We chat with debut author Cullen Bunn about Bones of Our Stars, which is a high-stakes hunt for a masked killer whose brutal murders may be a portent of an evil as ancient and cold as the stars themselves.
Hi, Cullen! When did you first discover your love for writing and stories?
I’ve pretty much always loved telling stories. It’s something I think I picked up from my dad. That guy could spin a yarn! As a very young kid—I mean pre-Kindergarten—I was “writing” and drawing my own picture books.
War of the Monsters was my giant monster attacks book, drawn on whatever mismatched paper I could find, featuring Godzilla, King Kong, and Mothra attacking the world. I remember it vividly. The forces of humanity defeated Godzilla by dropping a giant sword on his head.
In 2nd and 3rd grade, I was writing and drawing a comic book called X-Lazer Knights in which my friends and I went on intergalactic adventures. I printed them on the copies at my dad’s office and passed them out to friends in class.
Later, I was writing a comic called Captain Cosmo (again printed on my dad’s copier) and setting up at small comic shows to sell copies.
Around the time I was 11 or 12, I was writing a fantasy novel. It was typed out on onionskin paper. I still have the first five chapters stashed away somewhere.
So… yeah… It’s been with me for a long while.
Quick lightning round! Tell us:
- The first book you ever remember reading: Not counting comic books, right? Ha! Sadly, I don’t remember the title, but one of the first novels I remember reading was a YA story about Vikings. I remember carrying it around elementary school with me, reading it in bits and pieces every chance I could.
- The one that made you want to become an author: I always had the bug to tell stories, but when I discovered Elric of Melnibone by Michale Moorcock, then Nine Princes in Amber by Roger Zelazny not long after, the die was cast. I just loved the wildness and the darkness of those stories.
- The one that you can’t stop thinking about: Boy’s Life by Robert R. McCammon. With a bullet. I think about this book all the time, really, and revisit it every couple of years. I love it so much.
Your new novel, Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World, is out November 11th! If you could only describe it in five words, what would they be?
That’s fewer words than are in the title!
All right. Let’s see.
Vicious. Unexpected. Ensemble. Abyssal. Switcheroo.
What can readers expect?
Readers can expect the unexpected. In many ways, I wanted this story to be something that readers would never see coming. It starts one way, then takes a cutting (no pun intended) turn into a completely different type of tale. You’ll visit a quirky coastal town. You’ll meet an expansive cast of characters who I think you’ll love and hate. You’ll encounter a brutal masked killer… but even they will not be what you might think. As I sat down to write this story, I said to myself, “Let’s see how strange we can make this.” That’s what to expect.
Where did the inspiration for Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World come from?
I spent a lot of time in small towns and a lot of time on the North Carolina coast. So the setting really came from those experiences. So, too, did many of the characters, like Denny Finn Danvers, and character interactions, like the connection between Willa and her father. For this, the characters and the setting were vital to the story and the horror that would unfold. The horror itself comes from a challenge I put upon my own shoulders. I set out to write a story that started out going in one direction, then completely changed course in a surprising way. Once I decided I wanted to do something like that, it all just fell into place.
Were there any moments or characters you really enjoyed writing or exploring?
Oh, yes. This is something that happens a lot for me on writing projects like this. As I wrote Bones of Our Stars, Blood of Our World, there were several characters who surprised me. I knew I would enjoy writing Willa from the get-go. Denny Finn, though, caught me off guard. There was a moment, early on, where I wondered if I wanted to keep him in the book. Out of nowhere, though, something just clicked with him, and he became a favorite character, not just because of his quirky nature, but because of his role—his destiny—in the story. He went from a character I saw as a simple supporting character to becoming one of the most important players in the book.
Did you face any challenges whilst writing? How did you overcome them?
I’ve spent a lot of time writing comic books over the years. Comic books are about brevity, about economy of space. Outlining is essential to telling a good comic book story. I took that philosophy along with me to the novel. However, the freedom of prose tried its best to lure me into a quagmire of expansion and rewrites! Despite the outline, I found myself layering in subplots and new characters and expansive side stories. Every time I visited a draft to make even the most minor corrections, I started writing more and more. The book is definitely heftier than I intended when I set out, but thank goodness for a great editor, or I might still be writing more and more!
Perhaps the biggest challenge, though, was getting out of my own head. Comic books are a collaboration through and through. If I mess something up, I can count on one of my collaborators to pull me out of the fire. With a novel though, I felt the weight of being on my own. It was paralysing. I felt like I was missing a safety net, and it slowed me down quite a bit in the beginning.
What’s next for you?
I’ve got a new horror comic series called Deluge coming out right now from Ignition Press, and I’m working on several more horror comics with them. I’m really excited about those because they showcase such a wide range of cool horror tales. I’m also hard at work on my next prose novel and—surprise, surprise—it’s a horror tale, too! I’m also busily working on a video podcast called The Cullenoscopy where, along with a rotating cast of guest hosts, I discuss various horror topics. So lots more terrifying material from me in the future!
Lastly, what books have you enjoyed reading this year? Are there any you’re looking forward to picking up?
I recently finished The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones, and I loved it. It’s going to be hard to beat when it comes to the best book of the year for me. I also just started reading Why I Love Horror, and I’ve really been digging it. The Devils by Joe Abercrombie is next up on my reading list. It was a recommendation by my pal and collaborator Brian Hurtt. He says it is right up my alley, so I’m excited to dig in.
