Album inspires author to write sea tale

Brian Langhoff develops ‘Cocos Beckons’ based on 1988 Blue Öyster Cult album ‘Imaginos’
By: 
Lee Pulaski
City Editor

Authors have some source of inspiration to draw from as they write their books, but a former Shawano resident found his muse through an album that debuted almost 35 years ago.

Brian Langhoff, a 1987 graduate of Shawano High School, had another reason to return to his hometown recently — to show folks his first novel, “Cocos Beckons: The Curse of Yemaya.”

The novel takes readers on the high seas with heroine Rachel Kristiansen and her crew, who must contend with an ancient curse as they break away from making a decent living in Gloucester, Massachusetts, to appease the goddess Yemaya and complete the task that her great-great-great-grandfather failed to do. On the journey, natural and mystical forces try to thwart her, and she must prove she’s a true daughter of the sea in order to reach her goal.

Langhoff said he developed a story in his mind related to Blue Öyster Cult’s 1988 album, “Imaginos,” and that’s originally how “Cocos Beckons” came into being.

“I heard it on WAPL when we were driving around one night,” Langhoff said. “I was coming home from work, and they were doing an interview with them while playing the music, and I fell in love with the music. Every time I listened to the music, I started seeing these visions and stuff like that. I didn’t know if it had anything to do with the album or not, but I listened to it for years and years and years.”

After the visions continued, Langhoff finally decided in 2000 that he needed to get them out of his head and onto paper. Working full time, he had very little free time available to him, so it took many years to write “Cocos Beckons,” but it wasn’t until he met Albert Bouchard with Blue Öyster Cult that things accelerated.

“We started talking, and I told him about the book,” Langhoff said. “I sent him an early copy of it, and he actually has a master’s degree in English … he started reading it, and a couple of weeks went by. He sent it back and said, ‘Man, the story’s good but it needs work.’”

Langhoff took Bouchard’s advice to heart and added more to his story. He sent it back to Bouchard for another look, and the musician gave his stamp of approval on it. Bouchard eventually agreed to write the foreword.

“This story features strong female leads and is a cultural, continental and century spanning chronicle,” Bouchard wrote in the foreword. “This author weaves a captivating, complex and thoroughly enjoyable read.”

Langhoff noted that “Imaginos” was re-released as “Re Imaginos” in 2020, with Bouchard and the other founding members of Blue Öyster Cult revising it to its original vision after the record company had required drastic changes to it. The album was originally supposed to be a multi-record set, so the group released “Re Imaginos II” the following year, Langhoff said.

“I released this at the same time he released his (second) album,” Langhoff said, noting he’s sold a few hundred copies already through Barnes and Noble, as well as Amazon. “It’s getting out there, but it’s still early.”

Langhoff, who left Shawano at the age of 20 to join the U.S. Navy and got an electronics degree at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, has lived his life mostly in the southern United States and currently lives in North Carolina. However, Shawano remains in his heart.

“I still come back here on a regular basis to relive the memories and see the area,” Langhoff said during a book signing Aug. 11 at the Sun Drop Museum in Shawano. “It’s a lot of fun. I love the town and its people. I miss it a lot, but it’s just too cold.”

Langhoff is currently working on the sequel, currently titled “Return to Cocos: The Reawakening.” At the same time, he’s also writing a psychological thriller titled, “Dreams of Ambrosia,” as well as a series of children’s books called “The Fantastical Adventures of Denver Sneaks,” with the fifth book set in Shawano.

“I don’t know if I’ll ever get those done because I’m having a hard time finding an illustrator,” Langhoff said of the children’s series. “They’re just fun, and they’re written on a level just a little above third grade. What I’ve done is I’ve worked with an assistant superintendent and her daughter, and she said that the thing with children’s authors is that they underestimate children. Children like to be challenged, and if they like the story, they want to learn how to read it themselves.”

Langhoff is so fascinated with tales on the ocean that it doesn’t stop with his books. He and his wife, Rebecca, dress up in steampunk attire and goes to festivals, and he is developing a book in the Denver Sneaks series based on Rebecca being an airship captain. The book also features a friend of theirs who joins them at steampunk events as a pirate, and in the book, the two know of each other by reputation but have never actually met.

“She exists along the sunset, and he sails his ship along the sunrise,” Langhoff said. “By doing that, they use their cannons to paint the sunrise and the sunset.”


lpulaski@newmedia-wi.com