Front cover artwork of
The Hornet Queen, yet another basketball thriller I wrote during my high school years (and the fifth of the ten books I handwrote from 1995-2000). This 312 page novel I began on July 17, 1997 and completed August 17, 1997, when I was 17 years old. A sort of spiritual successor to
Bullet Games, this novel was inspired by the work of John Grisham (who I was reading a lot of novels by that year), and also Quentin Tarantino's
Pulp Fiction screenplay, which I first read in June of that year (though I did not see the actual film until November of '97).
Back cover of
The Hornet Queen. The premise for this novel was that the Charlotte Hornets basketball team suffers a devastating team accident right before the start of the season (when their bus explodes), and the team ends up hiring a Jewish woman named Eva Diaz, the league's first female coach (who proceeds to persuade the team to pick up 3 female players, 2 of whom end up becoming lesbians). The main bad guy is a disgruntled former employee of the team who doesn't even kill anyone: so much for all that "evil threat" nonsense.
The Hornet Queen's about the author page. After the travesty that was
Bullet Gamesit would seem I couldn't be arsed to include a photo for this novel.
Critical praise for
The Hornet Queen. Ah, those halcyon days of youth, when my ambitions as a writer were primarily to be the "John Grisham of basketball!"
More critical praise.
Inner cover for
The Hornet Queen.
Copyright page for
The Hornet Queen.
Table of contents for
The Hornet Queen pt. 1. "The Darkhorse Team" was actually one of the working titles for the novel. The terse one-word chapter titles were a sign that I was still somewhat influenced by Tom Clancy as a writer by this point.
Table of contents pt. 2.
The "cast" of
The Hornet Queen. The fact that I said Miramax released the film adaptation was probably an example of the Tarantino influence. Sean Bean and reginald VelJohnson were two actors I tended to "cast" in my books quite a bit back then. In fact, Sean Bean had "played" the character of Sypha Nadon in
Bullet Games.
Photograph of Lucy Lawless that I taped to one of the book's back pages. She was cast as one of the female basketball players, Ashley Roberts. I kind of had the hots for her at that time, though I wouldn't actually watch a
Xena episode until November of that year.
Pg. 1 of
The Hornet Queen. One of my goals of this novel was to have as little bloodshed as possible: therefore I decided to begin the book right after the explosion of the team bus that sets the whole stupid plot into motion.
Pg. 57 of
The Hornet Queen. A player tosses a drink into Coach Eva's face during a game.
Pg. 95 of
The Hornet Queen. There's a ton of Jewish stuff in the book (that utterly mystified my father at the time). Much of it was copied word-for-word from the family set of Funk & Wagnall encyclopedias.
Pg. 116 of
The Hornet Queen. One of the female players, Ashley, I decided to make a witch, giving me the chance to go on for page after page about modern witchcraft in America. This could be seen as an early example of my fascination with the occult.
Pg. 125 of
The Hornet Queen. It could very well be the only basketball novel to feature a bunch of skyclad witches raising a "Cone of Power" to help the home team win the championship that season.
Pg. 129 of
The Hornet Queen. More Jewish lore.
Pg. 133 of
The Hornet Queen. Man, nothing gets those pages turning faster than some dreidal action.
Pg. 162 of
The Hornet Queen. In this very silly scene, Pat Murphy, the novel's main bad guy, hires a male prostitute named Lloyd to have sex with Eva, so that he can blackmail her later on (as Eva is married).
Pg. 223 of
The Hornet Queen. Holly, one of the lesbian players, prepares to out herself to the woman she loves. To motivate her, she reflects on the lyrics to the 1983 single "Mr. Roboto" by Styx. Hey, weirder things have happened.
Pg. 234 of
The Hornet Queen. This was around the time in my life where I first started to question the Catholic Church. Why I was under the notion that a black man couldn't be a Catholic priest, I have no idea.
Pg. 235 of
The Hornet Queen. More theological speculations.
Pg. 238 of
The Hornet Queen. Eva's husband is kidnapped by Pat Murphy and he sends her a typewritten note, which I typed out on my mom's old typewriter. At the time I thought that quite clever.
James Brandy (one of the team's made-up players, played by James Spader) and Ashley Roberts drive to Barnes & Noble, where James Champagne (one of the most famous writers in the world, it would seem) is having a book signing. Wishful thinking?
Pg. 246 of
The Hornet Queen. In one of my first dalliances with meta-fiction, I insert myself into the text. My dad found this cameo quite amusing.
Pg. 271 of
The Hornet Queen. James drives to Ashley's house to pick her up for a date while rocking to "Laylah." Later on in the book you see him listening to ABWH's "Long Lost Brother of Mine." Glad to see I was so bad-ass back then.
Pg. 301 of
The Hornet Queen. One of the first sex scenes I ever wrote. James and Ashley do it. It would seem my primary sexual fantasy back then was banging witches who looked like Xena: Warrior Princess.
Pg. 302 of
The Hornet Queen. More badly-written erotica. Then again, if
Fifty Shades of Grey can sell...
Last page of
The Hornet Queen. Just like in
Bullet Games, the team wins the NBA Finals.
