Our Blog
How to Win the War on Banned Books: Author Samuel C. Spitale on Censorship and the Questions Readers Should Be Asking
When I was in junior high, I wanted to read Carrie Fisher’s first novel, Postcards from the Edge. So for Christmas, I asked my mom for the book.
My mom, however, didn’t think that was an appropriate gift for a 13-year old. She’d heard that the book was an unflinching look at Fisher’s drug addiction. Concerned about such undue influence, she did not want me to read it.
That decision did not sit well with me, so I checked out the book from the local library and read it in secret.
Posted by Samuel C. Spitale
Wanna Get Haunted?: A Look at Clay McLeod Chapman’s Inspiration for Ghost Eaters
We’ve all got our ghosts. Some of them simply stick around a lot longer than others. For my new novel, Ghost Eaters, the idea had been haunting the back of my brain for years.
Five-ish, to be (kind of) exact.
Posted by Clay McLeod Chapman
Dare to Know author James Kennedy’s “Damn Fine” Thoughts on David Lynch
I’ve been a fan of David Lynch ever since high school, when I recklessly watched a VHS of Eraserhead alone at one in the morning. Such an experience leaves its mark. As it turns out, my latest novel, the speculative thriller Dare to Know—about a company that can calculate the precise time of one’s death with perfect accuracy—has been described as “Lynchian.” Cool!
But what does “Lynchian” really mean? David Foster Wallace tried to define it as the “irony where the very macabre and the very mundane combine in such a way to reveal the former’s perpetual containment within the latter.” (Pretty fancy talk for a guy who kept doing a running joke about Depend adult undergarments in Infinite Jest.)
But there’s more to Lynch than just that macabre/mundane tension, DFW! Instead of one totalizing formula, I feel there are several distinct tendencies that recur in Lynch’s work—and yeah, some of those tendencies also show up in Dare to Know.
So settle in with your coffee and cherry pie—or garmonbozia, if you’re hardcore—and let’s look at what makes something Lynchian.
Posted by James Kennedy
Book Recommendations to Celebrate Disability Pride Month for The Whole Family
Photo by Yomex Owo on Unsplash
July is Disability Pride Month, a month-long celebration to commemorate the fight for the passage of the Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) and to continue to end the stigma surrounding how our society views disability. There is still a ton of work to do to create an accessible society, and there is no better time than the present to begin dismantling ableism and read some incredible books by disabled writers and activists! Here are book recommendations of all ages and genres to celebrate Disability Pride Month all year round.
Posted by Olivia Lusk
National Intern Day: Introducing Gwendy!
Hi there, my name is Gwendy! This feels like a surreal full-circle moment. I grew up in Indonesia and vividly remember my best friend lending me her copies of the Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children series when I was 13 or 14. I loved it. Today, I live halfway across the world and am a marketing & publicity intern at Quirk, the book’s first home. Most of my friends would describe me as spontaneous, random, and funny (my mom thinks I’m the funniest person ever, but that’s because she has to). I might be the most extroverted and talkative INFP person you’d ever meet––my roommate still refuses to believe I am truly an introvert.
Posted by Quirk Books Staff
Quirk Titles to Read to Embrace Your Inner Geek!
It is 2022 and we are no longer feeling shameful about our geeky hobbies! With the internet and social media, it has become easier than ever to exercise your inner geek and find others with the exact same interests as you! In honor of San Diego Comic-Con, we are highlighting some of our favorite geeky titles from Quirk Books. (Are you at SDCC? You can find our full schedule here.) Let’s get our geek on!
Posted by Olivia Lusk