When I wrote the first Tufa novel, The Hum and the Shiver, I had no plans for a series. I wrote it on spec, without a contract, just prior to the release of my first novel, The Sword-Edged Blonde. In that first Tufa book, I had a very particular, self-contained story in mind: circumstances force Bronwyn Hyatt to decide how … Read More
How a Springsteen Bootleg Inspired a Scene in WISP OF A THING
Since today’s my birthday, I thought I’d bring y’all a little somethin’-somethin’: an example of how things end up the way they do in novels, along with an absolutely kick-ass song. It used to be a lot of work being a Bruce Springsteen fan. He notoriously wrote many more songs than he put on his albums, and if you wanted to hear … Read More
The Two Sides of Every Heart a Doorway
In Seanan McGuire’s brilliant (and now award-winning) short novel Every Heart a Doorway, teens who’d once escaped reality to various fairytale realms find themselves back in our world, attending a special boarding school to help them re-acclimate to “reality.” They’re all desperate to return to those places where they felt accepted for who and what they were, and one of … Read More
Some thoughts on Christmas, as the vile triumph around us
In 1992, Bruce Springsteen released a song called “Souls of the Departed,” on his album, Lucky Town. After describing the death of a seven-year-old boy killed in a gang-related drive-by, he observes, His mama cried, “My beautiful boy’s dead” In the hills the self-made men just sighed and shook their heads But then, as always, Springsteen brings it down to … Read More
High Hopes: is talent finite?
This weekend, I finally listened to High Hopes, the most recent Bruce Springsteen album. Yes, it came out on January 14, and I bought it then, but I hadn’t listened to it. There were many times when I listened to a new Springsteen album multiple times on its release day, and almost exclusively for days after that. But something’s happened to … Read More
Show your love for Eddie (and a good cause, too)!
So, as promised, here’s my big announcement. I’m joining Joe R. Lansdale, Jonathan Lethem, Nick Hornby, Richard K. Morgan Chuck Klosterman, Dennis Lehane and three of my personal heroes–Bruce Springsteen, Charles de Lint, and Andrew Vachss–at Novel Tees. It’s a literary t-shirt shop where all profits go to Protect, a lobby for legislation to protect children from physical, sexual, … Read More
Saved by Darkness
In 1978, I was as hardcore a geek/nerd/dweeb as a boy could be. Star Wars had come upon the world, legitimizing those of us who read books with spaceships and monsters on the covers (and got beaten up by our cousins for it, but that’s another blog post). Starlog magazine was hot. TV had The Six Million Dollar Man, The … Read More