Ryan Brennecke / The Bulletin file photoAuthor Duncan McGeary, pictured in his downtown Bend bookshop, Pegasus Books, last year, has a few books coming out this year. “It’s great,” McGeary said of publishing again. “The first time through, it was a life-changer. I’m not sure this is a life-changer, but obviously it’s great.”

“I just had a book published, right here,” Duncan McGeary said as he rang up a customer at his downtown Bend bookshop, Pegasus Books, on a Thursday afternoon in late March.

In a store chockablock with comic books, novels, games, puzzles, posters and other pop-culture artifacts, McGeary pointed to one of the items nearest the register and, presumably, nearest his heart: a paperback book with the title “Led to the Slaughter: The Donner Party Werewolves,” his first new book to be published in 31 years.

McGeary turned and said to a reporter, “It doesn’t have any impact, but I show it to everybody. Actually, I end up selling one a day, so that’s pretty good.”

McGeary, 61, has been selling books since he bought the shop from Dark Horse Comics founder Mike Richardson in 1984, but now he’s hawking one of his own.

The book, which sells for $14, is also available in paperback at Amazon.com, Barnes & Noble, his wife Linda McGeary’s Greenwood Avenue used-book shop, The Bookmark, or as an e-book. The Kindle edition is priced at $3.99.

When another customer comes in expressing interest in the book, he tells her, “Buy it today and it’s $12, with an autograph.”

Published by Books of the Dead Press, “Led to the Slaughter” is a historical horror novel that retells the Donner Party tragedy, with werewolves committing carnivorous misdeeds.

McGeary’s turnaround in writing productivity almost sounds like the stuff of fiction.

In the early 1980s, he penned three fantasy novels, “Star Axe,” “Ice Tower” and “Snowcastles.”

But then he went on a decadeslong publishing hiatus, concentrating his energy on growing his business. He and wife Linda raised their family, and he ran the store himself. For one seven-year stretch, he worked seven days a week, taking off only Thanksgiving and Christmas.

McGeary didn’t stop writing altogether. He remained active in the Farewell Bend Writers Roundtable, a longstanding critique group that meets in Bend.

“It was nice to keep my hand in by being part of the writers’ group all those years. It kept me into the idea of writing,” he said. “I’d get three chapters in (a story), like everybody else.”

He’s also been writing daily on his blog, Best Minimum Wage Job a Middle Aged Guy Ever Had, which he began in 2006.

In 2011, McGeary found his debts paid down, the store in fine running shape and a staff helping shoulder some of the workload.

“I’ve got a good crew working for me. I feel like I can leave,” he said. Without them, “I couldn’t write. There’s no way I could write.”

McGeary has greatly reduced his days in the shop.

“If I can string three, four or five days together, and I know I have (those days), it’s just a lot more conducive” to writing, he said.

What made him start writing novels again?

“I just decided to do it,” he replied. “Plus, I’m in some sort of weird groove, which isn’t normal. I certainly didn’t have that back in the (’80s). I really struggled back then.”

Now, the words seem to gush out. “I think I just had a whole lot of pent-up creative energy,” he said.

A sequel to “Led to the Slaughter” is in the works, and McGeary has a number of other projects at or near completion. He’s cagey about the total.

“I don’t even want to say,” he said.

More than 10?

“Maybe,” he said.

At the time Books of the Dead Press accepted “Led to the Slaughter” for publication, he also sold the company his Vampire Evolution Trilogy. All three publish May 1. Through April 30, each e-book in the trilogy is available for 99 cents at smashwords.com, barnesandnoble.com and iTunes.

“This is actually a distraction, frankly,” McGeary said. He was referring to publishing, not to the shop — he plans to rent the space that the Minnesota Avenue store occupies for at least another five years — but rather to the publication of “Led to the Slaughter” and doing publicity.

“(Getting) the whole thing published is a distraction from the writing,” said McGeary.

“You got that endorphin rush going on?” a customer asked.

“Well, yeah. It’s really hard to get your head back in the (next) book. So I’m trying really hard to go, ‘That’s done,’” McGeary said.

“It’s great,” McGeary said of publishing again. “The first time through, it was a life-changer. I’m not sure this is a life-changer, but obviously it’s great. The first time, was just out of the blue for me.”

This time, “I had … an endorphin flow for a few weeks,” he added, laughing. “But it’s the reality of then you have to do the next book, and the next book. What I find really fun is that I have all these books lined up, and you can get a sense of whether they’re all going to get done or not, and I have a sense that they’re all going to get done.

“So it’s really fun. I don’t know how it happened, but I’m pursuing it,” he said. “I have a new rule. If I start a book, I finish it.”

— Reporter: 541-383-0349, djasper@bendbulletin.com