Schizophrenic’s Guide: Siphon’s Wrath
I, Daniel Trump, wrote a hard-R themed novel about a dangerous cult, something adult, something dirty, something about how good and bad people can be. It’s a fantasy novel called Siphon’s Wrath.
It stars Yukiko Tanaka, a student who attends the University of Remus because she wants to find her missing mother. She finds a trail that leads to a hundred-year-old serial killer and his troubled son. Yukiko faces them with the help of the enigmatic guild Siphon’s Wrath, named for its founder Siphon, a leader who campaigns through the known world having adventures and righting wrongs. She is fascinated by him and his legend, but the reality isn’t the same as the stories…
She's attracted to Tristan and Savannah from the cult and is intrigued by the cult’s openness and frank attitudes about sexuality. I wanted to show both the glamorous and the terrible aspects of sex and sexuality — how it can be fascinating and fun and yet also how it can descend into madness and obsession. Various characters have sex with other people — and the feel and tone of the scenes are different. Some of them are nervous college students. Some are husbands with their wives. Some are experienced lovers in an open love scene. Some people have wonderful experiences; some people descend into madness. I don’t show any sex offenses onstage; any sex offenses are mentioned but not shown.
I did real research for this one: I researched cults and brainwashing. There are some terrible cults out there who did some terrible things to people — and they did a variety of different terrible things. I found plenty of interesting anecdotes of terrible cults and their many, many sins, and I was able to toss lots of those in my novels.
I don’t know about this book. I worked really hard and threw my everything into it. I tried to write the best story that I could possibly write. I write the stories that come to me in my mind. I need to continue to try new methods of writing — new strategies, new tactics.
Will things change? Will I write a much better book? Will the quality of my writing improve over time? I don’t know. I used to write bad books. I’m hoping that this one is an improvement over the previous works. I tried to write each and every character with intelligence and integrity. I wanted to give every character a chance to be interesting and wonderful people — good guys, bad guys, and side characters.
I also tried to play with roles and tropes. I didn’t want the novel to play out exactly as these stories always do. I wanted to have some surprises — good and bad things happen that maybe you don’t expect. Things don’t unfold as these always do.
If you want to check it out it costs three dollars today. It will be free on Sunday or so. You can download it for free in a few days. That’s fine too. If you want to read and review it I would be incredibly grateful. I worked very hard at this book.
Sex, murder, and revelations abound in the 53,000 word novel.
Thanks, and take care, friends.
