A Synopsis Breakdown of “The Wandering King”

A collection of eight different short stories set in a world where the malignant and omniscient presence of the Wandering King is felt throughout, leading its inhabitants down a spiral of violence, paranoia and madness.

That is my book's brief synopsis. And that is just how I like to keep it – brief and vague. I for one find that plot-oriented synopses often ruin the whole reading, or viewing, experience. For example, if you were to describe The Godfather as the story of an aging mafia don who, upon suffering a violent attempt on his life, is forced to transfer control of his crime family to his mild-mannered son, you have already spoiled half the movie. You have given away that Sollozzo is far more dangerous than he appears to be, you have given away that the Don survives the attempt, and you have given away that Michael is the one who will succeed him... Now, it could well be that some stories cannot be, or should not be, captured within a vague description. It could also be that it just isn't smart to do so, at least from a marketing standpoint. That much I do not know. But I do know I like to keep my synopses short and sweet, perhaps rather unlike my opening paragraphs.

Now then, to the story at hand... What does one glean from my brief synopsis? First of all, I'd say the first adjective is rather meaningful. As I wrote the book, I knew I had to weave a cohesive thread throughout, unlike, say, The King in Yellow, but more on that one at a later date. The idea here is that the entire book falls within the domain of the Wandering King, and yet each story has its own protagonist, its own recurring theme and, some more than others, its own narrative break. Hopefully then, you, the reader, will be able to maintain an ever-changing level of suspense as you go through my pages. That is not to say my stories were strung together out of sheer convenience, which does seem to be the case with many books of short stories. It's quite the contrary in my case. I believe, or at least I hope, that you'll find that same strange presence permeating each line of the book... The overall idea behind that thus being that you can expect the book to have an endgame in mind, though the stories may twist into strange spirals... So while the book swims along the same river, each story is its own fish.

The setting of the book being kept intentionally vague in the sense of it simply being set in a unspecified world serves the ironic purpose of adding a distinct strangeness to it. I wouldn't want my readers to be able to rely on real places, streets and buildings. The world my characters inhabit is wholly different, yet the same, yet different, yet the same... And I like to think all great horror ought to be that way. Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece The Shining is indeed set in the very real state of Colorado, so that could do well to refute my claim, however, it is no accident that the film is set during the winter, in a very remote mountainous location where travel and communication are very swiftly hindered. It serves to make the characters feel helpless, of course, but I find it also gives us spectators the bizarre feeling that we are being taken to a place where logic doesn't seem to apply in quite the same way. As far as the world in my book goes, sleep easy knowing you don't live in it... or maybe you do. If at any point you manage to make sense of it, I rather hope the next page befuddles you, as the characters are thrown into a position whereby their next action may well make no sense to you, but oddly enough, it seems to make a whole lot of sense to them.

As for the two adjectives that I use to describe my entity, I confess I hesitated with the first one. The entity being omniscient is almost a given considering that he appears to know details and secrets no one else is privy to. And why wouldn't he? For all we know the whole world is his, every corner of every page. Now, as to his malignancy, what can I say? I suppose I can say the word was almost irresistible to me. I felt I just had to attribute some kind of moral weight to my eponymous character, if he can be said to even be a character at all. If my protagonists are trapped in a world that doesn't always make sense, then that world is made a little worse when the omniscient entity one could turn isn't there to help.

Lastly, there's the spiral of violence, paranoia and madness. All good things, right? I think in many respects I was rather ruthless with my characters, I had them suffer quite a bit and then they found each subsequent decision only brought them more pain and anguish, be it physical or psychological. Will you find it a bit too much? I confess at times I did, though in the end I reasoned it simply had to be that way, the story was already built and some walls became impossible to tear down. The book eventually developed a reality of its own, a movement and a weight that called for the characters to go down one road and not the other. I suppose at a certain point, mastery of the page is lost to the writer.

So... After all that you might still ask – but what is the book really about, what actually happens in your book? Give me your best tenth grade book report, you might ask. But that I cannot do... As far as each individual story goes, I invite you now to read it for yourself and discover as you go along. I tried to write in such a way that the cards that can be hidden remain so until the showdown, story by story, page by page, paragraph by paragraph. If that is a smart idea or not, if my stories are interesting or not, if you will like the book or not, all that I leave up to you. Though I'd ask that when you do read it, do so all the way to the end because if one story isn't to your taste, the next one just might be. And lastly, I will briefly mention that the whole book is written in the vein of a pessimistic philosophy about which I have previously written rather extensively. Perhaps at some point I will publish those ideas as well. Though for now, I believe I've said too much already.

It's quite alright...

Purchase your copy of The Wandering King here.

Read the first chapter of the book here.

Read various loose excerpts here.

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