A Novel Requires A Certain Kind Of

I've Been Reading Peter Straub Since I Was A Teenager, And His Work Is Hardwired Into My Brain. A Dark Matter Contains Echoes Of All That Has Been Great About Straub's Previous Work And Builds Upon It. This Rashomon-like Tale Is As Spooky And Frightening As Anything He Has Written, But It's Also An Intense And Moving Celebration Of Love. Out Of The Darkness Comes, Ultimately, A Surprising And Haunting Sense Of Joy.

I Keep A Daily Journal Of Whatever Weird Thought Comes Into My Mind, Like When I Had A Dream I Was In North Dakota In The Middle Of A Blizzard And For Some Reason The Egyptian Pyramids Were There, Too - That I Was Able To Shuffle Into The Book.

I Also Have Just My Own Limits About Stuff. I'm Not Interested In Writing Graphically About Sexual Assault For Example. I Feel Like The Stuff That I'm Fascinated By Is The Stuff That's Part Of The Public Imagination Of What Horror Is. The Bleakness Is A Different Issue. I Think That Just Stems From My Personality. I Wish That I Offered A Little More Glimmer Of Hope Sometimes.

I Feel Like I Go Back And Forth Between Being Fairly Fatalistic And Really More Hopeful About The Possibilities Of Things Changing. And Will See How That Goes In This Election Cycle. That Will Probably Strongly Affect How Fatalistic I Am.

Writing About Women's Sexuality Is Very Scary For Me Because I'm Always Afraid I'll Get It Wrong.