Year In Review: 2020 By The Numbers

As is ritual at this point, here’s my media round-up for 2020: what I wrote, what was published, and what I read, listened to, and watched.

WRITING

Similar to last year, not much to report on this front. 2020 was again not a good year for creating new content. I didn’t track what little fiction writing I managed to do – but I know there were far more days where I didn’t write than there were days I wrote. I’m considering it another “recharging” year, as I consumed and processed a lot of wonderful (and not-so-wonderful) books, television, movies, and “live” (via Zoo) theatre. The writing I did manage was mostly work on previous unfinished short stories, or non-fiction like book reviews and blog posts.

PROOFREADING/COPY-EDITING

I did a fair about of proofreading and copy-editing this year. In addition to my usual gig at Lightspeed Magazine from Adamant Press, I hired on as proofreader for the revived Fantasy Magazine as well. I also copy-edited Adamant Press’s anthology trilogy The Dystopia Triptych (Ignorance is Strength; Burn the Ashes; Or Else the Light). I did proofread Frank Schildiner’s spy novella The Klaus Protocol and his sword-and-sandal novella The Warrior’s Pilgrimage. I proofread the charity anthology Surviving Tomorrow and several volumes of Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s John Simon Thrillers and a few other titles I don’t feel at liberty to mention because those authors have not yet announced the books. This has become an unexpectedly fun side-line and I must be doing a good job because authors and editors keep asking me to do more! (If I proofread for you in 2020 and you’re not on this list, sorry! I didn’t keep a database tracking all the projects I worked on.)

PUBLISHING

2020 saw no new or reprinted stories published.

I wrote three paid book reviews for Strange Horizons magazine:

·         The Trans-Space Octopus Congregation by Bogi Takács

·         Eridani’s Crown by Alex Schvartsman

·         The Mid-Winter Witch by Molly Knox Ostertag

 

READING

I set myself a variety of reading challenges in 2020. I managed to complete a few of them.

Goodreads Challenge:

I challenged myself to read 125 books. I read 154 books from approximately 73 different publishers.

Here’s the breakdown:

  • Fiction: 146 books

    • 7 anthologies

      • 3 horror

      • 4 science fiction

    • 11 single-author collections

      • 1 science fiction

      • 3 horror

      • 2 fantasy

      • 2 crime/mystery

      • 1 poetry

      • 1 romance

    • 38 graphic novels

      • 21 super-hero

      • 2 horror

      • 11 fantasy

      • 1 memoir

      • 1 crime/mystery

      • 1 sport (fencing)

      • 1 science fiction

    • 13 magazines

      • 12 issues of Lightspeed Magazine

      • 1 issue of Occult Detective Magazine

    • 40 novels

      • 8 crime

      • 4 horror

      • 9 fantasy

      • 10 science fiction

      • 2 romance

      • 4 adventure

      • 1 mainstream

      • 2 historical

    • 32 novellas

      • 4 horror

      • 14 fantasy

      • 3 romance

      • 2 mainstream

      • 4 adventure

      • 1 science fiction

      • 3 crime

      • 1 Christmas

    • 1 picture book (current events/non-fiction)

    • 4 play scripts

      • 1 memoir

      • 3 dramas

  • Non-Fiction: 11 books

    • 1 biography

    • 1 current events (picture book)

    • 1 book of essays (pop-culture)

    • 1 history

    • 6 memoirs

    • 1 true crime

Other Book Stats:

# of Authors/Editors: approximately 136 (including graphic novel artists; I need to be better at listing all the creators of graphic novels somehow). The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, and many people overlap categories, but roughly:

·         32 female creators

·         3 Trans/Non-Binary

·         20 LGBTQIA+

·         25 Persons of Color

 

Shortest Book Read: 24 pages (Whose Boat Is This? by Stephen Colbert / Late Night Writers)

Longest Book Read: 528 (Middlegame by Seanan McGuire) (The Sandman audiobook accounts for 632 pages of graphic novel, so technically that’s longer)

Total # of pages read: 30,793

Average # of pages per book: 199

# of Rereads: 6 (including annual rereads of Roger Zelazny’s A Night in the Lonesome October and Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol)

Monthly Breakdown:

·         January: 19

·         February: 12

·         March: 8

·         April: 11

·         May: 8

·         June: 3 (lowest read in a month)

·         July: 16

·         August: 21

·         September: 8

·         October: 9

·         November: 15

·         December: 24 (most read in a month)

Review-wise on Goodreads I gave 19 three-stars, 84 four-stars, and 51 five-star reviews.

Format Summary:

  • 15 audiobooks

  • 31 e-books

  • 108 print

    • 26 hardcovers

    • 82 softcovers

366 Short Stories Challenge:

Each year, I challenge myself to read one short story per day. Since 2020 was a leap year, I aimed for 366 stories. I read 375 stories, beating the goal by a small margin.

Total # of pages read: approximately 6,139 pages of fiction

Average story length: 16.5 pages

Shortest story: 1 page long (“Six Waking Nightmares” by Mike Allen, and two Dresden File micro-fictions by Jim Butcher)

Longest story (novella): 190 pages (“If It Bleeds” by Stephen King).

The breakdown of where the stories appeared:

  • 9 Magazines

    • Nightmare

    • Lightspeed

    • Fantasy

    • The Dark

    • Daily Science Fiction

    • Occult Detective Magazine

    • Apex Magazine

    • Skelos

    • Tor.Com

  • 9 Anthologies

    • Surviving Tomorrow

    • Dagon Rising

    • Where the Veil is Thin

    • The Sinister Quartet

    • Ignorance is Strength (The Dystopia Triptych Volume 1)

    • Burn the Ashes (The Dystopia Triptych Volume 2)

    • Or Else the Light (The Dystopia Triptych Volume 3)

    • Parallel Worlds: The Heroes Within

    • Athena’s Daughters

  • 10 Single-Author Collections

    • Killer, Come Back to Me by Ray Bradbury

    • Dying with Her Cheer Pants on by Seanan McGuire

    • Fancies and Goodnights by John Collier

    • Halloween Season by Lucy A. Snyder

    • Greatheart Silver and Other Pulp Heroes by Philip Jose Farmer

    • If It Bleeds by Stephen King

    • Aftermath of an Industrial Accident by Mike Allen

    • Anthems Outside of Time by Kenneth Schneyer

    • Spinning Around A Sun by Everett Maroon

    • The Grand Tour by E. Catherine Tobler

    • The Burglar in Short Order by Lawrence Block

  • 4 published as “back-matter” in the following novels

    • A Killing Frost by Seanan McGuire

    • Imaginary Numbers by Seanan McGuire

    • Carson of Venus: The Edge of All Worlds by Matt Betts

    • Tarzan: The Battle for Pellucidar by Win Scott Eckert

  • 22 Stand-alone (self-pubbed or publisher-pubbed in e-format)

    • 12 Seanan McGuire (Patreon)

    • 2 Mysterious Bookstore (Printed pamphlet giveaways)

    • 2 ‘Nathan Burgoine (author website)

    • 1 H.P. Lovecraft (e-pub of “Horror at Red Hook”)

    • 5 Jim Butcher (author website/newsletter)

Those 375 stories were written by 189 different authors. The following breakdown is estimated because not every author shares their personal information online, and some people overlap categories, but roughly:

·         84 female creators

·         7 Trans/Non-Binary

·         25 LGBTQIA+

·         54 Persons of Color

Monthly Breakdown:

·         January: 26

·         February: 17

·         March: 14

·         April: 24

·         May: 11

·         June: 17

·         July: 106

·         August: 27

·         September: 24

·         October: 53

·         November: 38

·         December: 18

For short stories, I gave 1 1-star rating, 5 2-star ratings, 134 3-star, 180 4-star, and 55 5-star ratings.

 

Graphic Novel Challenge:

Because I own so many, I challenged myself to read one graphic novel per week. I didn’t make it, reading a total of 38 from 11 different publishers:

·              DC Comics: 11

·              Marvel Comics: 11

·              BOOM! Box: 8

·              Image: 1

·              Dark Horse: 1

·              FirstSecond: 1

·              Hard Case Crime: 1

·              Scholastic Books: 1

·              Berger Books: 1

·              Disney: 1

·              Pantheon Books: 1

 

To Be Read Challenge: I challenged myself to read 12 specific books that had been on my bookshelves for over a year (meaning nothing published in 2019) and assigned 2 alternate titles. I read 11 of the 12 main titles (identified in italics) but neither of the alternates:

1.       Tales of the City by Armistead Maupin

2.       No Longer at Ease by Chinua Achebe

3.       Logan’s Run by William F. Nolan and George Clayton Johnson

4.       A Diet of Treacle by Lawrence Block

5.       Shadowhouse Falls by Daniel Jose Older

6.       Greatheart Silver by Philip Jose Farmer

7.       Pirates of Venus by Edgar Rice Burroughs

8.       The Bad Seed by William March

9.       The Parable of the Sower by Octavia E. Butler

10.   Choke Hold by Christa Faust

11.   Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse

12.   The Complete Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi

Alternate #1: The Mystery of the Sea by Bram Stoker

Alternate #2: Excalibur! by Gil Kane and John Jakes

 

Non-Fiction Challenge: I didn’t do as well on this one. I challenged myself to read 24 non-fiction books in 2019, and I only read 11. (That was better than 2019’s 4, though.)

Read the Book, Watch the Movie Challenge: I didn’t set a numbered goal for this one in 2020, but I managed two: Evening Primrose and The Bad Seed.

Complete the Series Challenge: As with the non-fiction challenge, I hit 50% on this one. Planned to read 4 complete series, totaling 16 books (backing out the two Marlowes and one Achebe I had read in 2019), and read 9 of 16, completing 2 series:

THE VELVETEEN SERIES by Seanan McGuire

1.       Velveteen Vs. The Junior Super-Patriots

2.       Velveteen Vs. The Multiverse

3.       Velveteen Vs. The Seasons

 

THE AFRICA TRILOGY BY Chinua Achebe – COMPLETED

1.       Things Fall Apart – read in 2018

2.       No Longer at Ease – read in December 2020

3.       Arrow of God – read in February 2020

 

CARSON OF VENUS by Edgar Rice Burroughs

1.       Pirates of Venus – read in January 2020

2.       Lost on Venus

3.       Carson of Venus

4.       Escape on Venus

5.       The Wizard of Venus

 

THE PHILIP MARLOWE SERIES (audiobook versions) - COMPLETED

1.       The Big Sleep – listened to in November 2019

2.       Farewell, My Lovely – listened to in November 2019

3.       The High Window – listened to in January 2020

4.       The Lady in the Lake – listened in January 2020

5.       The Little Sister – listened in January 2020

6.       The Long Goodbye – listened in April 2020

7.       Playback – read in November 2020

8.       Poodle Springs (started by Chandler, completed by Robert B. Parker) – read in November 2020

 

 

VIEWING

I tried tracking the movies, TV, and live events I watched this year. Here’s how that went:

Movies: Apparently, I only watched 27 movies this year, totaling 45.5 hours. The shortest was a half-hour long short film (Unspeakable, directed by Milena Govich) and the two longest were approximately 2.5 hours (Wonder Woman 84 and Billy Elliot The Musical Live). The breakdown of what I watched where is:

·              6 on BroadwayHD

·              2 on Disney+

·              12 on DVD

·              1 on HBOMax (Wonder Woman 84)

·              2 on Netflix

·              2 on Cable television

·              1 on YouTube (Unspeakable)

·              1 in the theater (1917)

Of these, 14 were first time watches, the rest movies I’ve seen before. 3 were comedies, 1 was a documentary (The House In Between), 3 were dramas, 1 was fantasy (Excalibur), 7 were horror, 8 were musicals, 3 were science fiction, and 1 was a super-hero movie (Wonder Woman 84). I suspect 2021’s numbers will match the above “what I watched where” breakdown, until COVID-19 is well and truly under control.

 

Live Events: I attended 2 live events this year (thanks, COVID-19!), and one of those was via Zoom.

·         1 play (Othello, live on Zoom)

·         1 sports event (ice hockey, the Atlanta Gladiators versus the Greenville Swamprabbits)

I miss live theater and live music.

 

Television: I watched approximately 230 hours of episodic television:

·              13 Reasons Why (36 episodes)

·              Arrow (3 episodes)

·              Batwoman (11 episodes)

·              Cursed (10 episodes)

·              DC’s Legends of Tomorrow (15 episodes)

·              Doctor Who (10 episode)

·              Leslie Jones: Time Machine (1 episode)

·              Locke & Key (10 episodes)

·              Monsterland (8 episodes)

·              Muppets Now (6 episodes)

·              Perry Mason (8 episodes)

·              Stargirl (13 episodes)

·              Star Trek: Discovery (29 episodes)

·              Star Trek: Picard (10 episodes)

·              Star Trek: Short Treks (5 episodes)

·              Star Trek: The Original Series (2 episodes)

·              Supergirl (140episodes)

·              Terriers (13 episodes)

·              The Flash (10 episodes)

·              The Mandalorian (16 episodes)

·              Watchmen (3 episodes)

Genre breakdown for television watched:

·       2 crime/noir

·       3 comedies

·       6 science fiction

·       7 superhero

·       2 fantasy

·       1 horror

·       1 drama

All were live action except for 1 animated show (Animaniacs). Only the two episodes of ST:TOS were “re-watches.”

 

So, there you have it: my writing, publishing, reading, and viewing by the numbers, for 2020.

Earlier this month, I posted about my reading challenges for 2021, if you’re interested.

Happy Holidays!

This year’s Christmas poem is a repeat from 2012 because I thought we could all use a laugh:

I’m trying to write a Christmas song,

God, why is this so tough?

I have no musical talent and my rhyming’s kinda rough.

But it shouldn’t be so hard to string some words together,

Say something about Santa and stars or maybe sing about the weather.

(Let It Snow, Let It Snow, Let It Snow)

 

I could try to be serious this year, sing about some modern woe

Songs by Bing and Bowie and the Alarm cover that pretty well though.

I could sing about missing Christmas with the someone that I love

But I’m pretty sure another sad song would make you all give me a shove.

(I’ll Be Home for Christmas…)

 

Maybe I should sing of sleighs! Of reindeer or snowmen or drummer boys!

Or maybe I should scrap this thing and go buy the kids their toys.

I could sing of New Year’s Eve instead, of hopes for where next year will go,

Or of how it’s just another night. Oh wait, that’s been done by Barry Manilow.

(It’s just another New Year’s Eve…)

 

Where’s the romance of holidays, the falling in love on a sleigh?

Maybe that’s what I should sing about: being merry and gay!

That’s it! I’ll sit up all night long, wait for a cute Santa to come by

Or maybe an Elf (of Legolas’s kind), I’m a geeky kinda guy!

(I’mma be under the Mistletoe with you…)

 

May you have a rock-and-roll Christmas, or one that’s White or Green or Blue.

May you have Nights Holy and Silent, be it Hannukah, Kwanzaa, Solstice or Yule.

 

May the Love and Light of the season

Warm you and keep you safe.

 

Merry Christmas, 

Happy Hannukah,

Joyous New Year!

"CHASING SATELLITES" IN AUDIO - Short Stories

I hope everyone is well and enjoying the December holidays as they roll across our calendar. Hard to believe 2015 is almost over. Hannukah has passed; Christmas and Solstice are almost here, and then it’s New Years. Kinda crazy.

I’ve had lots of work stuff going on, and have also been doing much writing and quite a bit of reading. I’m intending to do some year-end wrap-up posts here as a way of relaunching the site. I’ve been intending all year to revise the look of the site and start posting content again, but real life has been getting in the way.

This past Weds, one of my previously-published short stories, “Chasing Satellites” (from Bryan Thomas Schmidt’s Beyond The Sun anthology), was released in audio form on the StarShipSofa podcast. Narrator Rikki LaCoste did a fantastic job with the character voices, pacing and tension of the story; the producers did a fantastic job adding sound effects to enhance the story. I really love what they did, and I’m submitting another “reprint” to them soon. Check it out, on their website (direct link to the page for my story above) or find them on iTunes. Either way, it’s free. (Note: my story starts at about the 20 minute mark of the podcast. It’s preceded by a fascinating interview with Zoltan Istvan, and followed by a neat discussion of historical precedents for the Jedi Order.)

MANY TORTURES OF ANTHONY CARDNO - Book Cover Reveal

As promised, today we reveal the front and back covers for The Many Tortures of Anthony Cardno. Bear Weiter (who is also an author in the anthology) donated a load of hours formatting the book, designing the interior (which includes artwork by his lovely wife Marlyse Comte) and creating and tweaking the covers.  I cannot thank him enough for his encouragement and his help over the past two months.

I also have to thank Michelle Moklebust and Lee Bloom for the photography on which the cover and interior illustrations were based. On Easter Saturday, we spent a good four hours and took several hundred photos — close-ups with all kinds of facial expressions, as well as “marionette” style photos for a possible different cover idea — so that I’d have a ton of material for Bear to work with. Michelle (also an author in the anthology) and Lee are to me, and while we worked, my niece Renee, Michelle’s son BJ and her nephew and niece Jake and Amanda laughed at us, offered ideas (especially Jake) and talked Doctor Who and other geeky fun.  Thanks to all of you.

And now, without further ado … the front cover:

The Many Tortures of AC.jpg

And the back cover:

Many Tortures Back Cover.jpg

UPDATE:  The book is now available in print form from Amazon. Kindle edition is coming forthwith, and the print version will be available via Barnes & Noble and other outlets soon as well (and non-Kindle ebook format should follow shortly too).

"MANY TORTURES" TOC Announcement

Hello, friends and readers.

You may have noticed things have been a bit quiet here on www.anthonycardno.com for a while now.  I’ve been taking some time away from interviewing and signal-boosting for actors, singers and writers in order to concentrate on my own writing. I’ve been working on some new short stories (and submitting them to markets), I’ve co-written a song (with at least one, and possibly two or three more on the way), I’ve been attending to personal and family life matters, and I’ve of course still be on the road for my day job.

I’ve also been editing the charity anthology I’ve mentioned here before.  The project has finally come together and is in the final stages before release, so it’s time to start making some announcements.

THE MANY TORTURES OF ANTHONY CARDNO is a gathering of 20 short stories and two sets of song lyrics, in which the main character is, well … me. Or some variation of me. The stories range from science fiction to literary and hit pretty much all points in between. In them, I’m an egotistical actor, a beleaguered husband, a scared young boy, an orphan, a randy college student, an alcoholic, a serial killer, a nice guy in the wrong place. In every single story, the authors find a way to tweak one of my real personality or physical traits to give us these alternate …. Multiversal, if you will … versions of me.

This isn’t just a vanity project.  All of the authors donated their words to this project, to help raise money for the American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life, which focuses on providing support to cancer patients and their loved ones. I’m a cancer survivor, as are several of the other authors in the book; most of the rest have first-hand experience with a loved one’s battle with the disease.  And of course, just this past month we lost Jay Lake to colon cancer.

It’s my pleasure today to reveal the complete Table of Contents for the book, which will be available in print and e-formats within the next few weeks. About a week from now, we’ll also have the reveal of the cover, being crafted by the fantastic Bear Weiter.

So, without further ado: The Table of Contents for THE MANY TORTURES OF ANTHONY CARDNO:

Foreword: I’m NOT A Nice Guy! by Anthony R. Cardno
Introduction: Who IS Anthony Cardno? by Brian White
Temperance by Christie Yant
Anthony Takes The Stairs by Eric S. Bauman
The Antics of Anton Ardno (A Todd Gleason Crime Story) by Joseph Pittman
I Have A Question by Neal Bailey
The Bar at The End of the World by Sabrina Vourvoulias
With A Flick of the Wrist by Michelle Moklebust
Scarred by Damien Angelica Walters
The Hand of God (A Davi Rhii story) by Bryan Thomas Schmidt
The Old Suit by Bear Weiter
The Optimist by Kaaron Warren
The Story Teller by Dennis R. Miller
The White Phoenix Feather: a tale of cuisine and ninjas by Mary Robinette Kowal
The Ballad of Anthony Cardno by Barry Mangione and the Musical Geniuses
Why, Anthony, Why by Frank Dixon
When The Waters Recede… by Day Al-Mohamed
The Chase by Jen Ryan
Three on a Match by Steve Berman
Brutal and Simple by Adam P. Knave
The Zombie Shortage by David Lee Summers
With Dust Their Glittering Towers: A Fly-Leaves Story by Christopher Paul Carey
Canopus by Anthony R. Cardno
Cold Statues by Jay Lake

I’m flattered by how many authors were willing to donate their work to help raise money for ACS, and I thank all of them once again. I’m particularly humbled to be presenting what I think is one of the last stories Jay Lake wrote before his untimely passing; he created this story for me in the midst of heavy chemotherapy over a year ago.

Check back next week for the cover reveal, and after that for news of the actual publication date!

2011 WRITING GOALS - Anthony R Cardno

I think it is absolutely time to state some broad writing goals for this year.  I’ve been in a bit of a slump writing-wise since before the holidays, but am slowly coming out of it.

Part of coming out of the slump is thanks to taking Jeremy C. Shipp’s Yard Gnome Army Fiction Writing Boot Camp (Winter session).  Jeremy is a fun writer to read, and an even more fun writer to work with. He’s been encouraging to even the slowest-writing students (read: ME), and his feedback has definitely improved the story “Thumbsucker” already. I’m interested to see his feedback on the second draft, and am hopefully that a third pass through the material will have it ready to start being submitted.

The story-submission horse is one I definitely need to get back on.  My goal, in the first half of this year, is to revisit all of my existing unpublished short stories and do polishes on them with the intent of getting them back in the world.

The other big assignment for Jeremy’s class is the first chapter of a novel. I’m plugging away slowly at that. It’s due soon, and I think I have something. We’ll see just what it is.

Check out the link to Jeremy’s own website in the Links section to see his work and learn a bit more about him.

The other large motivating factor, today, was Jay Lake’s post on his blog about his writing goals for the coming year. I read it, and I realized: I need to do that. I know there’s a school of thought that insists sharing goals with the greater public actually works against accomplishing them. In this case, I disagree. I need to get these goals in front of me, and this space is one good place to do that (the other being the bulletin board above my desk).

So, the 2011 writing goals are:

Ongoing: rework the unpublished short stories and get them on the rounds again.

March 2011: finish the first draft of Ambergrin Hall, the mystery-thriller set on the Croton College campus.  The whole manuscript needs tightening, but that can only happen when the first draft is finished.

April 2011: finish the first draft of Christmas Ghosts. Not as much to do to finish this one, but I’m sure a second pass will bring plot holes and inconsistencies to light.

June 2011: Plot out and begin Tarasque, the swords-and-planets novel in the vein of John Carter Mars, Carson of Venus, and Adam Strange.

I’ve also, on the non-fiction side, embarked on writing book reviews for ICARUS magazine, which is published by Lethe Press. Paying book review gigs are always a good thing.

So, as Jay said in his post: there are my upcoming goals. What are your plans?

ANTHONY R. CARDNO, Author - Interview

Yesterday I had the older group of kids who are my nieces and nephews interview me. Today we continue with the younger crowd, starting with my niece Renee, to whom THE FIRFLAKE is dedicated.

The Firflake, Anthony R Cardno

The Firflake, Anthony R Cardno

RENEE (age 11): What inspires you the most?

ANTHONY: Yesterday I talked about how inspiration for writing comes from a lot of different places: people I’ve seen, places I’ve been too, things I’ve read. But what inspires me as a person, every day, is love. I’m blessed to have so many amazing people in my life, and that love and support inspires me to be a better writer and also a better person. And hugs. Hugs are important. As you know.

RENEE: Are you going to make another Christmas story for me and Vinnie?

ANTHONY: There is another Christmas story coming. CHRISTMAS GHOSTS isn’t written for you and Vin the way THE FIRFLAKE was, but I still want you to read it! And who knows… maybe Christmas Eve I’ll have a new story to tell you guys, and that might someday become another book!

JARED (age 11): What inspired you to become a writer?

ANTHONY: Yesterday, I said “comic books.” Of course, it wasn’t just comic books that did it. It was also teachers and other adults who encouraged my creativity. Mrs. Bleakly and Mrs. Vezina at Austin Road Elementary; Mr. and Mrs. DelCampo and Ms. Burgh at Mahopac High School; the professors at Elmira. When I mentioned the cousins on Long Island whose house I used in my super-hero stories? Aunt Terry used to read everything I wrote while I was visiting, and then she’d ask questions and make suggestions about how to improve it. All of that encouragement helped, and continues to help.

JARED: Are your characters in your stories based on people you know?

ANTHONY: Sometimes yes, sometimes no. The main characters are very rarely based on any one person. For instance, in CHRISTMAS GHOSTS, the character of Collum McCann has bits and pieces of the personalities of lots of sixth graders I’ve known over the years. It’s hard to base a main character on a specific person because there’s always the chance that person will be insulted or upset at the way you portray them, despite the fact that the story is fiction. I find it’s easier to use friends and relatives as supporting characters, so they can be happy they got included but I don’t have to worry about how they’ll feel about their portrayal. CHRISTMAS GHOSTS is a good example: between students, teachers and coffee shop workers, there are a LOT of familiar names and little “winks” at family and friends. Who knows … YOU might even be in that one!

JARED: What’s your favorite kind of writing and is it the same as what your favorite kind of reading is?

ANTHONY: Hmmmm. They are probably not the same thing. I read a lot of science fiction and fantasy, but I haven’t really written that much science fiction or fantasy so far other than the super-hero stuff I wrote for the Super-Team Amateur Press Alliance (STAPA). I can say that I read a lot of short stories (at least 365 every year) and that’s the story length I like to write too. Novels are hard work!

MORGYN (age 8): How do you like to elaborate with your stories? I’m learning to elaborate with mine right now.

ANTHONY: I’m glad your teachers are teaching you how to elaborate on your ideas! You know, the first draft of the THE FIRFLAKE was a lot shorter. There was a lot less detail about the kids and how they were a part of the storytelling tradition of the family. So when I wrote later drafts, I added more sense detail: smells, sights, etc., and I gave the kids more to do. And then in one of the last drafts, your Uncle Jon said “there’s still something missing. What is it? Elves. Santa. Snow. Presents. Waitaminnit! Where’s the reindeer??” And a whole new scene got written. So sometimes I elaborate by asking “what is it the characters are seeing, hearing, touching, smelling, tasting, doing.” And sometimes I elaborate because someone says “hey, did you ever think about including a scene where…”

MORGYN: How do you decide on a topic to write on?

ANTHONY: Mostly it’s whatever strikes me when I sit down to write. It might be a new idea that popped into my head while I was driving, or it might be a scene in a story I’m already working on but I’ve been struggling with it. Story ideas come from all over the place, but it’s really rare that I have an idea and immediately start working on it. I usually let ideas sit in my head a while, until I’ve thought them over and they seem ready to be written. I call that “letting them percolate.”

MORGYN: If you could interview someone you haven’t interviewed yet, who would you pick?

ANTHONY: I can’t give just one answer to this question. So I’m going to divide it up by category, okay?
Authors: Rick Riordan. Neil Gaiman. Seanan Maguire. Ellen Kushner & Delia Sherman.
Musicians/Singers (adult): Rosanne Cash. Dennis DeYoung. Adam Levine. Kalan Porter. Pentatonix.
Actors (adult): Nathan Fillion (Castle). Colin Morgan (Merlin). John Glover. John Lithgow.
Comic Book Writers/Artists: Gail Simone. George Perez. Bill Willingham.
Musicians/Singers (teens): Kropp Circle. Cody Simpson. The Feaver. And I know you and Renee would love it if I could interview Big Time Rush.
Actors (teen): Sterling Beaumon. Zach Mills. Jeanette McCurdy. Molly Quinn.

XAVIER (age 8): What inspired you to write the book?

ANTHONY: Well, Xave, like your mother I have always loved Christmas. And I’ve always loved the animated television specials like Rudolph, The Year Without a Santa Claus, and Santa Claus Is Coming To Town. So those cartoons were part of the inspiration. Reading The Grinch and Polar Express and ‘Twas The Night Before Christmas to Vinny and Renee when they were very little was another inspiration. And then there’s the tradition of wishing on the first snowflake of winter, and what magic that snowflake carries. All of that came together to become THE FIRFLAKE you know and love.

JACK (age 10): Who is your favorite Harry Potter character? (even though I already know)

ANTHONY: Well, since you already know, I don’t have to answer, do I? haha. Okay, since other people probably want to know, too: Remus Lupin. He reminds me a lot of me. My second favorite character would be Ron Weasley,who also reminds me a lot of me.

JACK: Which is your favorite Harry Potter book?

ANTHONY: They’re all so good, but if I had to choose one … Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. It’s exciting, it introduces Remus and Sirius (my favorite character and your father’s favorite!), and Buckbeak is just really cool.

JACK: What was the most exciting part of your favorite Harry Potter book?

ANTHONY: Oh, the whole scene in the Shrieking Shack where Harry, Ron and Hermione are facing off with Sirius and Lupin, and we find out Scabbers is not really a rat, and then Snape shows up … the first time I read the book I couldn’t put it down through that whole sequence.

JOEY (age 7): Have you read any books about the Titanic?

ANTHONY: I have! I read Walter Lord’s A NIGHT TO REMEMBER when I was in high school. I haven’t read any recently though. It’s an incredible story, though, isn’t it?

JOEY: Have you ever written a humongous paragraph?

ANTHONY: I think the longest paragraph I’ve ever written was one full page long when I typed it up. That’s probably not really “humongous,” since there are some writers who write paragraphs that go on for 10 pages!

JOEY: What’s your favorite book?
XAVIER: What is your favorite book?

ANTHONY: I don’t have just one favorite book, so it’s a good thing you both asked me this question. And, since it’s the same question I ask at the end of every interview I do, it’s the perfect final question for this post too! So here’s my two favorite books, and what I would say to recommend them to someone who hasn’t read them yet:

Dracula by Bram Stoker. I’ve read this book every couple of years since high school. It wasn’t the first vampire novel ever written, but it is the most famous. What I love about the book is that while Dracula is the title character, he’s not the narrator. In fact, you very rarely get a look into what Dracula is thinking. He’s frightening because of the way the other characters talk about him.

A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens. I read this one every year around Christmas. Even when I’ve been having a bad day or week or year, the story of Scrooge reminds me that anyone can change and be a better person, if they want to be. It’s just that some of us (like Scrooge) need someone else to remind them why being a better person is important. And the narrator tells the story as though he were a favorite uncle telling the story to kids in front of the fireplace on Christmas Eve, which reminds me just a little bit of me!

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I want to thank all of my real and adopted siblings for letting their kids take part in this: my sister Lorraine Bostjancic, Margaret and Scott Witt, Jon and Cindy Cornue, Jim and Liz Leahey, Tom and Hilda Werder, Frances and Grant Price, Nina O’Reilly, Judy Kiddoo, and Romykay Hajkowski. I’m hoping to do this again in about 6 months and get the rest of the nieces and nephews who missed this one to take part. I think all of the kids (and the not-so-kids like Danny, Laura, and Jake) asked some great questions, making me a proud uncle!