Mark Falkin - The Late Bloomer

“Imagine a dystopian vision in which Stephen King’s The Mist meets Jeff VanderMeer’s The Southern Reach trilogy, and Margaret Atwood’s The MaddAddam Trilogy . This is the world Mark Falkin conjures up in The Late Bloomer . Like the best postapocalyptic novels, The Late Bloomer is a tale of horror derived from the stuff of everyday life. A dark menace haunts these pages, lurks in the shadows, and the beauty of this novel is that it makes you seriously wonder: could this happen to us? A smart, sophisticated YA novel, The Late Bloomer will grab you by the scruff and pull you along for a wild ride.”

“In The Late Bloomer , Mark Falkin’s postapocalyptic young adult novel, the world as we know it has imploded. A small band of teenagers are the only ones left to figure out what has happened and try to piece some semblance of their world back together. Beautifully written and action-packed, The Late Bloomer is narrated by a teenager who is at once jaded and hopeful, a voice you’re not likely to forget any time soon.”

THIS IS A GENUINE CALIFORNIA COLDBLOOD BOOK

A California Coldblood Book | Rare Bird Books

453 South Spring Street, Suite 302

Los Angeles, CA 90013

rarebirdbooks.com

californiacoldblood.com

Copyright © 2018 by Mark Falkin

ISBN 978-1-947856-54-7

FIRST TRADE PAPERBACK ORIGINAL EDITION

All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or portions thereof in any form whatsoever, including but not limited to print, audio, and electronic. For more information, address:

Rare Bird Books Subsidiary Rights Department,

453 South Spring Street, Suite 302, Los Angeles, CA 90013.

Set in Minion

Cover art and typesetting by Leonard Philbrick.

Author photo © 2018 Mike Mulry/XCELARTS

Printed in the United States

Distributed by Publishers Group West

Publisher’s Cataloging-in-Publication data

Names: Falkin, Mark, author.

Title: The Late Bloomer / Mark Falkin.

Description: Los Angeles, CA: California Coldblood Books, an imprint of Rare Bird Books: 2018.

Identifiers: ISBN 978-1947856547

Summary: The world experiences an unthinkable cataclysm and Kevin March, high school band trombonist and wannabe writer, embarks on a journey that promises to change everything.

Subjects: LCSH Horror. | Texas—Fiction. | Friendship—Fiction. | Apocalyptic fiction. | BISAC YOUNG ADULT FICTION | Apocalyptic & Post-Apocalyptic

Classification: LCC PZ7.F18852 La 2018 | DDC [Fic]—dc23

Kevin Gabriel March (KGM) utters these words in whispers. Another sound appears here, a wheezing, emitted from another person in the room—Kodie Janine Lagenkamp (KJL). While these words are unintended for inclusion in the overall purpose of the recording and are wholly disconnected from its structure as depicted in the following transcribed pages, as such is specifically mentioned on page 172, they are included herein by reference.

Transcriber/editor attempts to indicate and include dramatic pauses, sighs, various vocalizations, obvious emphasis (wherein italics are employed), and paragraph breaks like this one. Editor places the entire prologue in italics, as such was common in old-world literature.

Section breaks such as this indicate that KGM has stopped recording. The next passage or paragraph indicates his resumption of recording.

Olympus WS-822 Digital Voice Recorder with Intelligent Functions, mfg. China 2017

Photo of box attached as Exhibit A.

A copy of this document is attached as Exhibit E.

I didn’t know what I was doing there, let alone what Kevin was doing. I have no memory of what happened the morning of. Seeing Kevin while holding my dad’s glock in Rebecca’s hallway is my first new-world memory. The sudden clarity, brightness, loudness of things stunned me. It was as if a thick wad of cotton had been extracted from my mind.

Included in With Smiles On Their Faces: The Collected Poems of Kevin March , attached hereto as Exhibit D.

Ibid.

I was confused and scared here, beyond all understanding.

A copy of this document is attached as Exhibit B.

A copy of this document is attached as Exhibit B.1.

Sound of heavy thumping. KGM is tapping the device with which he makes this recording.

“For What It’s Worth” by Buffalo Springfield (1967).

Somewhat incorrect. Everything was erased but those remembered, uttered words, the first words of this transcript.

While none of us remember these early days, we now know this is what happened to many people that morning.

This notebook of songs is on view at Records. Songbook rehearsal copies are available for checkout from Custodian.

A copy of both sides of this document is attached as Exhibit C.

Dr. Warren Jespers’s recovered 2018 Dell HPC (High Performance Computer) is in a secure location.

The sounds of heavy breathing and water splashing, presumably from paddling.

Close scratching and thumping noises.

There is a pause here. KGM wants us to listen.

There is a pause here. KGM wants us to listen. The sounds of singing and humming grow louder.

Ambient or non-vocal sounds as well as voice descriptions, e.g., whispering, shouting, will be inserted between brackets instead of footnoted for the remainder of the document as the sounds often directly impact, edify, and sometimes modify what is being said.

KJL is Kodie Janine Langenkamp.

Evening now, by the time stamp. It is believed they sit above the beach on the sea wall.

It is interesting to note that KGM said exactly this was the reason he thought he went down the river on a boat, yet he won’t admit such thoughts to KJL here.

KGM doesn’t mention the “winged thing” he saw to Kodie. See NDC-13 for more detail about Kevin’s First Days Manifestations.

It’s believed they are hugging here, as is ratified by KGM’s next statement.

By the recording time stamp, it is believed to be dawn.

It is believed that these sounds are the “whalesounds” KGM described hearing at the start.

2014 white Chevrolet Impala, specialty Texas license plate BB01B, “Texas State Parks”.