Of course, he has more than enough work of his own to keep him occupied. And he's only one man. "Although, common opinion has that differently," he complains. "Everybody keeps saying: 'There's no way this is just one guy!' It is! It is just one guy!" One guy with a lot of irons in the figurative fire.
"I have a series called Body of Evidence that we just optioned to Viacom Television, which I am very happy about," he continues. Body of Evidence is an ostensibly Young Adult series starring the intrepid Jenna Blake. Her collegiate exploits involve surprising numbers of body parts, leading to Scully analogies -- with just a touch of Nancy Drew.
"And then there's my new novel, Strangewood."
Strangewood is, indeed wondrously strange. It tells the story of a world-renowned children's book author whose characters decide to wreak revenge upon him for what they regard as his neglect.
"I'll tell you how it came about," Golden offers. "My son Nicholas had been watching Winnie the Pooh videos twenty-four hours a day for about three and a half months. I mean, I certainly appreciate Winnie the Pooh -- I love the A.A. Milne, I love the Disney version, and there is something wonderful, and charming, and comforting about the characters -- but after three and a half months of twenty-five different Winnie the Pooh videos running almost incessantly, I said to a friend on the phone: 'You know, at this point, I wouldn't mind seeing a bunch of leather-clad warriors ride down into the Hundred Acre Wood and skin the bastards and nail their pelts to the tree.' In that moment I had the idea for Strangewood. I knew what the book was. What if the Hundred Acre Wood went horribly wrong?
"Strangewood isn't about the Hundred Acre Wood," Golden hastens to add. "I invented my own children's book world for it -- but it's certainly not a children's book." Well, aside from, perhaps, an actual children's book, what is there that Golden hasn't done? Perhaps a comic book he'd dearly love to write for?
"Oh, sure, dozens," he says expansively. "But number one would be Batman. Tom and I just did a thing for DC, coming out in March, called Batman: Real World. Now that's a very misleading title, because it's not about Batman. The whole 'Real Worlds' thing is that it's our world, where DC Comics characters exist only as fiction. So even though it's called Batman, we didn't get to work with Batman."
His other comic book aspirations include working on Daredevil, "...and, to be honest with you, I'd like to take a crack at X-Men," he says, "because I think it has been absolutely God-awful for a number of years. The thing is, I've written four X-Men novels. Every time one comes out people on the internet are like 'Why don't they let this guy write the X-Men comics?' And my answer is: 'Good question!' Let's put it this way," he continues. "I'm not gonna claim that they'd be the best X-Men comics, but they certainly wouldn't be any worse than they are now!"
Amen.
|
"It's called Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row. It is a historical horror novel set during World War II, featuring Spike and Dru -- and it doesn't have Buffy in it."
|
Of course, Golden has Buffy commitments to uphold for his adoring fans before any other fandoms have the right to claim him. The big news is that, in the Fall of this year, we can expect another Buffy first for Christopher Golden. "It's gonna be next Fall's hardcover," he says, not even trying to repress his excitement, "and it's called Spike and Dru: Pretty Maids All in a Row. It is a historical horror novel set during World War II, featuring Spike and Dru - and it doesn't have Buffy in it." This last is said in an almost giddy tone, as though he can hardly believe it himself.
"So, literally, it's really exploring the Buffy mythos. I mean, it has Slayers in it, and it has the Council of Watchers in it -- and remember Spike has killed two Slayers. It also features certain cameos by several past-featured characters from the Buffy universe."
Though not Angel.
"No, I don't think I'm gonna have Angel in there. But, I don't know. Probably not. And remember at the time, he was probably fighting the war. Remember he said that he was in sixteen wars, or thirteen wars, or something. Remember in one episode?"
It was fourteen, according to "City Of," -- not including the undeclared Vietnam -- and whether or not he was actually active in those wars is unclear. But that is where the novels come in. It is unlikely that we will ever see such matters delved into deeply on the show.
Unless Golden takes over.
