Neal Shusterman

**Neal Shusterman** is the author of the *Arc of a Scythe* series.

## Personal life

Neal Shusterman was born on November 12, 1962. He was raised in Brooklyn, New York. From a young age, Shusterman was an avid reader. At age 16, Shusterman and his family moved to Mexico City He finished high school there at the American School Foundation. He attended the University of California, Irvine, where he double-majored in psychology and theater, and he was also on the varsity swim team.

After college, Shusterman worked as an assistant at Irvin Arthur Associates, a talent agency in Los Angeles, where Lloyd Segan became his agent. Within a year, Shusterman had his first book deal and a screenwriting job. He currently lives in Florida.

He's the father of Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin Shusterman.

## Bibliography

### Fiction series

#### Shadow Club

* *The Shadow Club* (1988)
* *The Shadow Club Rising* (2002)

#### Star Shards Chronicles

* *Scorpion Shards* (1995)
* *Thief of Souls* (1999)
* *Shattered Sky* (2002)

#### Downsiders

* *Downsiders* (1999)
* *Downside Up* (TBA)

#### Antsy Bonano

* *The Schwa Was Here* (2004)
* *Antsy Does Time* (2008)
* *Ship Out of Luck* (2013)

#### Dark Fusion

* *Dread Locks* (2005)
* *Red Rider's Hood* (2005)
* *Duckling Ugly* (2006)

#### Skinjacker

* *Everlost* (2006)
* *Everwild* (2009)
* *Everfound* (2011)

#### The Unwind Dystology

* *Unwind* (2007)
* *UnWholly* (2012)
* *UnStrung* (2012)
* *UnSouled* (2013)
* *UnDivided* (2014)
* *UnBound* (2015) (short story collection)

#### The Accelerati Trilogy (with Eric Elfman)

* *Tesla's Attic* (2014)
* *Edison's Alley* (2015)
* *Hawking's Hallway* (2017)

#### Arc of a Scythe

* *Scythe* (2016)
* *Thunderhead* (2018)
* *The Toll* (2019)
* *Gleanings* (2022) (short story collection)
* *Scythe Coloring Book* (TBA)

#### The N.O.A.H. Files (with Eric Elfman)

* *I Am the Walrus* (2023)
* *Shock the Monkey* (2024)

#### The X-Files universe

* The X-Files: Middle Grade
	+ 8) *Voltage* (1996) [writing as Easton Royce]
	+ 9) *E.B.E.* (1997) co-authored with Les Martin [writing as Easton Royce]
* The X-Files: Young Adult
	+ 3) *Bad Sign* (1997) [writing as Easton Royce]
	+ 10) *Dark Matter* (1999) [writing as Easton Royce]

### Novels

* *Dissidents* (1989)
* *Speeding Bullet* (1991)
* *Chasing Forgiveness* (originally published as *What Daddy Did*) (1991)
* *The Eyes of Kid Midas* (1992)
* *The Aliens Approach* (1996) [writing as Easton Royce]
* *Mutiny* (1996) [writing as Easton Royce]
* *The Dark Side of Nowhere* (1997)
* *Full Tilt* (2003)
* *Bruiser* (2010)
* *Challenger Deep* (2015)
* *Dry* (2018) co-authored with Jarrod Shusterman.
* *Game Changer* (2021)
* *Roxy* (2021) co-authored with Jarrod Shusterman.
* *Break to You* (2024) co-authored with Michelle Knowlden and Debra Young.
* *Scantron* (TBA)
* *No Such Place* (TBA)
* *Ralphy's Bald Faced Truth* (TBA)

### Short stories

* *Blue diamond* (1999) (from *From One Experience to Another: Award-Winning Authors Sharing Real-Life Experiences Through Fiction*)
* *Blue Diamond (Las Vegas, Nevada)* (2002) (from *Big City Cool: Short Stories About Urban Youth*)
* *Majority Rules* (2006) (from *Dreams and Visions: Fourteen Flights of Fantasy*)
* *Smells like Kafka* (2006) (from *Twice Told: Original Stories Inspired by Original Artwork*)
* *Perpetual pest* (2015) co-authored with Terry Black (from *Bites: Scary Stories to Sink Your Teeth Into*)
* *The Dirt in our Shoes* (2013) (from *Other Worlds*)
* *Resurrection Bay* (2013)
* *Presumed Destroyed* (2015) co-authored with Brendan Shusterman (from *Violent Ends*)
* *Deadliner* (2017) co-authored with Brendan Shusterman (from *Nights of the Living Dead: An Anthology*)

### Short story collections

* *Darkness Creeping: Tales to Trouble Your Sleep* (1993)
* *Darkness Creeping II: More Tales to Trouble Your Sleep* (1995)
* *Mindquakes: Stories to Shatter Your Brain* (1996)
* *Mindstorms: Stories to Blow Your Mind* (1996)
* *Mindtwisters: Stories To Shred Your Head* (1997)
* *Mindbenders: Stories to Warp Your Brain* (2000)
* *Darkness Creeping: Twenty Twisted Tales* (2007)

### Nonfiction

* *Guy Talk* (1987)
* *It's Ok to Say No to Cigarettes and Alcohol* (1988)
* *Neon Angel: The Cherie Currie Story* (1989) with Cherie Currie
* *Kid Heroes: True Stories of Rescuers, Survivors, and Achievers* (1991)

### Essays

* *The Price of Our Inheritance* (2013) (from *Ender's World: Fresh Perspectives on the SF Classic Ender's Game*)

### Games

* How to Host a Murder: Roman Ruins (1997)
* How to Host a Murder: The Grapes of Frath (1997)
* How to Host a Teen Mystery: Hot Times at Hollywood High (1997)
* How to Host a Murder: The Good, the Bad, and the Guilty (1998)
* How to Host a Murder: Tragical Mystery Tour (1999)
* How to Host a Teen Mystery: Barbecue with the Vampire (1999)
* How to Host a Murder: Saturday Night Cleaver (2000)
* How to Host a Murder: Maiming of the Shrew (2001)
* How to Host a Teen Mystery: Roswell That Ends Well (2002)
* How to Host a Murder: An Affair to Dismember (2003)

## Trivia

* He would love to be the voice of The Thunderhead in an adaptation.
* If he were a scythe he would be Scythe Vonnegut (Patron Historic: Kurt Vonnegut), and his robe would be acid-wash denim, in the style of the 90s. He would choose to glean as Scythe Anastasia does it. It is unknown whether this has any connection to the canonical Scythe Vonnegut seen in "Formidable".
* Scythe Hammerstein was supposed to be called Scythe Sondheim, but since Neal is such a fan of Stephen Sondheim he couldn't bear to have him on Goddard's side.
* Neal's favorite character to write in *Scythe* was Scythe Curie.
* Neal's favorite character to write in the entire *Arc of a Scythe* series is the Thunderhead, which is also his favorite character he has ever written.
* Scythe Goddard was the character that gave Neal the most problems when writing *Scythe*.
* Neal's scythe rival would be Scythe Edgar Allan Poe. It is unknown whether this is the same Scythe Poe as the canonical scythe.
* If Neal were to be on a cover of the *Arc of a Scythe* he would like to appear alongside Scythe Curie and Scythe Faraday.
* Neal's favorite book from the *Arc of a Scythe* series is *The Toll* because he feels is the most powerful of the three and wraps up the story in a satisfying way.
* Neal's favorite lines from *Scythe* come from the Journal entries:
	+ "The greatest achievement of the human race was not conquering death. It was ending government."- From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie.
	+ "Power comes infected with the only disease left to us: the virus called human nature."-From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie.
	+ "We are not the same beings we once were. So then if we are no longer human, what are we?"-From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie.
	+ "Immortality has turned us all into cartoons."-From the gleaning journal of H.S. Curie.
	+ "My greatest hope is that, in time, our wisdom will become as perfect as our knowledge."-From the gleaning journal of H.S. Prometheus, the first World Supreme Blade.
	+ "Immortality cannot temper the folly or frailty of youth... And I long for a place beyond immortality where I can, in some small measure, resurrect the wonder, and be that boy again."-From the gleaning journal of H.S. Faraday.

## External links

* Neal Shusterman on Wikipedia.
* Neal Shusterman's official site
* Neal Shusterman (@NealShusterman) on Twitter.
* Neal Shusterman (@nealshusterman) on Instagram.
* Neal Shusterman (@nealshusterman) on TikTok.
* Neal Shusterman on Facebook.
* Neal Shusterman on Tumblr.
* Neal Shusterman on Youtube.
* Neal Shusterman on Goodreads.
* Neal Shusterman on Pinterest.
* Neal Shusterman on Linkedin.
* Neal Shusterman on Flickr.
* Neal Shusterman on Myspace.

## References

1. ↑  Neal Shusterman Biography on Bookrags
2. ↑ "I wrote the Unwind books instead of doing a Downsiders sequel. Might be one in the future…" Neal Shusterman on his official website. Apparently, there was going to be a sequel to Downsiders called "Downside up", it has a Goodreads page.
3. ↑ Neal Shusterman on Facebook
4. ↑ Shock the Monkey - Goodreads
5. ↑ All Better Now - Goodreads
6. ↑ Break to You on Goodreads
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Neal Shusterman's inclusive YA and talking to the author about representation
8. ↑ "This sort of abandoned man-made "Islands" always intrigues me. I'm working on a book called "No Such Place," that's set in such a location. The book's a couple of years away, but everytime I see an article like this, it gets my brain going." Neal Shusterman on Twitter
9. ↑ Very little information about this book can be found online, but it has a Goodreads page. In his book *Darkness Creeping: Twenty Twisted Tales* Neal had mentioned he was going to write a book about Ralphy: "For all of you Ralphy followers out there, you’ll be happy to know that I’m going to be writing an entire Ralphy Sherman book." but it seems the project has been shelved for the time being.
10. ↑ "I would love to be the voice of the Thunderhead." Neal Shusterman 2020 Reddit AMA
11. ↑ "I would be Scythe Vonnegut, and my robe would be acid-wash denim, like from the 90s." Neal Shusterman 2020 Reddit AMA
12. ↑ "The way scythe Anastasia chose how to glean would be the way I would do it." Neal Shusterman 2021 Reddit AMA
13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 13.2 13.3 13.4 13.5 13.6 13.7 *Scythe*: Q&A with Author Neal Shusterman in the *Scythe* Barnes & Noble YA Book Club Edition
14. ↑ "The Thunderhead!" Neal Shusterman 2021 Reddit AMA