Digging up GHOUL (Part 1)
As per the previous entry, things will be quiet around here as I finish three books (Clickers vs. Zombies, The Lost Level, and Binky), thus clearing the way for three more books (Hole In the World, With Teeth, and Suburban Gothic). This may impact Deluge, as well. In the interim, while preparing the manuscript for the Deadite Press edition of Ghoul, I discovered a bunch of material that I thought might interest you, including deleted scenes that never made it into the finished book. Some of this material previously appeared in the Lettered Edition of Ghoul. Some of it didn't. Over the next few days, I'll post it all here for your enjoyment. Meanwhile, don't forget to support the upcoming film version of Ghoul on Twitter and Facebook.
First up, here is the original pitch synopsis I submitted to Delirium Books and Leisure/Dorchester (who published the hardcover and paperback respectively). As you'll see, the published version of Ghoul turned out very different than its original inception. Some of these changes were editorial requests, while others just didn't pan out.
GHOULS by Brian Keene
The year is 1984. On the first day of summer vacation, the possibilities seem endless for thirteen-year old Timmy Graco, and his friends Barry and Doug. There is a lot to do in their small Pennsylvania town. Miles of forest to be explored, bike rides down to the newsstand to buy their weekly fix of comic books, fishing at the local pond, camping out and telling ghost stories—and especially hanging out in their clubhouse, known as the dugout.
Timmy and his friends all live next to the Lutheran Cemetery, of which Barry's abusive, alcoholic father is the caretaker. The cemetery's surrounded with woodlands and fields, and this is where the boys spend the majority of their days. Their clubhouse also borders the cemetery—a dugout that they spent the previous summer constructing. It's a seven-foot deep hole, covered with wooden planks and sod, with a trapdoor. Inside, they sit around, smoke cigarettes stolen from Barry's father, and read comic books and Playboy.
But when Timmy's beloved grandfather dies, his summer vacation becomes a nightmare. His grandfather is buried in the cemetery. The night after the funeral, Timmy has a dream in which his grandfather comes to visit. The old man is standing outside Timmy's bedroom window. When Timmy refuses to let him in, and wakes up his parents, his grandfather vanishes. Timmy chalks it up to a nightmare.
The next day, his grandfather's grave begins to sink. Timmy, Barry, and Doug make a shocking discovery. Something has tunneled beneath the earth and consumed his grandfather's corpse. They alert their parents. Barry's father is angry with them for doing this, as he feels it makes him look bad as caretaker.
Soon, other graves are vandalized in the same way. Something is eating the dead, and looting their graves of jewelry and other mementos they were buried with. Then, Doug disappears while inside the clubhouse. Something tunneled inside it as well. That night, Doug appears to both Timmy and Barry, just as Timmy's grandfather did.
The local police seem stumped, unable to find the culprits, the missing bodies, or Doug's abductor. Timmy and Barry sneak out at night and creep into the cemetery, intent on solving the mystery, and finding their friend. Between research materials consisting of old comic books, and a midnight excursion into the cemetery, they find out just what the menace is: a ghoul, trapped for over two-hundred years inside an old vault, and now freed. The ghoul is able to briefly take the form of its victims, after eating their brains and heart, and it is building a den deep beneath the graveyard.
Nobody believes them, and the ghoul claims more victims, both living and dead. Finally, Timmy and Barry decide to tackle the creature themselves. The ghoul can only be killed by direct exposure to sunlight. Nothing else works on it (unlike vampires). The boys hijack Barry's father's backhoe (used to dig graves) and begin digging up the tunnels. But when the backhoe itself falls into the labyrinth below, Timmy and Barry are trapped in the tunnels beneath the cemetery, and face off against the monster in its lair, which is filled with the loot from the graves. They also discover that the ghoul isn't the only monster. Barry's Dad has kept silent about its existence, in exchange for the occasional trinket or jewelry that the ghoul tosses his way.
One of the women (Karen) that the ghoul abducted has been kept alive in its lair, for breeding purposes. When they free the pregnant captive and flee with her, the enraged ghoul gives chase, desperate to save its progeny. They trick it into chasing them into the sunlight, and Barry's father redeems himself by collapsing the tunnel behind them, thus trapping the ghoul on the surface. Barry's father's sacrifice is successful, and the ghoul is destroyed.
Epilogue: Nine months later, the woman gives birth to a ghoul… if the book is successful, there's the possibility of a sequel.
