My Guest Appearance on a Poe Web Show

I'm so thrilled to announce that I made a guest appearance on The Raven Lunatics, a web show devoted to all things Edgar Allan Poe. If you're arriving at my site because of the episode, welcome! I invite you to subscribe to my posts (see the subscription option at the bottom of the sidebar ⇘) and have a look around.

Amulet Books/Abrams will release The Raven's Tale, my upcoming novel about teenage Edgar Allan Poe, in Spring 2019. Pre-order options aren't yet available, but you can add the novel to your Goodreads shelf.

Thank you so much to comics creator Dwight L. MacPherson and Poe Museum curator Chris Semtner for interviewing me! It was an honor and a delight to appear on their show. 

THE RAVEN'S TALE Updates

I just wrapped up the first round of revisions for my newest book, The Raven's Tale—my novel about Edgar Allan Poe's teen years—which Amulet Books/Abrams will publish in Spring 2019. This was the editorial letter stage of the process, in which my editor, Maggie Lehrman, sent me her comments and suggestions for the book, and I revised the novel accordingly. I spent over 2 1/2 months gutting and rewriting about 70% of the manuscript—an intense yet, ultimately, exciting process—and I'm ecstatic to now have a little break.

Next up will be line edits, which will involve Maggie going through the entire manuscript and marking suggestions ranging from grammar fixes to additional story changes.

Because the plot of the book might still get affected by future revisions, I'll only share a few more details about the novel at this point.

• The Raven's Tale opens shortly after Edgar Allan Poe's 17th birthday in January 1826 and ends in May 1827 when he's 18.
• Poe himself is a point-of-view character, which has been a challenging but ridiculously fun and entertaining viewpoint to write. 
• I'm calling this book my "literary rock opera." As I've hinted before in an Instagram post, there are certain scenes in the novel that unfold like musical numbers.   

I haven't yet seen any signs of early cover plans for the book, but if the novel stays on track for a Spring 2019 publication, I'll probably get to look at a design this summer, and, of course, I'll share the finished cover as soon as I can!

Pre-order links aren't yet available, but you can go ahead and add The Raven's Tale to your Goodreads shelves.

Me and "Eddy" at The Poe Museum in Richmond, VA.

THE RAVEN'S TALE, My New Novel about Edgar Allan Poe's Teen Years

Last week on Bustle.com I announced my newest book: The Raven’s Tale, a dark and dreamlike novel about Edgar Allan Poe’s life when he was a troubled but promising teenage poet.

The events of The Raven’s Tale are pulled straight from Poe’s letters, biographies, and firsthand accounts from the people who knew him as a teen, and the book is populated by his real-life friends, foes, and family members . . . as well as his muse.

Yes, the mythical kind of muse.

The novel blends poetry with prose, realism with Poe-esque Gothic horror, and it portrays the obstacles that hindered young Edgar "Eddy" Poe's writing career and happiness.

Me at the site of Poe's home from ages 16 to 18.

This past October, I traveled to Poe’s teenage home of Richmond, Virginia, where I explored the fabulous Poe Museum and other Poe-related sites, such as the graveyards he visited and the church he attended that doubled as a tomb for seventy-two victims of an infamous 1811 theater fire. I also made a trip to his dorm room at the University of Virginia in Charlottesville.

Poe shrine at the Poe Museum.

So much of Poe’s life has been tainted by character assassins who published false biographies of him, starting with lies printed in an obituary written by one of his literary rivals, the nineteenth-century editor and writer Rufus Wilmot Griswold.

My goal as an author is to introduce the world to the real Edgar Allan Poe as best I can. I think readers will be surprised to learn that he was an athletic young man filled with energy and a love of the outdoors, in addition to an angsty teen haunted by his homelife and the early deaths of two beautiful women who loved him in his youth.

Amulet Books/Abrams will release The Raven’s Tale in Spring 2019. I can’t wait to share more about the novel in the coming year!

For a little glimpse at what Poe was like as a teen, head to my article at Bustle, 10 Facts About Edgar Allan Poe That Will Completely Change How You Feel About The Mystery Writer.

To hear the music that inspired me during the writing of the initial draft, head to my Poe Spotify playlist. You can also take a peek at my Pinterest board for The Raven's Tale.

 

Shockoe Hill Cemetery, Richmond, VA