{"id":1462,"date":"2018-12-31T17:23:01","date_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:23:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1462"},"modified":"2018-12-31T17:23:01","modified_gmt":"2018-12-31T17:23:01","slug":"lone-star-listensauthor-interviews-by-kay-ellington-lsll-publisher-55","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/?p=1462","title":{"rendered":"Lone Star ListensAuthor interviews by Kay Ellington, LSLL Publisher"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers.<\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>Kay Ellington has worked in management for a variety of media companies, including Gannett, Cox Communications, Knight-Ridder, and the New York Times Regional Group, from Texas to New York to California to the Southeast and back again to Texas. She is the coauthor, with Barbara Brannon, of the Texas novels The Paragraph Ranch<\/span>A Wedding at the Paragraph Ranch.<\/span><\/p>\n

\n

10.14.2018\u00a0 Austin author and agent Mark Falkin on the influences of horror and his newest novel, THE LATE BLOOMER<\/h1>\n

<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

There\u2019s something about October with its longer shadows and shorter days,<\/span> chilling winds and rustling leaves that evokes an undercurrent of things going bump in the night \u2014 sometimes during the day, as well. Fittingly in the month of All Hallows\u2019 Eve, we feature the author of <\/span>The Late Bloomer,<\/span> a new post-apolcalyptic horror novel which takes place on October 29 in Texas. So pull up your bowl of candy corn and meet Austin author and literary agent <\/span>Mark Falkin,<\/span> and see what suspense his new book has in store for you.<\/span><\/p>\n

LONE STAR LITERARY LIFE: <\/span>Tell us about <\/span>The Late Bloomer, <\/span>Mark \u2014 what\u2019s the novel about?<\/span><\/p>\n

MARK FALKIN:<\/span> An ordinary young man in extraordinary circumstances: the world experiences an abrupt and unthinkable cataclysm on the morning of October 29, 2018. Austinite Kevin March, high school band trombonist and want-to-be writer playing early morning hooky, is witness to its beginning, though he isn\u2019t as shocked by it as he thinks he should be or wishes he could be \u2014 these dreams he\u2019s been having; this story that he wrote; his little brother\u2019s night terrors and sleepwalking.<\/p>\n

Surprised or not, Kevin now not only finds himself pitted against forces these changes have wrought in order to survive, but soon discovers that he may have a crucial role in this new world, one that he is reluctant to play. To stay alive, Kevin embarks on a journey that promises to change everything yet again. On his journey, into a digital recorder he chronicles his experiences at the end of his world. This book is a transcript of that recording. Depicting an unspeakable apocalypse unlike any seen in fiction \u2014 there are no zombies, viruses or virals, no doomsday asteroid, no aliens, no environmental cataclysm, no nuclear holocaust\u2014with a Holden Caulfieldesque protagonist at his world\u2019s end, The Late Bloomer is both a companion piece to Lord of the Flies<\/span> and a Bradburyian Halloween tale.<\/p>\n

What inspired you to write this book?<\/p>\n

Inspiration is a voodoo best not dissected. But I think it\u2019s fair to say that the three simultaneous sparks were these: There\u2019s a line in Lord of the Flies<\/span> that goes You knew, didn\u2019t you? I\u2019m part of you? Close, close, close! I\u2019m the reason why it\u2019s no go? Why things are what they are? and a little supernova exploded in my mind and I probably said behind clenched teeth in public, \u201cThat\u2019s it!\u201d<\/p>\n

The book\u2019s working title was for a long time and was even initially pitched with that title. There\u2019s that and there\u2019s a certain work of fiction that I can\u2019t disclose for spoilage reasons; the way it made, still makes, me feel . . . I approached this book at the outset from the standpoint of wanting to make the reader feel like I did reading that work.<\/p>\n

And then there\u2019s this: a few people reading might remember these emails I used to send out during October years ago, I think 1998 through 2003. They were these epistolary little stories that came in bi-weekly installments that I called the Chronicles of Spooky Month which over the years got longer, less funny and more scary. In maybe 2012 I attempted to take a run at it again for fun and as a palette cleanser. I wrote a couple thousand words and put it away, never sending anything out. This was the impetus for The Late Bloomer. This book really is an all-grown-up, exploded version of that. Pure fun. Labor of love.<\/p>\n

Literary antecedents and influences in the crucible that generated The Late Bloomer:<\/span> Lord of the Flies,<\/span> Barker\u2019s story \u201cIn the Hills, the Cities,\u201d and Shirley Jackson<\/span>. Lovecraft,<\/span> whose writing is so fussy and stilted (yet something about that aspect makes it all the more terrifying), the deep cosmic\/existential horror he fathoms is there for sure. Other characteristics common to this gene pool sprang from the fey codes lying in wait on the dark side of the helix exist in I Am Legend, The Stand, <\/span>Arthur Machen\u2019s<\/span> The Great God Pan.<\/span> McCarthy\u2019s<\/span> The Road<\/span> is there in the crucible, I suppose, if I were to do a reduction sauce. The films The Blair Witch Project, The Wicker Man<\/span> (1973), Invasion of the Body Snatchers,<\/span> and Donnie Darko<\/span> without question went to work on me, as did the Twilight Zone classic The Monsters Are Due on Maple Street.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Late Bloomer<\/span> has been described as a coming of age book. You grew up in Oklahoma; how would you describe your own coming of age?<\/p>\n

I was born, whelped and raised in Tulsa, so I came of age there in the embrace of a \u201cnormal,\u201d stable, loving family, but I grew up as a human being in law school in Norman, Oklahoma, in Dallas, even the early Austin days. What made me grow up how I have was experiencing my folks\u2019 deaths at young ages and dealing with that.<\/p>\n

What brought you to Texas?<\/p>\n

I went to SMU, met my Houstonian wife there, decided to stay. We did Dallas for a few but eventually settled in Austin, where we\u2019ve been for sixteen years now.<\/p>\n

You are an author, attorney, and agent. How do you juggle all three roles?<\/p>\n

As one does flaming, rusty chainsaws: with care. I\u2019m missing some appendages and have been very badly burned. What makes it happen are the patience and support of my family, coffee, exercise, turning the pettifogging down to a drip, the agenting turned up to a geyser \u2014 in that order of importance.<\/p>\n

How would you compare The Late Bloomer<\/span> and your previous book, Contract City?<\/span><\/p>\n

Though The Late Bloomer<\/span> is told through a realistic lens (through a keyhole, as my publisher first described it), it is apocalyptic horror with supernatural elements and in that way is escapist literature. Contract City<\/span> is near-future dystopian but maybe more frightening because it\u2019s recognizable realism \u2014 not so speculative, not so escapist \u2014 and it could happen (is happening?!). Both books focus on this: given a certain context, if the right pressure is applied, the horrors we humans visit upon ourselves are the greatest of all horrors. Our nature is scrutinized in both. Our natural proclivity toward apathy and groupthink.<\/p>\n

Why horror?<\/p>\n

I just love the genre. I believe horror can teach and reach deeply, maybe deepest. After all, all love stories are ghost stories. What inspired me to write The Late Bloomer<\/span> was that I wanted to write a horror novel that was unlike anything else out there and that was the scariest thing I could think of; and what makes it scary isn\u2019t a set piece here, a set piece there, but something that holistically makes you shudder, making you feel something deeper than simple fear but rather a resonating poignancy through the pathos.<\/p>\n

Are there other Texas horror authors you admire?<\/p>\n

I must admit to not knowing many I\u2019ve read off the top of my head, but for sure Joe R. Landsdale.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s on your nightstand these days to be read?<\/p>\n

I recently read in a flourish There There<\/span> by Tommy Orange<\/span> which is remarkable and deserving of any hype. I just reread Chaon\u2019s<\/span> Ill Will.<\/span> A masterpiece of literary horror, so says me. On the teetering nightstand: The Witches, Salem 1692<\/span> by Stacy Schiff,<\/span> Machen\u2019s<\/span> The Great God Pan and Other Horror Stories<\/span> (reading those others; I\u2019m well-acquainted with), Crash<\/span> by J.G. Ballard, King\u2019s<\/span> The Outsider.<\/span><\/p>\n

Last question. How will the Falkin family celebrate Halloween?<\/p>\n

Our leafy mid-century Austin street has an earnest Saturday Evening Post<\/span> vibe on Halloween night that we never miss. My wife and I will be tagging in and out, taking youngest trick-or-treating. When tagged out, I will be at home base Dad-spazzing with the appropriate multimedia, jerry-rigged lighting and strobes, local beer foaming over the lip of a plastic pumpkin cup, and a fog machine, all in vain effort to keep things hale, light, and jovial, refusing to acknowledge what lurks in moonshadow, resisting the rooted feeling that something wicked this way comes . . .<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n

\n

Praise for Mark Falkin’s THE LATE BLOOMER<\/h1>\n

\u201cLike a sharp, winding staircase that narrows as it turns, the claustrophobic world of The Late Bloomer<\/span> edges the reader in page by page.\u201d \u2015Tal M. Klein, author of The Punch Escrow<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn apocalyptic coming-of-age tale the likes of which you\u2019ve never seen, Mark Falkin\u2019s The Late Bloomer<\/span> channels the heart of Ray Bradbury, the sensibilities of Rod Serling, and the grim despair of Cormac McCarthy, all wrapped up in Falkin’s unshakable, inimitable style. Both beautiful and horrific, this is a young adult novel that even the most case-hardened fans of speculative fiction will find riveting and deeply moving. Highly recommended.\u201d \u2015Ronald Malfi, author of Bone White<\/span> and Little Girls<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIf you\u2019re a fan of dull, weary storytelling with characters you\u2019ve seen a million times doing the things you\u2019ve seen them do a million times until you pass out from boredom, then this isn\u2019t the book for you. If, on the other hand, you\u2019re into roller coasters, laughter, fear, surprise, and characters who keep going against all odds, then The Late Bloomer<\/span> will suck you down its twisted literary throat through its very last word.\u201d \u2015Jason Neulander, producer, director and creator of The Intergalactic Nemesis<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWith pitch-perfect prose, Falkin has penned an irresistible and audacious coming-of-age novel that plumbs the depths of adolescence and global cataclysm in equal, page-turning measure. I predict The Late Bloomer<\/span> will take its place on the post-apocalyptic bestseller list, next to Station Eleven<\/span> and The Stand<\/span>.\u201d \u2015Will Clarke, author of The Neon Palm of Madame Melan\u00e7on<\/span> and Lord Vishnu\u2019s Love Handles.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cHarrowing, unsettling and exquisitely written, The Late Bloomer<\/span> is part War of the Worlds,<\/span> part Twilight Zone<\/span> and part Shirley Jackson. It is an unforgettable unforgiving vision of the end of the world, of those who attempt to survive and those who wish to stop them. The images conjured here will haunt you long after putting it down. Good luck, dear reader.\u201d \u2015Louisa Luna, author of Two Girls Down<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cAn apocalyptic tale unlike any other, The Late Bloomer <\/span>is smartly written; with shades of Stephen King meeting Cormac McCarthy, a blistering pace and lyrical prose, it demands to be consumed. Falkin’s take on the end of the world is intriguing, beautiful and tragic\u2015a must-read.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2015Kristen Zimmer, Amazon #1 bestselling author of The Gravity Between Us<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cImagine nature itself seething with Holden Caulfield’s rage at adult phoniness. Now imagine what happens when a decimated humanity inherits the planet. With The Late Bloomer,<\/span> Mark Falkin combines an authentic portrait of twenty-first-century adolescence with a terrifying, and unsettlingly plausible, vision of the end of humanity as we know it.\u201d \u2015Christian TeBordo, author of Toughlahoma<\/span> and director of the MFA Program and assistant professor of English at Roosevelt University<\/p>\n

* * * * *<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Each week Lone Star Literary profiles a newsmaker in Texas books and letters, including authors, booksellers, publishers. Kay Ellington has worked in management for a variety of media companies, including Gannett, Cox Communications, Knight-Ridder, and the New York Times Regional Group, from Texas to New York to California to the Southeast and back again to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1462","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1462\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/wordpress.etypegoogle10.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}