Jeremy Wagner does not think it's such a stretch for a heavy metal rock star to try to break into publishing. "There are so many similarities between the book industry and the music industry," the guitarist in the band Lupara explains. Soon after graduating from high school, Wagner and his first band, Broken Hope, recorded a demo tape and shopped it around, looking for a manager and a record deal. Writing a query letter, sending out sample chapters, and trying to find a publisher after writing his debut novel, The Armageddon Chord, took him right back to those early days in his career, he says.
To be published in August by KRP Publishing, a year-old small press specializing in paranormal romance and fiction, The Armageddon Chord is a fast-paced read set in a world Wagner knows very well: a heavy metal guitarist transcribes an ancient song from hieroglyphics and soon finds himself enmeshed in an apocalyptic struggle between the forces of good and evil for world domination. It is, says freelance journalist Katherine Turman, "like The Da Vinci Code with a heavy-metal soundtrack."
Wagner has always been a prolific writer. While playing with Broken Hope, he would build upon lyrics he'd written, weaving them into short stories. "The songs I wrote were like little pieces of flash fiction, if you will. It just came naturally," he says. His short fiction already has been published in several magazines and in two anthologies. And at this stage in his life, Wagner, 40, prefers to write fiction rather than put out albums and tour; he's already writing full-time. Like the "extreme heavy metal" song lyrics he used to write, which were "100% horror based," Wagner's writings tend toward horror. "It's a realm that's always fascinated me," he tells Show Daily, describing himself as fascinated by "monsters and anything creepy or scary." A voracious reader too, Wagner recalls as a child reading the mysteries, thrillers, and horror fiction paperbacks he'd find on his mother's nightstand. "I can remember when Jaws came out in paperback," he says. "The cover blew me away. It was the first adult novel I ever read. I was six or seven."
A love of reading isn't an anomaly at all among those who like to listen to the dense sounds of the heavy metal music he performs, Wagner explains. "It's amazing how many heavy metal fans love fiction or books in general."
Wagner will sign ARCs of The Armageddon Chord and give away limited-edition guitar picks today in the authors' autographing area, 2:30–3:30 p.m., at Table 22.
