S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on today's show. This year's adult selection for one book , One San Diego , is a horror novel called The Buffalo Hunter. Hunter. Author Stephen Graham Jones will talk about the book vampires Haunting and Revenge. Then one of this year's children's book authors , Teresa Howell , joins us to talk about books on bikes. This is KPBS Midday Edition connecting our communities through conversation here at KPBS. We are still soaking up the excitement from this weekend's San Diego Book Festival. It was a true community celebration of reading and storytelling. And in case you missed it , we also announced the 2026 one Book , One San Diego selections. Every year , one book invites San Diegans to read and discuss the same book , split into categories for adults , teens , and kids. And this year the adult selection is. Drumroll , please. The Buffalo Hunter Hunter by Stephen Graham Jones it is the first time a horror novel has been selected for one book. Award winning author Stephen Graham Jones has written more than 35 books , including mongrels , The Only , The Only Good Indians and My Heart Is a Chainsaw. He's been called the master of modern horror. His latest work , The Buffalo Hunter Hunter , traces the life of a vampire who haunts the fields of the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana. He was selected as a Barack Obama summer read. It's a Bram Stoker Award winner from Superior Achievement in a novel and one of The New York Times 100 Notable Books of the year. Stephen joins me now to talk about it. Welcome to Midday Edition.
S2: Thanks for having me.
S1: Hey , really glad to have you here and excited to talk about this book because I think it is absolutely wonderful. This story begins in 2012. A journalism professor encounters a diary discovered inside a wall. Turns out it was written a century prior by a Lutheran pastor. What makes that diary so intriguing to her?
S2: What makes it intriguing? First of all , is that the reason it came into her hands is it's written by one of her ancestors she did not know about. She didn't know she had Lutheran blood in her. She didn't know her great great great grandfather had been involved in something this dramatic. And what he was involved in was a Blackfeet man showing up at his church in Miles city , Montana , to confess to him over a series of Sundays , a series of conversations. But those conversations , um , take on a darker and darker tone. It starts to seem that this Blackfeet man may be more than human. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. And this story is set in Miles city , Montana , near the Blackfeet Reservation. Why was it important to you that this story draw on and honor the history and culture of the Blackfeet tribe?
S2: Number one , I wanted to put it not on Blackfeet territory. I wanted to put it just outside of our , um , ancestral territory to make it , um , a trick for this , um , Blackfeet man to get to the pastor. He came there for a reason. He targeted him. He didn't go to a church close to him. He went to a church far for him for. For reasons. The second reason is that Miles city was a place where a lot of the buffalo hunters , back in the late 19th century brought their pallets of hides to shipped back east. And so there was a lot of that industry happening there.
S1: And this is a vampire story. So why was the vampire a character that you wanted to experiment with?
S2: Number one , I'd never done a vampire in a novel. I'd I've done a lot of vampire stories. This was my first time tackling it for , you know , 400 , 450 pages. It was really fun. And second , I knew I wanted to come with the buffalo hunters , and I felt like I had a choice between a vampire and a werewolf because he wants to use a mummy , you know? And , and , um , if a , if a werewolf comes for these buffalo hunters that were werewolf is probably going to do it in the daytime , gonna run from person to person and dispatch them. I thought it was more dramatic to have a vampire who is going to operate best at night , um , hit their camps when they're all together. And so it was it was pretty. It was a pretty easy decision. Also , I wanted I wanted this vampire to this main character , this this Avenger to have a long view of um , um , settler Blackfeet relations over the decades.
S1: Um , you know , and it it's interesting that it kind of also Wrestles with. Like what happens when one is consumed by the oppressor and then takes in some of what the oppressor has. What does that do to a person? Explore that a little bit.
S2: Yeah , that's something that comes up again and again in this novel. Um , the pasture keeps pressing this Blackfeet man. His name is goods tab that , um , he says you didn't want to come here , but you like our on kettles. You like our guns? Like we it. Which is , you know , a point he's got he's got a good point there , I think. And and and that that's kind of at the , the core of this novel for me.
S1: Um , like , so what vampire tropes did you decide to keep and then which ones did you decide to leave behind?
S2: Of course , I kept the blood drinking. I kept the means of infection , which is you get bitten and then you drink from that same vampire. You drink that vampire's blood. I kept sensitivity to sunlight. I kept. Long live , long lived or possibly immortal. We don't. We're not with him long enough to know for sure. Um , strength and speed. I explain it a little differently , but this vampire has strength and has speed and an aversion to to solid food as well. I dispensed with the garlic , the crosses , the telepathy , the healing. Um , fang holes with saliva. The , um , I kept a little bit of the charm or the glamour that a vampire can do to a person , but , uh , built it in organically instead of with , like , mind waves or something like that.
S1: Um , you know , you're known for for writing monsters with a lot of complexity. How do you approach creating characters that are just equal parts scary and sympathetic?
S2: Oh , man , you said it right there with characters that for me to , um , write about somebody or , or a creature. And today , truth. I lean a lot more to somebody than the creature. Um , I have to be able to believe in them. And for me to believe in them , they have to make sense and for them to make sense. I generally have to go into the werewolf or the zombie or the the vampire or the haunted house or whatever it is , and kind of carve away all the things that I think have accreted onto it , not intentionally such that the end result is a creature or a situation that could actually evolve and happen. And I mean , I know that vampires are quite unlikely to exist in reality , but I like to get them as close to being real as I can.
S1: I'm wondering if you can read a passage from the character's perspective towards the middle of the book. Would you mind?
S2: No problem. What I am is the Indian who can't die. I'm the worst dream America ever had. Wow.
S1: Wow. I mean , what were you hoping to convey with that passage?
S2: You know , um , number one , I think I was just , I was I came up watching , you know , movies from the blockbuster in the 80s. Sylvester Stallone and Arnold Schwarzenegger. And they always had those one liners , those quips , when they do something to someone. And so I wanted to play with that. I wanted to give my character at least one of those little quips. And this , this is probably it , the one that he's known for anyways. But in a larger sense , America , I think , would so , so prefer if all of us natives had just gone away when we were supposed to. But , um , we didn't. You know where we don't. We don't go away that easily. We stick around in spite of all the efforts to eradicate us. And , um , that , to me , makes us the worst dream America ever had. Because we are a lingering reminder of the wrong America has done.
S1: Um , and also the effort of erasure , right. With with History and stories. In your book , you do a good job of of keeping much of some of that alive. Um. Go ahead. Talk about the power of that. Yeah.
S2: Yeah. I mean , yeah , it's. America wants to kind of , um , wash itself such that it's this Sterling , I don't know. World player or something. It wants to pretend that its footprints weren't bloody to. Get to where it is right now. And it does that by suppressing , repressing , censoring , banning. All those all those things that , um , that , um , you know , terrible regimes do and , um. So I think the more we can get stories that. Put a spotlight on those bloody footprints. The more honest of a nation that can result. I guess if enough people read it , it can result in more honesty.
S1: What makes the horror genre such a great tool to shed light on the true horror of the world around us.
S2: You know. Number one , it's entertaining. So it pulls eyes to it. It pulls readers to it. And like I think if you say some of this stuff directly , then people might not want to listen to something heavy. But if you kind of wrap it up and attempting package , people might go for the package , the the icing on the cake , as it were , and um , and then get more than they're expecting , which is , you know , that's what literature does. That's what fiction fiction can do. Um , and I mean , horror and horror specifically horror is kind of like an exaggeration and a distillation machine. It's kind of like a funhouse mirror. And , you know , at the carnival , it distorts , um , and reflects back at us our own set of , um , concerns and issues and anxieties. Everything we're going through right now , you can generally find it , um , being presented back to us in horror. And that's how we process things. It's how we deal with things. That's how we sometimes even find solutions.
S1: Um , and , you know , you've been called the modern master of horror fiction. Why do you think your voice resonates with so many people?
S2: Oh , man , if only I knew that , right? Um , hopefully what people see in my work is sincerity. Um , it all matters to me. It. No matter what little subgenre of horror I'm working through right now , these people on the page matter me so much. This world matters to me so much. And if I can just get that sincerity across to people , if they can feel that this means something to me , then I think I've succeeded a little bit.
S1: And you know , this is the first time a horror novel has been chosen for one book , one San Diego. What are your thoughts on the popularity of horror and what it can reflect about our present day cultural moment?
S2: Yeah , I mean , it's it's no big like revolutionary statement to say that horror finds peaks at times of great social anxiety and like with if the world is collapsing and , you know , political ways , financial ways , environmental ways , social ways , then , um , that's a that's a big set of anxieties. And when people look at the news or they look at the just the world outside their window and then , um , if they're lucky enough to have a window in the first place , right then , um , they see , you know , crumbling , they see fire , they see terrible things happening. And it makes total sense to then expect your media to , um , synchronize with the world outside. Um , I mean , you can go two ways , I guess you can go to horror , or you can go to , like , unicorns and rainbows , which is great. There's nothing wrong with going to unicorns and rainbows. Sometimes you need a break from the terribleness outside the window , you know? But a lot of people do choose horror , a horror. Um , I think what's nice about horror , what what why horror is so attractive in times like these. Is because here in the world , we think this is not going to end this. This is going to keep going and going and snowballing , getting worse and worse. Whereas in a horror story , a horror film , a horror novel , there's an end to it. It may not be a happy end , but the horror does end after 240 pages or whatever , or 2.5 hours , it ends. And I think that is the pleasure we get from engaging horror is the sense that this is going to end eventually , one way or another. And that's kind of what we want for the world happening outside our window right now. We want it. We want it to , um , to , I guess , I mean , we want it to get better , but we just want it to end. Really? Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , how have your storytelling priorities kind of changed since you started as an author? Has that , you know , has our current condition in the real world shifted the way that you write it all?
S2: Oh , yeah. That's I've never been asked that. That's a good question. Um , you know , I think it has. I think my over like , I've probably done nearly 40 books now. I think when I started out writing , I was in dialogue only with other books. And I think as I've done more and more books , my fiction has become a little bit more in dialogue with the world. And I think that's probably probably good. I don't think I've lost the dialogue with other , um , other texts with previous texts or contemporary texts. So I hope , inevitably , I hope I never lose that. But I do think that , um , I'm a little bit more in dialogue with the world than it used to be. Mhm.
S1: Mhm. You know , when I was looking over your book and I just got to bring it up , I was thinking this could have been , this is like a prequel to the movie centers. Have you thought about it that way at all.
S2: Um , not like that. It is really neat that Buffalo Hunter , Hunter and centers came out so closely to each other. There was something swirling through the through the world that allowed both these things to happen at the same time. But , um , but yeah , no , they there probably is some sort of continuum where they , they share a line. You know.
S1: I think they do. Are you , you all should , should get to know. Are you all in talks , you and Ryan Coogler , do you know each other? What?
S2: Uh , my agent has talked to him , and , yeah , I believe he's Red Buffalo Hunter. Hunter. And of course , I've seen centers a few times. We appreciate each other's stuff.
S1: Ah , well , I'll be interesting to see what comes of all that. We'll be keeping our eyes open. Uh , great discussion. And what a great story you wrote here. I've been speaking with Stephen Graham Jones. He's the author of The Buffalo Hunter. Hunter. It's the adult selection for this year's One book , One San Diego program. More details about the book and the one book program are on our website , kpbs.org. Stephen , thank you so very much for joining me.
S2: Thank you so much. It's been great talking with you.
S1: Still to come. One of this year's children's book authors , Teresa Howell , joins us to talk about books on bikes. Midday edition is back after the break. Welcome back to KPBS Midday Edition. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. We just heard from the author of this year's one book , one San Diego's Adult selection. But there are also options for younger readers as well. This year's children's one book selection is Books on Bikes. The vibrant picture book highlights how small acts of kindness and generosity can lead to big , lasting change. The book also shows the power of one little girl on a bike , with books strapped to the back of it , and an encouraging sign that says help yourself. I'm joined now by one of the authors of books on bikes , Teresa Howell. Teresa , welcome to Midday Edition.
S3: Thank you. Jade , it's wonderful to be here today.
S1: So glad to have you here. So the inspiration behind books on bikes is closely tied to your first book. Maybe something beautiful. What's that connection?
S3: Uh , years ago , uh , Isabel Campoy and I wrote a book called Maybe Something Beautiful , which is set in the beautiful city of San Diego. And it's about the murals that you have in your , um , in your city all around. And , um , that book just reached a wider and wider audience. I mean , it really was transformative. We still hear stories about kids and teachers and communities building , uh , painting murals together. Um , because of that book and one of the most inspiring stories we heard was a woman from Iran reached out with some pictures. We had no idea this was happening , but she had discovered our book somehow and was pedaling around Iran , bringing that book in that story to communities that didn't have any books to schools and presenting it at schools. And they were reading it together and sometimes painting murals. So we were so inspired and just excited about that , that we started to sort of look into the that that movement , the movement of book bikes. And we kind of dug into how it started here in the United States. We discovered a , a man named Gabrielle in Chicago who kind of got the idea to just start , you know , he just sort of fixed his bike up so he could carry some books in it. Like , I think it was an ice cream , one of those ice cream bikes that served us and filled it with books and he had a sign that said help yourself on it. And he would just pedal to different parks in Chicago with books that he managed to pick up at thrift stores or got donated , and it was just a little free library on wheels. Yeah. And , um , yeah. So we just realized that from there , that movement spread across the country. Um , and most cities these days have a book bike , you know , a lot of them have names. It's like just a part of their city. Um , and so we just we just ran with it. Um , we were so excited just about the history and the fact , the connection with our book and , um , just the idea that you can make a difference and spread books and , um , anyone can do it. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Can I mean , you write that the premise for this book is based on how one single act of kindness can really ignite the the light of change. How do you take that idea and create an entire story for younger readers that they can enjoy. Sure.
S3: Sure. Um , the beauty of these types of movements , and what we try to capture in the book , is that one man in this case had the inspiration to do something , and he inspired a little girl. Our main character named Leah , and she was a little girl who loved to read. You know , she read around town upside down before bed every night. And because a book she was inspired , she knew about , you know , stories and imagination and other people that she saw in the book. So when she went back to the park , when she first met him and got books that were hard for her to reach in the summer. I mean , sometimes , uh , kids , when school is out and libraries are far and there's no transportation , they they don't have access to books , and they might love to read. Um , she goes to the park and meets him and is so inspired. Um , she goes back to the next weekend to see him and he isn't there , so she kind of takes matters into her own hands and brings the books that she got from him and starts reading them out loud in the park. Um , and then from there , the movement spreads like her friends get involved. They , you know , kind of collect their books. They start pedaling around , they make their bikes , you know , pretty with the tinsel and the bells , and they start pedaling around and then they inspire. That's how transformation can work. They inspire some other people to do it , and on and on and on , which is just sort of a , you know , a sort of a between 32 pages and a picture book. Just the idea that one person can make a small change. And then that has just expanded worldwide. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Goodness. Goodness is contagious , thankfully , right?
S4: Yes it is. I love that. Yes. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , you co-wrote this book with co-author Isabel Campoy , and I understand you both live in different states. So how does the writing process work between you two?
S3: Uh , so Isabel and I have been , um , co-writers for years now , and it is just it's just a beautiful process. So we in my opinion , I just love working with her. She is amazing. Um , we are both inspired by similar things. So we always look , you know , from our different vantage points for these types of stories that transform and inspire. And so , you know , our conversations are really so fun because like when we're in the idea stage of book writing , we're just like , I heard about this amazing thing and this amazing kid and this movement and , you know , just talking about those ideas. And then you want to come up with something that's going to , um , turn into a story that kids are going to relate to , you know , um , and that they can that's tangible. So , like with the maybe something beautiful. I mean , people read that book and they literally paint murals , whether it's a chalk mural on the sidewalk or they decorate their school. We wanted something that people could act on and share books and and take it a step further. So once we get to that idea stage , we , you know , sort of talk about who's our main character going to be , what's her name , what does she look like? What you know , what's her background? Where does she live? And then together we just through many , many drafts. Um , this we've just just now gotten onto Google , um , Google Docs instead of going back and forth like saving word docs and transplanting so we can , like actually right at the same time with Google Docs and just kind of get that storyline and then the , the , you know , keywords and the rhymes and the , um , everything together. It's a really very , very collaborative.
S1: Inspiring experience. Yeah. Well , listen , another you mentioned , you know , the importance of making the book tangible and another way that you made books on bikes. More tangible was by publishing it in both English and Spanish. Talk about that process and why you thought it was important to do so.
S3: It was very important to Isabel and I that the book come out simultaneously in Spanish and English. Sometimes books are released in English first and then a few months later , a year later , they'll come out in Spanish. We wanted , um , Publishing Day to have their both languages out and in the world , because we want this book to be accessible to all. We want this book in this character to , um , inspire kids to do the same thing. And it's very , very important to us that all children can see themselves in children's books , um , in these sort of inspiring leadership roles that they're represented. And so we just wanted to reduce any language barriers and get it out there in both languages at the same time. So , um , Isabel wrote a beautiful translation of of the book. So. And that's just in the in that's just in the spirit of the book itself. Like , let's get this. Let's make books and stories accessible. So , um , that's really important to us. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Well , books book with bikes , um , features some , some beautiful illustrations by Rosita magro. How did you collaborate to tell Leah's story visually?
S3: So one thing we love to do is we is. See , okay , work with an illustrator who's inspired by the story and kind of gets excited about it. That's huge. And Rosita was so , so that illustrator , she just loved the story from the beginning. She brought so much enthusiasm and so many ideas. We just gave her a few things like that , you know , the energy and the spirit and maybe movement like momentum building in the book. So did those types of words instead of specific ideas like on this page , we want to see this. And on this page we want to see this. I think the beauty of children's books is that collaboration , where you hand over your words and your story to an illustrator , so then they can take it away and they can add their own interpretation and spirit to it. Um , and she just surprised. No , we weren't surprised. We knew she was going to do an amazing job. But when you see those illustrations , when you see your character for the first time , like drawn out , it is so exciting. Um , and then she added all these wonderful elements , like real pages from books , if you look closely. Um , different fabrics , definitely a 3D treatment of , um , sort of a multimedia treatment of some of the illustrations. And then she added in elements like when Leah is biking through the city , the the buildings are books , if you look closely. And that's I love those little sort of Easter eggs for kids to discover. You know , it's not ever , you know , directly stated. It's just something that maybe a kid would notice. Like maybe on their second or third reading that the the buildings are books in disguise and there's a theme of birds. Um , in the beginning , you'll see some birds floating from page to page , and by the end , those birds have transformed themselves into books , books , pages throughout to sort of symbolize that this movement is growing and the books are getting out there and just those little elements , um.
S1: It's so important. I mean , what's been the response from young readers to the book?
S3: Um , I just they have loved it. I mean , she's so fun to watch. She's just a real girl. Like , she's a , um , just a sort of a real kid , you know , that anyone can relate to. And she's , you know , on her bike , and there's , like , little dogs to look at. There's all these little things. Nothing is accidental in the book. Not the words , not the pictures. Like her hair , for instance , is always like kind of flowing , like straight back. And that's just this. Like she's got like momentum behind her all the time. Like for this movement. And it is one of the joys to is to create this book and sort of a , you know , almost like a little vacuum man , Isabel , talking about ideas and putting words down onto a page. And then when the book manifests and then you actually see kids read it and see the response , it's just like full circle , beautiful thing. It's hard to really even describe , but to see them , that's the whole point of the book is to , you know , have kids , enjoy it and respond. So that's a beautiful part of the process. Yeah.
S1: Yeah. Your book really highlights , you know , how each small act of kindness really leads to another and on and on. But it can be really hard to take that first step and and easy to feel overwhelmed. What words of advice would you give to folks of any age really on. You know how to take that first step.
S3: I think if you just get an idea and you , you run with it and you put kindness in something that you believe in , in the forefront , you might not see , you might not create a massive movement. Right? But you will make a difference in your own little way. And then that little difference makes a difference for somebody else. And then that difference if we're spreading kindness , it is contagious. Like you said , don't hesitate. Just try. And you don't. You know , if you don't change the world all in one swoop , um , don't let that idea stop you. Just do the kind of thing. Do the inspired thing , the thing that you feel like is going to make a difference. And little by little it will. And even. And you might not even see it. And that's the other part. You might not see it , but you need to believe that , um , you are important and you do make a difference every day.
S1: I've been speaking with Theresa. How? She's one of the authors of books on bikes. This years one book , one San Diego children's book selection. Teresa , thank you so much for joining us today. And congratulations to you.
S3: My pleasure. Thank you so much for having me.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
