Thank you for sharing, the way you always do, Emma. Adding Shadowland to my TBR list (I think I, too, read it ages ago, but at 67, it will likely be all new to me 😁). My long-time tied-for-favorite Stephen King book is the brilliant Peter Straub/Stephen King collaboration, The Talisman. (And my favorite of all your wonderful books to date is This Time Tomorrow…which feels like a different kind of Emma Straub/Peter Straub collaboration 😘)
A lovely tribute. I love the insight about novelists putting ‘Easter eggs’ of themselves into their books, and how wonderful that your dad did this so generously!
Thank you so much for sharing these moments. I have not read any of your Dad's books but I am anxious to begin reading his works and yours. You are fortunate to have his writings!
The late Michael McDowell was a great horror writer, and he passed away before his last book, Candles Burning, was finished. Stephen King's wife Tabitha wrote the ending. It was awful and was utterly out of sync with the plot and the book's climax. So I agree - better to leave your dad's book as he wrote it.
Speaking of your dad, I have read and enjoyed most of the books he wrote, but his masterpiece, to me, will always be Ghost Story, which I read for the first time in 1979 and have read again and again (I estimate about 10 times) since then. I'm a 67 year old woman about to read it yet again, and I'm honored to have a first edition.
Oh Emma, I'm so glad you got to spend time with your dear dad via his books. My dear dad died four years ago and was also writing a book when he died. (He was a theologian, not a novelist.) I have had a bookshelf of his research books in my bedroom since then, but haven't been able to open his work. I'm also not the one to finish the book (nor is anyone), but my sisters and I agreed that it needed to be out in the world even though it will be incomplete. A daunting task to say the least, but just making that decision has lifted a weight. I've never read any of your dad's books, but I've added Shadowland to my list. And also know that This Time Tomorrow was such a comfort for me! I love that book.
So wonderful to read this (fan of your father’s, fan of his daughter!). Most wonderful: that the little bits and pieces he left in his fiction are lovely for you to read. It can go the other way, right? And I totally agree. All (most?) novelists do this. And often the people who know this best are our immediate family and dearest friends because, I guess, sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. Thanks for sharing!
Going on vacation today - now I know what my vacation read will be!!! Thank you for this, you and your dad are in my thoughts - I lost my dad when I was 16 and miss him every day; what a privilege to miss the ones that are gone before us, so grateful for the time we had.
Thanks for sharing this. I've been making some notes on Shadowland because I'm planning to write about it as one of the books that changed my life. I read it when I was a kid not long after it came out and it had a big effect on me. I doubt he wrote it for a 12-year-old audience but he got to me nonetheless!
That's a great post about grief. I was listening to Rob Delaney (actor, writer, producer, he's in Catastrophe and wrote A Heart that Works, a memoir about losing his son) on Desert Island Discs recently (iconic British radio show) and he said it's okay to have darkness in your humour and to laugh in the midst of grief, that life is like a great buffet where you eat all sorts of foods alongside one another. It's a mix, and remains so as we grow older and accumulate more grief and experience and hopefully moments of joy too.
I love that your Substack is about what's on your mind, with no particular theme (yet). I can relate to the panic attacks (need to try meditating again!) and the Easter eggs in novels that those who know the author can find joyfully. This Time Tomorrow is my favorite of yours. And I love the way you write about your dad, with honesty and love. All my best to you!
Thank you for sharing, the way you always do, Emma. Adding Shadowland to my TBR list (I think I, too, read it ages ago, but at 67, it will likely be all new to me 😁). My long-time tied-for-favorite Stephen King book is the brilliant Peter Straub/Stephen King collaboration, The Talisman. (And my favorite of all your wonderful books to date is This Time Tomorrow…which feels like a different kind of Emma Straub/Peter Straub collaboration 😘)
My heart is with you. Your father was a brilliant writer, whose books I continue to enjoy. May his memory be a blessing.
I was just at the library picking up a few of yours i haven’t read and i lingered over your dad’s books, wondering where to start. Now i know.
PS I’m here for the grief content any and all the time.
A lovely tribute. I love the insight about novelists putting ‘Easter eggs’ of themselves into their books, and how wonderful that your dad did this so generously!
Thank you so much for sharing these moments. I have not read any of your Dad's books but I am anxious to begin reading his works and yours. You are fortunate to have his writings!
Aw. If there is a heaven your father will be smiling down from above, feeling the love ... beautiful x
The late Michael McDowell was a great horror writer, and he passed away before his last book, Candles Burning, was finished. Stephen King's wife Tabitha wrote the ending. It was awful and was utterly out of sync with the plot and the book's climax. So I agree - better to leave your dad's book as he wrote it.
Speaking of your dad, I have read and enjoyed most of the books he wrote, but his masterpiece, to me, will always be Ghost Story, which I read for the first time in 1979 and have read again and again (I estimate about 10 times) since then. I'm a 67 year old woman about to read it yet again, and I'm honored to have a first edition.
Oh Emma, I'm so glad you got to spend time with your dear dad via his books. My dear dad died four years ago and was also writing a book when he died. (He was a theologian, not a novelist.) I have had a bookshelf of his research books in my bedroom since then, but haven't been able to open his work. I'm also not the one to finish the book (nor is anyone), but my sisters and I agreed that it needed to be out in the world even though it will be incomplete. A daunting task to say the least, but just making that decision has lifted a weight. I've never read any of your dad's books, but I've added Shadowland to my list. And also know that This Time Tomorrow was such a comfort for me! I love that book.
So wonderful to read this (fan of your father’s, fan of his daughter!). Most wonderful: that the little bits and pieces he left in his fiction are lovely for you to read. It can go the other way, right? And I totally agree. All (most?) novelists do this. And often the people who know this best are our immediate family and dearest friends because, I guess, sometimes they know us better than we know ourselves. Thanks for sharing!
Going on vacation today - now I know what my vacation read will be!!! Thank you for this, you and your dad are in my thoughts - I lost my dad when I was 16 and miss him every day; what a privilege to miss the ones that are gone before us, so grateful for the time we had.
Well said
My copy of Shadowland arrived today 💛
Thanks for sharing this. I've been making some notes on Shadowland because I'm planning to write about it as one of the books that changed my life. I read it when I was a kid not long after it came out and it had a big effect on me. I doubt he wrote it for a 12-year-old audience but he got to me nonetheless!
That's a great post about grief. I was listening to Rob Delaney (actor, writer, producer, he's in Catastrophe and wrote A Heart that Works, a memoir about losing his son) on Desert Island Discs recently (iconic British radio show) and he said it's okay to have darkness in your humour and to laugh in the midst of grief, that life is like a great buffet where you eat all sorts of foods alongside one another. It's a mix, and remains so as we grow older and accumulate more grief and experience and hopefully moments of joy too.
Lovely story about your father. Thank you.
I love that your Substack is about what's on your mind, with no particular theme (yet). I can relate to the panic attacks (need to try meditating again!) and the Easter eggs in novels that those who know the author can find joyfully. This Time Tomorrow is my favorite of yours. And I love the way you write about your dad, with honesty and love. All my best to you!