Queer Eye, My Daughter, and I

I'll Explain This Photo Below, Stay With Me

My daughter and I had made a date to binge watch all of Queer Eye reboot on Netflix when she was home from school on break, and we wrapped up Season Two just last night. When she was younger we were frequent watchers the previous Queer Eye and so were interested in seeing the new cast and spin.

Like the original, the new show effectively states and reinforces several very positive messages, both societal and personal. The general message of the show is be accepting, of both yourself and others, but also that  to be accepting is not to be complacent, nor should we settle on anything less than what we as individuals or a society are fully capable of. “Acceptable” is not acceptable in the Queer Eye world, except as a stepping stone to growth, improvement, and self-actualization.  We shouldn't settle on "tolerance" as the realization of a goal, but we should work through it to get to understanding, friendship, community and love. 

A second overall message we saw is the idea we should seek and maintain relationships that feed and sustain us. Many of the episodes we watched featured a key relationship in the “project’s” life, and the ancillary goal to making over the project was always to improve that relationship, whether it was with  a spouse, a significant other, parent, or friend. The episode “Burning Man” was an excellent example of this, as after the makeover the project decided not to move from Georgia to Reno because, once he’d taken on some improvement and motivation, he had everything he needed, and dozens of strong relationships, (including the one with the friend who called the squad on him, who we are informed in the end credits is now in a romantic relationship with him), right where he is. The idea we are left with is that we should be continually looking to better ourselves, because that leads to the inspiration and betterment of others and society.

These messages are constantly reinforced by the overall positivity and acceptance of the team, who speak very frankly about the projects self-defeating behaviors and characteristics but immediately turn into a high-energy “hype squad” the moment the project makes an effort and starts to show incremental improvement. All of their comments are carried forward with such candor, sincerity, and good humor that they can’t help but resonate deeply with the project. Who wouldn’t want a crew of friends, fabulous or otherwise, who wish us nothing but the best at all times, who constantly reinforce the idea that the efforts we make are appreciated and achieve the results we were hoping to?

We felt that the reboot really focused on that positivity, foregoing much of the snark that made the first run so great. There is very little negativity among the hosts, either with each other or in the "post makeover" segments like there was in QE1; the harsh criticism all comes in the first meetings and from then on it is positive vibes all the way. I'd have to re-watch the first run, but it felt like there was more physical affection among the new Fab Five.

Beyond what we saw as the overarching messages of the show, we felt each team member was tasked with conveying a very specific message in nearly every episode. Broadly, they are:

KARAMO: Step up, take responsibility for yourself, continually improve, put yourself out there, grow, learn from mistakes but always move forward

TAN: Make an effort with your physical appearance for yourself and others, because doing so will increase your confidence and alter the way others perceive you in a positive way

BOBBY: Create and maintain a physical environment that encourage productivity, creativity, and inner harmony

ANTONI: Make nutrition enjoyable and healthy, use the culinary arts to enhance your enjoyment of life and enhance the lives of people you love

JONATHAN: Take care of yourself physically, don’t feel guilty about treating yourself as someone special because you are and others think you are as well 

This, of course, led us to giving ourselves ratings on the Fab Five scale: Here’s what I would say for myself in honest assessment, 5 being the best, 1 being the worst:

KARAMO—4.  I think I do well with all of his messages but the “put yourself out there” one.

TAN—1. I rarely “Make an effort” at home or at work. I have some nice clothes that I like and break out for special occasions but that’s about it. Kayleigh clearly beats me on the Tan scale

BOBBY—3. I love my basement office, it is mostly me but it is cluttered and dirty. The rest of the house I love too but isn’t optimized for space or decorated fully.

ANTONI:--2 I rarely cook for Kim, and when I do I fearfully need to ask her for instructions most of the time. It is weird because I love good food more than garbage food but never take the time. Kim would score much higher than me but we often settle (Kayleigh gave herself a 1).

JONATHAN:--2 I would be a one except for the fact that I run which probably falls under his grooming and physical appearance specialty, so I’m at least trying to get better. But other than showering regularly and shaving my head I don’t--shockingly--do anything for my appearance or use product of any nature at all.

So, twelve out of a possible 25 points. I've a long way to go to be fully actualized. I have a theory that I think is pretty interesting, though--I think scoring high in "Karamo" is probably the most necessary of the factors, but I also think that an initial high score in "Karamo" may actually make you more complacent in the other four! What do you think?

Our final verdict: we loved the show, and loved especially the energy and positive spirit it infused us with. A happy accident, but the show turned out to be a perfect vehicle to encourage a high-octane start to the new year and drive those resolutions and goals forward.

So why the above picture? Well, it is of a moment where I felt as close to being self-actualized as any in 2018 (not a great year overall, as I've mentioned). And if I was to use the QEII rating scale, I would go all the way to a 23. I'm holding a copy Sei Ancora Qui, of the Italian edition of Break My Heart 1,000 Times, and I'm in town for the premiere of I Still See You, the movie based on that book, so clearly I get a 5 for the Karamo factor, its a rare moment where I 'd give myself a 5 on the Tan factor because I like what I'm wearing and I'm comfortable in it, I'm in a beautiful hotel--in Rome--and so I get 5 Bobby points, Antoni would surely approve of the beautiful meal we ate at a host-recommended restaurant that night, so 5 points there, too. Sadly, I only get three Jonathan points, because I still don't know how to take care of my bald head, and I'd managed to give myself a nice two inch gash with my Headblade just above my right ear that I wasn't sure would clot before I had to come downstairs for the photoshoot. Thankfully, this photo--and that rare and winning smile--obscures the gore.

Basically, I'm posting that photo as a reminder that I really can experience moments were I am as close to my fully actualized, real, and most importantly, happy self. It makes me wonder why I would complacently lurk around at a number nearly half that score most of my day to day existence. I think I want to be the guy in that photo more often this year.

Why settle when you can experience and achieve more?

Why be acceptable when you can be fabulous?

Why tolerate when you can understand and love?

Show some love (or at least tolerance) and buy one of my books HERE 

How Mario Bava Saved Me

One of my favorite moments in Rome promoting Sei Ancora Qui, the Italian language version of I Still See You, the stellar film based on my novel Break My Heart 1,000 Times ,was a trip to Radio Rai to give an interview.  Gabriel, the publicist chaperoning Kim and I, let me know the interview would be live during our cab ride. This was only the second-most terrifying part, believe it or not. The most terrifying part was that the show I’d be appearing on was focused on films and not books like I’d foolishly assumed. The Italian edition of Sei Ancora Qui was coming out later that week and, because I am often an idiot, I assumed that people would be more interested in talking to me about that than the movie.

It has been a long, long time since I have been a movie expert. My days of being an assistant manager/usher at a local megaplex are in the distant past, and while I can speak definitively about the movies that came out during those years, I haven’t kept up. Writing, day job, writing, parenting, writing, reading--there hasn’t been nearly as much time for watching films as I would like. I’ve read far more books than I’ve seen movies over the past decade—hundreds of books; maybe three or four dozen movies. I try and keep up with del Toro and the Coen brothers and a handful of others, but that’s about it. My passive screen time has mostly been reserved for binge watching multi-season television shows and NBA basketball. So when Gabriel said that the interviewers would likely want me to talk about movies, I panicked. I felt like my brain dumped its hard drive; I couldn’t even recall any of my favorite ghost movies, which they would almost surely ask me about (The original Poltergeist, the original The Haunting based on Jackson’s The Haunting of Hill House, The Sixth Sense, and the remake of Thirteen Ghosts spring to mind. I hadn’t even seen my own movie yet!

Gabriel led us through the security checkpoint, where we admired the friendly guard’s origami handiwork, a collection of butterflies and bugs lining his desk, and into the studio. I was in a cold sweat, literally, when I sat down, and the interviewers started their show. It was amazing watching and listening to them work; they clearly enjoyed their jobs and were bantering back and forth in that delightful lyrical and physical cadence that characterizes Italian conversation. I looked through the glass into the mixing room where my wife and Gabriel sat with six or seven staff members, most of whom were engrossed in watching a soccer game on a screen set on the opposite wall. I smiled, weakly. No one wants to bomb in front of the woman they love, especially me.

Then the questions started coming—in English, thank God—and the main radio host had the unenviable task of translating my halting replies into Italian and make me sound interesting. My intro was encouraging, and they seemed to like my anecdote about wanting to write a “large-canvas ghost story”, because most ghosts stories are “small in the sense of being confined to a specific location, a haunted house or a church. I warmed up in talking about my trip to Canada and watching Scott Speer, I Still See You’s brilliant and tall director, encourage spectacular performances from Bella, Richard, Shaun, Dermot and many others—in scenes that scriptwriter Jason Fuchs had drawn directly from scenes I had written. Then they asked me about my favorite films and film makers.

“Mario Bava,” I blurted, truthfully.

It turned out to be a great answer.  The radio hosts both sighed and nodded appreciatively, and Kim would tell me later that the tech staff in the booth stopped watching the game for a moment and actually cheered my answer.

I really wasn’t pandering, although picking a native son like Bava (Black Sabbath, Black Sunday, Lisa and the Devil, Bay of Blood, Shock, to drop a few of the English titles) certainly seems like an obsequious move in hindsight. I think he came to mind though because when my mental hard drive crashed, taking with it most of my handy responses, stories, and anecdotes, images remained. Images that I’d seen in the trailers and bonus feature footage I’d seen of I Still See You.

Here’s the thing: the film looks gorgeous. It is wonderfully shot, framed—and this is especially important when trying to trace down the synapse that led me to say “Bava”—stunningly well lit. Every scene in Ronnie’s (oops, my Ronnie is Roni in the movie) house, the scenes in the water, the scenes in the No-Go Zone, the icy expanses—the cinematography is beautiful throughout and I feel especially fortunate that Simon Dennis brought his genius to the film. I so wanted to ask him during the filming if Bava had influenced him—the black and purples in the scenes with Brian, the amber tone in the last scene of Ronnie’s house—but I never got the chance. I recently watched Bava’s Black Sabbath for the fortieth time recently and I’d be shocked if Mr. Dennis hadn’t studied and loved Bava intensely, like I had.

Bava was a painter before he was a director, and that sensibility carries over to the best of his films, which look painted with light. One of the benefits in seeing Sei Ancora Qui before seeing I Still See You, and not speaking Italian, is that it allowed me to focus fully on the visuals and the look of the film. It’s gorgeous, in my only slightly biased opinion, composed with a similar painterly eye but enhanced by modern technique and technology. In retrospect it is quite clear why I made the synaptic connection I did between the I Still See You footage I’d seen and Bava’s work.

We wrapped soon after my sound booth ovation. On the way out, the mostly attentive guard had made a paper butterfly for Kim, one of the greatest treasures from a trip filled with them. We thanked him, thanked Gabriel, thanked everyone, and said our goodbyes. We had a movie to watch.

A Haunted Book Signing in Connecticut

I will be at the Otis Library in Norwich, Connecticut next Monday the 10th from 6:30-7:30 signing copies of my new ghost story/thriller Break My Heart 1,000 Times, soon to be a major motion picture at fine theaters everywhere. Maybe it will play in less than fine or even disreputable theaters too, who knows. Wouldn't it be cool if it were filmed in Illusion-O, like in the original 13 Ghosts movie? Not the modern one (which I love) with The Torn Prince, The Torso, the Angry Princess (who I also love), and their ten other spectral pals, but the 1960 one by William Castle. Boy, that sure would be swell.

I'll also sign any copies of any of the Generation Dead books you have lying around, too. I suppose I'd sign zombie and ghost books from other authors if you were really insistent about it, just to be polite, although I don't know why you would want me to do that.  It would only embarass us both.

I'm told that books will be provided by Bank Square Books, a very fine bookstore you can visit physically in Mystic, CT or virtually HERE.

Break My Heart 1,000 Times Blog Tour

Wow, have I been busy!

I tell a true ghost story at Monster Librarian HERE.

I answer some questions at I Am a Reader, Not a Writer HERE.  Plus, there's a giveaway!

I write about writing at Sara's Urban Fantasy Blog HERE. Plus, there's a giveaway!

I answer more questions at Oodles of Books HERE. Plus, there's a giveaway!

I write about true ghost stories at Sophistikatied Reviews HERE. Plus, there's a giveaway!

I answer even more questions at Tynga's Reviews HERE. Plus, there's a giveaway!

I write about some ghost stories I admire at Mundie Moms HERE.

I answer still more questions at The Daily Fig HERE.

And now, I sleep. But stay tuned--there a few stops left on the tour!

My Corporeal Book Tour

In addition to my oh so spectral blog tour, I will be appearing in a non-astral form at the following exciting events:

October 28th Boston Teen Author Festival, Boston, info here: BOSTON TEEN AUTHOR FESTIVAL

November 3rd, Vegas Valley Book Festival, Las Vegas, info here: VEGAS VALLEY BOOK FESTIVAL

Maybe I'll do some more stuff in New England if I'm invited. Especially if you have some type of event that has swanky hors d'oeuvres, or maybe a functional commemorative pen. I'd probably settle for you just having my books in stock. But I won't beg you.

 In other news, October is anti-bullying month (no, that doesn't mean you get to beat up a bully). One of the Kindle special sale books is the Dear Bully anthology, in which I reveal the Secret Origin of the Generation Dead series. Is the series from a Krypton-like planet? Was it bitten by a radioactive zombie? Was it splashed by a cabinet full of chemicals while simultaneously being struck by lightning? (Hint: it has something to do with bullying). Find out the truth (and read 69 other short and wonderful essays) for a very low price all October.

 Stay tuned for Blog Tour news!

Break My Heart 1,000 Times Reviews and Interviews

Will these reviews break my heart? See for yourself: PUBLISHERS WEEKLY RIFFS AND REVIEWS Will this interview reveal how many times my own heart has been broken? THE MILITANT RECOMMENDER Lots of linkage will follow over the next month--I'm going on a Blog Tour! Wheeeeee! Time to pack!

Appearances by Me and Other Strange Creatures

I will be at the SW CT Youth Book Expo signing books and hanging around this Saturday with a horde (some would say a ravenous horde) of fellow authors of books for young people. More info is HERE

Also,I discovered that my pet is the rarest of dog breeds. I give you: the treagle!

Book Tour and Psychic Book Club

A Field Guide for Heartbreakers - Kristen Tracy
Carter's Big Break - Brent Crawford
The Ghost and the Goth - Stacey Kade
Passing Strange: A Generation Dead Novel - Daniel Waters
Tweet Heart - Elizabeth Rudnick
The Half-Life of Planets - Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

Dates and times for the unRequired Reading Tour:



June 18: 6pm, Davis Kidd, Memphis (Waters, Rudnick, and Halpin)
- June 18: 7pm, Keplers, Menlo Park, CA (Tracy, Kade, and Crawford)

- June 19: 7pm, Books & Books, Coral Gabels, FL (Waters, Rudnick, Franklin, and Halpin)

- June 19: 1pm, “Meet & Greet” at Copperfields, Petaluma, CA (Tracy, Kade, and Crawford)

-June 20: stock signings tk

- June 21: 7pm, Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA (Waters, Rudnick, Franklin, and Halpin)

- June 21: 6:30pm, Pudd'nHead Books (Tracy, Kade, and Crawford)

-June 22: 7pm, Anderson’s Bookshop, Naperville, IL (all authors)

- June 23: 2pm, Watermark Books & Café, Wichita, KS (all authors)

- June 24: 6pm, Books of Wonder, New York, NY (all authors)

- June 25: 6pm, ALA Convention, Disney Book Group booth #2654 Washington, DC (all authors)

-June 26: 3:30pm, Politics & Prose, Washington, DC (all authors)


And now a chilling tale...sort of.

I’ve got kind of a long drive home so on Friday I call up my good friend Matt Smith, most recently of Dr. Who fame (Matthew Dow Smith, the artist on the Dr. Who comic book series, not Matt Smith the new Dr. Who). I’ve only known Matt for a few years, but he’s one of the few people who it seems I’ve known my entire life (as opposed to many people I have known practically my whole life, of whom I often think, ‘who are you?’), especially as we seem to share a brain on nearly everything and have the sort of finish each others’ sentences, start laughing before he says the punchline types of relationship. So we give each other the quick update on life, the universe and everything and then we start our inevitable discussion about books. We‘re both book junkies. Not just reading junkies, but actual book junkies, so the discussion ranges from what we’re reading to books we’ve picked up in our travels. Matt tells me he made a foray to a used bookstore and picked up a few things, and he starts telling me which ones he’s read. And then it gets weird. Listen:
Me: “Nice finds.” Then, remembering my own recent excursion to a used book store, “Hey, have you ever read anything by James Herbert?”
Matt: “Other than The Magic Cottage, you mean?” he says, reminding me of a conversation we had three or four years ago. We’d both really liked The Magic Cottage.
Me:“Yeah. Anything recently?”
Matt: “Funny you should mention it. I picked up one of his on that outing. That was one of the first ones I started reading.”
Me: “Really? When did you say you went to the book store?”
Matt: “About two weeks ago.”
I’d gone to the used bookstore near me two weeks ago.
Me: “Um, which one was it that you got? ‘Cause if you say…”
Matt: “Moon.”
Me: “…I might freak.”
Moon. The very James Herbert novel I’d picked up at a used bookstore two weeks ago.
Me: “How much did you get it for?”
“Three bucks.”
I told him I’d paid a dollar, but when I looked at my copy later that night, I saw the little 3—penciled in the upper right hand corner on the frontispiece.
Matt: “Well. That’s a little bizarre.”
Perhaps less bizarre, we’d reached pretty much the same conclusions about the book.

Now, understand, that Moon isn’t a current NYT Best Seller—it is a twenty-five year old horror novel. Now, you might say, “Well, Dan, both you and Matt are both horror fiction geeks, so it only makes sense that you could end up reading the same book.” But that, to me, only makes it weirder. True, we are horror fiction geeks—between us we’d read a good number of Herbert’s two dozen novels. He is a pretty big name in the horror field, and so the odds of neither of us having read the book prior would seem very slim—and then to decide to read it at the same time after buying the same twenty-five year-old edition (hardcover, Herbert’s first in the U.S.) at the same time, for the same amount of money, seems weeeeeiiiird to me.

I think maybe we should start “Matt & Dan’s Psychic Book Club”. The thing is, I already know which of you want to join.

Career Ending Injuries and other Stresses

By using the above chart, I have calculated my personal stress level of the past month to be 433. The legend at the bottom of the chart suggests “If you score more than 200, you have an above average level of stress and should simplify your life.
By reading that ridiculous statement, I think my score went up to 443.Either way, I expect more than doubling the "average level of stress" ain't good.

A few recent stresses: I sold the house that I have lived in for the past fifteen years (my longest stint, I believe, in any home in my life). I bought a new home. I went through childbirth, twice. (Passing Strange just came out, and I delivered a new book to my editor. Um, ok, so maybe that isn't quite as stressful as actual childbirth). I’ve been travelling, a lot. Never been to Kansas my entire life before this year, and yet I’ll be there for my third time in five weeks when I head out for the unRequired Reading book tour. Life is weird.

The highest individual stress score I awarded myself, worth 53 points, was for one of the most gruesome sports injuries of my entire life. While no one would ever confuse me with a world class athlete, I tend to be very competitive and what I lack in natural ability I compensate with tenacity and resilience. I play hard, and I almost never ever get hurt.

Except, now I do.

I went to play basketball with a friend of mine in his local church league, hoping to burn off a little of the huge amount of stress I’d been carrying. I’m always nervous when I start playing in a new league, but I I could hang with these guys. I'd been running 3-6 miles five days a week so although I still look like a lumpy animated couch cushion I could get up and down the floor pretty well. I started out great. In the first minute of the game, I had an assist and two rebounds, one of them offensive. I got my third rebound ten seconds later, but when I came down my right knee buckled laterally and there was this awful sound,like someone ripping into a sheet of bubble wrap, and I went over.

My first thought wasn’t “ouch”—actually it didn’t hurt all that much, it just felt kind of weird—my first thought was—“that’s it, the career ending injury. I’ll never play basketball again".

This was not a pleasant thought, by any stretch of the imagination. By favorite personal recreational activities, in order, are writing, reading, listening to music, and playing basketball. And jogging is somewhere in the top ten, and considering my knee was making crinkly-cellophane sounds as I limped off the court, I thought that maybe I’d lost that one as well.

It is the old saw about not appreciating something until it is gone—I tell you, the prospect that I’d never be able to play pickup basketball again left me with a deep, deep despondency. I guess I'm getting old! How did that happen?

But here we are about six weeks later, and the air has cleared considerably (although I'd never want it to clear too much; the fact of the matter is a bit of stress is good for the ol' writin'). We’re in our new house, and the massive stress of selling/buying/moving is behind me. And the first “home improvement” project I did was set up a roll away regulation NBA hoop. Every night that I’ve been home and the sun is out (or the rain isn’t too heavy) I’m out in the driveway with the kids or by myself shooting around. I ran two miles yesterday and three today. I’m stubborn. But the knee is feeling really good.

And I'm a little more thankful every time I shoot a jump shot, regardless of whether it swishes through, clangs off the rim, or misses entirely, because, no matter how much I may want to, I won't be able to shoot them forever.

I also wanted to extend a special thank you to Kati, who took the time to write a note to tell me how my newest novel Passing Strange affected her. Kati, your note made a big impact on me as well; as a writer sometimes all you want out of your work is that it reaches a single reader. I'd just hurt the knee, and was feeling pretty sorry for myself and whah whah whah, but your note got me thinking and lifted my spirits considerably. Thank you, thank you, thank you--I really appreciate you taking the time.

Oh, and PS--I'll probably be blogging a bit more now that I've moved. That was literally a year-long project, one that I'm glad to see behind me.

And also PS--please buy PS, Passing Strange, at your earliest convenience. At fine bookstores everywhere!

unRequired Reading Tour

I'm hitting the road this June in support of GDIII:Passing Strange as part of Hyperion's unRequired Reading Tour along with Kristen Tracy, Brent Crawford Stacey Klemstein, Emily Franklin, Brendan Halpin, and Liz Rudnick. Dates and locations to follow, but you can become a fan of the unRequired Reading Facebook page HERE and I promise we'll get some neat-o keen content up real soon.

Kiss on Tour

Yes, Kiss is on tour. I actually saw them a few nights ago, with Buckcherry as an opening band (love Buckcherry). Kiss can still bring it--Paul has had two hip replacement surgeries and still dances in platform heels.

Kiss is also on tour, as in Kiss of Life. I'll be at the Davis-Kidd bookstore in Memphis at 6:00 this Friday, and then I'll be in Nashville at the Southern Festival of Books on Sunday. Check out the full program HERE.

Hope to see you there!

The Connecticut Author Trail

When I was first got the invitation to be a part of the Connecticut Author Trail, I misread the email and thought it said "Connecticut Author Trial". I was actually pretty psyched, because I thought that Generation Dead had finally been banned by a library or a school. There's few better ways to ensure that your book remains in print forever than to get banned by some institution of higher learning.

Alas, GD was not banned, but instead I got to be a part of the equally cool Connecticut Author Trail. From the CT Author Trail website:

"The Connecticut Authors Trail consists of a consortium of Libraries in Eastern Connecticut who love our local authors and continue to be amazed at the variety of genres and diverse styles of writing among the authors who live in or are associated with the Nutmeg State. Beginning July 16th, 2009 until September 24th, 2009, we will be inviting local authors to showcase their books and share their stories."

Well, I was invited to be one of those local authors, and I spoke at the small but mighty Janet Carlson Calvert library last month to a congenial crowd of about thirty people and had a blast.

The 2009 Trail ends on Sept. 24 at 6:30 at the Mohegan Sun Casino, when a number of the CAT authors will be participating in an event/signing/tasting--yes, a tasting. The final two CAT authors, Bruce Weinstein and Mark Scarbrough are chefs promoting their current new cook book Cooking Know-How and and apparently are making snacks.

The full program runs from 6:30-10:00 and I plan on being there for the whole time. Better come early though because I tend to massacre buffets.

And This Concludes The Tour...For Now

The final stop on the Spring Kiss of Life Tour was in one of my favorite towns, Salem, Massachusetts. I had an excellent time at the excellent Cornerstone Bookshop. A personal highlight was meeting Michelle, a librarian who writes Tempting Persephone, one of my favorite book blogs. Michelle, although she didn't realize it, was very dear to my heart because A). she wrote one of the first, and kindest, reviews of Generation Dead to hit the web and B). she picked on an intricacy within the book that few before or since have commented on, and as I am a shameless egomaniac that really meant a lot to me. Turns out that she is as cool as her blog, which is to say very, very cool indeed.

And she's giving away a signed copy of Generation Dead at her blog now, if you know anyone that wants one! Read about it HERE

Speaking of contests, Zombie Waters is still without an official name...post your suggestion to the blog for your chance to win the U.K. edition of Generation Dead!

Despite having been to Salem about 72 times in my life, I'd never visited the House of the Seven Gables, which is odd because the book that bears its name is one of my favorites, as is the author of the book, Nathaniel Hawthorne. Well worth the trip if you find yourself in Salem and are looking for something a little less witchy to do.

There's still some witchy connection there, though. Nathaniel changes his name from "Hathorne" to "Hawthorne", because he wanted to dissociate from certain relatives, especially John Hathorne, a judge during the Salem Witch Trials, as he was ashamed of his family's role in the trials.

You know who else was involved with the Salem Witch Trials? A minister by the name of Increase Mather. His son Cotton Mather, also a minister, had influence on the trials as well.

Wouldn't it be weird if Reverend Nathan Mathers also changed his name, adding the "S", to distance himself from his illustrious ancestors? Hmmm.

New Website! Plus, Zombies...On Tour

Having a lovely time--many thanks to Kennedy Jr. High and Traughber Jr. High in Chicago and Hastings Jr. High in Houston for having me. And also to the wonderful staff of Anderson's Bookshop for having me. I go to Blue Willow Books tonight!

I'll probably write more extensively about the trip when I have more time (and more sleep) but here are, in no particular order, a few of the best things about my time in Chicago:

1. The kids
2. Seeing my friend Martel, with whom I ate my first Chicago deep dish pizza in a few years.
3. Meeting Delaney the Undead, one of the first and most frequent posters to my blog! Yay!
4. My media guide Judy, with whom I had my second Chicago deep dish pizza
5. Chicago deep dish pizza
6. Everyone at Anderson's. I went home with two books from Anderson's--Oblivion by David Foster Wallace, which they gave to me as a gift!--and The Best American Nonrequired Reading 2008, edited by David Eggers.
7. Seeing that the new website that Hyperion created for the Generation Dead series is now live! Check it out!

Click the link:




WWW.GENDEAD.COM

A Different Kind of Tour

I'm feeling a little ragged today, as I was up way past my bedtime last night at a concert--76% Uncertain, Electric Frankenstein, the Bell Rays, and the Damned. I've written before of my love of the Damned, and once again they did not disappoint. I was at the front of the stage, right between Captain Sensible's monitor and Dave Vanian's mic stand, and I was instructed by the roadie to help the good Captain with the song titles on the setlist because "he's blind as a bat". The show went out over the inter-waves yesterday via streaming video, so I'm interested to see if they archive it. They played many of the best cuts off the new album, as well as a few older favorites like "Blackout", "Love Song," and "A Brand New Day".

And the Bell Rays! Holy crow, the Bell Rays. Absolutely phenomenal.

Speaking of tours, mine begins in just a few days. In addition to a few school visits, I'll be at

Anderson's Bookshop in Naperville, IL at 7:00, May 13

and

Blue Willow Bookshop in Houston, TX at 4:30, May 14

Hope to see you there!

Danny Talks Zombocalypse

Today on this blog I'm blogging about blogging on someone else's blog. The wonderful Sharon of the wonderful Sharon Loves Books and Cats asked me to write a guest blog about a zombie apocalypse. You can read it HERE, and if you want to you can leave Sharon a comment there or a leave me a comment here or both. We don't mind.

I noticed that yesterday Tommy went over the five hundred subscriber mark on www.mysocalledundeath.com, meaning that he is nearly five times as popular as I am. But I'm not bitter; that is as it should be. I certainly like him more than me!

Thanks to everyone on Facebook and here that made comments regarding my Magical Mystery Tour. Your comments might actually influence where the tour goes at this point, so keep 'em coming. I'll go anywhere. Even this one town I used to have to go to every so often that I hate that I won't mention by name because I think it is the armpit of the nation. Being an amateur glutton, I'm especially interested in visiting towns that have unique regional foods. Last year Hyperion was kind enough to send me to Louisville, Kentucky where I stalked the elusive Hot Brown and to Minnesota where I was able to sample (makes it sound like I had one or two instead of a bucket full) cheese curds. Does your town have anything different and delicious?

Back in the New York Groove

The wild and wooly pre-pub tour continues...

I love New York City. I love taking the train from New Haven to Grand Central Station. I love walking in cities, and yesterday was a rare January day custom made for walking, so I walked to the Hyperion offices and got to meet all of the great people I'd previously known only through email and their work.

We had lunch(mmmm, lunch)with some folks from Barnes and Noble, and they were a very sharp group of witty, charming people and a great time was had by all, especially when the cookies (mmm, cookies) came along with tiny glasses of hot chocolate, compliments of the chef. I am not exaggerating when I say it was the finest tiny cup of hot chocolate I have ever had, and it was the perfect compliment to the pistachio biscotti (mmm, pistachio biscotti).

On the trip home, I wrote and looked out the window, but not at the same time. I made it home in time for my daughter's basketball game, which they won.

Mmmm, victory.

Best Signing, Ever

The author reception at the ABA Winter Institute was pretty amazing. Jenn, E. and I got there a little early. Tables topped and skirted in black fabric ran in a large "U" around the room, where 37 other writers and I would commence signing. I was at table #7 with E., and there were little signs with out names, photos, and book covers on standees, and there was a large pile of my books on the table. It was very hard not to, in the words of my good friend, the writer Rick Koster, "wax cornescent" about the sight.

I was nervous that my pile of books would go unsigned and that folks would have no room in their suitcases once they scarfed the books from people like Augusten Burroughs, Tobias Wolff, Andre Dubus III, and Ethan Canin, but luckily E. was a huge draw. Within moments E. had a deep line, and was very kindly referring her fans over to me. It felt like I'd signed a lot of books by the end of the night.

I did have the coolest book signing experience ever when a bookseller named Jen came over to my table with a copy of the arc in hand. The book's cover had been ripped off, and the pages and binding were swelled and stained as though she'd dug the book out of a nearby swamp. Jen told me that she loved the book and had dropped it in the tub, hence its tattered condition, but she still wanted mne to sign it. That was definitely my happiest moment in a trip filled with happiness--signing a zombie version of my zombie book!

I hope it fits in on her bookshelf...

Sick of Being Sick

I almost never get sick. I hardly ever get colds. I think this has a lot to do with my rigorous diet and exercise regimen, which involves gallons of diet cola and pacing in ever widening circles around my home office. Either that, or my organs are so preserved by the many chemicals I ingest via brightly packaged snack treats that they have become resistant to bacteria and viruses. Whatever the reason, I'm very thankful for my strange mutant constitution.

The worst part about being sick for me, believe it or not, is that it interferes with work, although it hardly seems honest for me to call writing work. Not that it doesn't take effort, or that it isn't extremely frustrating or difficult at times because it is, but even when the writing is bad and the process painful I still have more fun doing it than almost anything else on Earth. Outside of being with my family, there's nothing I'd rather be doing. Given the choice between lounging in the shade of a palm tree on a white sand beach, frosted drink in hand, watching the sunlight play across a gentle azure sea, or having a solid day writing in my uninsulated office in New England with the heat off, I'd take the writing. Crazy, I know. (Note: If there's anyone out there that wants to set me and my family up so I can go write while lounging on your white sand beach, drop me a line.)

Anyway, I finally got back to work today, work as in actually putting pen to paper and fingers to keyboard, and it felt great even though I'm still not at 100% (maybe 83.6%). I had the records spinning, the keys tapping, it was all good.

There's something about a congested skull that prevents me from being able to write. Although I don't get sick often, I do suffer from hay fever, but that is something I can usually medicate pretty effectively. Nothing seemed to be touching this cold for a few days, so I didn't get much writing done. Trying to accentuate the positive, I had a lot of time to think, when I wasn't scrolling through my Tivo queue and sucking down chicken noodle soup by the gallon. I think I may have thought through some key problems I was having with a supernatural thriller I've been working on as well as reasoned out some issues with my next book for Hyperion. These solutions came forward when I wasn't trying consciously to think of them, either, which was really pretty cool. I'm glad my brain, which I thought had become one giant sinus, was still trying to write while my body was punking out.

In a couple days I head off to the American Booksellers Association Winter Third Annual Winter Institute, being held in Louisville, Kentucky. I expect to be hale and hearty for the event!

Danny Invited into the JLG

No, not the Justice League of Greenville, although they probably could have used me, as I have powers. Awesome powers.

The JLG in this case is the Junior Library Guild, which is an organization that makes recommendations and sells to public libraries and school libraries. I'm honored, as the JLG has an impeccable list of books. Generation Dead will be offered by the Junior Library Guild as a Spring selection. Sweeeeeeet!

Did I say things got interesting after we left for the airport? Maybe I exaggerated a little, although I did find it interesting that a little tub of maybe eight Pringles could cost three dollars.

I think I'm on the down side of my cold now, and hopefully will shake it completely before the trip to Kentucky. I don't enjoy writing or reading when I have a cold, and that might be the only time I don't enjoy those activities. Basically all I do is laundry and catch up on my television viewing, pretty dull stuff.

But hey, I did learn something very interesting on the trip from Jenn, the delightful publicist at Hyperion who is working with me on Generation Dead. She mentioned that there was an entire squad of goth zombie cheerleaders for the GD cover shoot, and that Hyperion's offices were filled with these willowy, spooky cheerleaders, roaming the halls! I'm hoping that I can get photographic evidence--I love the idea of these girls drifting along, and wonder what some of the "rejected" shots look like.

You know what is really, really weird? I found another twenty dollar bill today, right outside the school gym where I'm the assistant coach of my son's basketball team. Nobody was around, and when I asked the few parents' and kids by the gym door if they'd lost the money, no one said they had.

This money thing is starting to freak me out. I'm wondering if people are tossing money at me because they assume I am a vagrant.