Some of you may remember an e-serial I wrote back in 2002, entitled MASTER OF THE MOORS, a kind of a cross between THE HOUND OF THE BASKERVILLES and THE FOG. Driven by the frustration of being unable to complete a full-length novel, I decided the best way to keep the momentum going and actually get the damn thing finished was by ensuring there was enough pressure on my shoulders to do so. And what better way than to have a couple of hundred readers following its progress week to week. The e-serial proved popular, contained introductory essays by some of the genre's luminaries, and featured weekly prizes courtesy of Subterranean Press.
And of course, though it took somewhere in the region of 22 weeks, I managed to complete the novel.
Then I promptly shelved it. In the intervening years, one of the more common questions I was asked was: "Are you ever going to publish MASTER OF THE MOORS as a print title?"
My memories of the book dissuaded this, as I believed, like many first novels, it was riddled with clumsy writing and silly errors. Plus, considering the e-serial's forward momentum, I hadn't been able to go back and change anything, so surely there were contradictions and plot holes galore.
And when I took it out and reread it, I discovered I was right.
But...
I also found the book immensely enjoyable and not nearly as bad as I thought. So I went through it, cut, edited, rewrote, spitshined and polished it, then once again stuck it in a drawer and forgot about it, preoccupied with other projects-in-progress.
Until one night, Don Koish at NEP asked me if I had any plans to do anything with the book.
I'm proud to share with you now the result of that lengthy phone conversation:
A new novel from Kealan Patrick Burke to be released this fall which will feature new cover and interior art by Steve Gilberts.
Limited edition: $45 US
Lettered edition: $250 US -SOLD OUT
Sixteen-year-old Jane Mansfield and her blind brother Neil live in a manor on the edge of the Brent Prior moors. It is a dreary place populated by the dispirited and the disillusioned, where the young nurture desperate dreams of escape. And Jane is no different. But her plans to run away to the city are crushed one very ordinary morning when the quiet in Brent Prior is shattered by an inexplicable act of violence.
In the wake of the tragedy, Jane's beloved father is stricken by a strange illness, and she and her brother fall under the care of the manor's caretaker and maid.
Then, as if attuned to the melancholy that has stricken Mansfield House, a fog rolls in. Villagers begin to vanish. Lithe fleeting shadows are glimpsed in the mist, and a disfigured man arrives in Brent Prior.
A man who has come back to settle an old score.
A man who calls himself the Master of the Moors.
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450 Limited numbered hardcovers signed by Kealan Patrick Burke.
26 Lettered deluxe hardcovers with a metal traycase signed by Kealan Patrick Burke and Steven Gilberts.
(Each lettered copy will come with a page from the draft of the story signed by Kealan Patrick Burke)
For ordering information, click .
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