by Michael Rowe
Acknowledgements
Once again, first and foremost, my deepest thanks to Sandra Kasturi and Brett Savory for their patient, respectful nurture of this, my second novel—an experience that reminded me once again why accolades continue to be showered upon ChiZine Publications, the finest dark fantasy publisher in the business. And special thanks to Michael Matheson, for reasons he knows well.
Thank you to the supremely gifted two-time Aurora Award-winning artist Erik Mohr for the elegant cover he designed for Wild Fell. And thanks to my friend, writer and essayist Stephen Michell, who once again lent me his time and skill as a researcher.
Thanks to Sam Hiyate and Kelvin Kong of The Rights Factory literary agency for their work on behalf of both Wild Fell and Enter, Night.
I will be forever indebted to my friend of more than twenty years, novelist David Nickle, who generously read early drafts of Wild Fell and offered not only insightful and concise thoughts on its structure, but also proved an unflagging and tireless cheerleader and supporter for both the book and its author during the course of its creation.
I’m grateful to the real Sean “Moose” Schwartz for agreeing to guest-star in the opening section of Wild Fell. I’m pleased to report that he’s still alive and kicking, and hasn’t fallen at the hands of any woman, alive or dead—but it’s early yet.
Again, I would like to acknowledge the support of the women of my writers’ group, the Bellefire Club: Sèphera Girón, Helen Marshall, Nancy Baker, Gemma Files, Halli Villegas and Sandra Kasturi. It’s astonishing how many spirits can be raised after gallons of Earl Grey tea, barrels of red wine, entire forests of paper, and meetings of gorgeously twisted minds.
Many thanks also to Denis Armellini and Jesse Skelton for listening to me babble about ghosts and missed deadlines on our daily dog walks; to Kaley O’Neill and Chuck Gyles for sharing their practical knowledge of certain technical events in the story; to my friend Julian Russell, the youngest reader of Enter, Night for his unvarnished enthusiasm for that book, enthusiasm which carried me through the writing of this book; to John Toewes and Chadwick Ginther and the staff of McNally Robinson in Winnipeg, my favourite indie bookstore in North America, for the kind of personal care and attention that novelists almost never receive any more in this day and age; to Eliezenai Galvao for once again keeping the home fires burning during the writing of a novel; to my boon companion of many journeys, Scott Bramble; to Steward Noack, my longtime muse, who always makes New York feel like home and who continues to inspire me on too many layers to list; and to Christopher Rice, whose unparalleled generosity, grace and kindness is a rare wonder to behold.
If I’ve missed anyone here, please feel free to give me a bang on the ear the next time you see me.
To my family, chosen and otherwise—my father Alan Rowe and my stepmother Sarah Doughty; Shaw Madson; the Bradbury-Kus family; the Gyles family; the Davidson-Hymers family; the Braun family; the Oliver family; Nancy and Jay Bowers; Barney Ellis-Perry; Christopher Wirth; and especially Ron Oliver—I’m so glad we’re on this journey together.
And lastly, my husband Brian McDermid—none of this would make any sense without everything the last thirty years has been for us, and I thank him most of all.
Abour the Author
Michael Rowe was born in Ottawa and has lived in Beirut, Havana, Geneva and Paris.
An award-winning journalist and essayist, he is the author of several nonfiction books including Other Men’s Sons, winner of the 2008 Randy Shilts Award for Nonfiction. He is also the editor of four anthologies of original fiction including the Lambda Literary Award-winning Queer Fear anthologies. His political and cultural essays have appeared in numerous journals, magazines and reviews in Canada and the United States. His first novel, Enter, Night was a finalist for both the Sunburst Award and the Prix Aurora, and will be published in Germany by Random House in 2014. Wild Fell is his second novel. He is married and lives in Toronto, and welcomes readers at www.michaelrowe.com.
AUTHOR PHOTO: RAFY STILLS
ENTER, NIGHT
MICHAEL ROWE
Welcome to Parr’s Landing, Population 1,528 . . . and shrinking.
The year is 1972. Widowed Christina Parr, her daughter Morgan, and her brother-in-law Jeremy have returned to the remote northern Ontario mining town of Parr’s Landing, the place from which Christina fled before Morgan was born, seeking refuge. Dr. Billy Lightning has also returned in search of answers to the mystery of his father’s brutal murder. All will find some part of what they seek—and more.
Built on the site of a decimated 17th-century Jesuit mission to the Ojibwa, Parr’s Landing is a town with secrets of its own buried in the caves around Bradley Lake. A three-hundred-year-old horror slumbers there, calling out to the insane and the murderous for centuries, begging for release—an invitation that has finally been answered.
One man is following that voice, cutting a swath of violence across the country, bent on a terrible resurrection of the ancient evil, plunging the town and all its people into an endless night.
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