Posted in: Books, Comics | Tagged: Billy Martin, books, entertainment, HRL, Lost Souls, Poppy Z. Brite

Original Poppy Z. Brite's Lost Souls Manuscript Up For Auction

Published Tue, 07 Nov 2017 12:10:58 -0600

Billy Martin, AKA Poppy Z. Brite, is an American author that began writing gothic horror fiction in the early 1990s and published a string of successful novels and short stories. These included Lost Souls, Drawing Blood, and Exquisite Corpse. He would later transition into more dark comedy. Now, Martin is reportedly in a"serious situation" (as described by a mutual friend), and he is auctioning off the original manuscript for Lost Souls circa 1990.

While his work is mostly standalone, there are recurring characters. His work also includes many openly gay and bisexual characters. Martin refers to him self as a gay man having been born in a woman's body. He has written and talked at length about his personal gender dysphoria and transgender issues.

In 2010, Martin announced that he was retiring from writing, stating that he no longer felt connected to his characters and that he did not feel the need to write for public consumption anymore. He began doing a series of New Orleans and voodoo-themed art pieces instead.

He describes the available material as:

This manuscript is an early draft of my novel LOST SOULS, circa 1990. At this point it wasn't even officially titled LOST SOULS yet; this manuscript is not titled at all. It consists of approximately 500 laser-printed pages in two large black vinyl ring binders, and includes many differences from the published novel, including deleted chapters, tons of unauthorized poetry and song lyrics, and several major plot changes (Zillah doesn't die!). It also includes many of my handwritten notes for revision, mostly in purple ink, both on the printed pages and on a separate page of lined notebook paper. The two binders have my decorative labels reading "Prologue, Chapters 1-20" and "Chapters 21-37, Epilogue."

The auction runs through tomorrow. For fans of Poppy Z. Brite, this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to own a piece of history and to help out the author. You can check out the auction here.