I realized this morning that I have quite a backlog of questions from readers that I should answer.
By the way, I always answer my email.
Some questions are good for the blog. They reduce my planning.
This morning, I got an email from my friend Matthew, who just recently read my first novel, Ghost Medicine. Coincidentally, I've received quite a few emails from people who just picked up that book in the past week.
Meghan, there are no f-bombs in Ghost Medicine. No cannibalism or decapitation, either. Just a kid who has to deal with the death of his mother and brother. Maybe the Wall Street Journal should tell people about what a horrible thing that is to write about, because no kids should have to read shit like that.
I think massive corporations that hack into cell phones to get dirt on normal people's lives should have more of a say in what we expose our children to.
Anyway, Matthew asked a question about Ghost Medicine. He asked if the ghost that appears in Tommy's room was Seth - the ghost character from The Marbury Lens.
Well, I answered Matthew's email, but here's a longer and more detailed response:
No.
Just kidding. There is a ghost character in one passage in Ghost Medicine. The description of the ghost and what happened in Tommy's room is pretty much exactly as it happened to me, when I was a kid. When I was very young, we lived in an honest-to-God haunted house. I slept in my own bedroom, which was below ground in a partially-finished basement.
Coincidentally, that basement room setting is the same basement room Stark McClellan sleeps in in the novel Stick. So, yes... autobiography pops up in everything I write.
So, anyway, I had this ghost of a boy that would pop up in my bedroom and just stand there watching me. I saw him a lot. I can still remember what he looked like. I know it wasn't a dream.
I also never told anybody about the boy. Well, actually, I did tell people about the boy in Ghost Medicine, and, also, a few years after moving out of that very creepy haunted house, for some reason the topic came up in conversation. I told my mother about seeing the ghost of the boy. I was probably about 12 years old when I told her this. I went into detail about what he did and how many times I'd seen him. I never saw anyone else, ghost-wise, that is, in that house. Only that boy, and only down in the basement.
Anyway, when I told her that, my mother said she'd seen all kinds of ghosts in that house.
So there you go. It's a true story. And you didn't even have to hack into my phone to get it.
6 comments:
I would say that settles the argument. Basically anyone who works for, reads the publications of, watches the productions of, or even is okay with the fact that NewsCorp exists, no longer has a right to say shit.
However, although I like being mentioned on your blog, because, seriously, you're kind of my hero (I know I'm often a sarcastic ass, but I'm not joking, not this time), people are going to start thinking we're lovers. Not that I'd have a problem with that, except you know, we're both married (technically Kelly is my domestic partner, but my company gives her insurance, which is pretty cool).
And I have to say, as violent as some moments are in Ghost Medicine, they are few and far between, and they are never as graphic or disturbing as the stuff in Marbury (although I have to point out my sick-ass loved those parts, too, because, you-know, somtimes life actually sucks).
And I'll be reviewing it soon, but it's going to be hard to talk about, because it's such a more subtle, nebulous story. It actually reminds me a lot of All the Pretty Horses, except more immediate.
You know what's funny, Matt, is that after Ghost Medicine came out, there were people sending me angry email and messages about tobacco use, drinking, and killing the mountain lion. Maybe a couple even pointed out the rather off-camera sexual intercourse at the end. Nobody said anything about the cruelty between people.
Then, when In The Path Of Falling Objects came out, I was flooded by complaints about the psychopath who kills a dog. Again, nothing about what the psycho does to his father or two little boys, or to some other innocents along his trip (not to mention that outrageous shit that happens to the CHILDREN who were fighting the war in Vietnam).
And, yes, you've heard most of the complaints about Marbury, too. Again, they tend to dwell on the tangential elements that skirt around the real issues I'd love someone to actually talk about: Like how we fuck up kids' lives by passing them off, treating them like possessions, failing to communicate.
So, I could tell you right now what the people who "don't-ever-get-it" will be offended by in Stick, but you've read the book, so I'm sure you can predict, too.
I should probably just email you in response to that, but I'd actually prefer it as public record, so I'll just say:
Okay. I get the part about murdering that poor cougar. It was sad as hell, a hopeless scene in some ways, but I still think it was one of the most powerful things I've ever read. I mean if those had been my sons I would have tried to teach them about nature, and how that lion had a right to life too, but the thing is that they were just characters, and very young men at that, so you can't get angry about their moral behavior, or lack thereof. Whether or not the reader chooses to see it, there is a beautiful, powerful lesson (I know you hate that word, Drew, but you're wrong) about nature, animal instinct, and the respect/fear/control of it in this novel.
(plus ranchers and farmers have a right to defend their stock from predators, to a certain degree)
When it comes to tobacco and booze you've got to be kidding me. I was trying those things at 13 and mostly hating them, but I had friends who weren't and what people don't realize is that every kid knows someone who's into that stuff, and it DOESN'T (necessarily, depending on the parenting) make them cool. TB is not cool for dipping (it's gross) or drinking (he acts like an ass). He's cool for being the most honest, understanding friend in TS's life, and for having a resiliency that carries Troy through times that he might not survive alone.
Anyway. I'm not done yet. You've got to be joking about a sex scene. There is no sex scene. There are off camera sex scenes in every book ever written, if you're a pervert who imagines young people, naked, in detail. If you're not than you appreciate what actually matters. Like the emotion, the trust, the bond that occurs between young people of any gender and any relationship. Sex is just another complication, like every outside force that effects relationships.
I'm reading Path right now (along with something else) so I can't comment on that, but I bet it's so much tamer than COURT TV. Does Murdoch own that?
An ahh ... STICK. I wonder. I've talked to a lot of friends about this (mainly Joe and Shaun) and I wonder whether people will try to get as vocal.
On a personal level STICK hit me in the gut more than your other novels, probably because I was a terrified young teen runaway at one point in my life, but I also think that politically this book would be harder to demonize than others. I guess the ignorant can find an excuse to say just about anything, but I bet people will be a little more understanding about this one.
And if not: my little sister is a lesbian. She's the absolute coolest person I know, and she has an army of gender identity activists behind her. So just say the word.
Matthew. Put down the "something else" and just fucking get PATH read, sheesh.
Hah! You see that Andrew? Lady Reader, you're so right. I'm actually reading both at once, and Path is awesome.
I normally struggle with getting into stories that are told in present tense, because my suspension of disbelief is jarred by it, but, as usual, Andrew blows that stereotype out of the water.
Matthew, I've often said before to many people that someone could give me a book that Andrew has written (without my knowledge of him being the writer) and all it would take is one page! ONE page, and I would know. Andrew has a style unique to his self. Not one book that he has written in the least bit similiar to one of the others but the way he writes his stories almost jump out, grab you and pull you in. Then you are hooked.
Sometimes it takes me a little longer to read a book because I have to concentrate hard and maybe even have to re-read a page or two. Usually with Andrew's books I always read them at least twice. I always get a little something more out of them too.
When Lexi read PATH -- huh, she blew me outta the water. She read it in one night. After that, she decided that Andrew was her favorite author and PATH her favorite book. She's not read TML or STICK yet, we might wait another year for that? She's only 11. I don't keep books from her but our agreement is, that we both want her to understand what she is reading and/or watching.
Andrew, I think people will complain about something as long as they can find something to complain about. It seems as nobody is really just fine being happy anymore. Were they ever?
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