Neal Shusterman

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

Biography

Neal Douglas Shusterman was born on November 12, 1962, in Brooklyn, New York. He was adopted by Charlotte and Milton Shusterman, a Jewish family with roots in Ukraine. Neal grew up in Brooklyn, where he developed a passion for reading from a young age.

At 16, Shusterman’s family moved to Mexico City, where he attended the American School Foundation, completing his high school education there. This international experience broadened his perspective and influenced his writing. After high school, he moved back to the United States to attend the University of California, Irvine. There, he double-majored in psychology and theater and was an active member of the varsity swim team.

On January 31, 1987, Neal Shusterman married Elaine Gale Jones. Together, they had four children: Brendan, Jarrod, Joelle, and Erin. The couple was married for 13 years before divorcing in 2006. Shusterman has mentioned that the experience of his divorce inspired some of his writing.

After graduating from college, Shusterman moved to Los Angeles, where he began his career in the entertainment industry as an assistant at Irvin Arthur Associates, a talent agency. His talent quickly became apparent, and within a year, he secured his first book deal and a screenwriting job. This launched his prolific career as a writer, known for his thought-provoking young adult novels that often explore complex themes such as mortality, identity, and societal issues.

In August 2023, Shusterman made a surprising discovery through an Ancestry.com test that he was adopted, a fact that had been unknown to him for most of his life. This revelation uncovered that his biological father was Dennis Lee Smith, a Black jazz musician, and his biological mother, Diana Kirton, was of Irish and Scottish descent, coming from a bohemian family of artists in New York. Diana had given Neal up for adoption to a Jewish family.

Embracing this newfound knowledge, Shusterman is currently working on a book with his newly discovered half-brother, Martin T. Ingham, a published science fiction author residing in rural Maine. Shusterman continues to reside in Florida.

Bibliography

Fiction series

Shadow Club

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

The 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)

The Skinjacker Trilogy

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

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 Prequel (TBA)
• Scythe Coloring Book (TBA)

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

• I Am the Walrus (2023)
• Shock the Monkey (2024)
• Untitled (TBA)

Untitled

• All Better Now (2025)

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 Debra Young and Michelle Knowlden.
• Scantron (TBA)
• No Such Place (TBA)
• Ralphy's Bald Faced Truth (TBA)
• Untitled (TBA) co-authored with Martin T. Ingham

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)

Poems

• Shadows of Doubt (1993)

Graphic novels

• Courage To Dream (2023)

Picture books

• Piggyback Ninja (1994)

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.