Hiya peeps, we have T.J. Klune stopping by today with his upcoming release Withered + Sere, T.J. chats about music and I’ve nicked a great excerpt so check out the post and enjoy! <3 ~Pixie~

Withered + Sere

T.J. Klune

Once upon a time, humanity could no longer contain the rage that swelled within, and the world ended in a wave of fire.

One hundred years later, in the wasteland formerly known as America, a broken man who goes only by the name of Cavalo survives. Purposefully cutting himself off from what remains of civilization, Cavalo resides in the crumbling ruins of the North Idaho Correctional Institution. A mutt called Bad Dog and a robot on the verge of insanity comprise his only companions. Cavalo himself is deteriorating, his memories rising like ghosts and haunting the prison cells.

It’s not until he makes the dangerous choice of crossing into the irradiated Deadlands that Cavalo comes into contact with a mute psychopath, one who belongs to the murderous group of people known as the Dead Rabbits. Taking the man prisoner, Cavalo is forced not only to face the horrors of his past, but the ramifications of the choices made for his stark present. And it is in the prisoner that he will find a possible future where redemption is but a glimmer that darkly shines.

The world has died.

This is the story of its remains.

Excerpt

Music has always been a big part of my writing experience. I make specific playlists just for me when I start writing a book, picking songs that I think are going to relate to the story I’m writing. I don’t always pick correctly, and some of the songs have to be deleted, and others have to be added until I get the playlist right.

Back in the day, I used to release some of these playlists, or at least an abridged version of them. I got out of practice with that, and it’s something I’ve always regretted. If there is one thing I love almost as much as talking books, it’s talking music. I have what can probably be considered an eccentric taste in music, as I like everything from Bon Iver to Britney Spears (shut up). 

But I had a very specific playlist in mind for Withered + Sere, one that I didn’t really deviate from when I created it when the book was initially written. As I’ve said in the past, W+S and its sequel (out in August!) Crisped + Sere was initially one book. Given that the story became too large to tell in one novel, I split it into two books. The playlist for that initial novel was almost 100 songs. Now, I’ll share with you the playlist I’ve picked, which represents a song per chapter, including an overall theme song for the book. I’ve included each chapter title as well. I urge you to download the music so that you’ll have a complete sensory experience when reading Withered + Sere. Music, coupled with the artwork drawn for the book, will hopefully make the story of Cavalo and Lucas, of Bad Dog and the robot named SIRS, one you will never forget.

Tj

Complete playlist on Tj’s YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL_Ex94BjKWP1ZXbhbuRFXtrrzwuyML2pW

Theme Song

 Woodkid “The Golden Age” featuring Max Richter “Embers”

Prologue: Seven Words

Jamey Johnson, Twiggy Ramirez & Shooter Jennings “You Are My Sunshine”

Chapter 1: Blood Trail

The Late Cord “The Late Cord”

Chapter 2: The Other Side of the Woods

Delta Rae “Bottom of the River”

Chapter 3:  Fucking Psycho Bulldog

Imagine Dragons: “Monster”

Chapter 4: The Minds of Men

Florence + the Machine “Which Witch”

Chapter 5: Alma’s Song

Hozier “Angel of Small Death & the Codeine Scene”

Chapter 6: Ashen and Sober

Halsey “Castle”

Chapter 7: The Doors in the Storm

Olafur Arnalds “For Now I Am Winter”

Chapter 8: The Sanity of Robots

Radical Face “Black Eyes”

Chapter 9: The Cage of Man or God

The Late Cord “Chains/Strings”

Chapter 10: Face to Face

Woodkid “Stabat Mater”

Chapter 11: A Decision Made

Halsey “Control”

Chapter 12: Revelations

Sarah McLachlan “Fear”

Chapter 13: The Ballad of Bad Dog

Daughter “Switzerland”

Chapter 14: Father, May I?

Red “Death of Me”

Chapter 15: A Scrape of Knife and Kiss

Florence + the Machine “Blinding”

Excerpt

The doe snapped her head toward him, and he could see the muscles under her skin begin to tense. She crouched low toward the ground, ready to spring. Her fifth leg dragged along the dirt as it twitched. Cavalo could see the flies around her eyes, the curve of her neck, the hairs standing on end. He could hear his own breaths in his ears, low and harsh. The pull of the bowstring. The arrow between his fingers. The painted black feathers brushing his cheek. The subtle strain in his arm. He was getting older, and he could feel it in every part of his body. He was weaker now. Whip thin. Veins pronounced on his arms. Hands callused. The lines around his eyes like canyons.

And as he let the arrow go, he wondered how much longer he could last like this.

The feathers burned against his cheeks. The snap of the bow twanged in his ears. He might not have been as young as he used to be, but his eyesight had yet to fade, and he tracked the arrow as it flew through the trees. Before it hit, he knew it had flown true.

He’d aimed slightly high, anticipating the doe’s sudden leap. As the muscles in her legs bunched, she rose into the air, preparing to flee the threat she felt hidden among the trees. She launched forward toward a clearing ahead. The arrow struck her in the neck. Blood pulsed around the wooden shaft. She jerked her head back, a string of saliva splattering onto a tree. She bleated as she pawed the ground. She stumbled once, twice, and then began to move away. The forest around them grew quiet as she began to die.

It was a good hit. Blood fell from her neck, spattering against the forest floor. She moved in staccato beats through the trees, each step costing her. She picked up speed. Her shoulder clipped a long hanging branch, and she almost collapsed. She shook her head, her eyes wild and frenzied. She moved again and disappeared.

The man took his time. He fastened the bow to his back. He looked back in the direction of the tree that danced like a woman. He shook his head.

He moved to where the doe had been shot. There, upon the dead leaves, upon the rotted floor, glistened the blood trail. He whistled once, a high-pitched two-syllable sound that carried north to his companion. The birds in the trees took it as the all clear to begin singing again. They whistled back at him. He started following the blood trail. She’d find someplace to die. Thick bushes. Maybe into one of the outcroppings in the hills. She wouldn’t last long as she was bleeding out. It was early afternoon, but he needed as much time as he could get.

It was a minute later when a dark dog joined him. A mutt made up of blacks and grays, hair long and damp. Bone thin, like the man. He strode alongside Cavalo, coming up to just above the man’s knees, his long tail flicking back and forth. The dog bent his head forward, sniffing at the blood. He chuffed in the back of his throat and looked up at Cavalo, grinning, eyes bright, the canine arrogance comfortably familiar. It almost made him forget the dancing tree.

“Good work,” Cavalo said quietly, reaching down to stroke along a white patch of fur between Bad Dog’s eyes, back up to his ears. Bad Dog knocked his forehead against the man’s fingers and chuffed again. Cavalo heard Bad Dog’s voice in his head saying, Of course I did good. You did too. What had started out years before as a way to combat the silence had turned into something the man considered real. He spoke and Bad Dog answered. He no longer questioned it.

“Won’t get far,” Cavalo said.

Bad Dog looked up at him, sniffing the air. I know.

“We’ll follow the blood trail,” the man said, even though it was obvious.

Bad Dog panted. Yes. Yes.

“It will be fine.”

Yes. Yes.

After a moment: “I saw the tree again.”

Bad Dog cocked his head. Did you touch it again, MasterBossLord?

“I don’t know.” This was a lie, and they both knew it.

Oh.

He hesitated, then said, “She danced.” He didn’t look at his friend.

Bad Dog bumped his hand. She’s not real.

“I know.”

She’s gone. They’re both gone.

“I know.”

Do you?

The man could not answer.

About T.J.

When TJ Klune was eight, he picked up a pen and paper and began to write his first story (which turned out to be his own sweeping epic version of the video game Super Metroid—he didn’t think the game ended very well and wanted to offer his own take on it. He never heard back from the video game company, much to his chagrin). Now, over two decades later, the cast of characters in his head have only gotten louder. But that’s okay, because he’s recently become a full-time writer, and can give them the time they deserve.

Since being published, TJ has won the Lambda Literary Award for Best Gay Romance, fought off three lions that threatened to attack him and his village, and was chosen by Amazon as having written one of the best GLBT books of 2011.

And one of those things isn’t true.

(It’s the lion thing. The lion thing isn’t true.)

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