Dark Matter meets Annihilation in this mind-bending and emotional speculative thriller set in a world where the exact moment of your death can be predicted—for a price.
Our narrator is the most talented salesman at Dare to Know, a prestigious and enigmatic company in the death-prediction business. While he has mastered the art of death, the rest of his life is an abject failure. Divorced, estranged from his sons, and broke, he's driven to violate the cardinal rule of his business by forecasting his own death day. The problem: apparently he died 23 minutes ago.
Ambitious and immersive, this adrenaline-fueled thriller explores the destructive power of knowledge and collapses the boundaries between reality, myth, and conspiracy as it races toward its stunning conclusion.
"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
Email: kennedyjames@gmail.com
Saturday, March 6, 2021
The NEW YORK STATE online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). You can see the screening here.
Sunday, March 7, 2021
The CHICAGO online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). You can see the screening here.
Saturday, March 13, 2021
The SAN FRANCISCO online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). You can see the screening here.
Sunday, March 14, 2021
The ASSORTED CITIES online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). You can see the screening here.
Saturday, March 20, 2021
The BOSTON online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). The screening will premiere at 3 pm EST here. Made possible by the Boston Public Library.
Saturday, March 27, 2021
The TACOMA online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). The screening will premiere at 2 pm PST here. Made possible by the Tacoma Public Library.
Saturday, April 3, 2021
The BOULDER, CO online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). The screening will premiere at 3 pm MST here. Made possible by the Boulder Office of Arts & Culture.
Saturday, April 10, 2021
The NATIONWIDE BEST OF 2021 online screening of the tenth annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). The screening will premiere at 3 pm CST here.
I am interviewed by Betsy Bird for the School Library Journal’s Fuse #8 blog. Check it out if you want to read about my opinions on Zork, my life in the convent, and why The Jeffersons is superior to Catcher in the Rye. Many in the comments section deem this the “Best. Interview. Ever.” Dare you disagree?
I am interviewed by the lovely Senfaye on A Maze Of Books. Read it if you’re curious as to why I chose to end the interview by saying “I hate you”—and why when Senfaye asked “What’s your favorite food?” I replied “Your skull.” It’s scandalous!
I am interviewed by Amy Alessio for the Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA). Read about my experiences as a junior high school science teacher—in particular, of how the entire faculty was mysteriously menaced by a obscene note-writing student known only as “The Foggy Wiener.” I also talk about my participation in Japan’s violent “Naked Man” Festival, and how I discovered the President of the ALA is a whimsical hobo.
Order of Odd-Fish Week on Murphblog. Check out Paul Michael Murphy's monster five-part interview with me! Part One, the road to publication; Part Two, on writing; Part Three, I reveal the thing I will always find funny; Part Four, the "lightning round"; Part Five, a Create-Your-Own-Odd-Fish-Specialty contest (entries are in the comments section); and I judge the winner of the contest.
I am interviewed by Melissa at the Book Nut blog. I talk about the difficulties of getting The Order of Odd-Fish published, my high school friend who was the inspiration for Jo, the idea of an “urban Narnia,” and the origin of the All-Devouring Mother character. Melissa also posted a glowing review here.
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
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