Paste editor JoshJackson talked to ColinMeloy about his latest novel, The Stars Did Wander Darkling.
Long before Colin Meloy became the frontman for the long-running Portland rock band The Decemberists, he wanted to be a writer. Then hearing bands like R.E.M., Husker Du, The Replacements, and The Jesus and Mary Chain, took him on another path. But he soon realized his love of music didn’t have to replace his love of storytelling.
And so, despite getting his creative writing degree at the University of Montana, he moved to Portland and started a band. Even then, he tried to make time for creating stories with his now-wife, illustrator Carson Ellis, all while they both worked in the service industry and got their respective music and art careers going. “When she first moved to Portland in 2000, we’d just hang out and just make up stuff together,” he said.
The story takes place in the Pacific Northwest in the 1980s when a group of four 12-year-olds are confronted with supernatural strangers swapping out all the adults in their small town. “I think all successful middle grade novels, the parents have to check out one way or another,” he said. “That’s a time-honored thing going way back to. It makes for a sustained drama.
In all of his writing, though, he doesn’t soft-pedal for his younger audience. Adult readers will recognize some of the themes that appear in his songwriting. “I had this idea in my head as a kid that this stuff that I really loved—if it was music or movies or books—only really succeeded if somebody really fell in love or if somebody died. And that was sort of a mark of success. Those two things made something feel really important.
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