I love my story. I love the things Lucifer, Michael, Gabriel and Raphael have shown me about me, about life, about faith and love and vengeance. I published The Road to Hell in 2011 and since, Lucifer’s whispers have filtered into my dreams, I’ve felt Michael’s anger in my fists, the compassion of Raphael has overwhelmed me at times.
But it’s been 5 years.
I actually finished Come Hell or High Water in July 2013. Somewhere on my other blog Crooked Letterz, I even posted a picture of the binder, thick with printed pages, as I tore into edits and rewrites. I convinced myself over the last 18 months that it was broken, that Come Hell or High Water was incomplete or ineffective or simply bad storytelling. I hemmed and hawed, found other things to focus on, and eventually stopped writing all together.
The truth is, I’m frightened about what happens next.
See, I LOVE The Road to Hell, warts and all. It has grammar issues and places where I could have tightened things up and incomplete ideas. But it has some amazing insight into the human condition and our relationship with God. I love that book. Come Hell or High Water has a lot of heart—it’s a love story in my own wicked way and it’s big and expansive and full of moral ambiguity. It hits much closer to home. Much closer to me. I see myself in its pages. Parts of myself I’m hesitant to show the world.
A long time ago, someone asked me about writer’s block. I said then that I didn’t believe in writer’s block, that it usually means there’s something we need to say and aren’t willing to be honest about it. I still believe that. The writer’s block I have isn’t about the book that’s complete. It’s about the next one. Damned If I Do is the third book in this series and it’s Michael’s story. He’s a pretty dark cat. I know I started with Lucifer—and he’s the Devil—but Michael the Archangel is something else. Something worse. I’m scared of what I’ll find in his head; I’m more scared of what I’ll find in mine.
But that isn’t a reason to delay Come Hell or High Water anymore. It isn’t a reason to keep the story from all of you. So I’m not. Not anymore.
On Tuesday, January 20 (like two days from now), dropping like a hot fire mixtape, I’m releasing the first few chapters of Come Hell or High Water. I’ll drop it on Wattled, post the link here. And then, every Tuesday after that, serial-style like The Walking Dead, you’re going to get a little more. Until the end. The whole book. Totally free. No charge. No cost. Nada. And like Talking Dead, as you read it, let’s talk about it. There’s a Facebook page right here. I’ll be on it everyday—Like it, post a comment, and I’ll respond. Promise.
Crooked Letterz 
Congratulations Chris. I flipped out when I saw this post in my inbox (I literally did a flip, breaking a lamp in the process & landed on my ass…ouch). It’s been a while since I’ve been on this site, but I’m so glad to see you haven’t given this up. I can relate to the fact that you’ve been hesitant to reveal to the world something that you have worked hard to complete & that reveals parts of ourselves to others that we once swore we’d keep in the shadows, away from the light of judgement.
But if there’s one thing I’ve learned from being in AA is that if we have something inside us (whether it’s a positive thing like an inspiring story idea or a negative thing like an addiction) that just won’t leave, that keeps us up at night, eating away at our thoughts & demanding to be released, then something has to be done about it. Yeah, there’s it’s opposite, the voice that says “This story is not good enough & I think people might judge me for seeing this side of me” or (in my case) “You don’t really drink that much & it’s no one else’s business why we drink anyway.” But listening to that other voice holds us back from letting us be the amazing person we can be.
I’m thankful I was able to find the courage to talk about my drinking & deal with it before I slipped further down that dark path that a lot of people don’t make it back from. From your blogs & from reading your book, I got a similar vibe from your desire for writing. I bet there has been numerous inspiring writers who unfortunatly didn’t find the courage to release their material & ended up regretting it. I’m glad you finally got to a place where you said “It’s time”.
There’s always going to be someone who disagrees with us or judges us about who we are or what our aspect of life is. I guess it would be boring if everyone was the same with the same ideas. But as long as there is someone who we can relate to & that gives us support & love, then it balances out any negativity we may get. And you’ve got at least one person here who is sure that this book will be amazing. Can’t wait. Will love to be able to discuss it as well. I don’t have a FB account atm, so I’ll create a temp one for this book, or I may just post on here.
Congrats again Chris. Will there ever be any plans of releasing the book physically? Call me old fashioned, but I prefer paper books & it would be an honor to have it on my book shelf next to “The Road To Hell”. Hell, I would pay good money for that.
Thanks so much! This means more than you know. And I do plan on releasing the book hard copy and pub on June 6. At 6am. Just like Damien from The Omen
Sweet, can’t wait.