I was feeling out of sorts today and not so engaged/enamored with writing so I said screw it and spent the warm, late July afternoon hiking around Fort Snelling and Pike Island here in St. Paul. I went alone, with my camera and some water for company, and spent three hours tromping around. I encountered only one human being the entire afternoon but did meet an entire family of turkeys (two adults and a dozen turkey kids-it was a true mutual surprise occasion), a deer, two woodpeckers, a squirrel, and four bad ass river geese. I read somewhere that being around trees is good for your health and it was nice to hear the wind whispering through the forest canopy. The summer wildflowers were amazing and smelled so sweet and fragrant.

Honestly I’m not feeling my usual writerly drive at the moment. I started and stopped a pair of novels and don’t feel inclined to edit the novel that needs editing. All my ideas seem…stupid? Yes, stupid. Stupid and not worth a whole novel treatment, that’s for sure. Maybe it’s the summer doldrums or maybe the doldrums are just in my heart. You can’t start a fire without a spark…right?

The Firebug of Balrog County

Reviewed on 07/01/2015
Gr 9 Up—Mack likes to start fires: the firebug is always in his ear encouraging him to find something else to burn. He feels in control when he commits arson, and late at night in his small prairie town, he can always find something to burn. Mack’s family is in pieces since his mother’s death, and each member is dealing with his or her grief alone. Mack himself pulls at the threads of the memories of his mother but never really deals with her death. Instead, he goes through the motions of a typical high school senior—working at the local hardware store, going to keg parties—but doesn’t connect with anyone. It’s just him and the whispering firebug, until he meets Katrina, who is so wonderfully different from everyone else. Like Mack, she is somewhat angsty and unconventional, and the two become friends and then lovers. Katrina seems to understand Mack, and she wholeheartedly supports the firebug within him. Things climax when Mack ignites the giant woodpile of an embittered veteran. The main character is a wholly likable, though tortured malefactor, and readers will root for the success and escape of the firebug as much as they hope for Mack’s family life to improve. References to sex and teenage drinking make this title appropriate for older readers, though they aren’t gratuitous. VERDICT An offbeat bildungsroman reminiscent of Libba Bray’s Going Bovine (Delacorte, 2009).—Patricia Feriano, Montgomery County Public Schools, MD

The Firebug of Balrog County is going to press today! Its publication date (Sept. 8) is now exactly two months out. Here’s some of the cover design images posted by Lisa Novak today, the book’s cover design artist. What a freaking great cover, right?