I’ve been writing about the themes that play into Tanglewood Terror, and have been meaning to write about H.P. Lovecraft, the inspiration for the Max Bailey character (and really, the whole darned book). As luck would have it, this played perfectly in to the terrific author Nova Ren Suma’s series of posts by fellow authors about what scares them. Here’s my contribution, but after you read it, browse through the others — it’s a really great series. Then check out Suma’s imaginative and poignant novel, Imaginary Girls.

Eric Parrish pushes people around. He’s a defensive back, after all. He jokes around with his brother and realizes his brother isn’t in on the joke. He’s a bit of a bully. I sketched out Eric that way before bullying became such a huge topic in the news and before my essay was picked up for the Dear Bully anthology, or it might be even a bigger element of the story. Continue reading →

A few people who’ve read Mamba Point have emailed, PM’d, or even come to my house to tell me that the Millennium Falcon is a wingless ship, in reference to the scene (minor spoiler!) where Linus unpacks and discovers that his model ship is broken. I wanted to set the record straight. Continue reading →