In case anyone’s in the area and would like to stop by, I’ll be at The Things That Go Bump in the Night Celebration at the Vicksburg Public Library in Vicksburg, MS, on Saturday, September 17th. Hope to see some of you there!
The Innkeeper’s Song
The Innkeeper’s Song by Peter S. Beagle, Roc, 1994
A plot summary of this book might go something like this: A wizard and his former students fight against another former student who has traded his life to the darkness for power. It would be accurate, but totally misleading. So what was the book really about? Stories. Singing. Love. Hate. Obligations. Responsibilities. Death. Rebirth. Redemption….
If I had to describe The Innkeeper’s Song in a word, it would be this–chewy. Some books are like milkshakes. You just drink them down easily and go on to the next one. Others, like this one, you read slowly. If you don’t, you miss half of it. Beagle has packed in enough story in this novel for a book three times its size. Another author would have have turned it into a 1000 page doorstop and it would have taken no more time to read than it does at its proper length. This is one I’ll probably have to read again, since I’m sure I could come back to it in six months or so and be thinking “I totally missed that!” in every other chapter. There’s a lot here. Take your time.
New Feature!
Today as part of the probably neverending tweaking of this site, I’m adding a feature called “Story Time.” This will be a complete short story, free to read, usually published elsewhere but not yet collected or otherwise available. I’ll be changing these from time to time, so read ’em while they’re there. You can find the Story Time link under More Pages. Enjoy!
Virtually Hot off the Virtual Press
Just in time for Halloween, I’m releasing ebook versions of The Blood Red Scarf. This is me writing from my Dark Side, and it’s got it all–ghosts, demon dogs, living nightmares, personal deaths, and a creature at the heart of it all who is far, far worse than any of them. And the only thing between these creatures and the living world is one often befuddled folklorist named Tom Anders who could have the means to stop them. Maybe.
The full description is available at either site. I need to do something special in honor of the launch. I’ll have to think about that.
Have You Seen Me?
You don’t know me. That’s not a complaint, just a statement of probability. I’m a fantasy writer who has been traditionally published for more than seventeen years, mostly short stories, novellas, and collections of those stories plus one novel. (Asimov’s SF, Realms of Fantasy, Weird Tales, Tor.com, and such). My first short story collection (The Ogre’s Wife) was a finalist for the World Fantasy Award. My work’s been more than favorably reviewed in places like Publisher’s Weekly, BookList, Locus, and Library Journal, among others.
Bragging much? Well, no, it’s more of an explanation. See, even with all of the above going for me, I understand that it means bupkis. Any reader who stumbles across my paper books or Kindle/Nook titles isn’t going to know who I am or have any immediate reason to care. In terms of name recognition, I’m no different than any random beginner. So this is my chance to say hello, nice to meet you. Let’s get acquainted.
