do the other. I also teach music. It’s very structured; there are specific hours every day when that’s what I do. The rest of my time (outside of spending time with my family, which is my number one priority), I split between writing and making music. Maybe if I only did one or the other, I’d write more books or make more records. On the other hand, doing both is a great hedge against burn-out. If I get tired of doing one, I do the other. It’s a net positive, overall. The varied experiences feed my creativity. Uncaged: What are you working on next that you can tell us about? I’m about fifty pages into the third book in the series. The working title is A Very Bad Thing, but I expect that to change. It picks up where Butcherville leaves off by resolving—or maybe I should say addressing—an issue that’s left hanging at the end of that book. I can’t tell you what that is, but you’ll know after you read Butcherville.
into the kind of man he is. Uncaged: Past or present, which authors would you love to sit and have lunch with and why? Mark Twain would be number one. The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn is my favorite book of all time. In some ways, Twain’s my biggest influence. Right now I’m reading Savage Art, a biography of Jim Thompson written by Robert Polito. Thompson was a fellow Okie and he set many of his crime novels there, along with Texas and Nebraska. He had a much harder life than I have, and It’s reflected in his work; he’s deeply skeptical of human nature—not
The third book features many of the same characters from the first two, although some of their circumstances have changed, not least Emmett’s. It deals with a cold case—a very cold case—and how its effects are felt many years later. Hardy family secrets play a significant role. I don’t see it as an ending, but it will tie up some things, and hopefully provide insight on what made Emmett Issue 43 | February 2020 |
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