d been too angry.

A Chicago Metro Police car pulled hesitantly onto West, spotlight sweeping the street. Jim stood up and waved and the squad car rolled toward him. He went back to CPR. He could hear the car doors open and close. Two officers moved slowly. Cautiously.

Jim was careful not to make any sudden moves. They’d heard a report of gunfire and probably had their own weapons trained on him. He glanced up, squinting into the glare of flashlights. They lit up the sidewalk around him. Jim looked back down and gasped at the amount of blood.

He’d better explain. “I was coming out of the bar.” His breathing was labored. “Coming back to my car over there. I saw a black sedan pull away. It just tore off. Then I saw these two kids in the car here. I saw the window shattered. But I didn’t hear any shots. No gunshots.”

One of the officers knelt beside him. “I can take over.”

The other cop was shining his light into the driver-side window. “This one’s not breathing either.” He spoke into his shoulder radio, relaying information to the dispatcher. He described the scene, then opened the door and pulled the driver out.
Jim sat back and caught his breath. His forehead was dripping. He could hear more sirens now. Getting closer.

A second squad arrived and shortly after that, the ambulance. There was a flurry of lights and activity. A second ambulance was on its way. The medics unpacked their gear. They seemed to work without emotion, speaking to one another in tight, clinical phrases.
Jim’s head was swimming. He’d never been this close to death before. Well . . . except for once.

The second ambulance arrived. A row of spectators had gathered, watching from the shadows. Jim just shook his head. Sure, now there was plenty of help.

The medics unpacked more equipment. They had cut off the boy’s Nike shirt, exposing his chest. Jim could see a bullet wound up near the shoulder. One of the medics checked for an exit wound and set about packing gauze around it.

They had an oxygen mask on the boy now and a medic squeezed air into his lungs. The other listened with a stethoscope. He turned and reached for the portable defibrillator. Flipped a few switches, pulled out the paddles. “Charging,” he said to his partner.

The medic laid the paddles against the boy’s flesh. “Clear.”

Jim heard a click and soft hum. The boy’s body stiffened for a moment then fell limp again. The medic checked for a pulse. Finally, he nodded.

Jim’s eyes widened. He couldn’t contain himself and blurted out, “He’s alive?”

But they ignored him and continued giving the boy oxygen. Three cops gathered to help lift the boy onto a stretcher and wheel him to one of the waiting ambulances. Jim watched them go, then remembered the other kid. The driver. Had they been able to save him too?
Jim moved closer for a better look. But they had covered that boy with a sheet already. Jim felt his stomach tighten. The kid was just a faceless shape lying on the asphalt under a blue sheet. Jim couldn’t even recall what he looked like.

One of the officers pulled Jim aside. “Good thing you happened along when you did or they’d both be dead.”

Jim stared at the sheet.

The officer held a notepad. “Sir, I’m going to need to ask you a few questions.”

Jim nodded.

“Let’s start with your name.”

His name? Jim couldn’t take his eyes off the sheet. Or the body underneath it. Thoughts started peppering his mind like crows diving for corn. Swooping down and flitting away. What if he had pulled the driver out first? Would that kid have been in the ambulance now instead of under a sheet? Why had he even gone to the passenger’s door in the first place? For that matter, what if he had just stayed at the bar for another beer like Danny had wanted? Or what if he hadn’t gone to the bar at all? What if he’d stayed home with his wife instead? She had asked him to stay. She’d said they needed to talk. They had a big decision to make. But he’d just wanted some air. To clear his head and have a beer. There were so many tiny decisions that night. So many choices that led him here.

“Sir?” The officer’s voice broke into his thoughts. “Can I get your name?”

Jim blinked and nodded. “Uh . . . Jim,” he said. “Jim Malone.”

Teaser coming for Valley of the Shadow

Sorry it's been so long since I've written anything. My New Year's resolution this year is to faithfully update my blog every week. And next year, my New Year's resolution will be to stop procrastinating so much.

In anticipation of the sequel to Vanish, I will be posting a new teaser chapter each month leading up to the summer release date. The Prologue (yes, there's a prologue--it's a sequel after all) will be coming in February, Chapter 1 in March, Chapter 2 in April, and Chapter 3 in May.

I'd love to hear back from you on your opinions. Of course by now it's too late to change anything, so bear that in mind if there's something you don't like.

Also, if you have any friends who haven't yet read Vanish please encourage them to do so. If they won't listen to you, send me their email addresses and I'll personally ask them to read it. Don't worry, I'll be polite. And if you don't have any friends... well, then we have more serious things to work on.

Lastly, I'm working on a contest, the details of which I'll divulge in my next posting. It's my first official contest, so I'm very excited about it. Be sure to check back next week, and if I haven't updated my blog by then, feel free to email me a scathing rebuke.

Editing

So the sequel to Vanish has gone to Tyndale for editing. The whole process begins with a conference call during which the editorial staff provides some feedback and questions, and some items to consider changing in the overall story. Well, they had a whopper for me this time.

At first, I was dead set against their suggestion but slowly, after a few days to mull it over, I began to see there was some merit in what they were asking me to change. But it certainly wasn't easy as it affects the whole ending. I'm not very sentimental, however some things you just get attached to and it's hard to try to view them in a different light. But I'm learning that's all part of publishing. It's a collaborative process.

I have seen the cover for the sequel and it looks great. Dean Renninger, who designed the cover for Vanish has designed this one as well. There's some similarity but also more depth and color.

I recently received an email from a young woman in South Africa who'd read Vanish and wanted to let me know how it had impacted her. She said she was captivated by the cover and decided to buy the book. Great work Dean! What a thrill to discover how far the book has travelled in such a short time. It's humbling to see God using it in this way.

Well, I need to get back to writing. I have a couple of new chapters to write for the final edit. Overall, I think the changes will make for a more dramatic ending. Meanwhile, I'm also working on some new book ideas.

Here's a teaser for one of the stories:

Three weeks after her husband dies in a corporate jet crash, a young woman begins receiving bizarre late-night phone calls. In what seems to be a recorded message, the voice on the other end says only one word: "Reticulum."

The scary thing is... it's her husband's voice.

Sequel to Vanish Complete

Dear readers,

I apologize for taking so long to update this blog. I've spent this summer and fall working feverishly on the sequel to VANISH. I just finished the manuscript this week and have sent it off to Tyndale House. Now begins the review and editing process. It went relatively smoothly with VANISH but we'll have to see what happens with this one.

The sequel follows the stories of Conner, Mitch and Devon--oh and Howard too, while introducing a couple of new characters as well. I also developed more details around the basic scenario presented in VANISH and added in some new elements of the unknown to keep readers guessing.

The publication date is (tentatively) next summer/fall. I pray you will enjoy it.

Now I plan to take some time to enjoy my family, then I'll start work on developing another proposal. Thanks to all of you who have taken the time to visit this website and write me. If you haven't written yet... feel free to send me an email and I'll add you to my emailing list for future updates, contests and special offers etc.

Thanks again! Come back soon!

Tom

Release Day

I'm currently on vacation with my family, back in Wisconsin. Today is the official release date of my book. I'm planning some promotional stops and look forward to working further on the sequel to "Vanish"

Holding the book in my hand.

It's an odd thing to hold something in my hands that was once just a figment of my imagination.

Any aspiring novelist who sets about putting words on paper (or LCD screen), dreams of one day seeing their story in print. A story starts as nothing more than a vague idea that rattles around in your head for several months before turning into an outline, eventually gets fleshed out in full length on your computer screen. Then if you're fortunate enough to get a publisher interested in it, a small army of editors, artists, marketers, publicists and sales reps gets involved. And after all the editing, all the artwork, the planning, the marketing and printing, you hold in your hands a finished product! The materialization of an idea.

Forgive my self-indulgence, it's just that I have dreamed of getting a book published since I was a kid and to actually have that come to fruition is just a bit of a thrill. It's hard to get my head wrapped around the idea.

But anyway, now it's on to the next story....

My Books Arrived!!

Today, at long last, my 24 copies of 'Vanish' arrived from Tyndale! As part of most book contracts, the publisher provides the author with a quantity of books for family, promotions etc.

I felt like George McFly at the end of "Back To The Future", opening his box to see his first published novel! Woo Hoo!

Very exciting. Coming soon to a book store near you!

Tom