An Informal Prologue
Before we get further into this story, I'd love to give you just a little background on its origins and progress.
'And Then The End Will Come,' at this moment in time at least, feels like the book I've always wanted to write. Having written a first draft of a science fiction book (entitled Proactive Square) I began working on this next novel and found the experience to be not only highly addictive, but also deeply cathartic and I've been working on this story ever since.
The idea was always there, asleep in the black, waiting for me to give it the attention it deserved.
It perhaps was too difficult to write at first, such was the closeness I felt to the story itself and the personal experiences with coercive religious organisations from a young age.
With a childhood lost in many respects, writing about it seemed a little too raw, but as the years have rolled by, so has my desire to turn something unusual and painful into something exciting and hopefully horrifying (in the best possible sense)!
And Then The End Will Come, is loosely inspired by real events, but of course like most stories, it is embellished and sprinkled with the spectacular... not to mention the supernatural and sense of growing tension and terror throughout.
The religion's name is fictional as are the characters so please do not be alarmed. At least, not too alarmed.
The story asks many questions about faith, religious beliefs and hierarchy, free will and how far people are willing to go in their commitment to a cause they believe so deeply in.
It is up to young Denny, a boy aged 12, to find out.
He must not only come to terms with his developing lack of faith and desire for freedom, but also the knowledge that something so evil and insidious, has found him and his family.
It takes up residence in the family coal shed, a place of great superstitious fear for young Denny.
And there, deep in the black rolling pearls of coal, it begins to grow and spread it's influence. The congregation of 'Matthew's Prophet's' are lambs to its slaughter.
They feared the Devil and his demons, even God himself.....but now something is here with them and it means to take them to a promised land.
Its just not quite the promised land they dedicated their entire lives to.
David DeWinter