Karen B. McCoy: The Writer Librarian: THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH, VOLUME ONE: AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE by Daniel Kraus

I was fortunate enough to meet Daniel Kraus at ALA a few months back, and as soon as I heard the premise for both volumes of THE DEATH AND LIFE OF ZEBULON FINCH, I knew a blog feature was in order. AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE is the first of the two, with a street date of October 27. I also ordered plenty of copies for the Sacramento Public Library.

From Goodreads:

May 7, 1896. Dusk. A swaggering seventeen-year-old gangster named Zebulon Finch is gunned down on the shores of Lake Michigan. But after mere minutes in the void, he is mysteriously resurrected.
His second life will be nothing like his first.

Zebulon's new existence begins as a sideshow attraction in a traveling medicine show. From there, he will be poked and prodded by a scientist obsessed with mastering the secrets of death. He will fight in the trenches of World War I. He will run from his nightmares—and from poverty—in Depression-era New York City. And he will become the companion of the most beautiful woman in Hollywood.

Love, hate, hope, and horror—Zebulon finds them. But will he ever find redemption?

Ambitious and heartbreaking, The Death & Life of Zebulon Finch, Volume 1: At the Edge of Empire is the epic saga of what it means to be human in a world so often lacking in humanity.

Daniel was also kind enough to answer some interview questions:

In addition to being an author, you're also a filmmaker. What do you like most about working in both mediums, and how do they supplement one another?

I like filmmaking because of editing: the strenuous work is done and the rest is just like doing a puzzle. It's fun, involving, even relaxing in a way. Back in the day of cutting on film, it was something else altogether, but today you can experiment with approaches, then throw it all away if it doesn't work. What I don't like in filmmaking is what I like in writing: I don't like large-group collaborations. They can bring you a lot of social energy but, for me, they dilute what you're trying to do. In writing, I can go as far as I want as hard as I want.

Indeed you have. And I love the macabre in AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE, as well as Zebulon's cynical way of looking at the world. Where did the idea for the story come from, and what do you want readers to take away when they're finished?

The story dates back 20 years and evolved. It almost served as a bulletin board over the years: whenever I had big ideas that didn't fit elsewhere, more often than not they'd fit into this giant project. I hope readers are challenged by it. I hope it makes them think about ideas of good and evil, and what we're willing to accept when it comes to our survival, or the survival of our community, or the survival of our country. It's big stuff, I know, but, you know, it's a big book.

Further proof that there are no wasted words. And speaking of big books, I'd like to mention TROLLHUNTERS, your collaboration with filmmaker Guillermo del Toro. How did this come about, and in what ways, if any, did the collaboration shape the story?

Guillermo was a fan of my book ROTTERS and had the idea for TROLLHUNTERS and so invited me up to Toronto to talk about it. The original idea was his, so the question is really what did I bring to it? And I think that was a sort of grittiness and a wildness, things at which I try to excel. I also think I am good at texture. There were certainly times where Guillmero would have a brilliant idea but the question was how to make it feel real, you know? That's what I love more than anything: taking stuff that shouldn't work because it's too dark or absurd and make it work anyway.

Your use of texture is what I studied most in your scenes, especially the way it breathed life into your stories and characters. Besides EMPIRE DECAYED, the second volume in Zebulon's story, what are some of your current projects?

Some really incredible stuff is happening but I can't say anything about it, because what if it all falls apart? Then we'll all be sad.

Oh no. Don't bring the sad. Let's just show all the lovely people where they can get your books, including ROTTERS, TROLLHUNTERS, and of course AT THE EDGE OF EMPIRE: