It’s here!

Dear patient readers– After five long years, Whispering of the Autumn Leaves is finally here… in: classic hardcover, cozy light paperback, and tree-huggin’ eBook. Whatever your format preference is, Whispering is here! I don’t have much else to say other than I’m excited and proud… except for maybe that I’m also incredibly grateful for your patience and continued interest. To get your hardcover or paperback copy autographed, please drop me a line here and I’ll reply with the details. Happy endings.

WHISPERING OF THE AUTUMN LEAVES – Release date announced!


C. W. Schultz’s fifth novel, Whispering of the Autumn Leaves, has finally been given a release date. The author will demonstrate his skills in writing sci-fi/fantasy for the first time, while still keeping the tongue-in-cheek humor and whodunit mystery that readers of his previous releases remember him for. After six years in the making, Whispering will be Schultz’s longest book in length, as well as turnaround time to publication. Hardcover and paperback editions will be available for purchase on Tuesday, September 6, 2022; as well as an eBook edition, which is available for pre-order.

After a series of strange events, the territory of Baromany is in an uproar. Prince Zondro, heir to the throne, has suddenly vanished just days after a strange craft was spotted floating in the sky. A shipwreck in the Frigid Sea has washed up a strange foreigner, Nilly Goamrock, onto the shores of Baromany. Believing these events are all connected, the desperate kingdom turns to a group of outlaws, the Poor Protectors, for help. As the mystery unravels, the Poor Protectors realize that more chaos awaits, unless they risk their lives by defeating the evils that lurk in the haunted Royal Forest. Each criminal finds newfound purpose in their sacrifice through acceptance, self-forgiveness, glory and redemption.

Sample Chapter of upcoming fifth novel

Today marks the 1,209th day since A Book About a Film was released. 1,209 days represents the longest I’ve ever gone without releasing a novel. Since I feel like I owe you guys one for your continued patience, I decided to not only release a sample chapter of the forthcoming Whispering of the Autumn Leaves, but also make a video of it. Unfortunately, still no release date. Whispering of the Autumn Leaves is very long and complex, and deals with a lot of stories intertwining through multiple dimensions, so there’s a lot of planning needed to avoid knots and ensure the reading experience isn’t too much of a maze.

Thank you for maintaining your interest after such long gaps. Rest assured, I’m doing everything in my power to make it worth the wait. To be continued…

Chapter 3The Andles A

A public service article published in the 1231 issue, titled “The Psalterist and the Shawmist”

Monsters have always lurked in the Royal Forest, a vast wooded area crossing into the regions of Denland, Everdirk and Wist Vondorian. It was a story to teach children not to wander far, or help them visualize the unknown evils of the world. Now, however, it appears some of the monsters have emerged from the Royal Forest to kidnap the children.

Within the last few cycles, the amount of missing children has increased. Reports stretch from the Royal Forest’s nearby farmlands like Naidney, all the way into the northern side of Denregal, particularly the Roachill district. Some believe there are hexminors turning children into red-crested jays, the black bird with a flame-red crest. However, these birds aren’t seen nearly as frequently as the rate of disappearing children, thus debunking this theory.

Two men were spotted emerging out of the Royal Forest. One was described as fat and balding, while the other was said to be thin and covered in locks of blond hair. The former cradles the bulky harp instrument of a psaltery; while the other carries the slender flute instrument of a shawm. They’ve been dubbed the Psalterist and the Shawmist. Both tall in stature, their footsteps make for long strides, explaining why witnesses have had difficulty chasing them down when they see a child in their company.

The sound of music can be heard as the Shawmist leads the child back into the Royal Forest’s border of black pine trees, which are so tall, they reach into the clouds on a rainy day. The Psalterist waddles behind his partner-in-crime and their young captive, ensuring the child doesn’t escape the musical trance.

Days later, the child is found in the farmlands, identified only by the clothes he or she was last seen wearing. All that is left is a dry skeleton, as if the child had been dead for decades. Skin and all organs are completely gone, and the bone is as clean as polished ivory.

People believe a witch lives in the Royal Forest, and they named her Ryla Bao. The name comes from the Mirean language the villagers in Naidney use, which is directly translated to Evil-Eyed Lady; “ryl-” meaning “eye”, “-a” meaning feminine, and “bao” meaning “evil”. They say she’s centuries old, and uses black magic to allow the children’s skin and organs to prolong her youth. The younger the child is, the longer it takes her to age again. The Psalterist and the Shawmist are her warlocks, commanded to retrieve her sacrifices.

Many expeditions have been organized in an attempt to save children seen leaving with the warlocks. However, these same expeditions are usually soon abandoned, with the child’s skeleton always turning up days later. While in the Royal Forest, people who have survived the expedition claim to experience spirits speaking to them, as well as strange disorientations that causes nausea and euphoria at the same time. These disorientations greatly affect the sense of direction, resulting in parties traveling in complete circles; as well as a sense of time being paralyzed, with nights seeming to last as quickly as a few minutes or as long as several days. Beasts in the Royal Forest also show signs of ravenousness, with bears, unisaurs and wolves oft attacking and killing members of the search party. The probability of being attacked by an exceptionally aggressive beast has led many to conclude that entry to the Royal Forest is equal to certain death. When King Three of Johnamas Hollied introduced the punishment of Banishment to the Royal Forest back in 978, he had heard the stories of these aggressive animals. Now, with a witch and two warlocks emerging from the haunted woods, the probability of survival lessens and the punishment of Banishment to the Royal Forest is ever crueler.

Because the child’s body usually turns up in the farmlands while the expedition is still in place, horrific bewilderment arises by how the body is discarded without the Psalterist and the Shawmist’s reemergence being noticed. Theories have included an invisibility spell, teleportation or that the children are being led into the Royal Forest and exited through a different path as a diversion. If the entrance to the Royal Forest is just an elaborate distraction, there are plenty of barns and small castles between Naidney and Denregal that the children can be easily taken to. In other words, the Psalterist and the Shawmist might not be just warlocks, they could your neighbor.

Third Place Books

C. W. Schultz is proud to announce that the Lake Forest ParThird Place Booksk Third Place Books is carrying copies of A Book About a Film. What makes this so exciting for him is that this was the bookstore he would always go to as a child, so having his books in their inventory is a dream come true.

You can also order books online at Third Place Books, so take a moment to visit their website; and if you’re in the Lake Forest Park area, stop in for a visit.

Luxury Reading’s four-star review of “A BOOK ABOUT A FILM”

Check out Luxury Reading‘s rave review of A Book About a Film.

Reviewed by Leigh Adamkiewicz

There is a delicious rush from finding something you’re not quite meant to see. And the Found Footage genre is testament to how much money we’ll spend to pretend we’ve found something risqué. But what if you found something truly forbidden? Dangerous? You’d get the word out, sure. But what would you do if the story started to grow and change as you were telling it? What if the illusion of danger wasn’t an illusion at all?

You’d probably come up with A Book About a Film, a magnificent, multi-faceted tale about the life-changing movie you’ll never see.

The book starts off with an excellent premise. What if people who had near death experiences learned something from their time on the other side? This was the plot of an excellent independent film called The Cornfield People. All the reports on the film indicated it had every chance of becoming a modest success, if not a cult classic. But there’s a problem. When the film was nearly done, it was shelved. Mysteriously.

The copies of the movie that exist are legendarily hard to find. But everyone who is anyone in film has an opinion about this one. The film has found its way into the hands of Spielberg (theoretically) and Tarantino (citation needed) and many more. So it seems only natural that our author writes a book about the film after being lucky enough to see it. And that’s when things start getting weird.

Much like Danielewski’s House of Leaves, this book relies on the footnotes to tell the story within the story. The story is not just the synopsis of the movie. It’s the things people have speculated. It’s the photos and articles that prove what happened. It’s even the typos in the document itself, which increasingly seem to be a code to another story entirely.

I actually got to the point when I wondered if the book was based on an actual movie. But aside from three posts on a movie blog, I couldn’t find any mention of it online. But this book’s level of detail makes it seem increasingly real. Didn’t you hear something about this in a trade journal? Wasn’t this person in a fluff piece in a local newspaper?

It’s the pictures, news clippings, and diary entries about those things that turn this into something more than just a good suspense thriller. If you just read the book the author thought they were writing, you’d think everything turned out. That it all wrapped up in a neat little package. But as you read on, you realize that the bigger questions are still out there.

About never enters abstract madness the way Leaves did. But it does get your heart racing as the pace accelerates, and the lines between fiction and reality gently blur. And I loved every bit of it.

Rating: ★★★★☆

Leigh is a fearless writer who never met a genre, subject, or format she didn’t like. She has written professionally for the past six years and enjoys biking, exploring odd corners of Northeast Ohio, and discovering those good books she hasn’t read yet.

Review copy was provided by C.W. Schultz.

“JILL” for free on Kindle through 09/23/2015

KindleJillC. W. Schultz’s third novel Jill (2012) is available for free on Kindle from 09/19/2015–09/23/2015. Click here to get it from Amazon.

Plot

At home, Rachel Rhodes is a mother and wife. At work, she is a manager. At night, she is the infamous serial killer known only as Jill. Her secret will eventually affect everyone in her life, from her family members to the detectives investigating the case.

Luck starts off on her side as she befriends heartbroken detective Cole Dale, who’s an important link to the investigation. However, that luck seems to fade when Rachel meets Cole’s partner, an unorthodox and mentally unstable detective, Perry Charleton, driven by personal reasons to stop Jill using any means necessary.

The novel is told in an omniscient narrative style, allowing the story to have a hauntingly neutral perspective which disguises everything as it progresses and leaves no room for predictability, entangling the reader in a web of evil. Layered with symbolism and motifs, leaving the story to come together like a puzzle through the characters’ actions and interactions; its themes deal with such issues as dysfunction, impressionability and influence, sexism, racism and even humiliation.

As with any C. W. Schultz novel, Jill is a study in candor. The author himself calls Jill “a serial killer soap opera” as Rachel seeks the romantic, fairy tale ending that only a deranged woman would believe possible after the things she has done.

Chapter 1 Teaser

WARNING: The following contains strong language, sexuality and violence that may be offensive to some…

Though this is nothing compared to the rest of the book. >;]

THE CLUB WAS BUSY FOR A WEDNESDAY EVENING.

Jacob Hansen observed this when he was halfway through his second martini and realized Colin Owen had not said more than “Dirty martini, Jake?” and “Another?”

Colin had been the bartender at Club Blue since new ownership took over a year ago. For the past three-and-a-half months Jacob had been coming in a couple times a week, usually on Monday, Tuesday or Wednesday. It was easier to pick up a woman when there wasn’t a crowd.

The typical woman at Club Blue was in her early twenties, slender built, usually tall, and always wild. Jake, however, was happy even with a woman slightly below par.

Tonight was unusually wild. Plenty of guys for the hotties to choose from which only reduced Jake’s chances.

“Hey, buddy,” Colin said as the bar began to die down.

“Colin,” Jake replied. “Busy night. What gives?”

Colin shrugged. “Business is business.”

“It looks like it’s slowing down a bit.”

“Shh. Don’t jinx it.”

“I thought business was business.”

“I won’t complain when it’s busy,” Colin began while wiping the counter. “That doesn’t mean I don’t prefer the down time.”

“Not so fast,” Jake said, then guzzled the rest of his martini and placed the glass where Colin had just wiped.

“What? You don’t want my company?” Colin teased, smiling as he swooped the glass closer to him. “For a guy who doesn’t want company, you sure look unhappy sitting here by yourself.”

A woman of 43—twice the age of most of the girls at Club Blue, but twice as beautiful—took a seat at the bar a couple of stools away from Jake.

He observed the few faint freckles on her face.

Cute, he thought.

He noticed a few more freckles on her neck, and even a few on her cleavage which she was obviously flaunting.

Look at those things! DDs, maybe even E-cups. Definitely at least Ds. I know who I’ll be thinking about if I go home alone tonight.

Jake was about to turn to Colin and say something like, “I’m not sitting by myself anymore, smartass,” but noticed that Colin had been pulled away by other customers.

Colin took their order, slid Jake his martini, and then prepared to make a couple of drinks for the people who just paid.

“Dark in here,” Jake observed.

Colin just shrugged.

“It’s getting busy again,” Jake pointed out, taking a sip of his third Martini.

“Looks like you jinxed me,” Colin replied as he mixed a margarita.

“May I have a dirty martini when you get the chance, please?” the woman asked.

“And put it on my tab,” added Jake.

Colin looked up from mixing the margarita and glanced briefly at the woman.

After Colin delivered the customers their drinks, he started on her martini.

“Thank you,” she said to Jake. “I’m Rachel.”

After the excitement of Rachel not rejecting Jake’s offer, he felt himself begin to blush. To avoid revealing how nervous he was, he said the first thing on his mind. “Aren’t you a little old for this club?”

You moron, Jake thought at the same time Colin raised his eyebrows.

Surprisingly, Rachel just laughed.
Is she laughing at me? “What I mean is… I felt like the only mature person in here. Then you came along and now I don’t feel so alone.”

“How old do you think I am?” she chuckled playfully.

“Old enough for me not to feel like a creep for buying you a drink.”

Rachel laughed again and then thanked Colin as he set the martini in front of her.

“What’s your name?” Rachel asked.

“I’m Jake. You from around here?”

“Actually, no.” She took a sip. “I’m actually from Portland on business.”

“Ah-ha. What do you do?”

“I started Flickerless Candle Co. Pretty much just a scented candle business. Small, but popular in Oregon and Northern California. Maybe Seattle might want some of my candles.”

“Maybe.”

“What do you do?”

“CEO of Sunrise Coffee.”

“Really?”

“You’ve heard of us?”

“Yeah.”
“I’m surprised, we only distribute in Washington.”

Rachel guzzled her Martini.

“Another?” offered Jake.

“I want a smoke.” Rachel pulled a pack of cigarettes from the little black purse that matched her hair and dress perfectly. The green color on the Marlboro Menthol 100’s pack matched her eyes that had already been matching the ring on her right-pinkie with an emerald-stone. Jake noticed this and thought black and green have never gone together better. “You smoke?”

“No,” Jake replied.

“Wait here while I smoke?”

Jake nodded.

“Or, you can keep me company outside.”

***

“Maybe I’ll bum one of those,” Jake said, feeling a bit useless just standing in the cold watching Rachel smoke.

Rachel opened her purse and handed him a smoke and lit it for him.
“I quit about four years ago,” Jake said, taking the first puff.

“Yeah? How does it taste?”

“Not good anymore.”

They shared a laugh.

Jake kneeled down and crushed the cherry gently. He stood up again and handed the dead cigarette back to Rachel. Aside from the blackened front and a faint yellowish inside the filter, the cigarette was in pretty good shape.

“Don’t mean to be rude,” he said bashfully.

“That’s okay. Don’t smoke it if you don’t want it. I’ll have it later.” She smiled and took it, digging into her purse again for the pack.

“I don’t mind standing out here with you,” Jake began. “But if you want, I can go back inside and order us another drink.”

“Wanna take this party somewhere else?” she suggested in a natural tone.

Jake was surprised at how perfect and easily things were falling into place. “Yeah,” he replied.

“You’ve had a little too much to drink. My motel room is about a block away. The Sunhill Motel. Room five.”

“Sure,” Jake replied, failing to disguise the happiness in his voice.

“Okay. I’ll head over now. Pay the tab and meet me there. You can pick up your car later tonight. Or tomorrow morning.”

***

Jake arrived at the Sunhill Motel almost twenty minutes later. He told Colin that he was going to leave his car in the lot until morning and to not have it towed. Jake slipped Colin $20, but Colin waved it off.

Jake insisted and added the $20 to his tab. Colin shrugged and said, “This one’s on the house.” He put a martini in front of Jake. He couldn’t resist.

Jake guzzled it. “Thanks. This will make me less nervous. I don’t know if I’ve ever been with a woman this beautiful.”

“Good for you, buddy,” replied Colin. “Wish I would’ve gotten a better look at her. It’s been damn busy. You jinxed me.”

Everything was going great. The last martini kicked in as he walked up the driveway to the one story motel.

There were 12 rooms, each with its own parking space in front of the door.

Jake found room five on the west side. No car was parked in front, but the lights were on.

Maybe I can give her a ride tomorrow. Keep this thing going.

Jake knocked on the door.

“Jake?” Rachel called.

“Yeah.”

“Come in. I’m just picking up a little. It’s unlocked.”

Jake turned the knob and entered.

He looked around the room. There was a TV to the left, the bed and nightstand to the right, and the bathroom adjacent to the door.

Typical motel room. He didn’t see Rachel anywhere. Where is she?

He saw movement out of the corner of his left eye.

He turned and saw Rachel approaching.

Then… black.

Jake awoke, staring at the stained yellowish-brown ceiling, the result of years of cigarette smoke.

It took him a while to realize what was going on, but it all sunk in when he noticed from the puffiness and strange mixture of numbness and soreness that his left brow was swollen. Pain became full-blown and he was then able to comprehend the extent of his injury—the shock had gone and the seriousness of what had just happened began to kick in.

He looked around the room and saw Rachel sitting on a chair next to the bed, smoking and watching TV.

“My eye,” Jake moaned, still in a bit of a daze, trying to communicate to Rachel that he was hurt.

When he moved to touch the wound, he realized that his arms and legs were tied to each of the bed posts with shoe string.

“Oh, you’re up,” Rachel said and turned off the TV.

Jake realized how calm Rachel was and hoped, Maybe this is just some kinky shit.

Rachel stood up and grabbed a syringe off the nightstand, shoving the needle into the side of Jake’s neck without hesitation.

Solid and heavy were the only two sensations Jake could convey. He felt like he was turning into stone.

“The Norcuron works pretty quickly,” Rachel said as she slipped the syringe in a medical bag, also black, next to her purse under the chair. “You’ll be paralyzed but capable of feeling. This is the ultra-torture accessory. A must have for any serial killer.”

Jake suddenly realized what was happening and began to scream, but deep moans were all that came out and before long, the moans turned into quick periodic gasps.

“I don’t like men,” she explained as she slipped on a pair of black leather gloves. “My father would fuck any woman in sight, and I ended up marrying a man just like him. My brother and my son will not be like them. Unfortunately, my brother contracted HIV from a blood transfusion about 15 years ago. The tragedy bestowed on one of the only men I actually love fills me with an indescribable rage. Nice guys do finish last… until I get involved.” She enjoyed giving all her victims her life story. Allowing the victim to understand the root of her anger robbed them of any hope that they might survive—they would understand she had no intention of not following through. Her brevity and matter-of-factness made it clear to Jake that he was not the first man to hear this tale.

Rachel picked up a hammer. It had Jake’s blood on it.

“I can’t take my anger out on my father because he’s dead, and I can’t take it out on my husband not only because he’s the father of my children but also an obvious tie to me, so you’ll take their place. You’ll be their substitute. You’re the next best thing.”

Rachel waved the hammer over Jake’s fully clothed crotch, as if contemplating exactly what angle to use.

“Most man-haters would love to devour a cock and balls, but me, I have more original tastes,” she said, pulling the hammer away.

Jake wondered what a “man-hater” would choose over that.

Rachel picked up her purse, removed a knife from it and then casually set it on the nightstand alongside the medical bag.

“My first victim was actually a castration,” she said as she stared at the reflection of herself in the clean silver blade, gently brushing her bangs away from her eyes. “It was boring. He expected it.”

She climbed on top of Jake’s limp body, reaching over to the nightstand for the hammer and laying it down next to him.

She leaned in close enough to kiss him, and said, “I wanna see you without a…

Reception

Critical response has been mixed.

Indie Author Anonymous gives Jill a ★★★★★ (out of five) review, saying it is “one of those books that will hook right from the first few pages and have you rushing back to it every chance you get.”

However, IndieReader gives Jill a rather negative review. Schultz’s approach of showing murder as an act of insecurity and moral-weakness by a shallow killer—drawing inspiration from real serial killers—did not sit well with IndieReader, who said: “Rachel kills simply because some men have hurt her, her brother was favored over her, and therefore she hates men. Some additional internal conflict or complexity might serve the purpose of making the murderer, and thus the murders, more interesting.” No lenience was given for the book’s intended soap-operatic direction, with some characters’ behavior being called “pretty inexplicable.” The book’s matter-of-factly and neutral narrative also seemed to bother the reviewer, who said: “The book can also be fairly heavy-handed in its moralizing, spelling out directly morals and judgments that would be more effective if readers were left to infer them.” Despite the panning ★½ (out of five) review, the IndieReader was not without compliments, calling Jill “lively”, “full of events” and “never dull”. They also called Perry Charleton (Schultz’s favorite character of his own creation) “surprisingly likeable, and his personality rather takes over the book whenever he’s in it.”

Trivia

While Schultz has said he will never play favorites with his stories, he has not done the same with his characters, stating that Detective Perry Charleton is by far his favorite character that he has created.

“THE PACK” for free on Kindle through 09/18/2015

KindlePackC. W. Schultz’s 2010 sophomore novel The Pack is available for free on Kindle from 09/14/2015–09/18/2015. Click here to get it from Amazon.

Sigmund “Siggy” Farris and his five friends form a group called The Pack as a fun way to make some extra dough under-the-table by offering such services as bookmaking, event planning and organized gambling. The Pack is an unexpected success and eventually turns into a serious business with good money. But the tight-knit group soon find themselves in far more treacherous waters for bigger bucks and more power, forming partnerships with other organized crime groups. Soon their lives spiral into a frenzy of betrayal and murder. Conscience and righteousness are soon abandoned for survival. Layered with dozens of characters, each of whom drive the plot from beyond the concept that crime doesn’t pay to the irresistible craving of power and wealth. There are people who live in a hostile lifestyle because they have no choice, and then there are those who choose this path to gain respect and importance they somehow couldn’t find in the “honest” world. The Pack examines both kinds of people. The six main characters are unwilling to accept that some things in life are inevitable; and in taking justice into their own hands, their fate turns out to be far grimmer than if they had turned a blind eye.

The book is read by Charlie Begelman (played by Todd Sezekely) throughout the film Watch.

“YEVAL” for free on Kindle through 09/13/2015

KindleYevalC. W. Schultz’s 2007 debut Yeval is available for free on Kindle from 09/09/2015–09/13/2015. Click here to get it from Amazon.

Despite Yeval not being critically recognized, the Utica Public Library put the novel on their list of Guy Lit along with many other contemporary classics. Georgina Parfitt of TowerBabel gave the book a ★★★★ (out of five) review, calling the overall structure well-paced, going on to explain that although it is an uncomfortable read, it is nonetheless “interesting, and highly thought-provoking, with moments of really moving writing.”

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