Shawn Smucker

About five years ago, someone described Shawn’s work, especially in The Day the Angels Fell, as a cross between Madeline L’Engle, Chaim Potok and Leif Enger. Since I love all those writers, of course I checked him out. Turns out he and his family lived a few blocks from us, and he and his wife were friends of friends of ours. I started reading The Day the Angles Fell, which led to reading Once We Were Strangers, and The Edge of Overthere and Light from Distant Stars. After reading a couple of his books, Ned and I made dessert plans with Shawn, his wife, and our mutual friends. Since then, our friendship has happily grown, he and Ned have made collaboration plans, and Maile, also a thoughtful writer, brings us yummy food. We just happily promote his work. Check out his new book The Weight of Memory. It came out this spring. (Shawn has written books for adults and young adults… each one worth the read!). Learn more about him here: Shawn Smucker. Listen to the brilliant podcast that he and Maile host (they interviewed me, which was fun and surreal) The Stories Between Us

The book that got me hooked on Shawn’s writing. While reading in bed, I would say to Ned, “Listen to this sentence” (and then read it to him) many times..

The sequel to The Day the Angles Fell. I couldn’t put it down. His setting in this book was fanastical, and the story was felt like science fiction.. It was a satisfying sequel, even though it was different from the first book.