Wisp of a Thing - Tor/Forge Blog

Wisp of a Thing ebook is on sale for $2.99

January 4, 2017May 13, 2024torforge

The ebook edition of Alex Bledsoe’s Wisp of a Thing is on sale for only $2.99!* Wisp of a Thing is the second novel in the Tufa series by Alex Bledsoe. A new book in the series, Gather Her Round, will be available on March 7th.

About Wisp of a Thing: Alex Bledsoe’s The Hum and the Shiver was named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews. Now with Wisp of a Thing Bledsoe returns to the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains to spin an equally enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills…

Touched by a very public tragedy, musician Rob Quillen comes to Cloud County, Tennessee, in search of a song that might ease his aching heart. All he knows of the mysterious and reclusive Tufa is what he has read on the internet: they are an enigmatic clan of swarthy, black-haired mountain people whose historical roots are lost in myth and controversy. Some people say that when the first white settlers came to the Appalachians centuries ago, they found the Tufa already there. Others hint that Tufa blood brings special gifts.

Rob finds both music and mystery in the mountains. Close-lipped locals guard their secrets, even as Rob gets caught up in a subtle power struggle he can’t begin to comprehend. A vacationing wife goes missing, raising suspicions of foul play, and a strange feral girl runs wild in the woods, howling in the night like a lost spirit.

Change is coming to Cloud County, and only the night wind knows what part Rob will play when the last leaf falls from the Widow’s Tree…and a timeless curse must be broken at last.

Buy Wisp of a Thing here:

Sale ends February 3rd

eBook Deals

Wisp of a Thing eBook is Now on Sale for $2.99

August 5, 2016May 13, 2024torforge

The ebook edition of Alex Bledsoe’s Wisp of a Thing is on sale for only $2.99!*

About Wisp of a Thing: Alex Bledsoe’s The Hum and the Shiver was named one of the Best Fiction Books of 2011 by Kirkus Reviews. Now with Wisp of a Thing Bledsoe returns to the isolated ridges and hollows of the Smoky Mountains to spin an equally enchanting tale of music and magic older than the hills….

Change is coming to Cloud County, and only the night wind knows what part Rob will play when the last leaf falls from the Widow’s Tree…and a timeless curse must be broken at last.

Buy Wisp of a Thing here:

Sale ends September 2nd

What's New

Flying with the Real Fae

May 4, 2015May 17, 2024torforge5 Comments

Written by Alex Bledsoe

My Tufa novels, of which the upcoming Long Black Curl is the third, are all about music. They’re about other things, too, of course, but a central theme is how music touches people, affects them and brings them together. But I never expected that my novels would, in fact, bring me together with a tribe of musicians that could’ve stepped right out of those pages.

In 2013, I was a presenter at the Pagan Unity Festival (a.k.a. PUF) at a state park outside Nashville. Like many such festivals, there was a lot of music, including two appearances by a band I’d never heard of: Tuatha Dea.

I’ll admit to a bias here: some pagan-themed music strikes me as a bit overt, wearing its heart (and environmental concerns, and European folklore, and feminist agenda, and so forth) on its sleeve to its overall detriment. So I’d planned to skip the concert that first night and rest in my cabin.

Imagine my surprise when, from the pavilion down the hill, I heard a musical roar like nothing I expected. And I was even more surprised when I recognized the song as a snarling cover of the Cranberries’ “Zombie.”

That was my introduction to Tuatha Dea, a band that, as I said, sounded and looked as if they’d stepped right out of one of my Tufa novels. They’re an eight-piece ensemble that rotates on the instruments, with an emphasis on heavy drums. Their performance that night was one of the best shows I’ve ever seen, and I’ve seen Springsteen multiple times. They completely blew my idea of pagan music out of the water. I also was lucky enough to become friends with them, and to enthusiastically swap copies of my novels for their CDs.

Then came the biggest surprise: a call from band leader/songwriter Danny Mullikin, asking if he could write songs based on my Tufa novels.

I’m pretty sure my response boiled down to, “Yes, please.” Danny was kind enough to keep me updated on the process, sharing lyrics and early tracks with me, but I deliberately gave him no input; I wanted to be surprised like everyone else by the final product, which the band titled Tufa Tales: Appalachian Fae.

And I was. I mean, I knew the songs would be good, and that the band would perform them well. But the surprise was how thoroughly they captured the atmosphere I strove to create in my novels. Feel is always an intangible quality, almost impossible to really describe or copy, but they clearly got it.

They did three tracks titled after my first three novels, and so far have two videos, for the songs “Long Black Curl” and “Wisp of a Thing.” (If you look very closely in the “Wisp” video, you might spot this author for about one and a half seconds.) They also do a rocking version of the classic folk tune “The Five Nights’ Drunk,” which they call “Granny’s Bedtime Tonic.” And there’s a wonderful instrumental called “Dance of the Tufa.”

I’m proud to be associated with this band, and I’m incredibly flattered that they felt so connected to my work. Creating art is always fun, but inspiring it may be the biggest rush of all.

Follow Alex Bledsoe on Twitter at @AlexBledsoe, on Facebook, or visit him online.

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Starred Review: Wisp of a Thing by Alex Bledsoe

June 18, 2013January 25, 2024torforge

“Bledsoe’s latest fantasy captures the allure and the sometimes sinister beauty of the Appalachian backwoods, filled with myths, haunted by ghosts, and touched, as always, by death.”

Wisp of a Thing, by Alex Bledsoe, gets another starred review, this time in Library Journal!

Here’s the full review, from the June 15 issue:

In an attempt to escape the pain and guilt of his girlfriend’s sudden death, musician Rob Quillen travels to Cloud County, TN, where the mysterious black-haired Tufa clan – rumored to be indigenous to the region – may hold the key to a song that will bring him peace. Instead, he finds himself drawn further into a search for the origins of the Tufa even as he learns dangerous truths about the song he seeks. Set in the same world as The Hum and the Shiver, Bledsoe’s latest fantasy captures the allure and the sometimes sinister beauty of the Appalachian backwoods, filled with myths, haunted by ghosts, and touched, always, by death. VERDICT The author of the Eddie LaCrosse urban fantasy series (The Sword-Edged Blonde) proves his versatility with a hauntingly beautiful tale of love lost and hope rediscovered.

Wisp of a Thing will be published on June 18th.

Author Features

The Writer, Not the Song

June 17, 2013January 25, 2024torforge3 Comments

Written by Alex Bledsoe

One of the real challenges in Wisp of a Thing, my second Tufa novel, was writing original song lyrics when I am, in fact, no sort of musician. As the joke goes, if rock and roll is three chords and the truth, then I know two chords and some gossip. But I’ve listened to, thought about, and hung around music and musicians all my life, so I’ve absorbed as much as a non-player probably can.

To me, songwriting is one of the great creative mysteries. I really don’t understand how it’s done, especially when it’s done so well by some people. Here’s an example I often use in writing classes: It takes three movies and nine-plus hours to tell the story of three generations of the Corleone family in the Godfather films. Steve Earle, writing about three generations of the Pettimores, does it in less than five minutes in his song, “Copperhead Road.”

The first Tufa novel, The Hum and the Shiver, was insular: it took place in the Tufa community, so the music was theirs, and almost all of it was traditional. I modified some lyrics to reflect the personalities of the characters, but for the most part it was about setting the atmosphere and establishing how important music and musical tradition were to these people. In Wisp of a Thing, though, the challenge was different. Two scenes hinge on original music created and performed by the characters, each in a different musical style. So as the writer, I had to come up with their lyrics.

Lyrics and poetry look a lot alike, but they’re really not. Both rely on meter and rhythm, but one exists on its own, and the other with music. But putting actual music in the novel simply wasn’t practical, since a) most people who read books can’t also read music, and b) I can’t read or write music, either. Some authors have managed to put together soundtracks for their books, but again, this isn’t an organic part of the reading process. So creating the feel of lyrics to actual melodies is a bit like capturing a regional accent: you have to do it by hints and careful word choice, not by blatantly recreating the sounds on paper.

My friend Tony Dagnall, an English musician (see a video of his 80s band), gave me what turned out to be the crucial hint about how to approach this. He suggested writing new lyrics to an existing tune, but never telling anyone what the tune actually was. That way, the words would have the proper rhythm, but the reader could make up his or her own melody.

Well, it worked like a charm. Or at least I guess it did, because unfortunately I always hear the music to the original songs when I read those passages. And it makes me wish I could write music as well, but I suspect that at my age, the time it would take to learn to do it, and then get good at it, is a little beyond me. Still, if the lyrics in the novel capture some of the magic that music holds for me, then I’ve done my job.

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What’s Coming Up for Tor

May 30, 2013January 25, 2024torforge

Between BEA (Book Expo America), Phoenix Comic Con, and the upcoming San Diego Comic Con and New York Comic Con, we’ve been thinking quite a bit about some of the books we’re excited for this Summer and Fall. So we put together a list of just some of the highlights we have coming up. We hope you’re as excited as we are!

What are you most looking forward to reading this Summer and Fall?

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Starred Kirkus Review: Wisp of a Thing by Alex Bledsoe

April 15, 2013April 8, 2024torforge

“This beautifully handled drama of Appalachian music and magic once again comes complete with fascinating characters, a persuasive setting and intriguing complications. Bledsoe’s on a roll.”

Wisp of a Thing, by Alex Bledsoe, gets a starred review in Kirkus Reviews!*

Here’s the full review, from the April 15 issue:

Another tale of Cloud County, Tenn., and its eldritch inhabitants: the dark-haired, dark-skinned Tufa (The Hum and the Shiver, 2011).

When musician Rob Quillen made it to the final stages of a network talent show, the producers insisted on flying in his girlfriend, Anna, but she was killed when her plane crashed, leaving Rob devastated. Then a mysterious stranger advised him to look in Tufa country for a song carved in stone to ease his desolation. With his Hispanic heritage, Rob looks like one of the Tufa, although he has not a drop of Tufa blood. Still, one of the locals invites him to an evening of Tufa music, where he’s astounded at the skill and power of their playing. Later, he tries to strike up a conversation with one of the players, Rockhouse Hicks, a supremely malevolent old man who occupies a chair outside the post office, and nearly gets beaten to a pulp for his pains. He’s rescued from further assault by Bliss Overbay, a Tufa First Daughter and EMT technician. To Bliss’ astonishment, after his head injury, Rob can now see the graveyards of the Tufa, which only Tufa should be able to do, and even read the inscriptions on the tombstones. Rob begins to grasp that there are undercurrents here beyond his comprehension—especially when he hears the eerie cries of a feral girl running in the woods. The girl, Curnen, has been cursed: When the last leaf falls from the Widow’s Tree, she will lose the last of her humanity. Bliss is faced with a terrible dilemma: By Tufa law, she may disclose nothing to outsiders, yet clearly Rob was brought here for a purpose.

This beautifully handled drama of Appalachian music and magic once again comes complete with fascinating characters, a persuasive setting and intriguing complications. Bledsoe’s on a roll.

Wisp of a Thing will be published on June 18th.

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