What a dream come true ... my "Later Days" interview with NPR's Suzanne Lang!

For many authors like me, NPR remains the literary gold standard to be appear on, especially its long-running “Fresh Air” program. A few months back — hat tip to my publicists at WildBound PR — I was a guest on Suzanne Lang’s “A Novel Idea” to talk about my latest book “Later Days.” (My second work of fiction is one part coming-of-age story, one part adult-life-coming apart saga, based on a prep-school brotherhood in late-seventies Southern California.) I’ve been interviewed for years by skilled journalists who knew their stuff, but never by such a thoughtful, curious interlocutor asking such pithy questions. Lang not only read my book, but absorbed its themes and essence. I was riding high in the days afterward, thinking about all the sadness and chaos that my real-life anti-hero inspiration had to endure as he met his end and how Lang helped me share it with the world. This, after all, is a book about both tattered friendships and visions of the afterlife from a quantum perspective. (Hat tip there to Dr. Elizabeth Kubler-Ross.) Ironically and tragically, Lang herself unexpectedly passed away in June, and I still can’t help but wonder if she internalized what some of what my character went through as he transitioned. God speed, Suzanne Lang. Your grace, smarts, and love of books will live forever.

Here’s the link to the interview on NPR/Northern California Public Media. My segment begins at the 27:35 mark.