Thomas Mullen's Blog, page 6

My Swine Flu Dilemma, or Why You Shouldn't Write A Novel About An Epidemic

I tell myself that I'm not really a hypochondriac.



Still, because my first novel dealt with a fictional town that tries to quarantine itself from the 1918 influenza epidemic, I've developed a bit of fatalism about the flu. Surely my book has tempted the gods, and the next flu pandemic (which most health experts agree is inevitable) will come looking for me in particular. I can already visualize the obituary headline: Writer of Flu Novel Dies from Flu in Ironic Tragedy.



A couple of weeks ago...

Don't Judge an Author By His Author Flap

Last week my wife and I traveled a few blocks to see Junot Diaz, author of the Pulitizer Prize and National Book Critics Circle Award-winning The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, give a reading as part of Agnes Scott College's annual Writers Festival. I was curious to see how Mr. Diaz would be in person, not only because I loved his book (yes, it deserves the hype) but also because of the rather, um, extraordinary author bio on the hardcover flap of Oscar Wao. Author bios are tricky things. ...

The Savage Detectives and the Hopefully Greatly Exaggerated Death of Literature

A few months ago, while still living in DC, I was wandering through the city and I noticed quite the crowd squeezing into the doors of my local independent bookstore, Olssons. Wow, I thought, is there some big-name author giving a reading and signing? Or perhaps some cool band is playing an impromptu, afternoon set? But no -- I got closer and realized that the crowd was due to the fact that Olssons, a small local chain, was closing this particular location, and selling off its stock at a big ...

The Inauguration: I Was There, Once

Out of a sense either of literary nonpartisanship or perhaps cowardice, I've been reluctant to drop any hints about my political inclinations. Having written a novel that deals with messy issues like individual rights versus collective needs, and morality during times of crisis -- a novel that tries to put forth very opposing viewpoints in equally sympathetic light -- I've thought it better not to comment on loaded contemporary issues so that whatever I say about Iraq or Bush or Obama or taxe...

Favorite Books of 2008

'Tis the season for Best Of lists, so here's mine. If you're reading this, you're probably just trying to fritter away the last moments before your Christmas vacation begins, so I'm happy to oblige. All of these books would make fine presents, of course. Please think of the beleaguered publishing industry when buying your gifts! Books make great presents! (Okay, no more industry shilling.)



Unlike most lists, these aren't necessarily books that were published in 2008, they're just my favorite...

Hard Times

OK, this is swiftly becoming the Dead Writers blog, owing mainly to my slow pace. So far this autumn I've posted new bits at roughly the same rate as major American authors have passed away. But I feel compelled to write a little about Studs Terkel, who died earlier this month. He's credited with inventing, or at least popularizing, the genre of oral history with his books like Working, The Good War, and Hard Times. I would be dishonest to go on and on praising him like long-time admirer sinc...

Infinite Sadness

(First, apologies for the lack of posts all summer. My family and I have just relocated from Washington, DC, to Atlanta, and my life has been consumed by realtors and title attorneys, box cutters and bubble wrap. What little time for writing I've been able to squirrel away has been devoted to editing my forthcoming second novel, The Many Deaths of the Firefly Brothers. I promise to be a better blogger this autumn. And to drink less coffee, and to think purer thoughts, and to call my mother mo...