Young Junius

I can't say enough how thrilled I am to be featured on this podcast with Pinckney Benedict. As someone who has been reading his work in prize story anthologies for a while, it's great to share the stage.

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This episode comes courtest of the fine folks at Booked. The Booked Podcast is a regular weekly installment of fine fiction coming to your ears from live events, along with reviews and interviews. The staff there is Livius Nedin, Robb Olson and Mlaz Corbier. They're as good a bunch of guys as you could ask for.

Thanks to them for recording and distributing this event!

First Pinckney reads from Pig Helmet and the Wall of Life and then after a short delay, I read from Young Junius. Hope you enjoy!

Here you see Tyler Dilts's novel-writing class at Cal State Long Beach, who read YOUNG JUNIUS this semester as one of their readings. I'm a big fan of Tyler and his novel A King of Infinite Space, which you can find more about here.

YOUNG JUNIUS (Tyrus) is an urban western by Seth Harwood. Junius is a 14 year old on his own quest for vengeance and redemption. What looks from the outset to be a simple matter of track and shoot soon spirals out of control. With police and rival gangs out to get him Junius decides to stand instead of run and when all is said and done, his life is much different than when he started this path. Harwood has really captured the angst of a young man confused by what the world tells him and what the world is. Required reading. –Crimespree Magazine

Thanks to awesome Palms Momma™ Kate Sherrod (aka k8 aka Kate of Mind aka @katesherrod) who posted this review of Young Junius on her blog the other day. 

Seth Harwood's YOUNG JUNIUS and the Problem with Prequels

I post about this not because she's mindlessly gushing (which I have to admit is nice), but because she's clearly put a lot of thought and consideration into my work and this review. Is she critical? Yes. No worries. For my part, it is AWESOME when someone's willing to compare the mythological implications of Young Junius and Junius's character arc in comparison to that of Jack Palms, I've got to love it! Want more? Read the full review here.

Here's the start: Prequels can be problematic. 

First George Pelecanos, awesome novelist and writer for THE WIRE, picked YOUNG JUNIUS as one of his Best Books for 2010! Hazzah and hot damn! I met George at Noircon and gave him a copy of the book. Barely hoped he'd read it. Now this? Yeah, I'm psyched!!

How about this quote:

"Man-child Junius, 14, is in search of his brother's murderer which takes him on an odyssey through the projects of Cambridge, Mass. The plot moves but you will be most taken by the complexity of the large cast of characters. Harwood does not revert to type."

Yeah, definitely BLURB worthy!

On another note, thanks to Crimespree Magazine and awesome Jon Jordan for reviewing YOUNG JUNIUS. "Required Reading." Here's the full:

YOUNG JUNIUS (Tyrus) is an urban western by Seth Harwood. Junius is a 14 year old on his own quest for vengeance and redemption. What looks from the outset to be a simple matter of track and shoot soon spirals out of control. With police and rival gangs out to get him Junius decides to stand instead of run and when all is said and done, his life is much different than when he started this path. Harwood has really captured the angst of a young man confused by what the world tells him and what the world is. Required reading. –Crimespree Magazine