Reading, writing, sci-fi, fantasy, comic books, folklore, Greek and Roman literature, martial arts, gardening, and occasionally pulling on a mask and saving the world.
Music
Lots of it. Music that's gone into MASKS over the years includes Captain Tractor, Three Doors Down, Five For Fighting, Green Day, Nickelback, KT Tunstal, Louis Armstrong, Kashtin, Johnny Cash, Social Distortion, Relient K, Gretchen Wilson, the Clancy Brothers, and Tom Smith, the World's Fastest Filker.
Movies
Anything with a superhero in it, including but not limited to Spider-Man and Batman Begins. Other film influences include The Man Who Shot Liberty Valance, Harvey, Duck Soup, High Noon, Star Wars Episodes IV-VI, Princess Mononoke, Howl's Moving Castle, Iron Monkey, The Third Man, Serenity, The Pirates of Penzance, and many, many more.
Television
Right now: DR. HORRIBLE'S SING-ALONG BLOG! And yes, I watch "Heroes," although MASKS has practically nothing in common with it. Present and past TV influences include everything from Prison Break to Get Smart, as well as a lot of sci-fi, fantasy, mystery, and general weirdness. If geeks watched it--Highlander, Buffy, whatever--I've probably memorized long stretches of it.
Books
Kurt Busiek's "Astro City," Michael Chabon's "The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Klay," Aeschylus' "Oresteia," Jim Butcher's "Dresden Files," Homer's "Odyssey," Joseph Campbell's "The Hero With a Thousand Faces," Gerard Jones' "Men of Tomorrow," and almost anything by Timothy Zahn, Spider Robinson, Edmond Hamilton, Anthony Boucher, Michael A. Stackpole, Rafael Sabatini, or any of a dozen others . . .
Heroes
Michael A. Stackpole, Timothy Zahn, Jim Butcher, Spider Robinson, Andre Norton, Kurt Busiek, Ed Brubaker, Neil Gaiman, Michael Chabon, and many, many more . . .
University Of Southern California
Los Angeles, CA
Graduated: 2006
Student status: Alumni
Degree: Bachelor's Degree
Major: Print Journalism
Minor: Classics
Clubs: Daily Trojan, USC Comicbook Club
About me: MASKS is a book about truth, justice, and making everything up as you go.
RAE MASTERSON is doing her best, for whatever that’s worth. She’s an eighteen-year-old superheroine trying to keep it together with a borrowed costume, an acerbic wit, and a total lack of superpowers, in a city where most of the good guys were killed off ten years ago. Between sweet-talking Captain Catastrophe and trash-talking Madame Mortale, she’s almost succeeding … until she sees something she wasn’t meant to see. Now one of Earth’s premier superheroes is trying to kill her, and Rae must figure out what went wrong before she becomes the latest addition to her city of ghosts. And the one person who can help her might be more dangerous than every villain in town combined …
TREVOR GREY hasn't used his real name in years. A disgraced former sidekick who once dreamed of becoming a hero, Trevor is now hiding out in the storm tunnels under Los Angeles and trying to stay one step ahead of the people hunting him. Then a girl in a mask comes crashing into his life, and old habits kick in. He saves the girl … but now he’s exposed, and his life expectancy can be measured in hours unless he and Rae can crack a case that kills everyone it touches. And if Rae finds out who he really is, that may be the least of his worries …
Masks is a thrilling ride through the darkest regions of American myth. Here superheroes aren't superheroes--they're masks, defined less by who they are than by what they're hiding. Here a masked cowboy rides the streets, collecting the souls of fallen heroes, and the fate of the universe is in the hands of two kids barely old enough to vote. Sometimes funny, sometimes tragic, and always surprising, Masks is a story about what it really takes to save the world.
Masks is also the first novel by an emerging author who, er, hasn’t picked out a pseudonym yet. Stay tuned. In the meantime, watch this space for everything from character profiles and plot spoilers to videos and blog entries tracking the book's progress from draft to manuscript to agent to publisher to bookstore. I’m figuring this out as I go, and whatever I learn, I’m sharing with you—writers, readers, and everybody else.
Check out the page, read the blog, and when in doubt, remember the First Rule of Superheroics: “Always run toward the screaming!”
Please note: I can't draw anything more complicated than a stick figure, so any 2D artwork you see on these pages is by Nicole Le, unless otherwise indicated. YES, I AM LOOKING FOR A PRO ARTIST; Nicole has said she won't hang around forever. The plushies, however, are all mine. It's like drawing pictures with fabric and a lot of bleeding fingers ...
Oh, and writers--check out the writing group I founded, TellTales. It's a place for my fellow readers and writers to give and get support and feedback--oh, and have fun!
Who I'd like to meet: People who like to read; people who like to write; people who like sci-fi and people who don't; people who like fantasy and people who don't; people who like comic books and people who don't; people who have no idea what I'm talking about; people who think they know what I'm talking about, and want to share with the group; people looking for the next great thing to read now that Harry Potter's over; people interested in the L.A. literary (and not-so-literary) scene; people who randomly stumbled in; people whose friends dragged them here because they think this is the coolest thing in the world; people I invited here because this IS the coolest thing in the world. People!
I suppose you'll be glad to know -- I've gotten around to making the myspace page as packed as the facebook. Now it's time to see who shows up at which site the most.
Hi. Thanks for adding
me as a friend. I just wanted to let you
know that my vampire book, That Which Bites, was recently released to rave
reviews (including reader reviews on Barnesandnoble.com and Amazon.com sites). Thank you for your time.
I'm not really in charge, there's a band conductor. I just gotta make sure I employ the soloist's secret trick, and keep singing until just a split second after everyone else has stopped! Hahaha! No kazoos this time, missy--this is going on all the graduates' videos of the ceremony for all eternity.
Hmm, mustn't start getting nervous...going to my happy place now.
