I recently had a reader named Sarah ask me the following question:
“Hi Travis, I was just wondering which novel that you have written is your absolute favorite?”
After sending her my thoughts, they were long enough to be worthy of a blog post. So here are my favorites. And that’s definitely plural since I can’t pick one.
If I had a favorite at this moment in time, it’s the final book in The Books of Marvella series called Glory. I love this series and the final book puts everything into its proper place and perspective. I feel I’ve built something that’s very solid and impactful. I can’t wait to share it with others.
Sky Blue is probably the book I’m most proud of. It transcends genres—it’s a love story, it has literary elements, it’s got tinges of the supernatural, and it has an ending that can be talked about and interpreted. I spent a long time working on it.
40 is a book that I once said was my favorite. I still love it, but just like the author, it’s a bit of a mess. The story inside it is still very solid. I just threw lots of interests and lots of parts of me into it. It very much is a sibling to Sky Blue.
The Solitary Tales has been a fan favorite and it’s very dear to me. I want to write a future series with Chris Buckley. I might reread those books. Would be an interesting experience.
As for books not yet finished, I’m working on a book that’s very literary and poetic that I would fit into the Sky Blue—40 category. It’s a story narrated by a ghost. 🙂 But it’s not spooky. I really love the writing itself. I have worked on this massive end-of-the-world idea called The Hinterlands for years. It’s all plotted out. I even started to write it on a blog last year—Hinterlands.frequency.fm I hope to keep writing it. I think one problem is the idea might be too ambitious. But never say never.
Oh, and last but not least, my favorite collaboration I’ve done is still my first nonfiction work—Never Let Go. The Owens’ story is unbelievable. That’s why it’s remarkable. I’m blessed to have not only worked with them to consider them my friends and forever family.
