It took thirty-eight stitches to close the gap left in Neve Richards’ leg by the boar’s tusk.” That was the sentence that introduced the world to Cryptozoologist Neve Richards. The life of this small-town dreamer has not been the same since. The book debuted at number one on Amazon’s new releases for Science Fiction & Fantasy and started a small cult-like following for Neve Richards and Cassi Stein. It was amazing for me as a writer to see the connection that was made between the readers and the characters I hold so dear. Those connections are why we are now three books into The Neve Richards’ Chronicles, and why I was asked to write an article about the books and my two short screenplays, one of which is on the local film festival circuit and the second one, which is in post-production.
It is odd to say I owe a lot to anxiety and a fictional character, but I owe them both dearly because without either, the lifelong dream of this high school dropout would never have come true. I have struggled with anxiety my whole life and always looked for an escape from it. I found that escape in movies after seeing A Nightmare on Elm Street. I now had an escape and direction, but anxiety won the war during my high school years and forced me to drop out. It was that same anxiety years later that pushed me to finish not only my undergraduate but also my graduate degree as well. During those studies, I had a scriptwriting class and spent all my spare time writing scripts to be like my hero, Wes.
Over the years I had been close to selling a screenplay, but nothing had panned out. It was during the writing of one of those scripts that Neve Richards made the choice to enter my life. You read that right; she was not a character I created. She made the choice to enter my life. It was on the suggestion of my favorite writer, turned friend and mentor, Lee Murphy, to try writing a novel. I worked on Devil’s Half Acre for years and made no progress until Neve decided to once again put herself in the story. The book was finished, but it felt off. One night while working on it, I started thinking about a friend who had recently passed and decided to honor her by naming a character after her. It changed the dynamic of the whole story, and she became the perfect balance to Neve. I rewrote the whole book because of that, and once the talented local artist Roxy Roberts created the perfect cover, Neve and Cassi Stein were introduced to the world.
Devil’s Half Acre started as a one-and-done with Neve, but as I started writing Dreamer Man, it became clear this book was the next chapter in Neve’s story, and her universe was born. As a storyteller, it was an amazing journey getting to blend elements of history with real-life local killer Bob Dreamer and events like Rain Day into a crazy story centering around Neve and Cassi’s jobs as cryptozoologists.
When asked what I remember most about writing this book, it is the fight Neve and I had over the ending. It was at that point that I understood as a writer I have no power to make the characters do something they don’t want to. After a tense period of negotiations, I conceded that Neve was right and finished the book the way she wanted. My plan was to jump right into The Missing Link because I was excited to write about Bigfoot, but it was put on the back burner after a message from Wendy Whittick, owner of WCC Productions; she provided me a chance to make my movie dreams come true. She asked me to write a film noir script, which would become The Crystal Dove.
It was a chance to not only write a movie but also to pay homage to my favorite film noir movie, Laura, and to my other hero, Orson Welles, and the films The Third Man and A Touch of Evil. The script was all about Victoria McKnight, a fallen actress who uses all of her “assets” to get what she wants. After around fifteen rewrites, the film was shot over several weekends in February. Words cannot describe the feeling of being on the set of a movie you have written and later seeing your characters come to life on the silver screen. I thought that was the end of my scriptwriting journey, and I started working again on The Missing Link. However, I got a request to work with Wendy and WCC Productions again to write a script based on a story by Wendy. This was my first project that was not my original idea, and it was such an amazing learning experience working with someone to turn their vision into a movie script.
As I look back on the last several years, I have been blessed more than I deserve. This small-town boy with crazy dreams of writing books and movies has achieved what for years I thought was impossible. I still look up at The Crystal Dove and Devil’s Half Acre posters on my wall and think I am glad I never stopped chasing my dream. If you want to join The Neve Richards’ Universe, the books are available online through Amazon and locally at Dean’s Water. I also provide writing updates from my Tim Denman Author’s page through Facebook.
To learn more about Tim and his stories, listen to his recent episode on GS Podcast. https://greenescenemagazine.com/podcast/
