JAMES KENNEDY: Embracing your weirdness & writing 'novel' novels

This might be the weirdest interview I've ever done, but considering the author wrote the weirdest book I've read, it fits. Both are entertaining, so buckle up for all kinds of shenanigans with James Kennedy, author of "Bride of the Tornado" and "Dare to Know". We chatted at C2E2 2024 in Chicago, where James was dressed up as a tornado for our panel together and this interview. Enjoy the chaos!


FOLLOW JAMES

BUY THE BOOKS (Bookshop):
The Order of Odd-Fish
Dare To Know
Bride of the Tornado

BUY THE BOOKS (Amazon):
The Order of Odd-Fish
Dare To Know
Bride of the Tornado

Transcript

00;00;00;17 - 00;00;02;26
Speaker 1
But da da da da da da da da da.

00;00;03;05 - 00;00;03;17
Speaker 2
Da da.

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Speaker 3
Da da da da da da da Hi and welcome to.

00;00;11;18 - 00;00;32;19
Speaker 1
The Literary Hype podcast. I Am Stephanie, the literary hype woman. This author conversation that you're about to listen to is audio. So I need to paint a little bit of a picture for you. James Kennedy is the author of The Bride of the Tornado, which might be one of the weirdest books I've ever read. And so when we did a panel together at C2e2 in Chicago, he showed up dressed as a tornado.

00;00;33;00 - 00;00;48;12
Speaker 1
So this conversation he has dressed as a tornado. So if you want to see what that looks like, you can either head to my Instagram to look at the pictures or you can go watch the video on YouTube. Either way, he's dressed as a tornado and it's hilarious. So keep that in mind as you're listening to this conversation.

00;00;48;21 - 00;01;07;11
Speaker 1
This conversation is bonkers. Like my husband was standing behind the camera, very red face and holding his mouth shut so he did not laugh out loud. It was wild. So you do not want to miss any of this. Here's my conversation with James Kennedy. We have to start by talking about what you're wearing.

00;01;07;16 - 00;01;31;08
Speaker 2
Yes, I'm wearing a tornado costume. If you go to Joann Fabrics, you can make your own. You are you go to Target, you get like a laundry basket and those classic laundry baskets. These are pool noodles making these concentric circles. The rest of this is just kind of batting. And it took 12 hours and all night to make. But I'm doing it doing it for you people, doing it for the art.

00;01;31;18 - 00;01;33;26
Speaker 2
I'm doing it for tornadoes. Brian, of the tornado.

00;01;34;06 - 00;01;37;29
Speaker 1
What made you decide you wanted to dress up as a tornado while you're promoting your book?

00;01;38;03 - 00;01;46;19
Speaker 2
If you have something that's very visual and you can dress up as it and you're coming to Comic-Con in terms of promotion and marketing, you'd be a fool not to.

00;01;46;24 - 00;01;51;11
Speaker 1
It's done very well. I've seen so many people stop you. Like, are you a tornado? Yeah.

00;01;51;11 - 00;01;59;05
Speaker 2
Or are they said are you of some, like, lint from my dryer, you know, or they said, are you a fart? I'm so I've gotten it all.

00;01;59;23 - 00;02;02;24
Speaker 1
And it's are you a cloud a convenient way to start talking about your.

00;02;02;24 - 00;02;09;24
Speaker 2
But it is. Oh, I had these little like little pieces of paper and I just went and I passed out to everybody. I'm out of them now. So there you go.

00;02;09;27 - 00;02;16;29
Speaker 1
That's how good this is working. Yep. So for anybody who hasn't seen Bright of the Tornado already, give us a little synopsis of what this book is about.

00;02;16;29 - 00;02;21;21
Speaker 2
Bride of the Tornado. It's about this. Oh, they love my book. I started talking about it. They start cheering.

00;02;22;20 - 00;02;24;26
Speaker 1
It has nothing to do with Brandon Sanderson walking behind.

00;02;25;13 - 00;02;47;20
Speaker 2
Shush, Brandon, who I'm totally kidding. This Mormon has been dogging me all over the country. He's coming after me. He's always trying to steal my thunder. OK, yeah. So anyway, a brighter tornado. It's basically the Twin Peaks meets Rosemary's Baby meets the Weather Channel, and it's about this small town that every generation is plagued by, these sentient tornadoes.

00;02;47;27 - 00;03;05;07
Speaker 2
There's this boy who can't come into town called the tornado killer, who can punch and kick and defeat tornadoes and destroy them. But he's not the main character. The main character is this girl in town. He's kind of fascinated by the tornado killer. And she's not allowed to leave town. He's not allowed to come in, but she finds clues all around town that shows there's some kind of connection.

00;03;05;10 - 00;03;14;07
Speaker 2
She had two of them. And they have this mutual fascination and they enter into this dangerous relationship and then they find out that the town has something very grisly indeed planned for them.

00;03;14;17 - 00;03;18;12
Speaker 1
Where did you get the idea to write a book about sentient tornadoes?

00;03;18;22 - 00;03;37;22
Speaker 2
Well, I grew up in Michigan, and we would have tornadoes every once in a while. And, you know, tornadoes, a peculiarly American monster, number one, right? Like 75% of tornadoes all over the world. They happen in America. But it's also what other thing in your life happens that caused your whole family to run downstairs and get into the basement and all the electricity goes off.

00;03;37;22 - 00;03;56;08
Speaker 2
You have to cower from like some monster as though it's like the angel of death from the Bible and you've got blood on your door in the Old Testament. It's so it's this very primal experience, but there's not many like other than Wizard of Oz and Twister, not a lot of American culture about tornadoes or tornadoes. And so I thought it's a perfect opportunity to write a book and wear a costume.

00;03;56;19 - 00;04;01;24
Speaker 1
Did you know that there's a Star Trek episode where the tornadoes are kind of sent it and they go after technology?

00;04;02;21 - 00;04;05;08
Speaker 2
I've I've been scooped again.

00;04;07;19 - 00;04;13;01
Speaker 1
My coworker told me that I did not know this on my own. My coworker told me about that when I was telling him about this book.

00;04;13;01 - 00;04;16;00
Speaker 2
Is this is this is this classic or is this tag.

00;04;16;18 - 00;04;20;17
Speaker 1
I think it was TNG. It was an older, older one.

00;04;20;20 - 00;04;25;01
Speaker 2
Yeah, but an older one of the next generation, not the original series maybe.

00;04;25;01 - 00;04;34;05
Speaker 1
I don't know. I don't know. Star Trek sorry, trekkies. I have not watched one episode. I just that's just what she said. She was like, is this is it based on that.

00;04;35;02 - 00;04;46;15
Speaker 2
You every time you think you're doing something original, someone else always gets there first. By the way, all those people behind me are not for me. They're for Brandon Sanderson so.

00;04;46;15 - 00;04;46;29
Speaker 1
We're pretending.

00;04;46;29 - 00;04;48;11
Speaker 2
That you were pretending for me. Oh.

00;04;48;24 - 00;04;49;08
Speaker 1
Like, I've got to.

00;04;49;08 - 00;04;51;00
Speaker 2
Wait, everybody. I got an interview to do.

00;04;51;01 - 00;04;52;11
Speaker 1
This is a live podcast.

00;04;52;16 - 00;04;54;14
Speaker 2
Yeah. Yeah. Oh, boy.

00;04;55;24 - 00;05;08;04
Speaker 1
So throughout this book, most of the characters don't really have names. You have, like, the Horrible Woman and the tornado killer. Mm hmm. What led you to make the decision to just not give them names? And do they have names in your head that you just never shared with the audience?

00;05;08;04 - 00;05;27;22
Speaker 2
Well, most importantly, the main character doesn't have a name, and that's on purpose, because I feel sometimes when you you don't name a character that kind of actually causes a little bit of intimacy between the reader and the book that wouldn't ordinarily be there. Like if you name the character Eileen Blackman, then they said, oh, that's a total Eileen Blackman thing to do.

00;05;27;22 - 00;05;48;11
Speaker 2
And you kind of like put them in a corner, but they don't have a name. They kind of like there's something undetermined about them that you kind of fill in with yourself. My previous novel, Dare to Know, also had an unnamed main character, and there's a theme of gratitude. There's a poem that the main character, Sister Cecilia and her get into by Emily Dickinson, who goes like, I'm nobody, who are you?

00;05;48;16 - 00;06;07;02
Speaker 2
And that's kind of what it is like she's nobody. And the and what what she she she's an ordinary girl and what personality or kind of sovereignty over herself. She has the town takes away from her and she has to struggle very hard to get it back and become somebody but that she lives that poem like I'm nobody.

00;06;07;02 - 00;06;08;28
Speaker 2
Who are you? That poem is a key of the book.

00;06;09;20 - 00;06;22;23
Speaker 1
It is. I'll let you guys read it and figure out more on that. But I'm not one who normally reads a lot of words. So for me, this is one of the weirdest books I've ever read.

00;06;23;01 - 00;06;25;15
Speaker 2
I get that a lot, even people who have read a lot of horror.

00;06;25;28 - 00;06;30;05
Speaker 1
So how do you stay inspired to keep writing quirky, fun, weird stories?

00;06;30;05 - 00;06;47;06
Speaker 2
It's the only thing I know how to write and the Order of Codfish. My first novel to the Way Fantasy People said This is one of the weirdest books I've ever read and then Dare to know my science fiction novel. He was a WTF and I've got it with this too. And I think if you're writing a novel, then write the word novel.

00;06;47;06 - 00;07;05;28
Speaker 2
It means new. You write something new, do something that hasn't been done before, and do something strange and you're going to alienate some people and some people are going to say, What the hell did I just read five stars? I know people are going to say, What the hell did I just read one star? So they were going to write it was very entertaining and then it got too weird for me and give it three stars.

00;07;06;12 - 00;07;11;07
Speaker 1
That would be me I can't believe you looked at me. Good reads review.

00;07;12;20 - 00;07;15;00
Speaker 2
You think us authors don't look at good reads?

00;07;15;00 - 00;07;17;05
Speaker 1
You're not supposed to do good. We are.

00;07;17;07 - 00;07;20;09
Speaker 2
Oh, we're not supposed to I don't comment.

00;07;20;09 - 00;07;22;17
Speaker 1
Authors are like, Do not look at good read.

00;07;22;17 - 00;07;25;05
Speaker 2
They all look at good reads. They all look at it.

00;07;25;05 - 00;07;27;07
Speaker 1
And he called me out on this in the middle of a panel.

00;07;27;08 - 00;07;32;10
Speaker 2
No, I didn't. I didn't say Oh, you gave me a bad review. I was just like, Oh, and I saw you review on Good Reads, and that was it.

00;07;32;11 - 00;07;37;11
Speaker 1
I know. I turned so red at that moment. I was like, What did I say?

00;07;37;11 - 00;07;44;21
Speaker 2
Yeah, yeah, a big three star book is what we got here. So if you like something, it's middling, you know, it just got there.

00;07;44;22 - 00;07;49;28
Speaker 1
In particular, I don't give out five stars very often. I know I, I've given one out in the last like two months.

00;07;49;29 - 00;08;05;15
Speaker 2
I hate when authors get their panties in a twist about stars and stuff like, like Joe Hill, the horror writers. I think if you don't get five star reviews and what are you doing? And he's kind of like went after readers about that. And I was like, what on earth? You know, just like when you're Stephen King's sign, you got no problems.

00;08;06;08 - 00;08;21;25
Speaker 2
But number two, you know, like, yeah, it is not for writers, it is for readers. However, I don't care if writers say, Oh, I never look at my reviews. They do, they look at them, but they have the grace. Not to say anything. I just like anything that's four stars or above, and I don't interact otherwise.

00;08;21;26 - 00;08;24;25
Speaker 1
Oh, so I was so close to getting a star or a little.

00;08;24;26 - 00;08;26;29
Speaker 2
Like I was so close to getting five stars.

00;08;27;10 - 00;08;34;14
Speaker 1
It was like three and a half. And so there's no half stars on good reads. So I just went with three because that just was the mood that.

00;08;34;20 - 00;08;38;00
Speaker 2
We're giving the people what they want in this interview. Bickering about her good reads reviews.

00;08;39;12 - 00;08;49;27
Speaker 1
I mean, good reads reviews and author's roles in them have been a very controversial topic lately because so many authors have newer authors have gone after the readers. Yeah, getting negative reviews.

00;08;50;01 - 00;08;52;11
Speaker 2
That's bad. Boo.

00;08;52;17 - 00;09;00;13
Speaker 1
There was even one that was like, If you don't, you should automatically give a book at least three stars just because they wrote a book. That's a lots I would rather have.

00;09;00;13 - 00;09;18;05
Speaker 2
I would, oh, really? I would rather have a one star review. I actually the my favorite review was a one star review that I found on the story graph dot com. And it was like, I can, I can, I can think I could say to give you my heart I hated this book so much that I think it's a compliment.

00;09;19;02 - 00;09;45;23
Speaker 2
It was too gross and violent. They weird when it didn't have to be and the cat situation is unacceptable. And then it goes on to say, but it was well written one well plotted with characters that somebody can care about you'll love it assuming you're a horrible person. One star. That's my favorite review. That's sweeter than any five star review because they say all the things they hate about it and then they're forced to say, Oh, but it was good.

00;09;45;23 - 00;09;53;13
Speaker 2
I just, you know, oh, I'm just doing good. I can't. I have to admit that it's good. So, yeah, sweeter than anything is that?

00;09;53;14 - 00;09;58;23
Speaker 1
Yeah, because like I've been talking about this book nonstop since I read it. I sold it to multiple people.

00;09;58;23 - 00;09;59;25
Speaker 2
Yay! Great.

00;09;59;27 - 00;10;04;00
Speaker 1
That's why I don't have a physical copy for you to sign here because I sold my store's only copies.

00;10;04;01 - 00;10;05;10
Speaker 2
Awesome. I love to hear it.

00;10;05;29 - 00;10;10;06
Speaker 1
Because I was like, This is the weirdest book I've ever read, and I need to talk to people about it, so please.

00;10;10;06 - 00;10;12;20
Speaker 2
Read it. Great. What store?

00;10;13;09 - 00;10;14;07
Speaker 1
Barnes Noble in Saint Louis.

00;10;14;11 - 00;10;18;03
Speaker 2
Oh, that's right. We talked about that. Yes. So, Saint Louis, do you ever go to the City Museum?

00;10;18;13 - 00;10;19;00
Speaker 1
Yes.

00;10;19;03 - 00;10;36;12
Speaker 2
Oh, my God, it's great. I went there with my daughters when they're four and six. Talk about a horror show, like just them getting lost there. They're crawling in some tunnel ahead of me and I'm like, Lucy, she's a grandma. And then the tunnel goes in like two different directions. I don't know which one she went down for any parent you want to horror, go to the city museum.

00;10;36;13 - 00;10;37;14
Speaker 2
That's great. I loved it.

00;10;37;28 - 00;10;38;29
Speaker 1
I mean, but it's so much fun.

00;10;39;00 - 00;10;39;20
Speaker 2
Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah.

00;10;39;21 - 00;10;40;23
Speaker 1
Tell stories like it's great.

00;10;40;23 - 00;10;41;11
Speaker 2
Loved it. Yeah.

00;10;42;03 - 00;10;52;11
Speaker 1
You did touch on you have a sci fi book and you have a way, but yes. And now this one is horror. It's kind of dabbling in all the genres. Yes. What other genres do you want to dabble in next?

00;10;52;21 - 00;11;11;28
Speaker 2
I can't predict what I'm going to do next. I'm working on something right now that's kind of sci fi, like weird cosmic horror this is like sold as horror. But I think that's just because that's what is selling right now is horror. But when I was writing it, I wasn't thinking in terms of horror, you know, I was just like, oh, this is a story that I have to tell.

00;11;12;04 - 00;11;15;24
Speaker 2
So I think, like, whatever the story I have to tell, I'm going to tell it and then the genre will take care of itself.

00;11;15;24 - 00;11;24;02
Speaker 1
Later, you posted on Instagram about a very weird, targeted ad that you got with like the foot and like the worms or whatever.

00;11;24;02 - 00;11;29;01
Speaker 2
Yes. You want to put that up the. Oh, I will. You put that OK. Yeah, that was weird.

00;11;29;01 - 00;11;35;01
Speaker 1
It's so weird. How often do you get weird ads like that and like, what is your search history like that gets you these weird things? Yeah.

00;11;35;01 - 00;11;52;22
Speaker 2
So put up the ad now. OK, now we're back. Oh, like, what was that all about? I do have a weird search history because like, I'm looking up, you know, weird pictures of weird situations, stuff like that. But I never got an ad as weird as that, and it made me want to spend a lot of money and put up weird ads on the Internet for people.

00;11;52;26 - 00;12;14;12
Speaker 2
But you put it up for people with search histories that are just like, I'm, you know, just, you know, looking up recipes for my family. And they're just like are you ready to go to hell inside of your own stomach? And the thoughts come out of you and you will be destroyed by your own mind tentacle. And then do they click here if you want that?

00;12;14;29 - 00;12;29;19
Speaker 2
Because that's what that one was. That ad was just like, hey, you'll have all these weird things coming out of your feet. Click here to find out more. Like, What? Who's clicking here? Unfortunately, I did not click. Oh, and then and then I wanted to add to get back. So I kept refreshing the page and I never came back.

00;12;29;19 - 00;12;34;26
Speaker 2
It was like a so luckily I took a screenshot of it, but I never clicked it. And that's going to be the greatest regret of my life.

00;12;35;05 - 00;12;37;17
Speaker 1
We don't know about the worms being birthed anymore.

00;12;37;22 - 00;12;43;20
Speaker 2
Well, yeah, we won't know. We won't know. They could have been my babies growing out of my foot.

00;12;44;06 - 00;12;47;09
Speaker 1
Did that inspired the second the final third.

00;12;48;03 - 00;13;05;04
Speaker 2
Of bite of the tornado that came after I was in the can? OK, I will tell you something about prior to the tornado and it being weird. I actually wrote this. I was done with it in 2014 I gave it to my agent and she said this is too weird. And she dropped me and I do not have it.

00;13;05;16 - 00;13;17;27
Speaker 2
She sold my first book. She dropped me this book and I was in the wilderness for many years looking for another agent. I finally got another agent, a better agent, and he sold this and he sold Dare to know which are both super weird. And that agent who dropped me is no longer in the business.

00;13;18;03 - 00;13;18;19
Speaker 1
So it.

00;13;18;23 - 00;13;31;16
Speaker 2
Was Angel of Justice, you know, the arc of justice is long, but yeah, the trader wins and my old agent loses if you're watching this old agent it's.

00;13;32;04 - 00;13;37;28
Speaker 1
Other things that you do that are really fun. Is the 92nd Newbery Film Festival. Yes. So tell us about that and how you got involved.

00;13;38;04 - 00;14;02;03
Speaker 2
The 96 Newberry Film Festival is full of stuff that I started in 2010, so I've been doing it for like 13, 14 years in which kids create short movies that tell the entire stories of Newbery winning books in about 90 seconds and we encourage him to do a weird twist on it's like Charlotte's Web, but in the style of a horror movie or A Tale of Despereaux, but in the style of like Les Miserables and do it as a musical and kids do all kinds of cool movies, like Do It in Minecraft.

00;14;02;03 - 00;14;31;29
Speaker 2
Did you stop watching Legos or you know, they do Ramona or Father, but it's the style of like science fiction. And so we show these movies all the best of these movies all over the country. Chicago, New York City, Boston, San Antonio intensities about every year. Students Saint Louis and it's it's a lot of fun. Seeing the crazy movies that kids come up with every year is really gratifying if you go to 92nd Newberry dot com 90 Newberry that's one R Newberry dot com you to find out more about it awesome.

00;14;31;29 - 00;14;34;00
Speaker 1
Is there anything else you wanted to talk about that I missed I.

00;14;34;00 - 00;14;52;15
Speaker 2
Do a podcast called The Secrets of Story. I have a friend Matt Bird he wrote two books he's kind of set himself up as a story guru called The Secrets The Story and the Secrets of Character. Thing is, he's never written a novel that has sold or a screenplay that was sold, but he set himself up as a story guru, which I think is great, and I disagree with a lot of his advice.

00;14;52;17 - 00;14;55;01
Speaker 2
So I go on his podcast, we talk about his advice, and I disagree with him.

00;14;55;09 - 00;15;07;22
Speaker 1
You were very well researched for this panel you had. I've never had someone show up for a panel with notes and you pulled out like notes and then like handwritten notes on those. Like you were very prepared to talk about story structure.

00;15;07;22 - 00;15;19;24
Speaker 2
I was that's what Matt and I talk about all the time. And I love Matt and we disagree. We're like the Siskel and Ebert of story structure. And so we go at it like cats and dogs, but it's a lot of fun doing it with him. So the Secrets of Story Podcasts. Another thing I do.

00;15;20;02 - 00;15;23;22
Speaker 1
Last question we always ask because this is literary hype. What books are you hyped about?

00;15;24;04 - 00;15;40;08
Speaker 2
Oh, my gosh. So Marley by Blake Butler one of the most horrifying books I've ever read. It's a memoir. It's very says about this guy. It's a true story. It's this guy. He's a writer. His wife is a writer, and she committed suicide. And then he's kind of mourning her. And the way he describes it, he's so in love with her.

00;15;40;08 - 00;16;01;22
Speaker 2
He notices so many things about her, the way he talks about her for the hundreds of pages. This guy really loved her. And then he looks into her phone and her computer and he finds out she was having a whole life he did not know anything about. And it was kind of horrifying to me. And and kind of like, do you think you know somebody and they're gone and then the ground is cut out from underneath you.

00;16;02;02 - 00;16;16;15
Speaker 2
Another thing that I really like and this is kind of a basic thing to say, but the three body problem books by she Shawn Lou, I know they're being made into a Netflix series right now. Everybody's watching that. But those books I've never read 3000 pages so quickly in my life. It brought me back to how I felt about science fiction when I was a kid.

00;16;16;20 - 00;16;37;16
Speaker 2
And I was, you know, reading of the Foundation series or The Martian Chronicles or whatever. I really, really loved that book. And then I see what am I reading this instant oh, god, I'm reading I Reading a memoir by Daniel Handler, Lemony Snicket. I'm reviewing it for The Wall Street Journal, and it's really, really good. It needs reading he's writing to adults.

00;16;37;21 - 00;16;57;00
Speaker 2
This is about like his life as an author. And and just like the things that influenced him, his life experiences. It's very free associative. He's very very well-read, and he reads really obscure stuff. At the end of it, I just have a list of a hundred books and movies. I was going to go out and read and watch immediately to catch up with him and just see what he was talking about.

00;16;57;05 - 00;17;02;11
Speaker 2
So yeah. And then that's called and then and then what next? By Daniel Handler.

00;17;02;21 - 00;17;05;12
Speaker 1
Awesome. Well, thank you so much for taking time to talk to literary hype.

00;17;05;15 - 00;17;13;25
Speaker 2
My pleasure. Prior to the tornado ding. Now make a little star go up and they have a little thing called ding when I do that ding like that.

00;17;14;29 - 00;17;15;29
Speaker 1
So much editing work.

00;17;16;23 - 00;17;25;14
Speaker 2
Maybe I'll do it. I mean, I can edit, I could edit it, I can edit it. If it's too much trouble for you, I'll do your work for you. He's not a long time ago.

00;17;31;12 - 00;17;55;10
Speaker 1
Thanks again to James for letting me be his moderator for the hero. Doesn't always journey panel at C2e2 you as well as taking the time to film this conversation about his book, The Pride of the Tornado. If you'd like to get a hold of any of James's books, the links to do that are in the show notes for you and if you enjoyed this bizarro conversation, and I really hope you did, then make sure you give us some stars and subscribe to the channel and share this with your friends.

00;17;55;11 - 00;17;57;23
Speaker 1
Thanks for listening to the literary hype podcast.