The 27 Steps

Mar 31

This will be the first of a series of blogs which I will fondly call "How I did it by Jerrimiah Von Stonecastlestein" lol

I will illustrate my thought process as I worked through the outline of each chapter which took 9 months to complete.

Chapter 1 First Victim

I wanted to have Frankenstina (Gaberdeen Hallstrom) come into the world like a storm. What would be more fitting than a blizzard. I also wanted her to be born innocent but at the same moment "evil incarnate" without it being obvious. Thus the killing of her mother during child birth.

I also wanted to set the stage for the abuse she would endure for years at the hands of her father, David Hallstrom. I did this by illustrating the almost psychotic love he had for her mother, Wilma, and how her death sent him over the edge. A sadistic, violent, drunkard he was until he laid eyes on her, but returned when she passed.

Frankenstina's accelerated growth had to be explained so I incorporated it into the backstory. This will set the foundation for when she hits a height of 7 feet and weight of 350 pounds.

I also get to introduce key characters:

Carol & Robert Brunson, Gaberdeen's aunt and uncle.

Sheriff Gregory Brown

Sam and Bo Hallstrom, Gaberdeen's uncles and just as wild and not too far behind her father in brutality.

Reverend George Pinter and the Pinter family is introduced. I had to show how David won such a delicate flower by highlighting the demons of her father.

This first chapter I knew was going to have a lot of backstory but I wanted it to flow in such away as to keep the reader engaged cerebrally. Towards the end of the chapter I had it build slowly into an emotional and violent crescendo in order to have the reader turn the page to Chapter 2.

How did I do?

Jerrimiah Stonecastle

Born and raised in the slums of New York, he was raised by a single mom who earned her Master's in Early Childhood Development while working as a teacher's aide. She sent young Jerrimiah to the prestigious Power Memorial Academy for Boys, the Alma mater of NBA great Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. He worked part-time after school to help his mom pay for his tuition.

He declined a full scholarship from Concordia University and joined the US Army and became a combat medic. He returned to New York upon his discharge where he was hired by the NYC Chief Medical Examiner’s Office as a medical stenographer.

In 1982 he joined the New York City Police Department. In 1983 he was recruited by the Organized Crime Control Bureau (OCCB) as an undercover officer in their narcotics division. He finished out his career as a detective assigned to the Bronx Homicide Task Force.

When he retired in 2002, he relocated to Florida to pursue his passion for writing. After hundreds of rejection letters and reading Amanda Hocking's story, he decided to self-publish his own works. In 2016 he formed Stonecastle Publications LLC and has published 30 books so far. He has an additional 400 fiction and nonfiction novels in draft form in his company's literary vault.

On October 31, 2018, He launched his first horror novel "FRANKENSTINA" and released the sequel "FRANKENSTINA REBORN" on Halloween 2019. There are two more books in the horology.

On March 7, 2023, he received the Literary Titan Book Award for the apocalyptic thriller "A Flash of Light".

Stonecastle Publications LLC

"Throwing Stones At a Glass House"

https://jerrimiahstonecastle.org/

The 27 Steps

Frankenstina Cast Lineup

Step 2 of 27