Launching CATHERINE

Emily Bronte understood that there is no life without death - and no death without life. And her understanding is what gives Wuthering Heights its indelible power.

We honored that balance of life and death and life again, at the Catherine the Ghost launch party: with candy and laughter and costumes and like minds meeting. This book is getting wide notice and wonderful, thoughtful reviews (like this one from Los Angeles Review of Books), and best of all is finding its way into readers’ hands, aided immensely by insightful podcasts, like Chris Ringler’s and Craftwork.

All photos courtesy Rick Lieder. Installation art courtesy Niobe Marasigan.

Launching CATHERINE THE GHOST

It’s time . . . The preorders are going out. The rave reviews (from Publisher’s Weekly and ALA Booklist) are in. The launch poster is ready. It’s time to bring CATHERINE THE GHOST into the world!

And no matter how many times it’s happened - by now, more than 20 - it’s always, always a thrill to see my new book in print. And Clash Books created such a gorgeous, one-of-a-kind edition - that cover, that poster! those French flaps! - I’m even more thrilled to hold it in my hand.

And the bespoke launch poster, created by multitalented artist and hardcore bookseller Niobe Marasigan, is an equally gorgeous take on the dual Catherines, with a twist of ouija-board wit. Can’t say which one I love more because luckily I don’t have to choose! And I’m so grateful this novel already has so many good friends.

All that silver: Bad Brains and Skin, coming 2024 and 2025

The fierce and graceful Eric LaRocca knows what Skin is all about: not just the silver force of piercing and melting metal, but the fury of two loving hearts locked in collision, unable to swerve . . .This excerpt is from Eric’s heartfelt and precise introduction to Meerkat Press’ upcoming reissue of Skin in early 2025.

For the Centipede Press reissue of Bad Brains, with elegantly terrifying illustrations by David Ho, I wrote an afterword examining the pain at the heart of that novel, as searing and bright as the silver thing that only Austen can ever see.

Silver is everywhere.And I’m beyond delighted that these two novels will be meeting new readers very soon.

Catherine the Ghost is alive

Mother. Daughter. They never knew each other alive.

CATHERINE THE GHIOST, my homage to my favorite novel ever, WUTHERING HEIGHTS, is ready for preorders in advance of its October 2024 release. CLASH Books has created an exclusive bundle, with a signed signature sheet and a a poster of artist Daniella Batsheva’s beautifully intricate mirroring cover, and Joel Amat Guell will be creating interior art as well.

And its dedication is, of course, to the uncompromising queen of the moors, Emily Brontë, whose vision of love and death will live forever.

Dark Matter

Dark times. Dark dreams. DARK MATTER.

Meerkat Press just dropped the Dark Matter announcement for that third and final installment of Dark Factory, coming out in 2026. Which is just long enough for me to make sure that Ari and Felix and Max find the peak of their stories - and for the powerhouse that is Bunny Graves to become everything she is.

This novel series is so many things - a hymn to ecstasy, a facing-up to final endings, a celebration of the love and effort it takes to create something real - and I’m so grateful to Tricia Reeks and Meerkat for giving me the space I needed, and the time, to make it.

Time to dance, dance, dance forever in the dark!

Every moment is now

Under the trees, 2023 rolls into 2024: the holiday season is ending, Catherine the Ghost has been turned in to Leza and Christoph at CLASH, my free gift ebook is available, and I’m correlating all the notes so the writing can begin on book #3 in the Dark Factory series, the book that introduces the completely unstoppable Bunny, Dark Matter.

The future is as always unknowable, but we know there will be darkness, and we know there will be joy. Let’s be there for each other, under the trees, because every moment matters.

The ghostly season

That’s my room with the candle in it . . . and the trees swaying before it . . .

It’s late October, and the wind is blowing, and I’m working on the final draft of Catherine the Ghost, coming next year from CLASH. Cathy Earnshaw and Catherine Linton, mother and daughter, one dead and one alive, together under the dark roof of Wuthering Heights—when you see the ghost, the ghost sees you, too.

Just for the record, I could never be afraid of Cathy, because I love Emily Brontë so much.

We are the party

The Dark Park VIP launch event: what a guest list! The very private global influencer, the charming music mogul, the brandbassador and her bright young assistant, the quiet sound designer, the mycelium expert, the Tarot genius, the air architect, the cocktail maestro, the relentless paparazzi—and the gatecrasher!—all assembled at a one-of-a-kind cocktail bar, in a warm Detroit twilight, to sip a bespoke cocktail called “Augment of Your Imagination” and celebrate the end of the end of the world.

Because what this launch party was all about, what Dark Park and the Dark Factory world is all about, is playing, making—a persona, a look, a special drink served only for one night—the kind of inspired creation that happens when people share an idea—the end of the end of the world, the moment that shatters, or blossoms, or both—then make it happen, make it real by collaborating, playing together and seeing what comes to life.

And each of these makers, these special guests, was asked one question that night: Now that the world has ended, what are you going to do? Their answers are as surprising and provoking and individual as they are. Video to come; stay tuned.

[All photos courtesy Charlie Athanas.]

Now it's new

Moving changes our view—mine is much greener these days, in a house that’s new to me—and brings that change into full focus, because what used to work can’t work anymore where we are now.

DARK PARK is brand-new, and many thanks if you’ve preordered! I’m signing the books, assembling the bespoke Sfumato scent and the stickers and the “Touch the Sky” flyer, adding a few extras so each package will be unique—thanks to the collaborative mojo of the mighty Meerkat Press—and waiting to hear what readers think of it, make of it, say about it.

And DARK PARK is all about the surprising, confusing, inescapable new, as Ari and Felix and Max and Marfa make their diverging ways in a landscape of success and celebrity: Max deep in his game, Felix alone at the decks, Marfa going wider with her questions and her life, and Ari at the apex, trying to suss out the way—while the newest character of all, Sergey, follows them with his documenting eye, seeing the chaos, the mystery, the darkness, the way their world has changed, forever.

Just like our world: because it is our world. The way we lived has come to its end. And the new way is already, inescapably here.

DARK PARK is live

A signed edition, a bespoke scent from Sfumato, an ecstatic sticker from Quinine Hours, a poster for a film that exists in the future . . . The Dark Park print edition preorders are live, the Dark Park ebook is live too (and also includes the film poster!), and once again I’m fully delighted by the creativity and care the mighty Meerkat Press puts into every book we make together.

It’s all part of one beautiful and ongoing collaboration, it’s what Dark Factory is all about: taking an idea - what is the world? how will we know when it ends? what happens after that? - and remaking it as a scent, a sticker, a poster, to join the videos and music and art . . . It’s endless. And it’s your factory too, if you want to play along. Contact me if you have an idea to share! And welcome to Dark Park.

Fiction is a world

The world is everything you touch, everything that touches you: what you hear, what you breathe in, what you flee, what you can’t live without, what you never thought you’d ever see, or ever be.

I started Dark Factory knowing it was fiction, and believing that fiction could touch and inform and dance with the real world: and it did, it came true.

Dark Park is next.

The world keeps getting more and more real. Want to be part of it? Immerse yourself, let’s go.

In the PARK, in the store, on the moors

Engaging with readers is why I write, and right now that engagement starts with the cover reveal for DARK PARK, coming 8/15/23 from adventurous Meerkat Press, as Sergey the documentary filmmaker turns his focus on the Factory crew. It’s all about the visuals . . .

Next is PALE GREEN PANTS, my inaugural Grownup Story Hour at always indie Toadvine Books. Being read to is so much fun, and I’m excited to read aloud from writers who love the weird, for listeners who join me streaming or in-store.

And CATHERINE THE GHOST is in process! With the ever-lit Leza Cantoral and CLASH Books, I’m revisting Emily Brontë’s masterpiece - my own favorite novel of all time - a novel that kicks the grave to the curb and lives forever.

How to make big art

The Big Art is my first time serving on a non-profit board, and I’ve learned that it’s truly a form of art-making, the way producing is, the way publishing is, the way all dreams enter physical reality: through an ongoing combination of hard work and existing support systems and money.

It’s a very meta project, to make space for art to be made: all the studio space and fine art and performances and festivals and residencies, all the rings and ripples of creativity that will come from this space that itself will be remade. This video goes deeper into the project - and the building! - and is well worth a watch. I’ll be updating our progress as the work continues and The Big Art comes into being.

On the road in January

I’m delighted to start up 2023 with a pair of cool appearances: I’ll be part of the Lions in Winter Literary Festival at Eastern Illinois University along with poet Taylor Byas and memoirist Brian Broome: author readings and craft talks, and student readings too.

And I’ll be all about immersive fiction as the Creative Guest of Honor at ConFusion, Michigan’s long-running SF convention.

Being around people who love good writing and love to talk about it is energizing and. of course, fun — a perfect way to start this bold new year.

DARK PARK and "Ari's Dream"

The immersive world of DARK FACTORY continues to grow . . . Watch the trailer for DARK PARK here, the story of filmmaker Sergey’s vision of Ari and Felix and Max and Marfa, and enjoy the free holiday gift of “Ari’s Dream”, as we head into the strange new year of 2023.

How to play at the Factory

Charlie Athanas explains his creative process with precision and pleasure in this SPINE article detailing his Dark Factory AR/VR collaborative contribution.

Which is another way of saying that Charlie is having immense creative fun, and it shows.

Which is another way of saying that this is exactly what Dark Factory is for: explore the world and make it yours. And then share it with us all.

It’s why I wrote the book: so come on and play with us!

Absolutely virtual and absolutely real

The virtual is everywhere.

The Metaculture’s cultural visionary Aemeth is one of the voices/avatars we meet in this film from Resident Advisor. And here’s another explorer’s experience in “I Went Clubbing in the Metaverse.”

“If our realities are all subjective, and I experience Ari and Max and Felix and what they go through, then doesn’t that make them real in my own subjective reality?”

And DARK PARK is coming in 2023.

The boundaries are expanding all the time.

Meta is all of us

Dark Factory fan art contest . . .

Charlie Athanas . . .

Sfumato . . .

The Metaculture . . .

All of these things are the same thing: all of them are creativity, are playfulness, are cultural exploration involving very old and very new technologies, all of them are attributes of us.

We make the world with the way we think about making the world: with all its contradictions, its pleasures and puzzles and inevitable pitfalls. And we make ourselves too.

The scents of Sfumato, the VR mavens of the Metaculture, Burning City’s expertise, all of these things are part of where Dark Factory is going next, to Dark Park. I hope you’ll come and play with us - the way the talented and passionate people remade Dark Factory with their own art. Let’s keep the dance going!

CATHERINE THE GHOST

I first read Wuthering Heights when I was ten years old: I’d never read anything like it, and neither has anyone else. Emily Brontë’s utterly unsentimental, utterly haunted novel of spirituality, passion and loss has been a part of my life ever since, as a reader and a writer.

And now, thanks to the badass Leza Cantoral and Christoph Paul at CLASH Books, I’m going to the moors with Catherine the Ghost.

Catherine Earnshaw is dead when Wuthering Heights begins. We meet her in the memories and fantasies of others, we watch her reflected in Heathcliff’s passionate grief. But the only time we ever see or hear Catherine directly is as a ghost at a window, palpable, dangerous, struggling, crying out Let me in!

It’s time to hear Catherine’s own voice. It's time to let Catherine in.

 [Photo courtesy Rick Lieder]

The immersive landscape keeps on growing

We immerse where we are: we make and remake our world, and let it do the same with us. I’ve been creating immersive events in this gorgeous sprawling garden for almost ten years - here’s one of the most surreal - and now I’m part of a creative team that will enable other artists to do the same; our call for proposals will go out very soon.

And I’ve been invited to be part of big new art venture, the working dream of sculptor Rob Onnes, that will also enable and empower artists with space - to make, to show, to connect with the larger community. Growth calls to growth! Let’s keep immersing.