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BRIDE OF THE TORNADO



Chicago Tribune Top Ten Best Books of 2023





The Guardian Best Sci-Fi, Fantasy and Horror (September '23)





New Scientist Best Sci-Fi (August '23)





SciFiNow Best Sci-Fi (August '23)





Bookriot's 10 Don't-Miss Horror Novels (August '23)





Powell's Bookstore Pick of the Month (August '23)



"A genre-bending horror thriller that grapples with adolescent desire and
existential dread... Gooey, gory, and frightening, Kennedy's latest will appeal
to fans of coming-of-age horror."—Booklist

"An eerie, surrealist twist on the American Midwest, highlighting everything
unusual about small-town living... the focus on creating a desolate and strange
atmosphere pays off. Horror fans who value ambiance over jump scares will want
to check this out."—Publishers Weekly

"A Lynchian sense of creeping nastiness, rooted in the way small-town life can
be stifling, pervades a novel that, as its various plot strands come together,
has a whirlwind energy that's hard to resist. Four stars."—SFX Magazine

"Strap yourselves in for a super-storm of psycho-sexual intensity: American
gothic, full-blown horror, wrapped up in an adolescent coming-of-age tale...
Don’t try to understand, just get swept up and enjoy the ride."—Daily Mail

Get a signed copy!




DARE TO KNOW



Indie Next List Pick (September '21)





The Times Best Book of 2021



"Worth the cover price for sheer insolence alone... Essential reading for the
gathering dark." —The Times Saturday Review

"A voraciously readable page-turner of a novel, part creepypasta, part
thought-experiment." —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother and Radicalized

"Explores questions of free will, psychology and human history in a fascinating,
compulsively readable thriller."—The Guardian

“An entertainingly mind-bending read.”—Financial Times

"Audaciously clever and well written... [a] superb piece of storytelling: vivid,
thought provoking and unsettling. After you finish it you’ll want to go back to
the start and read it again." —SFX Magazine

"A razor-smart sci-fi corporate noir nightmare. Dare to Know is what happens
when Willy Loman sees through the Matrix. A heartbreaking, time-bending,
galactic mindbender delivered in the mordantly funny clip of a doomed antihero."
—Daniel Kraus, co-author of The Shape of Water

(Get a signed copy!)



More Reviews








"Hilarious . . . Readers with a finely tuned sense of the absurd are going to
adore the Technicolor ride."
—Booklist

"Fantasy done to a clever, grotesque, nonsensical turn." —Chicago Sun-Times

"A work of mischievous imagination and outrageous invention." —Time Out Chicago

"An extraordinary and delightfully weird romp that’s one part China Mieville,
one part Lemony Snicket, with trace amounts of Madeline L’Engle and Roald Dahl .
. . Kennedy has filled 400+ pages with a series of strange turn-ups and
adventures that grow progressively more outlandish and funny, such that when you
think he’s surely run out of runway and must crash, he finds new, unsuspected
weirdness to explore.” —Cory Doctorow, author of Little Brother, For The Win,
and co-editor of Boing Boing



More Reviews



Email: kennedyjames@gmail.com





 * Saturday, October 26, 2024
   I'm a featured author at the Tomes Of Terror Horror Convention and Book Fair
   through Bobzbay Books in Bloomington, IL. The event will be at Red Raccoon
   Games (301 N. Main St. in Bloomington). "This annual free event offers
   authors, readers, local businesses, and horror fans from across the Midwest
   an opportunity to celebrate the darker side of literature together." Complete
   info here. 10 am - 4 pm.
   
   Saturday, November 2, 2024
   I am teaching a class at the StoryStudio Writers Festival at the StoryStudio
   Center (4043 N. Ravenswood #222 in Chicago). My class is called "Believe,
   Care, Invest: How To Make The Audience Love Your Hero" and it will be from
   11:10 am - 12:10 pm. Manuscript consultations also available! Complete info,
   including tickets, at the StoryStudio Writers Festival website here.
   
   Friday, January 17, 2025
   General deadline for submissions to the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film
   Festival. (Special extended deadline of March 24 for submissions to the San
   Antonio, Boston, and Tacoma screenings.)
   
   Saturday, February 22, 2025
   The BROOKLYN, NY screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film
   Festival. Hosted by me and Newbery Honor winner Rita Williams-Garcia (One
   Crazy Summer and more). At the Brooklyn Public Library Central Library (10
   Grand Army Plaza) in the Dweck Auditorium. 1 pm. More details to come.
   
   Saturday, March 1, 2025
   The OGDEN, UTAH screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.
   Hosted by me and Keir Graff (author of The Tiny Mansion, Minerva Keene's
   Detective Club, and more). At the Treehouse Children's Museum (347 22nd
   Street). 6 pm. More details to come.
   
   Sunday, March 9, 2025
   The CHICAGO screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.
   Hosted by me and Keir Graff (author of The Tiny Mansion, Minerva Keene's
   Detective Club, and more). At the Harold Washington Library Center (400 S
   State St.) in the Pritzker Auditorium. 2 pm. More details to come.
   
   Monday, March 24, 2025
   Special extended deadline for entries for the San Antonio (5/3), Boston
   (4/12), and Tacoma (5/30) screenings of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.
   
   Saturday, April 5, 2025
   The ROCHESTER, NY screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film
   Festival. At the George Eastman Museum (900 East Ave) in the Dryden Theater.
   Hosted by me and the legendary Bruce Coville (author of My Teacher is an
   Alien and more). More details to come.
   
   Saturday, April 12, 2025
   The BOSTON screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.
   Hosted by me and Rebecca Mahoney (author of The Valley and the Flood and The
   Memory Eater). At the Boston Public Library, in Rabb Hall at the Central
   Library in Copley Square (700 Boylston Street). 3 pm. More details to come.
   
   Saturday, May 3, 2025
   The SAN ANTONIO screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.
   In the H-E-B Performance Hall at the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts
   (100 Auditorium Circle). Made possible by our partners at the Bexar County
   Digital Library Bibliotech and H-E-B Read 3. More details to come.
   
   Friday, May 30, 2025
   The TACOMA, WA screening of the 14th annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival.
   At Grant Center for the Expressive Arts (2510 N 11th St.). More details to
   come.

See all Events





Speculative Thrillers That Blur The Line Between Physics and Philosophy. An
article I wrote for Crimereads.com in which I talk about "metaphysical
technology" in the works of Isaac Asimov, Cixin Liu, Tanizaki Junichiro, Kelly
Link, Colson Whitehead, Thomas Ligotti, Angela Carter, Susannah Clarke, and even
obscurities like T.L Sherred and text adventure writer Brian Moriarty (anyone
else remember Infocom's Trinity?)

Interview for the Chicago Review of Books. Devi Bhaduri interviews me about our
changing emotional relationship to technology, my "Elf Theory" of friendship,
and how L. Ron Hubbard stole the girlfriend (and life savings) of one of the
people who inspired Dare to Know.

Interview for Shelf Awareness. Paul Dinh-McCrillis reviews Dare To Know and
interviews me. Find out which parts of the book are inspired by Del Close's
death-visions, a baffling cab ride I took with my wife, and why I dread December
19, 2046!

Interview for the Japanese Consulate's E-Japan Journal. Austin Gilkeson
interviews me about my time in the Japan Exchange and Teaching Program (JET)
from 2004-2006. We discuss how living in Japan inspired me for The Order of
Odd-Fish and Dare To Know, plus we talk about my experiences on the 88 Temples
of Shikoku Pilgrimage and the time a Japanese schoolboy sang Avril Lavigne's
"Complicated" to me on the train.



Read All Recent Press





The 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. I founded a film festival in which kid
filmmakers create weird short movies that tell the entire stories of
Newbery-winning books in about 90 seconds. Now in its 6th year, it screens
annually in 14 cities: New York, Chicago, San Francisco, and many others! The
movies the kids create are weird, funny, and impressive. Learn more about the
film festival here.

The Secrets of Story Podcast. I host a podcast with Matt Bird, the author of a
book and blog called The Secrets of Story, in which we discuss (okay, argue
about) advice for novelists and screenwriters.

The Classroom Guide to The Order of Odd-Fish. I've put together a 44-page
Teacher's Guide / curriculum for Odd-Fish! It's a treasure trove of creative
project ideas, discussion questions, chapter worksheets, and further resources.
It also features fan art by enthusiastic teen readers of Odd-Fish. (This art was
featured in a fan art gallery show in Chicago in April 2010.) You can download
the teacher's guide for free here.

It's a mixtape for The Order of Odd-Fish. Listen to a stream of the songs I
chose for an imaginary "movie soundtrack" for Odd-Fish, and read why I chose
them. Lots of different stuff: French ye-ye, Kinshasa street bands,
pseudo-classical, puzzling blippity-bloopity music, and more.

I used to be in a band called Brilliant Pebbles. We had been variously described
as "melodramatic video game music," "moon-man opera," and "gypsy sex metal."
It's over now, but I loved being in this band.

Email: kennedyjames [at] gmail [dot] com
Twitter: @iamjameskennedy





The Order of Odd-Fish on Goodreads
Dare to Know on Goodreads


THE DAY AFTER


NOVEMBER 7, 2024

It’s hard not to feel angry and demoralized at the results of this election. I
do. And to once again be reminded that this country isn’t the country I hoped it
was. My instinct is to freeze and go numb, so I really appreciate those who are
sending out messages of hope and solidarity. And talking to people in real life
has helped me too. Reminding each other that we’re not alone.


NORTHSIDE NIGHTMARES AT THE SULZER LIBRARY WITH ME, ADAM SELZER, AND CYNTHIA
PELAYO!


OCTOBER 11, 2024

Last night I did a spooky event at my neighborhood library, the Sulzer Regional
Library in Lincoln Square in Chicago. The premise was “Northside Nightmares,”
and I was joined by Chicago ghosts-and-grisly lore expert Adam Selzer and Bram
Stoker award-winning horror novelist Cynthia Pelayo for readings and talks and
fun! Thanks to Kyle Watson of the Sulzer Library for setting this all up.

And thanks to the Chicago Public Library’s very capable publicity for getting
the word out. We had a pretty good crowd!




I went first, and did readings from Bride of the Tornado and a tornado trivia
contest, and of course I wore my tornado costume while singing the plot of the
book to the tune of “Rock You Like A Hurricane”:








We had spooky treats, thanks to Heather’s last-minute baking! Check out these
ghost brownies:






After I did my shtick, Adam Selzer regaled us with true scary stories about the
north side of Chicago—the haunted tattoo parlor on Irving Park Avenue! the
19th-century murderer Adolph Luetgert who disposed of his wife’s corpse in a vat
in his sausage factory! a reputed northside Chicago body dumping-ground of the
infamous H.H. Holmes! the St. Valentine’s Day massacre!—and more. Adam is famous
for the ghost tours he leads all around Chicago. Learn more about him and what
he does at Mysterious Chicago.






Cynthia Pelayo followed up with readings from her books, such as her newest
Forgotten Sisters, which is set right around the corner in Ravenswood Gardens!




We got to hang out with friends old and new, and take pictures with the
strangely creepy art that’s all around the Sulzer. I really hope they never
change it, it’s so bizarre and idiosyncratic . . .










Thanks to everyone who came and made this event such a success!



WE SAILED AROUND LAKE MICHIGAN ON THE MANITOU!


OCTOBER 7, 2024

It helps to have interesting friends! My high school pal Kathleen is married to
a tall ship captain, Jamie. (In both senses: he is the captain of a tall ship,
and also literally tall.) He helms the Manitou, a replica of an 1800s schooner
sailing out of Traverse City, Michigan. A week ago Heather and I took Lucy and
Ingrid for an overnight sail on the Manitou, and I highly recommend it! (You can
book your own trip here.)




It was a twenty-four hour trip, sailing out on Friday afternoon and coming back
Saturday afternoon. We particularly enjoyed how passengers were invited to
participate in some of the physical work on board such as hauling ropes to raise
the sails—it makes you feel like you’re part of the crew! In the galley, the
chef Lexi made delicious breakfast, lunches, dinner, and snacks, and I was
surprised at the elaborate meals she managed to create in such a small space.
The cabins were similarly cozy:




It was fun and relaxing to hang out with Jamie and Kathleen and the crew, as
well as all the other passengers. There’s plenty of time to chat, and the vibe
was very chill. Relaxing under the stars at night was a treat. (Living in the
city, I don’t often get to see so many stars and the Milky Way . . . plus four
shooting stars!) Captain Jamie gave some talks that helped us understand the
history of the boat and the history of the area. We sailed to Power Island, and
hiking around there was a great way to break up the trip. Here’s Jamie and Lucy
on the island:








Kathleen and I have known each other since we were freshmen in high school. We
even went to the Homecoming dance together! Here we are, then and now:




As I wrap this post, I recall that the very first post of this blog mentions
Kathleen and Jamie—when they came to Chicago on his then-current ship, The Pride
of Baltimore II, and Heather and I took our niece and nephew Freya and Theo onto
it. As I read that old post, I’m struck at how much has changed since I started
this blog in 2008. Freya and Theo are both adults now. Back then, I was in my
band Brilliant Pebbles, and most of the post is about that—being in that band
had been such a huge part of my life back then! That was before Lucy was born,
and before Ingrid was born, and none of my books had come out yet, and I hadn’t
yet even conceived of the 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. And of course so much
more.

So much has changed in the first sixteen years of this blog. I wonder what will
change in the next sixteen years?




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