Deep Within the Planet

Richard Wilson was once a detective known as the "Mind-Reading Sleuth" for his outstanding case-closure rate and uncanny insight into the minds of criminals. After an accident forced him into early retirement, he was sent to recuperate in a remote suburb.

He thought he would struggle and sink into darkness, but then his long-missing ex-boyfriend, Gray, returned on a rainy night. His hands and feet were icy, his face pale, and he looked like an evil spirit crawling out of hell to claim a life.

Fortunately, he was only freezing cold.

Richard sees Gray as his only link to the real world, the sole pillar of his inner world, and someone he must protect at all costs. Gray, in turn, sees Richard as his faithful partner, his beloved, and an inseparable part of himself. They support each other, and the darkness roaring to swallow Richard seems to retreat before their moving love. But even more darkness is welling up from the depths of his memories: confused childhood recollections, a serial killer lurking in his mind, and...

The "Bees" whom society worships with fanatic devotion.

And in corners beyond the reach of public attention, even more horrifying things are happening beneath all that fervor. A drug circulating in secret is destroying people's brains. The missing are reappearing, but they have become unrecognizable. Anomalies are spreading like a virus, while the government turns a blind eye.

With the world on the brink of disaster, can Richard make the right choice?

1. I've revised the blurb for the third time based on what I've written so far. Uh... a friend said the previous version was more appealing, and the second version really was a little too plain. Sigh, I'm truly sorry that I can't write blurbs. Anyway, the best blurb is one that helps readers decide whether to give the story a try. Thank you all for taking the time to click in and read this (bows). (Sigh, does this version spoil too much?)

2. I want to write real, old-school alien insectoids and bona fide xenomorphs, with a strong emphasis on hive minds. I'll do my best to make it horrifying, so please read at your own discretion.

3. The male lead is a devoted husband type and will take very good care of the other lead. (I love devoted husbands, I eat this stuff up!)

4. My biggest weakness as a writer is extremely slow plot progression. I was already doing this in my first story. I also have a bad habit of avoiding paragraph breaks and creating gigantic blocks of text. I'm very sorry, but I'm obscure enough that even after years of writing, I'm still at the stage of writing for pay, so I have little motivation to fix it. In short, I probably won't change. I'm very sorry, and I hope you still have the stamina for long reading sessions. That should make the experience a little less torturous. (hands together.jpg)

5. There will be a pregnancy plot. Please don't read this if you can't handle an alien bursting out of someone's belly. I find Alien: Romulus and the other movies in the series fascinating. If you can't handle the intensity of that kind of horror film, I don't think you'll be okay with my improvised writing under censorship, so please stop reading in time.

6. Regarding point four: If I can ever make a living from writing, I'll actively add more paragraph breaks. (Does saying that make me sound too mercenary? It feels a bit like I'm driving readers away.) (Whatever. That's the confidence of an obscure writer, since the result will be the same whether I change it or not.) (Amen.)

This is a fictional setting and has nothing to do with reality. Please don't draw parallels with real life.

Theme: All things are born equal, and you and I are no exception.