chibi_me
August 3, 2017
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DARE TO KNOW
"Worth the cover price for sheer insolence alone... Essential reading for the gathering dark." —The Times Saturday Review
"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
"[An] enjoyable slipstream thriller... Readers with a taste for the synchronicity of the cosmic with the commonplace are sure to be entertained." —Publishers Weekly
"Philip K. Dick energy infusing Death of the Salesman... I loved it." —Kieron Gillen, Hugo-winning creator of The Wicked + The Divine
"Seamlessly integrates philosophy, first love, Beatles music, jaw-dropping science fiction and the four stages of civilization, and turns it all into a fast-paced, existential, mind-expanding thriller—a thoroughly enjoyable read." —Shelf Awareness
"Will keep readers on the edge of their seats wanting to find out the next piece of the puzzle... Dare To Know will prompt the reader to consider the philosophical implications of life and death itself." —Booklist
"[A] genre-bending thriller... good pacing and clever plotting keep the pages turning." —New York Journal of Books
"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
Tuesday, January 11, 2021
Speaking about Dare to Know with author Jac Jemc (False Bingo, The Grip of It) in a virtual event for The King's English Bookshop of Salt Lake City, Utah. Complete information, including registration for the event, here. 6 pm MST.
Friday, February 25, 2022
The GENERAL DEADLINE for submitting movies for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival. (Brooklyn screening has been canceled because of Covid but New York City entries are still welcome!)
Sunday, March 6, 2022
The CHICAGO screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Keir Graff (The Tiny Mansion). At the Chicago Public Library - Harold Washington Library Center in the Pritzker Auditorium. Made possible by the Chicago Public Library. More details to come.
Saturday, March 12, 2022
The BOSTON screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and another co-host TBA. This will be an virtual event—more details to come. Made possible by the Boston Public Library. 3 pm EST.
Saturday, March 19, 2022
The TACOMA, WA screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by author me and Tacoma's own Doug Mackey. In the auditorium of Mount Tahoma High School Auditorium (4634 S 74th St, Tacoma, WA). Made possible by the Tacoma Public Library. 3-4:30 pm.
Sunday, March 27, 2022
The ROCHESTER, NY screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! At the Dryden Theatre at the George Eastman Museum (900 East Ave). Hosted by me and legendary author Bruce Coville (My Teacher is an Alien and much more). 2 pm.
Saturday, April 2, 2022
The SAN ANTONIO, TX screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and another co-host TBA. At the Tobin Center for the Performing Arts Will Naylor Smith Riverwalk Plaza. Made possible by partners at Bexar County Digital Library Bibliotech and the Hidalgo Foundation through the generosity of H-E-B Texas Grocery. 2 pm.
Saturday, April 9, 2022
The BOULDER, CO screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and author Lija Fisher (The Cryptid Catcher, The Cryptid Keeper). Made possible by the Boulder Office of Arts & Culture. More details to come.
Saturday, April 30, 2022
The TRENTON, NJ screening for the eleventh annual 90-Second Newbery Film Festival! Hosted by me and another co-host TBA. More details to come.
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.
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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