AFTER DEATH is now available, and we’re for damn sure not going to let you forget it.
Dad, happy birthday. I’m giving you a free grooming at my vet’s office. Look out for that thing they do with the glands.
If you wondered if today would have any meaning or hope, the answer is YES! My new novel, AFTER DEATH, is available for pre-order.
I start every book just like I started life: with no knowledge of what the ending will be and little idea about what will happen along the way. It’s the mysteries and surprises of the journey that make it all worthwhile.
Ask me anything. I’ll pretend to know what I’m talking about when I answer. I’m so good at pretending that we’ll both be satisfied.
Q: The villain in AFTER DEATH scared the bleep out of me.
A: You don’t have to wear Depends when reading the book, but it wouldn’t hurt.
Q: What did Edie mean in DEEPLY ODD when she called Odd “smooth & blue”?
A: If you gotta ask, you aren’t smooth & blue. Work on it.
My favorite ice cream is Häagen-Dazs Chocolate Peanut Butter. I love the taste & believe it reduces my cholesterol.
Hi, Tony. I suspect you of all people know my answer. There is no chance whatsoever that an AI will have either a soul or empathy——and therefore will have a great capacity for evil. I’m convinced golden retrievers have simple souls, and I know they’re capable of love. I will vote for any golden that wants the job.
I took too long to realize I shouldn’t be trying to write what I thought the market wanted and should instead write what most excited me and what was truly in my heart, no matter how far out-of-step with the market it seemed to be. I started to learn that lesson with STRANGERS but only fully embraced it with WATCHERS.
Q: I read an early copy of AFTER DEATH. It blew me away!
A: It happens. We have a crew that can come there and put you back together.
Q: Which villain did you most enjoy killing off?
A: It’s a tie: Edgler Vess in INTENSITY and that kid who tried to bully me in fifth grade.
If I were to visit a place I’ve never been, where would I like to go? Into the mind of my sweet dog, Elsa, for a day, to experience the world as she does and to learn what she thinks about me.
Q: Is there a motto for ELSEWHERE?
A: “It was a bear to get here, but would you rather be in New Jersey?” No offense to New Jersey.
I’ve never seen a ghost, but I have seen some very strange things which I’ll write about one day (when I’m too old to care whether anyone thinks I’m crazy).
I’m no cook, so it would be whatever you want to bring, though I’d prefer to send you a list of my favorite foods for you to decide what you should prepare.
Lots of you tell me you’re “knocked out” by the long scene in a dead apple orchard in AFTER DEATH. Thanks. But don’t send me your medical bills.
Q: What quantum mechanics research did you do to write “Ricochet Joe”?
A: Let’s just say I can now build my own nuclear reactor.
Q: What word should writers eliminate from their vocabulary?
A: Once in a career is too often to use the word “schistosomiasis.”
Q: Do you ever get emotional in movies?
A: Oh, yeah. I still choke up when I think of the Terminator dying in the first film.
Q: If Elsa wrote a book, what would it be about?
A: The novels of Marcel Proust, his metaphors and subtextual spiritual themes.
I have a large office on a back hall of the main floor of the house. The decor is an eclectic mix of Art Deco furnishings and large Chinese fired-clay sculptures of dogs dating back to the Tang and even the Han dynasties. Give me two Premier Protein chocolate drinks for breakfast (60 grams of protein), and I’m at the keyboard.
Q: What does Elsa think of cats?
A: They should be treated with great compassion because they can’t be dogs.
I wouldn’t base a character entirely or largely on anyone I know, because then I’d feel the need to be faithful to the truth of that person. It would be constricting, and in the end the character would be too predictable.
