THE MONSTERS AMONG US— CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT: VIRDEUS
Hey everyone!
It’s time for another spotlight! A character whose unnatural presence in the world will make you wonder, “just how many layers does this onion have?” as THE MONSTERS AMONG US continues to shock and surprise.
Virdeus
Over 9,000 years old, Virdeus is a man from another era. One who, after the deaths of his wife and child, meets Melphis. And, as Virdeus despairs, the demon gives him the gift of magic. Through which he receives a prolonged lease on life.
Taking on a messianic role, he saves thousands of suffering souls with the same gift he received from Melphis, thus creating a new family in the form of the Demonslayer Guild; a group of magical humans seeking to protect humankind.
While grooming his adopted daughter for his replacement as head of The Guild, a rift in morals and values grows within the ranks of the Demonslayers, imploring Virdeus to seek out Melphis, after not meeting since that very first time. Once more he needs the demon’s help.
With his daughter by his side, Virdeus is a well of guidance and wisdom when they finally meet Seth. Though all he can do is hope that his words reach the newborn demon’s ever more problematic ears. After all, Virdeus knows a thing or two about what problems magic can bring, because fun fact, Virdeus’s name came from squishing two Latin words together: Vir meaning Man, and Deus meaning God. The first of his kind, with a long past laden with many mistakes.
Click here to preorder!
A book trailer for THE MONSTERS AMONG US also recently dropped! Check it out.
THE MONSTERS AMONG US— CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT: MELPHIS
Hey everyone!
It’s time for another character spotlight. The first of Seth’s found family, and one he finds difficult to trust, but ends up having more in common with then he first thought.
Melphis:
A gifted sorcerer and demon who defected from Satan’s ranks, when after a hundred thousand years of servitude, he noticed for the first time the eternal suffering of a human soul, thus triggering great pain and unease in him.
At the sight of a dimension of unknown origin, words are whispered into his ears, prompting him to covet Hell’s throne. He then seeks the aid of Seth to ensure his victory over Satan.
But something isn’t quite right with him, as memories from a past life are revealed to have been depressed and hidden from him by forces beyond his understanding, beyond the Hell he seeks.
Click here to preorder!
A book trailer for THE MONSTERS AMONG US also recently dropped! Check it out.
THE MONSTERS AMONG US— CHARACTER SPOTLIGHT: SETH
Hey, everyone!
Get excited, because this is the first of many character spotlights: the tempestuous main character of THE MONSTERS AMONG US:
Seth
Seth is a neurodivergent, bipolar twenty-six-year-old whose entire life, unbeknownst to him, is orchestrated by demons. After his beloved dies, Seth undergoes a demonic metamorphosis which causes the world's fictitious walls to crumble.
From there he’s thrusted into a primordial quarrel of gods. Yet another life he never asked for, but one he must live through while learning to control his pain lest it destroys him and his new found family.
Fun fact: The name Seth is Hebrew, meaning “Anointed One,” as well as being an alternate spelling of Set, the Egyptian god of chaos, turmoil, and storms. So, it goes without saying that his inner journey of self-improvement is going to be tempestuous at the very least… but will he learn the error of his ways and be reborn as a new, better person? You’ll have to read the book to find out!
Click here to preorder!
A book trailer for THE MONSTERS AMONG US also recently dropped! Check it out.
COVER REVEAL!
The cover for THE MONSTERS AMONG US is here!
Thank you to everyone who has engaged with the reveal. Your likes, comments, and sharing helps a ton. And now, the countdown begins. Still a year away, but the release date is September 9th, 2025!
That’s all for now; going to keep this blog post short and sweet, to keep the focus on the reveal. But make sure to preorder a copy! Ebooks preorders are up, with paperbacks and hardcovers available soon:
https://books2read.com/u/m27rzr
Seth’s life until now has been a product of a diabolical, evil Truman Show, his entire upbringing a façade orchestrated for malevolent purposes. After his beloved dies, he undergoes a demonic metamorphosis, which causes the world’s fictitious walls to crumble.
As he tries to piece a semblance of his life back together and move on, he meets friends who inspire, but even more harsh truths are revealed, perhaps too difficult to cope with.
The very existence of life and reality is exposed as a machination of grotesque gods. And to defeat them, Seth will have to fill his emptiness, for which there’s only two options… Bring the world to ruin, or learn to transmute his pain into strength.
Cover reveal is imminent!
This month’s post is going to be brief, as there’s only one topic of importance to talk about! And boy, have I been eager for this to come. It was exciting to sign the contract, but to have nothing else to share for so long, well, oof. It’s been agonizing.
After six long months of waiting, we are finally approaching the cover reveal for THE MONSTERS AMONG US.
That’s right! In three weeks from tomorrow, the cover for the novel will be unveiled. That’s August 23rd, so make sure to keep your eyes peeled and follow me on all my socials because I will surely be making a big deal out of it over there. And I cannot wait.
Again, keep the date in mind:
August 23rd – cover reveal for THE MONSTERS AMONG US
Or, do you want to be the first to see it early? Then you may want to subscribe to my newsletter!
Get excited!
On waiting…
I was hesitant to write this blog post, as it wasn’t too long ago that I was a struggling writer with no publishing credentials. So, I know how it feels to see published or soon-to-be published authors complain about the publishing process. Because at least they are getting published. But it’s due to the reality of what I’m feeling that I have literally nothing else to talk about right now.
The waiting doesn’t get better. Before signing the contract, I was simply waiting for someone to see my book’s worth. Now after signing, I’m waiting for the large span of time before its publication to pass. And its crazy to me that I’ll be experiencing two birthdays before the book releases. Again, I am immensely grateful to be in the position to publish my book at all. But I’m also so eager for my career to fully start.
I suppose I don’t have much else to say about this. Just that the waiting is hard. And I’m eager to be offered more publication deals to be excited about in the meantime. This slow crawl to publication is making me anxious for so much more.
But much of my life has been one long, slow crawl. Sitting here in my study, I’m thinking about all the good things I have in my life. Glancing up the wall in front of me, my Written Arts degree hangs proudly. The silence of my home today contrasts greatly with the vibrancy of laughter and contentedness experienced up until bringing my girlfriend to the airport yesterday. The walls of books surrounding me, a collection of acquired knowledge throughout my years of writing, leading to signing a publication deal. These are all amazing gifts that I first had to work incredibly hard over an excruciating amount of time before I could attain them.
Some cliches are just true. All the best things in life take time. That’s truer still, in this precarious and painfully slow industry.
I’m grateful though, to have had to wait for so many other great things. Bard College is a rigorous and intensely difficult school. Graduating from there is no small feat. And it was as humbling as it was illuminating, and I left my college experience not only with a degree and a written book (THE MONSTERS AMONG US, out 2025!) that won an honors grade, but also a family. Two professors provided me with a sense of community I never had before and helped me survive one of the most tempestuous periods of my life. I will always be thankful for them, and so trust me when I say, my continued admiration for my alma mater is not to be mistaken for the same admiration that Andy Benard from The Office has with Cornell. He was an idiot whose parents paid his way through college, and never amounted to anything more than his college years. But I am an author who has been enriched and deepened and saved by my college. Many years were spent there, waiting for that degree; for a chance to prove myself. And eventually, it came.
The same can be said about my love life. One failure after another, ill-fitted souls destined for nothing but catastrophe. I always felt unique to a point where I could never be understood. And if one can never be understood, then one can never be loved. Not truly. So, I always figured I’d be alone forever. Chipping away at novel after novel, a secluded, neurodiverse hermit. But in the love I’ve found in my aforementioned girlfriend, for the first time in my life I’m finding that it’s possible to feel loved after all. Over a decade of dating, and so much pain, while waiting. But I’ve found it at last and it’s all the sweeter for having waited.
Again, some cliches are just true. And it will be all the sweeter after waiting all this time for THE MONSTERS AMONG US to be published. And there are some exciting things to share on the horizon: next month, on August 23rd, the cover for THE MONSTERS AMONG US will be revealed. And I am so, so excited to share it with you all.
The wait until then… amplifies my satisfaction.
What’s new, even?
I have no clear goal for this month’s blog post, as not much as been going on. At least as it pertains to publishing. Things in my personal life have actually been quite eventful, which is even more of a reason why I haven’t put proper thought into what June’s blog post should even be. Things have quieted since the initial excitement of signing contracts for THE MONSTERS AMONG US and A STATE OF EMERGENCY. Which is to be expected. Can’t be offered publishing contracts every month, despite how much I’d love that!
So today I’m going to meander a bit. Speak generally and briefly about what I’ve been up to:
My head of marketing, Poe, a beautiful English Labrador, is days away from being ten months old. Growing up so fast… though he’s still beautiful, and very large. Sometimes too large, as he’s prone to jumping atop me, trampling, and playfully biting me. I do love him to death though. Even if the death in question is mine caused by his insanity. Upon the occasion of my sudden disappearance, check beneath the floorboards.
Personally speaking, things are also going well. I’ve recently fallen in love and realized why I’m prone to giving many of my characters romantic subplots. Love really does make life worth living.
This is all to say, or to shout into the abyss, that life is good! Which despite my relaxed and somewhat flippant tone here, is the first time in my life I’ve said those words without irony or sarcasm. And I would very much like it to continue to be good, so I shout, attempting to manifest even more good (more published stories, please and thank you).
At the time of writing, I have three short stories out for consideration for an award. The same is true for my creative non-fiction memoir that I mentioned in last month’s blog post. I’m tempering my expectations, but boy, would it be nice to win. Especially the memoir. I’m especially proud of how it turned out and would very much like people to read it.
Other than that, I’m currently coasting until August, when the cover reveal for THE MONSTERS AMONG US is scheduled. And while I wait, I have officially begun work on my fifth novel, the first of three sequels to THE MONSTERS AMONG US. Slow going, but that’s okay. I’m relishing it. And I must say, it feels good to be back in familiar territory. Living amongst these characters I spent six years writing, in the world they live in, so deep with philosophical power.
The full series is as follows:
1. THE MONSTERS AMONG US (out next year!)
2. In the Wake of Gods
3. The Hollow King
4. This Long, Bright Dark
I’m also considering writing a collection of short stories centered around a particular group of particularly interesting humans found in THE MONSTERS AMONG US, but writing a four-book series with worlds as philosophically and conceptually enormous as these is already daunting, so who knows.
But that’s really it, for now. As mentioned above, the cover reveal for THE MONSTERS AMONG US is scheduled for August, so look forward to it! I sure am, as things will begin to grow more exciting again.
PUBLISHING ANNOUNCEMENT and praise for Rowan Prose
This month’s blog post is very much a follow up to last month’s entry, where I spoke about how things have been since signing the publication deal for my novel, The Monsters Among Us. It’s funny… what I’m going to talk about here could have been in that post, as the news broke a couple days after I wrote it, and before it went live on the blog. But I didn’t want to disrupt the focus of that entry, so I abstained from including the news.
You should all know what I’m referring to, so I’ll come right out with it:
My short story, A State of Emergency, will be published next year in a horror/thriller anthology from Rowan Prose Publishing.
That’s right. That makes two of my stories that will be available in 2025. My debut novel, The Monsters Among Us, and A State of Emergency. The two are very different and yet similar as well. That’s because the short story was the first of two side projects I wrote while working on The Monsters Among Us. While the two are different in tone, they pair greatly together so I could not be more thrilled that both will be releasing in the same year. Also, it’s all the sweeter that, out of all my stories, the two getting published are my favorite novel and my favorite short story. Both through Rowan Prose, to whom I am eternally grateful.
Now, if I could find a publisher for my other side project from the era I wrote The Monsters Among Us, then I would just be giddy. But since that other side project is a memoir and I’m not yet a notable personality, that’s a bit tricky. But regardless, my year has already been made.
Sure, just simply receiving publishing deals for these two stories is exciting on its own. But I bring up this other side project for a specific reason, and that’s shown in this excerpt from this currently unpublished memoir:
“I said it in the beginning of this series of reflections. This will be a journey similar, but different from the events of The Plague Journal. I felt that to be true well before reading this entry, and what do you know, I’m dealing with many of the same struggles as I was before. I have a knack for that. I’m not psychic, and I don’t believe in that drivel. But when I have a strong gut feeling about how something is about to turn out, I’m often right. 2016 was a great year, when I finally got fed up with my small, insignificant existence, then got angry enough to do something about it, and went back to college. After a couple terrible years that snuffed my inner flame, eventually, at my darkest point, I felt a shift. In 2018 I got on the dean’s list twice, finished the draft of my novel, and got accepted into Bard College. In 2021, after another interval of misery, I finished my novel, graduated with honors because of it, and that special book of mine received praise so high, I still can’t believe it.
Do you see where I’m going here? Deep misery followed by grand achievements. The eternal recurrence. The heaviest of burdens. I don’t feel it yet, that strong gut instinct that tells me achievement is near. But what I do feel strongly is that it’s time to return to New York. Once I do, who knows? Making myself known in New York again, reoccurring there, might trigger the next step in my publishing journey.
I’ve been working at it for long enough now. Shouldering this heaviest of burdens. Think about the years when I achieved accomplishments. 2016 → 2018 → 2021. I can’t know for sure, but 2023 or 2024 seems ripe for something great to come my way. It’s about time for another great shift. A repurposing of life. Nature’s rebirth in spring.
Something big must be coming.”
This blog post isn’t about this memoir, so I’ll make this short, but you may be wondering how this was a side project to The Monsters Among Us, considering the specified dates. This book is a strange one, and when I say it was a side project, I mean that its Part One was a side project. What is written above is out of Part Two, something I originally had no intention of writing. But I did, and it was written in early 2023.
Now, I wouldn’t go so far as to call myself prophetic, but here I am a year later with two publishing deals! The shift occurred and things have finally started to work out for me. And I have Rowan Prose and my editor Kelly Moran to thank for this. They looked at two stories that are heavily intertwined in dark themes of mental health, and they gave them a chance. Now, neither of these stories are lighthearted gags about a quirky neurodivergent person. They’re grimly honest portrayals of what living with things such as depression, anxiety, and bipolar disorder is actually like. All the nightmarish neuroses, as well as the grand, illuminating gifts found within the mental turmoil. In other words, both The Monsters Among Us and A State of Emergency are stories that others in publishing would have wanted nothing to do with.
But not Rowan Prose. They saw the stories for all the artfulness they hold, for all the value they contain. And as I stated above, these are two of my favorites I’ve ever written. So I hope Rowan Prose understands just how much this means to me. Not only giving me my break but breathing life into these stories that have grown so desperate for someone to give them the chance they deserve. So, thank you, Rowan Prose. Your goal of being a publisher for authors by authors is shining through as deeply genuine. Which is just what these stories need. They and I are in good hands, I feel very confident about that.
And I also feel confident that Rowan Prose’s interest in these stories will be quite fruitful for them. To refer again to the excerpt above, the novel mentioned as having “received praise so high, I still can’t believe it,” is none other than The Monsters Among Us.
The specifics of that praise is something I’ll talk about as the book’s release nears, but I’ll end with this: you have great cause to get very excited about it!
Seven Weeks After Signing…
So, it’s been about seven weeks since signing the publishing deal for my novel, The Monsters Among Us. And this may sound dramatic, as its still early and the release date is a bit far off… but everything feels different. Throughout the first few weeks, it felt unreal. Like the world was dangling something precious in front of me, only to rip it away from me. Of course, that was irrational to think, but after what I’ve gone through to publish this novel, I just couldn’t believe that I indeed signed the contract.
As I mentioned in last month’s blog post, this novel has been with me for nine years. The creation of it took six years, then I spent the last three years querying it. And until Rowan Prose Publishing accepted it, I was drowning. Not a single agent asked for even a partial request. And that had me gutted. More so than any other story of mine, it was eviscerating when this novel was rejected. Because again, I spent six years writing it. Six years I stood side by side with these characters that, because of the time spent and because I went to painstaking lengths to ensure the novel is deeply immersive, those characters I created feel very much alive and real to me. And I hated seeing them rejected. To have to grieve their unlived potential.
That’s what it felt like for so long. Like I was a parent holding within my hands a stillbirth. I know how great the book is and even have my old college professors to back me up on that, so to watch it flail about in the querying trenches was devastating and confusing.
But then, after three years and over three hundred rejections, the book’s worth was finally recognized. And it’s funny that it was picked up only a couple weeks into me giving up on querying agents and deciding to submit to independent presses instead. Makes me think that independent presses are the ones truly seeking art, and agents not so much. I’m not trying to talk badly about agents. I understand their position. But unfortunately for burgeoning authors, the talented but unknowns like me, agents are not likely to pay us any attention. Pay being a very purposeful word because what an agent is after is money. They want sure things so they can make the most of their 10%. They also may be champions of art but profit always trumps that for an agent. Hence why on their querytracker submission forms, they ask questions like, “Have you published a book before and if so, how many copies did it sell?” When it comes to agents, an author could have a future Pulitzer winner and they would still ignore it if the author were an unknown, and therefore not profitable.
I’m still seeking an agent, now that I’m querying my other books. And it makes me all the more desirable that in my credentials section of my query I can now mention that The Monsters Among Us will be published in 2025 and because of that publishing deal, I am now a full member of the Author’s Guild. So hopefully an agent will bite now. But if not, then hopefully after The Monsters Among Us releases and sells (which it will, I have the utmost faith in this novel).
But ultimately what I’m getting at here is, if you’re in the position I was in just seven weeks ago, struggling to get an agent’s attention and feeling like giving up… please don’t. As I said above, The Monsters Among Us had over three hundred rejections, but here it is now preparing for its new life as a published book. Querying is discouraging, but don’t give up. And consider submitting to an independent publisher instead of waiting for an agent. It doesn’t matter if your book is published through Penguin Random House or a smaller press. The word “independent” is superfluous. It’s still a traditional publishing contract either way, and therefore it’s something to make you all the more impressive. It’s a credit, and a mighty big one at that. So, if agents are standing in the way to getting your book seen, well… go around them. Get seen through a different angle, market the hell out of your book and sell lots of copies. Then go to the agents again and say, “See? I’m profitable after all.”
I used to think that the path was, get an agent, sell book to publisher, market, release, do it all again with a second book. But that trail is unkind and treacherous to unknown authors. And it’s much more fruitful to find your own way around.
PUBLISHING ANNOUNCEMENT and the return of the blog!
It’s been a while since I’ve used this space. Those of you who have read my blog posts before will know that I used to post short stories, poetry, and other such things here, but that’s not what my blog will be used for going forward. It will be, well… a normal blog. You will also notice that I’ve taken down all the stories and poetry, and that the blog is empty aside from this post, for now. That’s because I’ve decided not to waste my work by giving it away for free on a blog only a few might look at. But don’t worry, all those stories will turn up in various forms of publishing with time. Patience and tenacity are essential in this business, believe me.
I’ll be posting once a month, on the first. Maybe sometimes there will be a clear narrative focus, musings or anecdotes, or anything else rich in content. Though other times, like today’s post, will strictly be updates about publishing and anything I’ve been up to within that realm of things.
Which brings me to the reason I’m reviving the blog: my novel, The Monsters Among Us, will be published through Rowan Prose Publishing next year!
I want to gush all about that, so badly. But since it’s still some time away from publication, I must withhold details for now. But I’ll say this:
This book has been with me for nine years. It was the first novel I conceived, as well as my first story, period. I began writing it in 2015, and between writing and editing and researching and writing it a second time, and then much more editing, it was finally completed. And throughout all that time, I was studying hard in college as well as in my own time, all for the sake of making this novel the best it could possibly be. I can, and in time will, provide anecdotes from college about all the great things my professors said about The Monsters Among Us, but I’ll reserve those for later blog posts. They’re too good to talk about now, still over a year from publication. But these stories will come.
So yeah, I’m using the blog again. One of many new venues I’m working toward using to market The Monsters Among Us, with another being a YouTube account where I’ll be doing readings of others’ works, such an Edgar Allan Poe’s A Tell-Tale Heart, The Cask of Amontillado, and The Raven, as well as Plath’s Lady Lazarus and Mary Ventura and the Ninth Kingdom. And when publication of The Monsters Among Us nears, I’ll do a reading of the first chapter. There are no videos there yet, but will be soon, so I suggest subscribing to the channel. And if you find that my voice makes for good readings and would like me to read something of your choosing on the channel, I’m all ears! Send me an email through the contact form to make your suggestions!
Alongside this publication, I’ve been hard at work on new books. Last year alone I wrote three novels, two fiction and one creative nonfiction, and I’m currently readying them to be sent out to agents and publishers. So, the publication of The Monsters Among Us is only the beginning of what will be a large body of work for you all to enjoy.
And I couldn’t be more thrilled to share them all with you.
So make sure to stay up to date by following me on social media (@kentpriore), and signing up for my newsletter would also work in your favor. Its the best way to stay in the loop, as well as receiving exclusive details about The Monsters Among Us, such as character summaries, plot, setting, and more! So be sure to subscribe!