Caitlín R. Kiernan

Good luck on that proposal writing business. I share your view of bad first drafts. Unusable writing is such a time-suck. But we, the readership, definitely appreciate your toils, and hopefully we all support you where we can. I know I'll definitely be buying a copy of The Ammonite Violin, and I'm just now getting into The Red Tree. I pre-ordered it months ago, but I've gotten into this bad habit of savoring the good stuff, so reading takes forever unless it's dung, when it should be the other way around. About The Red Tree, I don't know how this hasn't increased your readership by leaps and bounds. I think it's a great, gritty, creepy novel, and seems so accessible to even first time readers of your work. I'm finding myself increasingly attached to the doomed Sarah Crowe, despite her attempts to be unlovable. I just read Constance's Newport ghost story and the accounting of the Ames murders aloud to my husband, because he is a sissy who can barely stomach the Nightmare on Elm Street movies, and I wanted to make him uncomfortable. To my disappointment, he seems to have sprouted a spine and instead said, "Wow, she's a pretty good writer, huh?"

Anyway, I look forward to finishing it. Good luck with that expensive medical thing, and thank you for the excellent stories.