DE-MYSTIFYING WRAITH

WRAITH, the adventure that launched Nick Baron’s Triple Seven Chase from test squadron to black ops team, releases today from Brilliance Audio and Audible.com. Many of you have asked “Why is WRAITH only available on audio?” or “What is this 2010 WRAITH I see in the used section of Amazon.com?”


That is a long story.



The original version of WRAITH was supposed to be a fun experiment. I had written short stories, poetry, and some classified technical manuals, but I wanted to know if I could write a novel.
I first started writing WRAITH in 2005, while still flying the Stealth Bomber out of Whiteman Air Force Base.  With the deployments, the increased demand for the B-2, and, finally, a shift to the airlines, it took me until late 2008 to complete the 175,000-word monstrosity. Somewhere in those three years, I forgot that WRAITH was just a fun experiment. I started thinking that I was an author.
I wasn’t.
You must understand that by the time WRAITH was complete, I arrogantly thought I knew all that I needed to know about writing.  Sadly, a year and a half of querying literary agents without so much as a nibble barely scratched the hardened veneer of my hubris. It did, however, frustrate me enough to send me in search of a small, independent publisher.

Thus, by the end of 2009, WRAITH had landed on the desk of TotalRecall Press. They, at least, knew enough to make me cut the monster down to 107,000 words before publishing it in 2010, along with a shorter pirate story that I had written during the year and a half of querying agents. Once publication was immanent, Clive Cussler and Publishers Weekly both agreed to read WRAITH. They made some nice comments, but that was purely upon their grace and the grace of God, not upon the merits of my writing.

It was not until I reached ThrillerFest in July 2010 that I realized what a big mistake this all was. Meeting real authors that had spent years honing their crafts opened my eyes and shattered my arrogance. You can read more about that humbling experience on their website here. Needless to say, I was not an author by any stretch of the imagination. I realized that neither WRAITH nor PIRATES: THE MIDNIGHT PASSAGE should ever have been published.

I spent the next couple of years working at my craft, absorbing all that I could and working on a sort of do-over with the Triple Seven Chase – starting ten years down the road as their covert ops journey came full circle. You may know that story as SHADOW CATCHER. I spent the rest of my time trying to get WRAITH off the shelf. I absolutely did not want it to be there.

Fast forward to 2013 when I had signed on with Berkley Books at Penguin for SHADOW CATCHER and SHADOW MAKER. Once the print deal was made, my fantastic agent, Harvey Klinger, got me an audio deal and “Surprise!” Brilliance Audio wanted WRAITH and PIRATES as well, an option Berkley had not taken. Based on the original WRAITH and PIRATES, I would have sided with Berkley.
The audio deal sent me scrambling back to the keyboard. I spent months re-writing both books, engaging every tool and technique I had learned from my studies, my literary agent, my editing team, and the wonderful authors and teachers at two ThrillerFests/CraftFests. I worked my fingers to the bone and tried the patience of my employers and my family to bring both works up to a level worthy of publication before the deadline with Brilliance. I also brought WRAITH in line with the Triple Seven Chase as it exists in SHADOW CATCHER.
That is the difference between the used hardcover and paperback WRAITH on Amazon and the new audiobook. The action and characters now comprise a prequel to SHADOW CATCHER and, in my personal opinion, the new WRAITH is much more worthy of your time as a reader. Incidentally, I feel the same about PIRATES: THE MIDNIGHT PASSAGE – even more so, in fact. I wish the used paperback merchants would stop selling the old one. In contrast, I feel that the new PIRATES, which comes out in April as an audiobook, is the masterwork of my career thus far.

Berkley has not yet opted the new WRAITH for print or e-book. That is entirely up to them, and because I trust them and appreciate everything they have done for me, I will let their experts choose the timing and will not release the new WRAITH on e-book on my own.
For all the reasons above, you will only find the new version of WRAITH on audiobook. I hope that you will consider listening to narrator Luke Daniels as he brings it to life, perhaps for your morning commute or for some family time in the evening (like everything I write, it is free of sex and foul language and safe for your kids). Above all, I hope that you will enjoy discovering the origins of Nick Baron’s Triple Seven Chase as much as I enjoyed re-creating them.

God Speed and Thanks for Reading (er… listening),

James R. Hannibal