Elijah David

I'm excited to welcome back Mirriam Neal for another interview, this time to discuss her new novel, Dark is the Night . (In case you missed my review of Dark is the Night , you can find it here .) ED: Last time we talked about a book of yours, we spent some time discussing your redemption of certain mythical characters. With Dark is the Night , you're not so much redeeming these characters as taking a different tack on them. Which aspects of vampire (and werewolf) lore were you most excited to explore? What drew you to these creatures and this genre? MN: Honestly, as much as I enjoy the physicality of creatures like vampire and werewolves, it’s their psychology that fascinates me the most. You have people who (mostly) used to be human, and can remember it all, and still look human to most people—but have been altered into predators in ways most people can’t see. It goes beyond having fangs or howling at the moon, and getting to explore those dynamics is like Christma...

Three years ago, I had the pleasure of helping introduce Mirriam Neal's second published novel, Paper Crowns , to the world (see here for my interview with Miss Neal about redeeming myths and here for my review of Paper Crowns ). Today, I'm heralding her third. Like many in Miss Neal's social circles, I have heard a lot about Dark is the Night  and its cast of grumpy, broken people over the years. So when she announced a few months ago that it would be published this year, I was more than happy. I was ecstatic to finally get my hands on this book. Short enough to read in a weekend, Dark is the Night  isn't short on one-liners, explorations of faith, and characters battling demons both internal and external. Now let's dive into it, shall we? South Carolina gave the term 'God-forsaken' an entirely new meaning. If that isn't an opening line to grab you, I don't know what is. From the opening howls of predatory werewolves to the growing bloodl...

I've been listening to the Audible full cast production of Dracula  (each narrator in the novel has a different reader, with Tim Curry as Van Helsing and Alan Cumming as Dr. Seward)   on my commute lately, and I'm noticing things I haven't caught in previous readings. Why do modern versions never keep the mustaches? For instance, there's a bench in Jonathan Harker's early entries that the locals call "word bearer." I assume that's where visitors would stop to share the news. But the loftiness of that phrase started my wheels turning. I know Stoker isn't always the most careful with his details in this book (for example, Lucy's hair changing color after she dies) but this seems like an odd bit of trivia to be throwing in with all of Jonathan's other exotic travel experiences. The very phrase "word bearer" conjures up something grand, important, and even imposing in its own way. If you move out from the obvious meaning I ment...

Currently Writing:  Merlin Book 2 Currently Reading: Dune by Frank Herbert                                 The Silmarillion by J.R.R. Tolkien (reread)                                 The Woodcutter by Kate Danley (Kindle) I've been wanting to do another Top 10 post since the first one. I can't do a Top 10 Books general post because there are just too many I love, so I decided that Top 10 rereads was the best way to go. So here, in no particular order, are my Top 10 Books to Reread: The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis I'm counting this whole series as one book, not only because I have an omnibus edition, but because I love to read all of them again and again. All told, I've probably read the whole series five or six times, and individual books anywhere from that number to ten or so. I never come out of rea...

Currently reading: Les Miserables by Victor Hugo (I've been reading this for more than a month, and I'll probably be reading it for another two or three months.)                             Winesburg, Ohio by Sherwood Anderson Currently Writing: Thesis revisions ("My Friend the Fish" is next up)                             "Joseph Psalm" Mike DiMartino, one of the creative minds behind Avatar: The Last Airbender  and The Legend of Korra , has started writing a blog , and I have been inspired to come back and make another entry here. One of my friends recently asked me if I had been doing any writing lately. Normally, this would be a silly question. A better query would be " What have you been writing lately?" The truth is I haven't been writing much at all due to my thesis defense later this semester (a little over a month f...