Award-winning author Everett De Morier isn’t worried about writing for large audiences. In fact, he’s happy if his work reaches even a handful of people, as long as they’re the right readers.
De Morier’s latest book, In the Ghost Shadows, will be published by Kensington Publishing, the company responsible for such influential authors as Fern Michaels, Philip K. Dick, and Jean-Paul Sartre.
In the Ghost Shadows is the authorized story of the highest-ranking member of the only organized crime family to control New York’s Chinatown. The book will be the exclusive story of Peter Chin, who was the Dai Lo, or boss, of The Ghost Shadows while at their peak of power in the 1970s and 1980s.
In researching the book announcement, I reached out to the author to discuss the project and his writing career. My experience is that when an author reaches a certain level of notoriety, they tend to stay in their lane and avoid risk. Once they’ve been published, have an agent and have survived the years of rejection, they prefer to swim in calmer waters, build their brand and play it safe, but this isn’t the case here.
De Morier recently wrote an expose of prison corruption entitled Modern Day Shawshank Redemption, for 543 Magazine. It was well-researched and expertly written. I asked who his audience was for that article since it pointed some serious fingers at the prison system.
“The prisoners,” he said. “That article was passed around and read by most of the Coleman Federal Prison Camp inmates as well as ex-inmates. It showed that someone cared about what was going on with them.” I mentioned that the article had less than a thousand views and questioned if his time couldn’t be better spent within his genre. “Maybe,” he said, “but it was the right thousand people who read it.”
De Morier isn’t one to shy away from experimental or unconventional writing projects without the guarantee of a large audience. On another writing project, De Morier was talking to a producer he works with about how it’s common to turn books into films and questioned why it isn’t done in reverse. They decided to try it. They chose a film the producer is shooting later this year, a powerful true story of a couple who survive the Holocaust, and wrote the book based on the film.
“I didn’t want the book to simply be the version of the film, so I didn’t even read the script. I’m using the same source material and want it to be in novel form based on true events. Capote made it work when he wrote In Cold Blood so I figured it’s worth a shot.”
De Morier has other irons in the fire. The film version of his novel Thirty-three Cecils is slated to be shot this year with an all-star cast. “The Executive Producers are almost done shooting this big action movie. Cecils is the next film to go into production after it.”
Another opportunity came up unexpectedly and involves the publisher of Thirty-three Cecils, who recently announced that a portion of the novel would make a great children’s book for their new imprint. One-hundred Cecils will be released in 2024.
With 20 years of writing and solid relationships with literary agents, film producers and publishers, with soon-to-be five traditionally published books under his belt and two films in development, you would think De Morier’s next novel would be shopping around to the big boys.
Instead, the author returned to the small press the first novel was published with even though the marketing budget and distribution will be significantly less. “It will be a solid novel if done that way. The right thousand people will read that one too.”
About Everett De Morier:
In 1997, Everett De Morier published his first nonfiction book, Crib Notes for the First Year of Marriage: A Survival Guide for Newlyweds (Fairview Press). The success of his first book led to a sequel, 1998’s Crib Notes for the First Year of Fatherhood: A Survival Guide for New Fathers. Both books received high-profile coverage in newspapers and magazines.
In 2015, Blydyn Square Books published De Morier’s first novel, Thirty-three Cecils. The film rights were sold, and the project is in development with Sunset River Productions with a 2024 release date. It will star Oscar-winner Dustin Hoffman. One-hundred Cecils, a children’s book spinoff from the award-winning novel Thirty-three Cecils, is being released in 2024.
In 2018, Blydyn Square Books released The Invention of Everything: Insights on Life, Food, and One Good Thermos, which included the best-of articles from 543 Magazine. The promotional tour for this book became the framing device used in the documentary Binghamton: Valley of Creativity which premiered at The Bundy Theatre in 2018. Everett wrote a second screenplay entitled Pushing the Piano Down the Stairs, which was optioned by Sunset River Productions and is scheduled to begin filming in the summer of 2023. It will star Jeremy Allen White and will include the soundtrack by popstar LP (Laura Pergolizzi) who has written music recorded by Cher, Celine Dion and Christina Aguilera.
In the Ghost Shadows, the exclusive true story of the highest ranking member of the most powerful crime family in New York’s Chinatown is being released by Kensington Publishing in February of 2026.
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