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| photo: Toby Madden | |
Derek Landy lives near Dublin, Ireland. Before writing his children's story about a sharply dressed skeleton detective, he wrote the screenplays for a zombie movie and a murderous horror film. "I think my career-guidance teacher is spinning in her grave," he says, "or she would be if she were dead." Seasons of War, the 13th novel in the Skulduggery Pleasant series, is available now from HarperCollins Children's Books.
On your nightstand now:
The Southern Book Club's Guide to Slaying Vampires by Grady Hendrix, The Sun Down Motel by Simone St. James and Praetorian: The Rise and Fall of Rome's Imperial Bodyguard by Guy de la Bédoyère. I've always been a horror fan, which explains the first two, and I've recently been on a bit of a military history kick. I'm not a big reader of nonfiction, but I'm doing my best to change that.
Favorite book when you were a child:
Either The Three Investigators series created by Robert Arthur or the Hardy Boys created by Franklin W. Dixon. Back then, if it wasn't a mystery series written by a stable of various writers, it was comic books. I credit Spider-Man with teaching me how to read at an advanced level. Thanks, Spidey.
Your top five authors:
Joe R. Lansdale, Elmore Leonard, Joe Hill, Joe Abercrombie and Grady Hendrix. A mix between horror and crime, basically--with some head-splitting fantasy thrown in for the laughs.
Book you've faked reading:
Dostoevsky's The Idiot. I mean, I read the first quarter, so that has to mean something, right?
Book you're an evangelist for:
NOS4A2 by Joe Hill. I've given this book to so many friends over the past few years. The story of a troubled young woman with a gift, going up against a soul-sucking vampire in a possessed car. Ohhh, it's so good.
Book you've bought for the cover:
My Best Friend's Exorcism by Grady Hendrix. Funny thing is, I already had the hardback version, bought on a recommendation, but hadn't got around to reading it. Then I had a few hours to kill in an airport and I saw the paperback, with a brand-new VHS-style cover, and couldn't resist diving in. I had no idea I had the same book downstairs. It's a glorious book, by the way. Glorious.
Book you hid from your parents:
I've never had to hide any book from my folks--they're avid readers themselves. I suppose I've hidden issues of The Amazing Spider-Man in textbooks when I was meant to be studying, if that counts.
Book that changed your life:
Misery by Stephen King. I carried the paperback around in my jacket pocket for years, so it rested just over my heart. One day, when I was too slow to fire in a duel with a man who had besmirched my honor, my enemy's bullet struck me in the chest--and was lodged in that paperback. Misery saved my life.
Favorite line from a book:
"You gotta be one of the good guys, son, 'cause there's way too many of the bad." --Garth Ennis, Preacher
Five books you'll never part with:
Mucho Mojo introduced me to Hap and Leonard--Joe R. Lansdale's smart-talking, two-fisted heroes--and I will never own a book that's more precious to me. Riding the Rap by Elmore Leonard is a random pick from my shelf, because I honestly don't know which of his books is my favorite. The only problem with his books is that I can't read them while I'm writing, because his use of language is so seductive that it starts to encroach upon mine. The Light at the End by John Skipp and Craig Spector is a book I read as a teenager that I never want to revisit, because it can't be as good as I remember. It just CAN'T. Stephen King's It is, like Riding the Rap, just one of a dozen possible titles that would qualify as my top choice. And lastly, The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon, because it's wonderful.
Book you most want to read again for the first time:
Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72 by Hunter S. Thompson. I barely knew who all the players were but his style, his sheer anger, blew my mind.